29. What price did Freyja pay to obtain the Brisingamen?
From Quiz Marvelous Artifacts in Norse Mythology
Answer:
slept with four dwarves
According to the Sorla Thattr, Freyja offered gold, but the four dwarven smiths who forged the beautiful necklace (the Brisings, the brothers Alfrigg, Berling, Dvalin and Grer) would not take money for their handiwork. Freyja coveted the necklace so much that she acceded to their demands and submitted to their lusts for four nights. Again according to the Sorla Thattr, Loki informed on Freyja to Odin, who sent Loki to steal the necklace to punish Freyja for her wantonness. Odin returned the necklace to Freyja only after extorting from her the agreement that she would do his dirty work in starting wars among men. According, however, to earlier skaldic verse, Loki undertook to steal the necklace on his own connivance, and was prevented from doing so by far-seeing Heimdall. It is not clear what was so eminently desirable about the Brisingamen; either its special power was to make others covet it, or perhaps it magically enhanced the beauty of its wearer. (Indeed, this latter possibility is supported, albeit indirectly, when one considers that with the Brisingamen around his burly neck Thor was once able to pass himself off, not merely as a woman, but as the beauteous Freyja. Of course, he wore a veil...)