folk before him. By main
force he seized hold of the silent Vidar, who had come from the forest
solitudes to be present at the feast, and dragged him away from the
table, and seated himself in his place. Then, as he quaffed the
foaming mead, he flung out taunts and jeers and hard words to all who
sat around, but chiefly to Bragi the Wise and Sif, the beautiful wife
of Thor.

Suddenly a great tumult was heard outside. The mountains shook and
trembled; the bottom of the sea seemed moved; and the waves, affrighted
and angry, rushed hither and thither in confusion. All the guests
looked up in eager expectation, and some of them fled in alarm from the
hall. Then the mighty Thor strode in at the door, and up to the table,
swinging his hammer, and casting wrathful glances at the
Mischief-maker. Loki trembled; he dropped his goblet, and sank down
upon his knees before the terrible Asa.

"I yield me!" he cried. "Spare my life, I pray you, and I will be your
thrall forever!"

"I want no such thrall," answered Thor. "And I spare your life on one
condition only,--that you go at once from hence, and nevermore presume
to come into the company of Asa-folk."

"I promise all that you ask," said Loki, trembling more than ever.
"Let me go."

Thor stepped aside; and the frightened culprit fled from the hall, and
was soon out of sight. The feast was broken up. The Asas bade Aegir a
kind farewell, and favoring winds wafted them swiftly home to Asgard.

Loki fled to the dark mountain gorges of Mist Land, and sought for a
while to hide himself from the sight of both gods and men. In a deep
ravine by the side of a roaring torrent, he built himself a house of
iron and stone, and placed a door on each of its four sides, so that he
could see whatever passed around him. There, for many winters, he
lived in lonely solitude, planning with himself how he might baffle his
enemies and regain his old place in Asgard. Now and then he slipped
slyly away from his hiding-place, and wrought much mischief for a time
among the abodes of men. But when Thor heard of his evil-doings, and
sought to catch him, and punish him for his evil deeds, he was nowhere
to be found. At last the Asa-folk determined, that, if he could ever
be captured, the safety of the world required that he should be bound
hand and foot, and kept forever in prison.

Loki often amused himself in his mountain home by taking upon him his
favorite form of a salmon and lying