The chained Loki appears in Saxo as Utgarda-Loki, lying bound
in a cavern of snakes, and worshipped as a God by the Danish king
Gorm Haraldsson. Dr. Eydberg sees the Freyja myth in Saxo's story of
Syritha, who was carried away by the giants and delivered by her lover
Othar (the Od of the Edda): an example, like _Svipdag and Menglad_,
of the complete transformation of a divine into an heroic myth. In
almost all cases Saxo vulgarises the stories in the telling, a common
result when a mythical tale is retold by a Christian writer, though
it is still more conspicuous in his versions of the heroic legends.
Appendix
_Thrymskvida_.
1. Then Wing-Thor was angry when he awoke, and missed his hammer. He
shook his beard, he tossed his hair, the son of Earth groped about
for it.
2. And first of all he spoke these words: "Hear now, Loki, what I
tell thee, a thing that no one in earth or heaven above has heard:
the Asa has been robbed of his hammer!"
3. They went to the dwelling of fair Freyja, and these words he
spoke first of all: "Wilt thou lend me, Freyja, thy feather dress,
to see if I can find my hammer?"
4. _Freyja_. "I would give it thee, though it were of gold; I would
grant it, though it were of silver."
5. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
Asgard and into Joetunheim.
6. Thrym, lord of the Giants, sat on a howe; he twisted golden bands
for his greyhounds and trimmed his horses' manes.
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