"To some extent I have drawn on Viktor Rydberg's nineteenth-century conjecture about the captivity of Njord, Freyr, and Freyja under Hymir." (p. 303)
See Myths Retold... IV.
As noted there, there is another story about confinement on a skerry. I do not know how much the story told by Poul Anderson owes to Rydberg or how much it owes to the Eddas.
The Afterword continues:
"It is written that Odin and Loki once swore blood brotherhood, which helps explain how Loki got away with what he did for as long as he did; but we do not know why. The incident is my own invention." (ibid.)
Anderson's invented incident has Loki harassing two gods in the form of a fly. There is a story in which Loki as a gadfly stings the dwarf Brok as he works the bellows with the result that the handle of Thor's hammer, Miolnir, is slightly too short. The two gods that Loki harasses in Anderson's story are Odin's brothers, Vili and Ve, even though Anderson had previously named the brothers as Hoenir and Lodur and had recounted how Hoenir went to Vanaheim as a hostage. (See Myths Retold... II.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Loki is an ambiguous figure in Scandinavian myths. Only Thor seems to have really gotten along with him.
Ad astra! Sean
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