Why would two dwarves sew a god's mouth shut? Because Loki bet his head, lost, and found a loophole.

The full story, straight from the Prose Edda, the Norse myths written down in Iceland around 1220:

• the haircut that nearly got Loki's every bone broken
• a ship that folds into your pocket and a ring that makes eight more every ninth night
• the fly that stung the smith three times, and the hammer it left with a short handle
• "you may have my head, but not my neck"
• and the real Viking-age forge stone with a face whose lips are sewn shut

Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:45 The Haircut
1:51 Round One
2:48 The Bet
3:35 The Fly
5:02 The Judgment
6:22 Head, But Not Neck

Sources
- Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál 43 https://www.voluspa.org/skaldskaparmal41-50.htm
- Grímnismál 43-44 https://www.voluspa.org/grimnismal41-45.htm
- "Snaptun Stone", Wikipedia: found 1950 on a beach near Snaptun, Denmark; soapstone from Norway or Sweden; carved around 1000 CE; a forge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snaptun_Stone
- World-Tree Project, "Snaptun Stone" https://www.worldtreeproject.org/document/2861
- Wikimedia Commons, "File:Lokistone.jpg" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lokistone.jpg
- "Mjölnir", Wikipedia: the Skáldskaparmál account https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mj%C3%B6lnir
- "Draupnir", Wikipedia, quoting Gylfaginning: "every ninth night there fell from it eight gold rings of equal weight"; Odin laid it on Baldr's pyre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draupnir
- "Skíðblaðnir", Wikipedia: Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál on the fair wind and folding it like cloth into a pocket; owned by Freyr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%AD%C3%B0bla%C3%B0nir
- "Gullinbursti", Wikipedia: runs through air and water better than any horse, its bristles glow in the dark; made from a pig's skin; Freyr's; Húsdrápa has Freyr ride it to Baldr's funeral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullinbursti
- "Sif", Wikipedia: Thor's wife; gold is called "Sif's hair" in poetry; scholarly readings of the golden hair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sif
- "Brokkr", Wikipedia, citing Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokkr
- "Sons of Ivaldi", Wikipedia: Grímnismál 43; the smith called Eitri or Sindri in different sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Ivaldi
- "Freyr", Wikipedia, on Gylfaginning: Freyr rules rain, sunshine and crops; people pray to him for good seasons and peace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyr
- "Prose Edda", Wikipedia: written in Iceland in the early 13th century, c. 1220, by Snorri Sturluson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose_Edda
- Daniel McCoy, "The Creation of Thor's Hammer", Norse Mythology for Smart People https://norse-mythology.org/tales/loki-and-the-dwarves/

Image credits
- Bloodofox, public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lokistone.jpg
Stock footage: Pixabay. Music: ElevenLabs Music.
Illustrations and animations are artistic reconstructions made for this video.

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#Mythology #NorseMythology #Loki