Page:Norse mythology or, the religion of our forefathers, containing all the myths of the Eddas, systematized and interpreted with an introduction, vocabulary and index.djvu/111

Then he knew that the noise good boded him naught,
  He knew that 't was Thor who was coming;
He changed himself straight to a salmon-trout,
  And leaped in a fright in the Glommen.^[1]

But Thor changed, too, to a huge sea-gull,
  And the salmon-trout seized in his beak;
He cried: Thor, traitor, I know thee well,
  And dear shalt thou pay thy freak!

Thy caitiff's bones to a meal I'll pound,
  As a mill-stone crusheth the grain.
When Loke that naught booted his magic found,
  He took straight his own form again.

And what if thou scatter'st my limbs in air?
  He spake, will it mend thy case?
Will it gain back for Sif a single hair?
  Thou'lt still a bald spouse embrace.

But if now thou'lt pardon my heedless joke,—
  For malice sure meant I none,—
I swear to thee here, by root, billow and rock,
  By the moss on the Bauta-stone,^[2]

By Mimer's well, and by Odin's eye,
  And by Mjolner, greatest of all,
That straight to the secret caves I'll hie,
  To the dwarfs, my kinsmen small;

And thence for Sif new tresses I'll bring
  Of gold ere the daylight's gone,
So that she will liken a field in spring,
  With its yellow-flowered garment on.

Him answered Thor: Why, thou brazen knave,
  To my face to mock me dost dare?
Thou know'st well that Mjolner is now 'neath the wave
  With Ran, and wilt still by it swear?

1. A river in Norway.
2. A stone raised over a grave.