Motif of Friea
CHAPTER II
FASOLT AND FAFNER
One morning not long afterwards the rising sun shone upon strange things up among the gods.
Wotan, and Fricka his wife, waking upon the mountain-top where they had slept that night, gazed up to where, built among the clouds, the spires of a wonderful palace glittered in the sunshine—Walhalla, the fair, new home of the gods.
It had been built at Wotan’s command by Fasolt and Fafner, the two brother giants, and they had been promised, in payment, the goddess Friea. But Wotan had never intended giving her to them, and so he told Fricka when she spoke anxiously of the reward promised the giants, declaring that the goddess was as precious to him as to her.
Even as he spoke Friea rushed wildly in, calling upon him to save her from the rude giants. In answer, Wotan asked where Logi, the Fire God, could be found, saying that where cunning and craft were needed, Logi was the one most to be sought after. But, look as he might, the wayward Fire God was nowhere to be seen.
And then came the great brothers, bearing huge clubs, and fiercely clamoring for a reward for their labors in building Walhalla.
“You slept while we worked,” they said. “Now claim we our payment.”
“What price do you demand?” asked Wotan, pretending not to remember any promised reward. “What will you take as wages?”