Written for the Not Prime Time Exchange 2013.
Many thanks to Becca Stareyes and duckwhatduck for beta-reading and to Sovay for commenting on an early draft of Chapter 2. Any remaining errors are entirely mine.
This story is partly based on the Volsung Saga but should be comprehensible without having read it. Divergences from the saga are intentional.
Once there was a giant, and his name was Hrimnir. He was very fierce and very strong. One day, as Hrimnir was walking through the fields near his house, he spied an old man wearing a tattered grey cloak and leaning on a staff as he walked.
And Hrimnir said, "What are you doing, prowling around here? The worse for you, old man, that your road has crossed mine, for now you will die."
"Will you do such wrong to a stranger?" said the old man. "Justice and wisdom alike advise that you should not ill-treat travelers; for you know not of what kin they come."
"I care nothing for that," said Hrimnir.
"Give me one chance at least to save my head," said the old man. "Let us have a contest of riddles; if you win, you may do as you like with me, but if I win, you must give me something. Let us say, you will send your eldest son to fight for me. My house has good walls, but I have need of more warriors to defend it."
"Your sons must be feeble indeed," said Hrimnir, "if you have need of other men's sons to defend your house."
"If my son came to your house," said the old man, "I do not think one stone of it would be left standing. He is boisterous when he is angry. But I am here alone, and we two must deal with each other. Ask your first riddle."
And Hrimnir, who wished only to be rid of the old man quickly, asked him: "Answer if you know, and save yourself from a worse fate. How were the walls of the gods' realm built?"
The old man answered:
"A strong stallion and stout giant
in one winter those walls upraised.
For his labor, lovely Freya,
the sun and moon he sought in fee."
"And yet they did not pay the builder his fee," said Hrimnir, "but rewarded him with death; and I think that is shameful."
"He did not complete the walls by the appointed time," said the old man, "and so he did not earn his fee; but as for taking his life, I admit that the gods broke their oaths." Then he said, "Answer if you know, and save yourself from a worse fate. How was the sky made?"
Hrimnir answered:
"First of giants by gods' hands fell –-
old Aurgelmir, ice-begotten.
His hollow skull the sky became;
the gods raised it to roof the earth."
"So I have heard," said the old man, "and that giant is called Ymir among men."
Then Hrimnir said, "Answer if you know, and save yourself from a worse fate. What is the greatest sorrow that will befall the gods?"
The old man answered:
"The greatest grief the gods befalls
when bright Baldur is borne to Hel.
The blind god's dart death-wound gives him,
works unwitting much woe to come."
"If Odin is so wise," said Hrimnir, "can he not prevent it?"
"Odin plans always for the time to come, but neither man nor god can escape the fate that the Norns have decreed." Then the old man said, "Answer if you know, and save yourself from a worse fate. A fierce dragon lies on Gnita heath, guarding his treasure. What sword will slay him, and what hero's hand will wield it?"
Hrimnir thought for a long time, and at last he said sullenly, "I do not know."
"Then you will learn it hereafter," said the old man. "Will you give me your son?"
"My house lies yonder," said Hrimnir. "Let me go there first, so that my wife may prepare for a guest, and you follow after." The old man agreed.
Hrimnir went to his house in great anger, since he did not want to give his son to a stranger. Now Hrimnir had a giantess wife, who was every bit as strong and fierce as he was himself. When he came home, his wife saw that he was angry and asked the reason. Hrimnir told her what had happened. "It is not to be borne," he said, "that we should give our son to this vagabond."
"Take my counsel," said his wife. "When the stranger comes here, send the dogs against him. They will tear him to pieces if he doesn't run away."
Hrimnir looked out the door, and when he saw the stranger approaching, he released the dogs, which bounded at the stranger as if to tear him to pieces. But as soon as they caught his scent, they all slunk back whimpering.
"That did not go well," said Hrimnir. "What should I do now?"
"Take my counsel," said his wife. "When the stranger comes inside, offer him mead to drink. I will mix in baleful herbs and sing dark spells over it, and once he drinks it, that will be the end of him."
Hrimnir did as she said; but when the old man came to the house and was offered the drinking horn, he made a sign over the cup and threw in green leaves of a leek, and drank it down unharmed. "The mead in your house is not as well-brewed as that I have tasted elsewhere," said the old man. "But now bring your son here."
Then Hrimnir was very angry and did not take the time to seek his wife's counsel, but seized a large axe from the wall and swung it at his guest. But the stranger ducked aside, while the axe split the table with the force of the blow and remained stuck there.
Hrimnir stepped out of the hall and said to his wife, "What is to be done? He evades everything that I do to him."
"This is no ordinary traveler," said his wife. "But let us still try to defeat him. Cast a spell on our daughter Hljod to change her appearance so that she looks like a boy. If the stranger wants a warrior for his host, a girl will be no use to him, and when he finds out the truth, he will send her back."
So Hrimnir called his daughter Hljod and changed her appearance so that she seemed to be a boy. He brought her out to the stranger. "This is my son," said Hrimnir, "and you may take him along with you."
The stranger looked at Hljod closely from under the brim of his hat. At last he said, "Then come along." He left the house, taking the girl with him. And when they had gone a little way from the giant's house, he turned to her and said "There is no need for that." He traced a rune on her forehead, and Hljod stood before him in her own shape and her maiden's dress.
"What is your name?" the stranger asked.
"I am called Hljod," the girl said. "My father told me that when you saw I was not a boy, you would send me back."
"That might be true," the old man said, "if I were a king or a chieftain. But I am the High One who rules the victorious gods in Asgard. And you will be Valkyrie and wish-maiden to me in Valhalla."
After a little while, they came to the boundary of Hrimnir's land; and the giant and his wife were waiting for them there in the form of great wolves. When they saw Hljod in her own form, the giant's wife spoke and said, "Now I know what I suspected before. You are not what you seemed: you are Odin, who stirs up strife between kinsmen."
"And this is not your son," said the old man, "but I will take her with me nevertheless -– and I think it will be the worse for you because you tried to deceive me."
When they knew that he was Odin, they no longer tried to stop him. But the giant's wife said to Hljod, "Do not go with him. I am afraid of what will happen."
The old man leaned on his staff and said to Hljod, "If you leave your father's house and come with me, you will fight gloriously in many battles. Odin's mead will be poured for you; you will dwell with the chosen heroes and your name will be renowned among people yet unborn. In time to come, you will have a hero for your husband, and descendants more famous still, whose name will be exalted while the world lasts."
And Hljod said, "I will go."
It is said that Odin had her fostered among valiant warriors, and she grew mighty in arms. Later he gave her a sword and a horse, and she fought on many battlefields while the gods' power lasted.
Notes:
"You should not ill-treat travelers": From Odin's advice in the Hávamál (Sayings of the High One) in the Poetic Edda. "With insult or derision treat thou never a guest or wayfarer. They often little know, who sit within, of what race they are who come." (translated by Benjamin Thorpe)
The dogs . . . slunk back: In the Lay of Grimnir (Grímnismál) from the Poetic Edda, Odin is recognized because "no dog, however fierce, would attack him."
evading poison in the drinking horn: Brynhild instructs Sigurd,
"For the cup shall you make a sign
And be wary of misfortune
And throw leek into the liquor.
Then, I know that,
You will never get
A potion blended with poison." (From the Sígrdrifomál, trans. Jesse L. Byock)
Odin's mead: Also signifying poetry
whose name will be exalted while the world lasts: This promise is made to Sigurd in Grípisspá (Gripir's Prophecy) from the Poetic Edda.