Chapter 42

Then Gangleri asked, ‘Who owns the horse Sleipnir? What is there to tell about him?’

High replied, ‘You know little about Sleipnir and are ignorant of the events that led to his birth, so you will find it a tale well worth hearing. It happened right at the beginning, when the gods were settling. After they had established Midgard and built Valhalla, a smith arrived. He offered to construct in three seasons a fortress so solid and trustworthy that it would be safe against mountain trolls and frost giants even if they entered Midgard. As his payment he asked for Freyja in marriage, but he also wanted the sun and the moon.

‘Then the Æsir, consulting among themselves, arrived at their decision. Their agreement with the builder was that he should have what he requested, if he completed the fortress in one winter. But if any part of the fortress was unfinished on the first day of summer, he would lose his part of the bargain. No other man was to help him in this work. When stating these conditions they agreed to let him have the use of his horse, called Svadilfari. Loki was the one who made this decision after the matter was placed before him.

‘On the first day of winter the builder began to erect the fortress, and during the night he used his horse to haul in stones. The Æsir were amazed at the size of the boulders the horse could drag; the horse’s feat of strength was twice that of the builder’s. But good witnesses and many oaths had sealed the bargain, because the giant did not think it safe to be without a truce among the Æsir if Thor should return. At that time Thor was away in the east hammering on trolls.¹ As the winter passed, the building of the fortification steadily advanced, until it became so high and so strong that it was unassailable. With only three days left before summer, the work had progressed right up to the stronghold’s entrance.

‘Then the gods sat on their thrones of fate and sought a solution. They asked one another who had been responsible for the decision to marry Freyja into Giant Land and to destroy the sky and the heavens by taking the sun and moon and giving them to the giant. And it became clear, as in most other things, that the one who had advised in this matter was Loki, son of Laufey, the one who counsels badly in most matters. They told him that he could expect a bad death if he failed to devise a plan for the builder to lose his wager. They attacked Loki, and when he became frightened he swore oaths that, whatever it cost him, he would find a way to keep the builder from completing his part of the bargain.

‘That same evening, as the builder drove out with his stallion Svadilfari to gather stones, a mare leaped from a forest and, neighing, ran up to the horse. When the stallion recognized what manner of horse this was, he became frantic and broke free from his harness. He galloped towards the mare but she raced ahead of him into the forest. Behind them came the builder, trying to grab hold of his horse. Because the horses ran all that evening and night, the work was delayed.

‘The next day there was less work done than previously. When the builder saw that the work would not be finished, he flew into a giant’s rage. Once the Æsir realized for certain that they were facing a mountain giant, they no longer respected their oaths. They called upon Thor, who came immediately, and the next thing to happen was that the hammer Mjollnir was in the air. In this way Thor paid the builder his wages, but not the sun and the moon. Rather, Thor put an end to the giant’s life in Jotunheim. He struck the first blow in such a way that the giant’s skull broke into small pieces, and so Thor sent him down to Niflhel. But Loki’s relations with Svadilfari were such that a while later he gave birth to a colt. It was grey and had eight feet, and this is the best horse among gods and men.

‘The Sibyl’s Prophecy has this to say:

Then all the powerful gods went to their thrones of fate, the gods most sacred, and questioned themselves, who had infused all the air with treachery and to the race of giants given Od’s maid.[^fn62]

Broken were oaths, the words and pledges, all the powerful agreements that had passed between them. Thor alone killed, bursting with fury. He seldom sits still when he hears such things.’

(The Sibyl’s Prophecy. 25–26)