Marvelous Artifacts in Norse Mythology Quiz

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...)

Answer: Hymir's Cauldron

Loki once cut off all of Sif's hair as a joke. When her husband Thor found out, he intended to kill Loki, until Loki agreed to provide Sif with new hair of living gold. Loki contracted with the dwarven sons of Ivaldi, who were master smiths. While they were at it, they forged two other wonderful gifts for the gods: the indestructible spear Gungnir, which was given to Odin, and the collapsible boat Skidbladnir, which when folded could be kept in a pouch, which was given to Frey.

Answer: Fotbitr, the sword

After Loki obtained the golden hair, the irresistible spear, and the folding boat from the sons of Ivaldi, he encountered the master smiths Brokk and Eiti. Always alert for the opportunity to get something of value for nothing, Loki made a bet with the smiths that they could not produce superior gifts for the gods.

The smiths set to work, with Eiti at the forge and Brokk working the bellows. It was crucial to Eiti's craftsmanship that Brokk not falter at the bellows. In succession, Eiti forged the battle-boar Gullinbursti, which ran over air or water and cast its own light even at night, the golden ring Draupnir, which reproduced itself eight times every nine nights, and the war-hammer Mjollnir, which always struck its target and always returned to its owner's hands when thrown.

In each case, Loki attempted to distract Brokk by stinging him as a biting insect, but Brokk was imperturbable. Only at the very end, as Mjollnir was being completed, did Loki succeed in causing Brokk to stop to wipe blood from his eyes; so it was that Mjollnir was flawed by a short handle. Mjollnir was ultimately recognized as the greatest of the six gifts, and therefore Loki lost his bet. Brokk and Eiti were rewarded by being permitted to sew Loki's mouth closed with wire.

Answer: could be slaughtered, eaten, and raised from the dead

Thor obtained his two servants, Thjalfi and Roskva, in a tale involving the eating and raising of the goats. Thor lodged at the home of a mortal man one night, and to provide food for the feast he slaughtered and cooked his goats, cautioning everyone to preserve their bones carefully.

In the morning he laid the bones on the goats' skins, and magically brought them back to life. However, the homeowner's son Thjalfi had cracked one thigh-bone for the marrow, and one of the revivified goats was lame. Thor flew into a rage and was about to slay everyone when the man prevailed upon him to accept his two children as slaves to recompense the laming of the goat; Thor accepted.

Answer: Megingjarpar

According to the Gylfaginning, Thor possessed three "things of great price": his magical hammer Mjollnir, his "Might-Girdle" Megingjarpar, and his iron gloves which he could not do without when wielding Mjollnir. Again according to the Gylfaginning, the best of the three was the Girdle of Might, which increased his strength by half when he clasped it to him. (Interestingly, a megin-gjarpar was given to Thor by the giantess Grid, to help him defeat the powerful giant Geirrod.

She also gave him a pair of iron gloves for the same purpose.

However, the Skaldskaparmal, which relates the tale, indicates (but not without ambiguity) that the girdle and gloves Thor brought with him to Geirrod's hall were lent to him as temporary replacements for magic girdle and gloves he had left behind in Asgard. If Grid's girdle and gloves were not those referred to in the Gylfaginning, as seems reasonably clear, the provenance of Thor's own girdle and gloves is unknown to me.) (The Aegishjalmar ("awe-helm") is a runic design intended to make its wearer invulnerable in battle; Bilskirnir ("lightning") is the name of Thor's great hall; Eldhrimnir "fire-soot") is the cauldron in which the magical boar Saehrimnir is cooked every night by Andhrimnir to feed the warriors of Valhall.)

Answer: the Vanir goddess Freyja

Freyja owned the feather-cloak, but it was frequently lent to Loki, as when he wore it to rescue Idun from the giant Thjazi, or when he wore it to scout the worlds to find who had stolen Thor's hammer.

Answer: The Vanir goddess Idun

A story is told (in Skaldskaparmal) wherein Odin, Loki and Hoenir were out traveling, when Loki was captured and battered by a giant eagle (who later proved to have been the clever giant Thjazi in disguise). Loki screamed to be released, but the eagle would only release him in exchange for his promise to lure Idun out of Asgard -- with her golden apples. Loki agreed. Later, at the appointed time, Loki was as good as his word, and Thjazi was able without ado to capture Idun and bear her and the apples off to distant Thrymheim.

When the gods missed their apples, they began to age rapidly, and feared for their continued existence. It was determined that Loki had induced Idun to stray from Asgard's walls, so the gods threatened Loki with torture and death until he revealed that he knew Idun's whereabouts and agreed to get her back. he borrowed Freyja's feather cloak, and in falcon form flew to Thrymheim. Thjazi wasn't home, so Loki was able to find Idun, turn her into a nut, and begin flying back with her before Thjazi knew he had been there.

