iron gloves | Child of Yden (Author Suzanne G. Rogers)

Loki made a bet with the smithy dwarf Brokkr that his designer label wasn’t as cool as the Sons of Ivaldi designer label.

Bad bet.

Among other super nifty magical creations, Brokkr and his brother Eitri made…Mjölnir, Thor’s awesome hammer.

[Wait!…how the heck do you pronounce Mjölnir anyway? Watch a short video by Wiseman2024 on YouTube HERE. It’s mee-uhl-neer for the impatient among us.]

Now Loki REALLY didn’t want to lose the bet because his head was riding on it. Literally. So while the Brokkr brothers were slaving away over a hot, magical forge, Loki transformed himself into a gadfly. He bit Brokkr on the eyeball (ew) and as a result, Mjolnir’s handle came out (gasp) a wee bit short. Since the hammer was nevertheless PHAT, Thor took delivery anyway and compensated by wearing iron gloves. (This goes to prove the axiom that it’s not the size of the hammer that matters, but how you wield it.)

Since Loki lost the bet, you may very well wonder how he managed to keep his head. In typical Loki fashion, he weaseled out of the bet on a technicality. He claimed Brokkr couldn’t take his head without also damaging his dainty neck (not part of the wager). Brokkr was hopping mad, and sewed Loki’s lying pie-hole with wire so the trickster couldn’t boast until the wire came out.

For Loki’s next gig, he ran for political office.

~ S.G. Rogers

When Dani was a teen, she had it all; a starring role in her own television series, a wonderful family, and her health. A few years later, everything has changed for the worse—and her time is running short. All she wants to do before she dies is to fall in love, but when she’s kidnapped and taken to Asgard of Norse mythology, she becomes enmeshed in a quarrel between immortals. Prince Rein lends a hand in her quest to return home, and she begins to think the handsome elf has captured her heart. After a magical artifact goes missing, however, he may be forced to marry another woman to avert a diplomatic catastrophe. To find the artifact and save the prince, Dani must undertake a dangerous quest involving ogres, dark fairies, and underworld criminals. Ultimately, however, she’ll have to defy Odin himself.