Summary

Summary: Otter's Ransom

Odhinn, Honir, and Loki were wandering around together. When they were tired and hungry, they spotted an otter who had recently caught a salmon. Loki killed the otter, garnering both otter and salmon.
Odhinn, Honir, and Loki go to seek lodgings for the night from Hreidmar and his daughters, Lungheid and Lofnheid, and their brothers, Fafnir and Regan, offering up what they have caught for supper. Unfortunately, they've commited the incredible faux pas of killing Hreidmar's son, who took the form of an otter.
Honest mistake, could have happened to anyone, right?
In recompense for his son's life, Hreidmar demands that gold be brought that will fill Otter's pelt, and cover it entirely. Leaving Odhinn and Honir to Hreidmar's tender mercies, Loki goes off in search of the gold.
Loki borrows a net from Aegir's wife, Ran, and uses it to catch a fish, which is actually the dwarf Andvari. Loki *ahem* convinces Andvari to give him his entire hoard of gold, but Andvari tries to hold out - a single ring.
Loki acquires the ring, but with it the curse that it will destroy whoever owns it. So he takes Andvari's hoard back to Hreidmar, while... allowing... Odhinn to have the ring. After the pelt is filled and covered, a single whisker remains showing, and Odhinn has to give up the ring to fulfill Hreidmar's demands.
After they have fulfilled the conditions and are free to go, Loki does think to let Hreidmar know that the ring bears Andvari's curse...

Summary: Skadi

Skadi was the daughter of the etin Thiatsi, and called by various other appellations such as the "snowshoe Goddess," or "ski Goddess." When her father was killed, Skadi demanded that reparation be made to her by the Gods in the form of a husband and being made to laugh.
Skadi was asked to choose her husband by looking only at his feet. She picked the most attractive pair, thinking they must belong to the most beautiful of the Gods, and was sorely disappointed to discover they belonged to Njord the sea-god.
However, a deal was a deal, and Skadi was stuck with it.
The marriage did not work out happily, either. Neither Skadi nor Njord can abide the abode of the other, and decided they would do better to live apart. (A precursor of today's bicoastal marriages, perhaps?)
Skadi did not believe the Gods would be able to live up to the other half of their bargain, for she had not laughed since Thiatsi died.
Loki tied one end of a rope around the beard of a goat, and the other to his testicles. After a bit of back and forth, he fell into Skadi's lap, and she laughed, and thus both of her conditions had been fulfilled.
It might also be noted that in Lokasenna, Loki chides Skadi for her animosity towards him by reminding her that she had invited him into her bed in the past.
When Loki is finally captured and bound, it is Skadi who attaches the snake which drips venom onto him until his fetters are loosed at Ragnarok. (Dutiful daughter to Thiatsi or woman scorned...?)

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