Sif- Norse GodDeity"Golden-Haired Goddess"

The Hair

Sif's hair was gold. Skalds used "Sif's hair" as a kenning for the metal itself. She was Thor's wife. They lived in Bilskirnir, which Grímnismál says had five hundred and forty rooms. Her son Ullr, whose father is never named, was a god of archery and winter. With Thor she had Þrúðr and Móði.

Loki crept into her chambers while she slept and sheared every strand. When Thor found her, his rage was immediate. He seized Loki and would have broken every bone in his body had the trickster not sworn to travel to the dwarves and have them forge new hair of actual gold that would grow like the real thing once placed on her head.

The Gifts of the Dwarves

Loki descended to Svartálfheim and found the Sons of Ivaldi. They forged Sif's golden hair, and then, because great craftsmen cannot stop at one piece, the ship Skíðblaðnir for Freyr and the spear Gungnir for Odin.

Loki wagered his own head with the dwarf brothers Brokkr and Sindri that they could not surpass this work. While Sindri worked the forge, Loki took the form of a biting fly and stung Brokkr until blood ran into his eye. The brothers finished anyway. Their final piece was the hammer Mjölnir, forged for Thor, though Loki's last sting left the handle too short.

The gods judged Mjölnir the greatest treasure. Loki's head was forfeit, but he argued the dwarves could not take his head without his neck, which was not part of the wager. Brokkr settled for sewing Loki's lips shut with an awl and leather thong.

At the Feast

In the Lokasenna, Loki crashes the gods' feast in Ægir's hall and hurls insults at each deity. When he turns to Sif, his accusation is specific: she took him as a lover. Sif offers him a crystal cup of mead and says she alone is blameless. No surviving source confirms or denies the claim. But Thor arrives moments later, and his thundering threats finally drive Loki from the hall.

The accusation surfaces again in Hárbarðsljóð, where Odin, disguised as a ferryman, taunts Thor with the claim that Sif has a lover at home. Of all the insults Harbard throws, this is the one that makes Thor lose his composure.