A damaged household and three gifts
Loki cuts off Sif’s hair. When Thor discovers the offense, he threatens to break Loki’s bones. Loki promises that dwarfs will make replacement hair of gold that can grow like natural hair. He goes to the sons of Ívaldi, who make not only Sif’s hair but also Odin’s spear Gungnir and Freyr’s ship Skíðblaðnir. Repairing the injury has already produced gifts for several gods.
Loki then wagers his head with the dwarf Brokkr that Brokkr’s brother Sindri cannot produce three equally good objects. The new contest does not follow from any need of Sif’s. It is an additional risk Loki introduces after arranging the remedy. Sindri works at the forge while Brokkr operates the bellows under strict instructions not to stop.
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Skáldskaparmál, “Extracts from the Poetical Diction,” “Loke’s Wager with the Dwarfs,” pp.189–190 in Anderson
The forge and the judges
During the work a fly repeatedly bites Brokkr, first on the hand, then the neck, and finally the eyelid. Blood runs into his eyes, and he briefly lets go of the bellows to brush it away. The first two creations are the shining boar Gullinbursti and the multiplying ring Draupnir. The third is Thor’s hammer, Mjöllnir, whose handle comes out unusually short after the interruption.
Loki and Brokkr bring the competing objects before Odin, Thor, and Freyr. Each receives treasures with striking capabilities: the spear does not fail its aim, the ship has a favorable wind and can fold away, and Sif’s new hair attaches and grows. The boar can illuminate darkness, and the ring produces more rings. Despite its imperfect handle, the hammer is judged the greatest protection the gods possess against the frost giants. Brokkr wins the wager.
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Skáldskaparmál, “Loke’s Wager with the Dwarfs,” pp.190–192 in Anderson
A head promised, a neck withheld
Loki offers money instead of his head, but Brokkr refuses. Loki runs away using shoes that carry him rapidly through air and over water. At Brokkr’s request, Thor catches him and brings him back. When the dwarf prepares to cut, Loki argues that the bargain grants his head but says nothing about his neck. Taking one without injuring the other becomes impossible under that distinction.
Brokkr responds by sewing Loki’s lips together. The episode ends with speech constrained after speech has produced both a reckless wager and a successful legal evasion. It explains a network of divine objects through competition between skilled makers, rather than portraying the gods as their own craftsmen. Sif’s original injury should remain visible within this crowded treasure story: the new possessions arise because Loki must repair harm he deliberately caused, then exceeds the necessary bargain in pursuit of a challenge.
Source: The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) · Skáldskaparmál, “Loke’s Wager with the Dwarfs,” concluding wager and sewn lips, p.192 in Anderson
- Period / witness
- Medieval Old Norse literature; the Poetic Edda survives chiefly in thirteenth-century copies, and Snorri’s Edda was composed around the 1220s. Mythic events have no historical date.
- Recording context
- Preserved through medieval Icelandic writing and later copies, in a Christian literary culture. Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda dates to c.1270. These recording circumstances do not locate the origin of an oral story.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
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These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
The Younger Edda / Prose Edda (1901 printing) ↗
Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241); translated by Rasmus B. Anderson (1846–1936) · 1901 printing of Anderson’s translation (copyright 1879); medieval work composed in Iceland around the 1220s
Edition & rights note