At this suggestion Loki could scarcely keep from laughing, for the idea of sending the beautiful Freya, the joy and delight of Asgard, to be the wife of this ill-favored Frost Giant was too absurd for words.
It was not much to him, however, what happened to anyone except himself, so he hastened to reply: “Be sure, O Thrym, that everything I can do to further the matter shall be done. And if Freya is of the same mind as I you will soon be welcoming that most sweet maiden to Giantland—farewell!”
So saying, he spread his brown wings and flew back to Asgard, delighted to think of the mischief he could now set brewing.
First of all he visited Thor, and told him of what had passed. And the Thunderer, when he heard of Thrym’s boastful words, was filled with wild wrath and wanted to start off, then and there, and wrest the hammer from the depths of the sea. But Loki pointed out the difficulties that stood in the way and, leaving the Asa to ponder over his words, he hurried off to Freya and informed her of Thrym’s proposal.
The beautiful Freya was walking in her garden, and round her neck she wore her famous necklet of stars. When she heard Loki’s suggestion that she should wed a hideous giant she fell into such a rage that she broke her necklet, and all the stars went falling through the sky, so that men cried:
“See how the stars are shooting!”
Meantime the Asa folk had met together to consider all that had happened, and, having calmed the fury of Thor, they pointed out to him that Asgard stood in the gravest danger of an attack which would find them quite unprotected. When they had said this several times over, Thor began to weary of the subject, and he replied with great surliness: “Very well, then. Let Freya go to Thrym as his wife, and then shall we be as before, with Miölnir to defend us.”
When Freya heard this, her rage turned to tears and lamentations, and she declared that it would be death to her to send her to the gloomy halls of Giantland, whence she could never hope to revisit the flowery meads and grassy slopes of Asgard. And the Asas, unable to bear the sight of her grief, with one voice declared that they would never spare her from the Home of Bliss.
Then there stepped forward Heimdall, the watchman who sits on guard over the Rainbow Bridge by night and day.
Now Heimdall had the gift of seeing into the future, and the Asas were always ready to hear his words, well knowing them to be wise.