reya, who watches over the flowers and grasses, for my wife."

Now when Odin heard this he was terribly angered, for the price the
Stranger asked for his work was beyond all prices. He went amongst the
other Gods who were then building their shining palaces within the great
wall and he told them what reward the Stranger had asked. The Gods said,
"Without the Sun and the Moon the world will wither away." And the
Goddesses said, "Without Freya all will be gloom in Asgard."

They would have let the wall remain unbuilt rather than let the Stranger
have the reward he claimed for building it. But one who was in the
company of the Gods spoke. He was Loki, a being who only half belonged
to the Gods; his father was the Wind Giant. "Let the Stranger build the
wall round Asgard," Loki said, "and I will find a way to make him give
up the hard bargain he has made with the Gods. Go to him and tell him
that the wall must be finished by the first day of Summer, and that if
it is not finished to the last stone on that day the price he asks will
not be given to him."

The Gods went to the Stranger and they told him that if the last stone
was not laid on the wall on the first day of the Summer not Sol or Mani,
the Sun and the Moon, nor Freya would be given him. And now they knew
that the Stranger was one of the Giants.

The Giant and his great horse piled up the wall more quickly than
before. At night, while the Giant slept, the horse worked on and on,
hauling up stones and laying them on the wall with his great forefeet.
And day by day the wall around Asgard grew higher and higher.

But the Gods had no joy in seeing that great wall rising higher and
higher around their palaces. The Giant and his horse would finish the
work by the first day of Summer, and then he would take the Sun and the
Moon, Sol and Mani, and Freya away with him.

But Loki was not disturbed. He kept telling the Gods that he would find
a way to prevent him from finishing his work, and thus he would make the
Giant forfeit the terrible price he had led Odin to promise him.

It was three days to Summer time. All the wall was finished except the
gateway. Over the gateway a stone was still to be placed. And the Giant,
before he went to sleep, bade his horse haul up a great block of stone
so that they might put it above the gateway in the morning, and so
finish the work two full days before Summer.

It happened to be a beautiful moonlit night. Svadilfare, the Giant's