Building Asgard

Hrimthurs, a giant in disguise as a human stonemason, came to the gods of Asgard one day offering to build the walls around Asgard in only one winter. However, for his services he wanted to have Freyja as his bride, Sol, and Mani, but the gods were wary of the stonemason. Loki did not believe he could finish such a task and so he convinced the gods to accept the stonemason. As Hrimthurs began work, he brought along his horse, Svadilfari, to help him. The deadline was approaching quickly and the gods were beginning to get worried that they would lose not only Freyja but also the sun and moon so since Loki had been the one to talk them into hiring Hrimthurs, they sent Loki to do something about the problem. As a result, Loki disguised himself as a mare to lead Svadifari away from Hrimthurs thus causing Hrimthurs to chase after Svadifari and fall behind on work. Hrimthurs dropped his disguise in anger at being tricked and seeing that he was a giant, Thor instantly killed him with Mjollnir. Afterwards, Loki disappeared for several months before returning to Asgard with an eight-legged colt named Sleipnir that he had given birth to as a mare when he failed to escape from Svadifari.

“Construction of Asgard.” Timeless Myths.1999. 9 December 2008. http://www.timelessmyths.com/ norse/beginning.html.