It
was the AEsir who set the fair brother and sister, Sun and Moon, in the
sky to give light to men; and it was they also who made the jewelled
stars out of sparks from the place of fire. The giants hated the AEsir,
and tried all in their power to injure them and the men of the earth
below, whom the AEsir loved and cared for. The gods had already built a
wall around Midgard, the world of men, to keep the giants out; built it
of the bushy eyebrows of Ymir, the oldest and hugest of giants. Between
Asgard and the giants flowed Ifing, the great river on which ice never
formed, and which the gods crossed on the rainbow bridge. But this was
not protection enough. Their beautiful new city needed a fortress.
So the word went forth in Asgard: "We must build us a fortress against
the giants; the hugest, strongest, finest fortress that ever was built."
Now one day, soon after they had announced this decision, there came a
mighty man stalking up the rainbow bridge that led to Asgard city.
"Who goes there!" cried Heimdal the watchman, whose eyes were so keen
that he could see for a hundred miles around, and whose ears were so
sharp that he could hear the grass growing in the meadow and the wool on
the backs of the sheep. "Who goes there! No one can enter Asgard if I
say no."
"I am a builder," said the stranger, who was a huge fellow with sleeves
rolled up to show the iron muscles of his arms.
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