knowledge atoned for his small stature, before he could win his bride.

To test Alvis's mental powers, Thor then questioned him in the
language of the gods, Vanas, elves, and dwarfs, artfully prolonging
his examination until sunrise, when the first beam of light, falling
upon the unhappy dwarf, petrified him. There he stood, an enduring
example of the gods' power, to serve as a warning to all other dwarfs
who might dare to test it.

"Ne'er in human bosom
Have I found so many
Words of the old time.
Thee with subtlest cunning
Have I yet befooled.
Above ground standeth thou, dwarf
By day art overtaken,
Bright sunshine fills the hall."

Saemund's Edda (Howitt's version).

Sif, the Golden-haired

Sif, Thor's wife, was very vain of a magnificent head of long golden
hair which covered her from head to foot like a brilliant veil; and
as she too was a symbol of the earth, her hair was said to represent
the long grass, or the golden grain covering the Northern harvest
fields. Thor was very proud of his wife's beautiful hair; imagine
his dismay, therefore, upon waking one morning, to find her shorn,
and as bald and denuded of ornament as the earth when the grain has
been garnered, and nothing but the stubble remains! In his anger,
Thor sprang to his feet, vowing he would punish the perpetrator
of this outrage, whom he immediately and rightly conjectured to be
Loki, the arch-plotter, ever on the look-out for some evil deed to
perform. Seizing his hammer, Thor went in search of Loki, who attempted
to evade the irate god by changing his form. But it was all to no
purpose; Thor soon overtook him, and without more ado caught him by
the throat, and almost strangled him ere he yielded to his imploring
signs and relaxed his powerful grip. When he could draw his breath,
Loki begged forgiveness, but all his entreaties were vain, until he
promised to procure for Sif a new head of hair, as beautiful as the
first, and as luxuriant in growth.

"And thence for Sif new tresses I'll bring
Of gold, ere the daylight's gone,
So that she shall liken a field in spring,
With its yellow-flowered garment on."

The Dwarfs, Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).

Then Thor consented to let the traitor go; so Loki rapidly crept down
into the bowels of the earth, where Svart-alfa-heim was situated,
to beg the dwarf Dvalin to fashion not only the precious hair, but