Sörla Deal

There was a man called Farbauti. He was a simple farmer and had a wife named Laufey. She was both slim and slight, so they called her Needle. They had a child, a son named Loki. He wasn't great of growth. He soon had a sharp tongue though. Nimble and a fast mover. He outdid other men in that sort of wisdom which is called guile. He was very crafty, even from a young age, so they called him Loki Laeviss, Sly-as-Venom. He set out for Asgard to find Odin and became his man. Odin always spoke according to Loki's counsel, whatever he did. Of course, Odin also set him difficult tasks, but Loki pulled these off better than expected. He knew near enough everything that went on, and he told it all to Odin, whatever he knew.

Now it's said that Loki got wise to Freyja and her necklace: how she'd come by it, and what she'd paid. He told Odin. And when Odin learnt this, he said Loki should get hold of that necklace and bring it to him. Not likely, said Loki, as no man could enter the bower unless Freyja wanted. Odin said that he must go away and not come back till he'd got the necklace. Loki slunk away then howling. Most folks smiled when Loki got nowhere.

He went to Freyja's bower and it was locked. He tried to get in, but couldn't. It was freezing outside and he began to get very cold. Then he turned into a fly. He flapped around all the locks and joints but couldn't find a gap to get in anywhere, except one, right up under the gable top, and even that was no bigger than you could stick a needle through, but he burrows in. And when he came inside, his eyes opened very wide, and he wondered if anyone was awake, but he could see they were all asleep in the bower. So he goes further in towards Freyja's bed and spots that she has the necklace around her neck, but with the clasp underneath. So Loki turns into a flea. He settles on Freyja's cheek and bites so that Freyja wakes up and turns over and goes back to sleep. Then Loki takes off the flea-form, teases the necklace off her, unlocks the bower and goes off back to Odin.

Freyja wakes that morning and sees that the door is open, but unbroken, and the good necklace was gone. She thinks she knows what trickery's behind it, and marches into the hall, the moment she's dressed, to see King Odin and tells him he's done wrong to have her precious treasure stolen from her and asks him to give her treasure back. Odin says she'll never get it back, not after the way she got it, “unless you fix it so that two kings, each served by twenty kings, are set at odds and fight each other under such spells and curses that they stand up and carry on fighting as soon as they fall, that is unless some Christian man should be so bold, and accompanied by such great luck of his lord, that he dares to go into their battle and strike these men with weapons. Only then will their toil be done--thanks to whatever chief it may fall to to release them thus from the bonds and struggle of their baleful doings.”

Freyja agreed, and received the necklace.


- Sorli's Tale or The Saga of Hedin & Hogni (Sörla þáttr eða  Héðins Saga ok Högna), Chapter 2