Loki's Mischief and the Birth of Mjolnir

Loki, the trickster god, squirmed in Thor’s iron grip after pulling a cruel prank. The night before, while the gods slept, Loki had snuck up on Thor’s wife, Sif, and cut off her beautiful golden hair. What seemed like a funny joke at the time now had Loki facing Thor’s wrath. Desperate to fix his mistake, Loki needed someone who could craft hair as golden as Sif's. He turned to the dwarves, renowned for their unmatched smithing skills.

Loki journeyed to the dwarves’ realm deep in the mountains. There, he schemed to manipulate two rival families: the sons of Ivaldi and the brothers Brokk and Eitri. Loki told the sons of Ivaldi that Brokk and Eitri claimed to be the greatest craftsmen and had challenged them to a contest. He then told Brokk and Eitri the same story, only reversing the roles. Suspicious, Brokk and Eitri agreed to participate, but only if Loki wagered his own head. Loki reluctantly agreed.

Both groups of dwarves began crafting. Eitri instructed Brokk to keep the bellows going without stopping. As they worked, a strange black fly—Loki in disguise—appeared and tried to sabotage Brokk. It first bit his hand as he worked with pigskin, but Brokk didn’t flinch. Then, as Eitri forged a block of gold, the fly bit Brokk’s neck, but he carried on. Finally, as Eitri worked with iron, the fly bit Brokk’s eyelid, causing him to briefly lose control of the bellows. This momentary lapse ruined the final treasure.

Loki, confident in their failure, accompanied the dwarves to present the gifts to the gods. The sons of Ivaldi presented their creations first: golden hair that bonded to Sif’s head and grew naturally, a spear for Odin that could pierce anything, and a magical ship for Freyr that could sail on land or sea and fold up to fit in a pocket.

Brokk and Eitri then revealed their treasures: a golden-bristled boar that could pull Freyr’s chariot across the sky, a golden ring for Odin that produced eight identical rings every ninth night, and Mjolnir, a powerful hammer for Thor that never missed its target and always returned to his hand. Though the hammer’s handle was shorter than intended due to Loki’s sabotage, the gods agreed it was the finest gift of all.

Realizing he had lost, Loki tried to flee, but Thor caught him. However, Loki cleverly argued that Brokk and Eitri had won the right to his head, not his neck, preventing them from cutting it off. Frustrated but unwilling to break the agreement, Brokk used an awl to sew Loki’s lips shut, silencing the trickster god.

In the end, Loki’s deceit had brought great treasures to the gods, including the mighty hammer Mjolnir, which would become Thor’s most famous weapon.