This poem has been thus versified by the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, in his “Select Icelandic Poetry”:—
Wroth waxed Thor, when his sleep was flown, And he found his trusty hammer gone; He smote his brow, his beard he shook, The son of earth ’gan round him look; And this, the first word that he spoke; “Now listen what I tell thee, Loke; Which neither on earth below is known, Nor in Heaven above—my hammer’s gone.” Their way to Freyia’s bower they took, And this, the first word that he spoke; “Thou, Freyia, must lend a winged robe, To seek my hammer round the globe.”
FREYIA (_sung_).—“That shouldst thou have, though ’twere of gold, And that, though ’twere of silver, hold.”[87] Away flew Loke; the wing’d robe sounds, Ere he has left the Asgard grounds, And ere he has reach’d the Jotunheim bounds. High on a mound in haughty state Thrym the king of the Thursi sate; For his dogs he was twisting collars of gold, And trimming the manes of his coursers bold.
THRYM (_sung_).—“How fare the Asi? the Alfi how? Why com’st thou alone to Jotunheim now?”
LOKE (_sung_).—“Ill fare the Asi; the Alfi mourn; Thor’s hammer from him thou hast torn.”
THRYM (_sung_).—“I have the Thunderer’s hammer bound, Fathoms eight beneath the ground; With it shall no one homeward tread, Till he bring me Freyia to share my bed.” Away flew Loke; the wing’d robe sounds, Ere he has left the Jotunheim bounds, And ere he has reach’d the Asgard grounds. At Midgard Thor met crafty Loke, And this the first word that he spoke; “Have you your errand and labour done? Tell from aloft the course you run. For setting oft the story fails, And lying oft the lie prevails.”