She was
willing enough to lend it to Thor when he told her that by its aid he
hoped to win back the hammer which he had lost; for she well knew the
danger threatening herself and all the AEsir until Mioelnir should be
found.
"Now will I fetch the hammer for you," said Loki. So he put on the
falcon plumage, and, spreading his brown wings, flapped away up, up,
over the world, down, down, across the great ocean which lies beyond all
things that men know. And he came to the dark country where there was no
sunshine nor spring, but it was always dreary winter; where mountains
were piled up like blocks of ice, and where great caverns yawned
hungrily in blackness. And this was Jotunheim, the land of the Frost
Giants.
And lo! when Loki came thereto he found Thrym the Giant King sitting
outside his palace cave, playing with his dogs and horses. The dogs were
as big as elephants, and the horses were as big as houses, but Thrym
himself was as huge as a mountain; and Loki trembled, but he tried to
seem brave.
"Good-day, Loki," said Thrym, with the terrible voice of which he was so
proud, for he fancied it was as loud as Thor's. "How fares it,
feathered one, with your little brothers, the AEsir, in Asgard halls? And
how dare you venture alone in this guise to Giant Land?"
"It is an ill day in Asgard," sighed Loki, keeping his eye warily upon
the giant, "and a stormy one in the world of men, I heard the winds
howling and the storms rushing on the earth as I passed by.
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