How Tor Was Given His Hammer

The whole story starts when Loke, the gods’ friend and servant, cut all of the hair of Siv’s head. Siv was Tor’s wife, and when he heard about what Loke had done, he was so angry that he threatened to crush every single bone in Loke’s body. Loke was so scared that he swore he would get Siv some new hair. He would run to some dwarfs, who were very talented smiths, to get them to make her some more hair.
He rushed down to the underworld and found a couple of dwarves to help him. First, the dwarves made some gorgeous golden hair, which they would wax to Siv’s head, where it would grow like normal hair. The golden hair was even more beautiful than Siv’s own light, beautiful locks. After they were done with the hair, the dwarves continued to make new gifts. They made the amazing ship Skidbladner, which could be folded together and put in your pocket. After that, they made the spear Gungner, which always hit its mark and came back to its owner like a boomerang.
Loke was a betting man, so when he was given these three amazing objects, he decided to bet some other dwarves that they couldn’t make three things that were as amazing as these three. He placed his own head on the bet. The new dwarves put hammer to anvil almost immediately. One hammered away at the anvil while the other dwarf worked the bellows. While a fly buzzed around the workshop, a golden boar-hide was put on the anvil. The fly had started to irritate one of the dwarves, but he ignored it. They labored hard and finally, they were left with a living, golden boar. After this, they made a huge golden ring that had the ability of making new rings every ninth night. Lastly, they put some iron on the anvil and started to make a hammer.
However, the bellower-dwarf was still being irritated by the fly, which settled down on his eyelid so the bellows-man couldn’t see. The bellows fell together as he let go of them, so the dwarf that was hammering couldn’t finish the hammer. The iron had cooled to fast, giving the hammer one flaw. Its handle was too short.
Loke had transformed himself into a fly to hinder these dwarves from making anything better than the others. A few days after this
happened, Loke went with all the dwarves to Asgard, the home of all of the gods. Oden, the leader of the gods, Freja, his wife, and Tor were going to be the judges of the contest.
Oden was given Gungner the spear, Tor was given the golden hair and Freja was given the ship Skidbladner. The gods were told which amazing properties these magical metal offerings had.
Next came the other dwarves’ work. Oden was given the golden ring, which the dwarves decided to call Draupner. The dwarves explained how every ninth night, the ring made eight new rings, each just as big as the first one. Freja was given the golden boar, which the dwarves called Gyllenborst (which is the Swedish equivalent of goldenfur), and was told how it ran faster than any horse in the air, the water, or on land. Last of all, Tor was given the hammer. The dwarves explained how the handle came to be too small, but also how it made up for it by always hitting it’s mark, coming back to it’s owner, and being able to become small enough to be worn around the neck on a chain.
The gods discussed the matter for a very long time, but at last they came to the conclusion that the hammer was the best gift, because it could kill the giants, the gods’ mortal enemies. Therefore, the second dwarves had right to Loke’s head. After a few seconds, one of the dwarves decided that he wanted to cut off Loke’s head. Loke persisted in saying that they only had right to his head, not his neck, so they couldn’t chop it off.
The dwarf then proceeded to punch holes all around Loke’s mouth. He took a needle and a bit of cord and sewed the lips together. He said that that way, Loke couldn’t annoy anyone else with his infernal nonsense. After many years, Loke managed to pry apart his lips and remove the cords. The scars from the holes, however, couldn’t be removed as easily, so Loke was left with a lasting memory of his lesson, and his looks never fully recovered.