He stole Frigga's dress of falcon feathers. Then as a falcon he flew out of Asgard. J?tunheim was the place that he flew toward.  
The anger and the fierceness of the hawk was within Loki as he flew through the Giants' Realm. The heights and the chasms of that dread land made his spirits mount up like fire. He saw the whirlpools and the smoking mountains and had joy of these sights. Higher and higher he soared until, looking toward the South, he saw the flaming land of Muspelheim. Higher and higher still he soared. With his falcon's eyes he saw the gleam of Surtur's flaming sword. All the fire of Muspelheim and all the gloom of J?tunheim would one day be brought against[Pg 156] Asgard and against Midgard. But Loki was no longer dismayed to think of the ruin of Asgard's beauty and the ruin of Midgard's promise.
 
He hovered around one of the dwellings in J?tunheim. Why had he come to it? Because he had seen two of the women of that dwelling, and his rage against the Asyniur and the Vanir was such that the ugliness and the evil of these women was pleasing to him.
 
He hovered before the open door of the Giant's house and he looked upon those who were within. Gerri?d, the most savage of all the Giants, was there. And beside him, squatting on the ground, were his two evil and ugly daughters, Gialp and Greip.
 
They were big and bulky, black and rugged, with horses' teeth and hair that was like horses' manes. Gialp was the uglier of the two, if one could be said to be uglier than the other, for her nose was a yard long and her eyes were crooked.
 
What were they talking about as they sat there, one scratching the other? Of Asgard and the Dwellers in Asgard whom they hated. Thor was the one whom they hated most of all, and they were speaking of all they would like to do to him.
 
"I would keep Thor bound in chains," said Gerri?d the Giant, "and I would beat him to death with my iron club."
 
"I would grind his bones to powder," said Greip.
 
"I would tear the flesh off his bones," said Gialp. "Father, can you not catch this Thor and bring him to us alive?"[Pg 157]
 
"Not so long as he has his hammer Mi?lnir, and the gloves with which he grasps his hammer, and the belt that doubles his strength."
 
"Oh, if we could catch him without his hammer and his belt and his gloves," cried Gialp and Greip together.
 
At that moment they saw the falcon hovering before the door. They were eager now for something to hold and torment and so the hearts of the three became set upon catching the falcon. They did not stir from the place where they were sitting, but they called the child Glapp, who was swinging from the roof-tree, and they bade him go out and try to catch the falcon.
 
All concealed by the great leaves the child Glapp climbed up the ivy that was around the door. The falcon came hovering near. Then Glapp caught it by the wings and fell down through the ivy, screaming and struggling as he was being beaten, and clawed, and torn by the wings and the talons and the beak of the falcon.
 
Gerri?d and Greip and Gialp rushed out and kept hold of the falcon. As the Giant held him in his hands and looked him over he knew that this was no bird-creature. The eyes showed him to be of Alfheim or Asgard. The Giant took him and shut him in a box till he would speak.
 
Soon he tapped at the closed box and when Gerri?d opened it Loki spoke to him. So glad was the savage Giant to have one of the Dwellers in Asgard in his power that he and his daughters did nothing but laugh and chuckle to each other for days. And all this time they left Loki in the closed box to waste with hunger.
 
When they opened the box again Loki spoke to them.[Pg 158] He told them he would do any injury to the Dwellers in Asgard that would please them if they would let him go.
 
"Will you bring Thor to us?" said Greip.
 
"Will you bring Thor to us without his hammer, and without the gloves with which he grasps his hammer, and without his belt?" said Gialp.
 
"I will bring him to you if you will let me go," Loki said. "Thor is easily deceived and I can bring him to you without his hammer and his belt and his gloves."
 
"We will let you go, Loki," said the Giant, "if you will swear by the gloom of J?tunheim that you will bring Thor to us as you say."
 
Loki swore that he would do so by the gloom of J?tunheim—"Yea, and by the fires of Muspelheim," he added. The Giant and his daughters let him go, and he flew back to Asgard.
 
He restored to Frigga her falcon dress. All blamed him for having stolen it, but when he told how he had been shut up without food in Gerri?d's dwelling those who judged him thought he had been punished enough for the theft. He spoke as before to the Dwellers in Asgard, and the rage and hatred he had against them since he had eaten Gulveig's heart he kept from bursting forth.
 
He talked to Thor of the adventures they had together in J?tunheim. Thor would now roar with laughter when he talked of the time when he went as a bride to Thrym the Giant.
 
Loki was able to persuade him to make another journey to J?tunheim. "And I want to speak to you of what[Pg 159] I saw in Gerri?d's dwelling," he said. "I saw there the hair of Sif, your wife."
 
"The hair of Sif, my wife," said Thor in surprise.
 
"Yes, the hair I once cut off from Sif's head," said Loki. "Gerri?d was the one who found it when I cast it away. They light their hall with Sif's hair. Oh, yes, they don't need torches where Sif's hair is."
 
"I should like to see it," said Thor.
 
"Then pay Gerri?d a visit," Loki replied. "But if you go to his house you will have to go without your hammer Mi?lnir, and without your gloves and your belt."
 
"Where will I leave Mi?lnir, and my gloves and my belt?" Thor asked.
 
"Leave them in Valaskjalf, Odin's own dwelling," said cunning Loki. "Leave them there and come to Gerri?d's dwelling. Surely you will be well treated there."
 
"Yes, I will............