although I have done no other wrong, I suffer rightly for the doings of
this mischief-maker with whom I have stooped to have fellowship. For
all are known, not so much by what they are as by what they seem to be,
and they bear the bad name which their comrades bear. Now I am fallen
from my high estate. Eternal right is higher than I."

Then the Asas asked Hreidmar, their jailer, what ransom they should pay
for their freedom; and he, not knowing who they were, said, "I must
first know what ransom you are able to give."

"We will give you anything you may ask," hastily answered Loki.

Hreidmar then called his sons, and bade them strip the skin from the
otter's body. When this was done, they brought the furry hide and
spread it upon the ground; and Hreidmar said, "Bring shining gold and
precious stones enough to cover every part of this otter skin. When
you have paid so much ransom, you shall have your freedom."

"That we will do," answered Odin. "But one of us must have leave to go
and fetch it: the other two will stay fast bound until the morning
dawns. If, by that time, the gold is not here, you may do with us as
you please."

Hreidmar and the two young men agreed to Odin's offer; and, lots being
cast, it fell to Loki to go and fetch the treasure. When he had been
loosed from the cords which bound him, Loki donned his magic shoes,
which had carried him over land and sea from the farthest bounds of the
mid-world, and hastened away upon his errand. And he sped with the
swiftness of light, over the hills and the wooded slopes, and the deep
dark valleys, and the fields and forests and sleeping hamlets, until he