them. How all that happened
shall be told thee, O well beloved.

Odin, the Father of the Gods, often went into the land of men to watch
over their doings. Once he took Loki with him, Loki, the doer of good
and the doer of evil. For a long time they went traveling through the
world of men. At last they came near Joetunheim, the realm of the Giants.

It was a bleak and empty region. There were no growing things there, not
even trees with berries. There were no birds, there were no animals. As
Odin, the Father of the Gods, and Loki, the doer of good and the doer of
evil, went through this region hunger came upon them. But in all the
land around they saw nothing that they could eat.

Loki, running here and running there, came at last upon a herd of wild
cattle. Creeping up on them, he caught hold of a young bull and killed
him. Then he cut up the flesh into strips of meat. He lighted a fire and
put the meat on spits to roast. While the meat was being cooked, Odin,
the Father of the Gods, a little way off, sat thinking on the things he
had seen in the world of men.

Loki made himself busy putting more and more logs on the fire. At last
he called to Odin, and the Father of the Gods came and sat down near the
fire to eat the meal.

But when the meat was taken off the cooking-spits and when Odin went to
cut it, he found that it was still raw. He smiled at Loki for thinking
the meat was cooked, and Loki, troubled that he had made a mistake, put
the meat back, and put more logs upon the fire. Again Loki took the meat
off the cooking-spits and called Odin to the meal.

Odin, when he took the meat that Loki brought him, found that it was as
raw as if it had never been put upon the fire. "Is this a trick of
yours, Loki?" he said.

Loki was so angry at the meat being uncooked that Odin saw he was
playing no tricks. In his hunger he raged at the meat and he raged at
the fire. Again he put the meat on the cooking-spits and put more logs
on the fire. Every hour he would take up the meat, sure that it was now
cooked, and every time he took it off Odin would find that the meat was
as raw as the first time they took it off the fire.

Now Odin knew that the meat must be under some enchantment by the
Giants. He stood up and went on his way, hungry but strong. Loki,
however, would not leave the meat that he had put back on the fire. He
would make it be cooked, he declared, and he would not leave that place
hungry.

The dawn came a