Myths of northern lands

by H. A. Guerber

Sæmund’s Edda (Thorpe’s tr.).

Sigyn.

Loki’s third marriage was with Sigyn, who proved a most loving and devoted wife, and bore him two sons, Narve and Vali, the latter a namesake of the god who avenged Balder. Sigyn was always faithful to her husband, never forsook him, and stood beside him even after he had definitely been cast out of Asgard and bound in punishment for his sins.

As Loki was the embodiment of evil in the minds of the Northern races, they felt nothing but fear of him, built no temples in his honor, offered no sacrifices to him, and designated the most noxious weeds by his name. The quivering, overheated atmosphere of summer was also supposed to betoken his presence, for the people were then wont to remark that Loki was sowing his oats, and when the sun drew water they said Loki was drinking.

The story of Loki is so inextricably woven in with that of the other gods that most of the myths relating to him have already been told, and there remain but two episodes of his life to relate, one showing his good side before he had degenerated into the arch deceiver, and the other illustrating how he finally induced the gods to defile their peace steads by willful murder.

Skrymsli and the peasant’s child.

A giant and a peasant were playing a game together one day (probably a game of chess, which was a favorite winter pastime with the Northern vikings). They of course determined to play for certain stakes, and the giant, coming off victor, won the peasant’s only son, whom he said he would come and claim on the morrow unless the parents could hide him so cleverly that he could not find him.

LOKI AND SIGYN.—Carl Gebhardt.

Knowing that such a feat would be impossible for them to perform, the parents fervently prayed Odin to help them, and in answer to these entreaties the god came down to earth, took the boy, and changed him into a tiny grain of wheat, which he hid in an ear of grain in the midst of a large field, declaring that the giant would never find him. The giant Skrymsli, however, was very wise indeed, and, failing to find the child at home, strode off to the field with his scythe, mowed down the grain, and selected the particular ear where the boy was hidden. Counting over the grains of wheat he was about to lay his hand upon the right one when Odin, hearing the child’s cry of distress, suddenly snatched the kernel out of the giant’s hand, and restored the boy to his parents, telling them that he had done all in his power to help them. But, as the giant vowed he had been cheated, and would claim his prey on the morrow unless the parents could outwit him, the unfortunate peasants now applied to Hoenir. He changed the boy into a bit of down, which he hid in the breast of a swan swimming in a pond close by. Skrymsli, the giant, coming up a few minutes later, and guessing what had occurred, caught the swan, bit off its neck, and would have swallowed the down, had not Hoenir interfered, wafted it away from his lips and out of reach, restoring the boy safe and sound to his parents, but warning them that he could never aid them again.