If you will believe me, it really was gone!
The Strong-One uttered such a shout that down on the earth people thought they had heard a thunder-clap. His hair and his beard rose and quivered like a million tiny flames. He bent over and shook the sleeping Sly-One.
“Mark, now, Loki, what I say! What no one knows on earth or in high heaven—my hammer is stolen!”
Loki was instantly awake. He was a very handsome youth and one of the cleverest of all the mighty beings who lived above the clouds. Sometimes he was more clever than honest, which is why I call him the Sly-One. There came a time when he was so wicked that he brought a terrible punishment upon himself. But just now his shrewdness was of great use to Thor.
He answered as soon as he had heard about the dream, “It is likely that you are right and that Thrym is the thief. But it would be unadvisable for you to go to him. You are so fiery that you would kill him before you had learned anything. I will borrow the feather-dress of Freyja the Lovely and do the errand for you.”
“I should be very thankful to you,” said Thor.
Hastening out, they harnessed to the chariot The-Goat-That-Gnashes-His-Teeth (Tanngnjost) and The-Goat-That-Flashes-His-Teeth (Tanngrisner) and drove to Folkvang, where Freyja’s immense palace (Sessrymner) stood. No mansion in the upper world had so many seats for guests as hers; and she was as generous as she was hospitable.
When Thor had told her why they had come, she answered with the sweetest of smiles, “I would give you the dress gladly though it were of gold. Though it were of silver, I would give it to you instantly.” And she ordered her attendants to bring it at once from the chest in which it was stored.
Though it was neither of gold nor of silver, yet it was very handsome. It was made of the white and brown plumage of falcons and fitted Loki’s graceful body like a glove.
“I only hope no one will think me such a pretty bird that he will catch me and shut me in a cage,” the Sly-One laughed, rustling his feathers as you have seen canaries do after a bath.