father's dwelling. His feet were incased in awkward wooden
shoes, and his head was covered with a wolf-skin cap. The
dainty bed, with its downy pillows, wherein every night his
mother had been wont, with gentle care, to see him safely
covered, was given up for a rude heap of straw in a corner
of the smithy. And the rich food to which he had been used
gave place to the coarsest and humblest fare. But the lad
did not complain. The days which he passed in the smithy
were mirthful and happy; and the sound of his hammer rang
cheerfully, and the sparks from his forge flew briskly, from
morning till night.

And a wonderful smith he became. No one could do more work
than he, and none wrought with greater skill. The heaviest
chains and the strongest bolts, for prison or for
treasure-house, were but as toys in his stout hands, so
easily and quickly did he beat them into shape. And he was
alike cunning in work of the most delicate and brittle kind.
Ornaments of gold and silver, studded with the rarest
jewels, were fashioned into beautiful forms by his deft
fingers. And among all of Mimer's apprentices none learned
the master's lore so readily, nor gained the master's favor
more.[EN#1]

One morning the master, Mimer, came to the smithy with a
troubled look upon his face. It was clear that something had
gone amiss; and what it was the apprentices soon learned
from the smith himself. Never, until lately, had any one
questioned Mimer's right to be called the foremost smith in
all the world; but now a rival had come forward. An unknown