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/112

 O a better hammer for thee I'll obtain; And he shook like an aspen-tree, For whose stroke shield, buckler and greave shall be vain, And the giants with terror shall flee!

Not so! cried Thor, and his eyes flashed fire; Thy base treason calls loud for blood, And hither I'm come with my sworn brother Frey, To make thee of ravens the food.

I'll take hold of thy arms and thy coal-black hair, And Frey of thy heels behind, And thy lustful body to atoms we'll tear, And scatter thy limbs to the wind.

O spare me, Frey, thou great-souled king! And, weeping, he kissed his feet; O mercy, and thee I'll a courser bring, No match in the wide world shall meet.

Without whip or spur round the earth you shall ride; He'll ne'er weary by day nor by night; He shall carry you safe o'er the raging tide, And his golden hair furnish you light.

Loke promised as well with his glozing tongue That the asas at length let him go, And he sank in the earth, the dark rocks among, Near the cold-fountain, far below.

He crept on his belly, as supple as eel, The cracks in the hard granite through, Till he came where the dwarfs stood hammering steel, By the light of a furnace blue.

I trow 't was a goodly sight to see The dwarfs, with their aprons on, A-hammering and smelting so busily Pure gold from the rough brown stone.

Rock crystals from sand and hard flint they made, Which, tinged with the rosebud's dye, They cast into rubies and carbuncles red, And hid them in cracks hard by.