But Thjazi flew much faster as an eagle than Loki could as a falcon, so he caught up with Loki just as the god reached Asgard. The Aesir were ready, however, and started a fire just as Thjazi flew overhead, so that his feathers burned and he fell to the ground, where the gods quickly slew him. The experience was described as "a very near thing" for the gods, for if Idun had not been returned to them in time they all would have perished. ...The sequitur is interesting. Thjazi's daughter Skadi was a formidable warrior herself, and set out to avenge her father. When she arrived at Asgard, the gods acknowledged the legitimacy of her claim for revenge, and offered her in settlement the right to choose any god for her husband (with the proviso that she be permitted to choose her husband on the basis of the appearance of his feet alone) and that the gods make her laugh (a thing that she thought they would be unable to accomplish, so that she would get a husband and retain her right of revenge). She chose the god whose feet were most handsome, assuming they were the feet of Baldur the Fair, but they turned out to be the feet of the Vanir god Njord (they ended up splitting up later over the question of where to live). The gods were successful in making her laugh as well: Loki tied a cord to his testicles and the other end to the beard of a goat, and then let the goat pull while both Loki and goat screeched and yowled until Skadi broke down and laughed.

Answer: permitted him to see anything anywhere in any world

Hlidskjalf ("Gate-seat") was Odin's throne in his dwelling Valaskjalf ("Fallen-seat"). Odin used it to determine Loki's whereabouts after he had arranged the death of Baldur; Loki had hidden deep in a cave in the guise of a fish, but this was no defense against the scrying powers of Hlidskjalkf. Frey also used Hlidskjalf once, and saw a woman so sad and fair that Frey had to have her for his own. he sent his servant Skirnir to woo her on his behalf, and gave Skirnir his sword (which had the power of fighting by itself, unwielded by any hand) for the journey. Skirnir did as he was bade, but Frey never got the sword back.

Answer: to bind Fenrir Lokason

The morally questionable god Loki fathered three monstrous offspring by the giantess Angurboda. The first of these was Fenrir, or Fenrisulf ("Fenrir-wolf"). Fenrir had the form of a monstrous wolf, and from his birth grew at such an alarming rate that the gods feared him; even when he was but a pup, only Tyr was bold enough to give him his meat.

The gods decided that their best course lay in tricking Fenrir into permitting himself to be bound, and then failing to release him. The difficult part was to find a chain strong enough to bind the beast.

The gods first forged a strong fetter called Laeding, and told Fenrir that he would be famous if he were strong enough to break it. As hungry for glory as for meat, Fenrir agreed; he didn't think it would be particularly difficult to break Laeding anyway.

As it turned out, he was right, and he shattered the chain on the first attempt. The gods returned to their forges and produced a heavier, stronger fetter called Dromi, and presented it to Fenrir with the same challenge. Fenrir considered that Dromi looked stronger than had Laeding, but considered also that he himself had grown stronger in the intervening period, and that if he broke Dromi it would win him great fame. So he agreed once again, and once again shattered the chain, albeit with some strain. Now the gods were worried, because it was beyond their skill to fashion a stronger fetter. So Odin sent a messenger (Skirnir) to Svartalfheim ("Home of the Black Elves") where the dwarves lived, and commissioned the master smiths there to forge the strongest possible fetter.

The result was Gleipnir. "It was fashioned of six elements: the noise a cat makes in foot-fall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a rock, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish, and the spittle of a bird." As Snorri pointed out, the first three of those six elements do not exist, and yet they were worked into the mystic fetter for all that. Gleipnir looked no stronger than a thin ribbon of silk, which made Fenrir suspicious when it was presented to him. He pointed out that even if he broke it, breaking such a fragile-appearing thing would win him no fame. "But if [Gleipnir] was fashioned with wisdom and knowledge, though it appears weak, then shall that band never come over my legs," he added. The gods tried to assure him that the test would be conducted in good faith, that if he could not break something so fragile, since they would know by his inability to do so that they had nothing to fear from him, they would be sure to set him free. Still suspicious, Fenrir insisted that the gods prove their good faith by having one of them place his hand between Fenrir's jaws while he submitted to being bound. Once again, only Tyr was sufficiently bold to accept the challenge. Fenrir was duly bound, and discovered that he could not free himself. "Then all [the gods] laughed except Tyr. He lost his hand." The gods then took the chain Gelgja, which was attached to Gleipnir, and attached it to the rock Gjoll, which they rooted deep into the earth and thrust still deeper underground with the huge stone Thviti. Fenrir was given a sword for a gag, its hilt in his lower jaw and its point against his upper. In this position he howls constantly and the slaver that pours out of his mouth forms the river Van. Oddly, the name of the sword is not known; neither are the names of the particular dwarves who forged Gleipnir. When Fenrir is finally released from his uncomfortable durance (under the island of Lyngvi in Lake Amsvartnir), at the Ragnarok, he will slay Odin and be slain in turn by Odin's son Vidar. (All quoted material above is from Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda 34, my own translation.)

Answer: Heimdall

The white god Heimdall, who can see a hundred leagues by day or night, and whose hearing is so keen he can hear grass growing on the fields or wool growing on sheep, is the watchman of the gods and the guardian of the bridge Bifrost. As such, he bears the horn of warning, the Gjallahorn, whose blast can be heard in all the worlds.

Its sound will be the harbinger of the final battle of Ragnarok, at which almost all the gods will be slain.