Brokkr was one of the master dwarf-smiths of Norse myth — who, with his brother Eitri (Sindri), forged three of the gods' greatest treasures, including Thor's hammer Mjölnir, and who won a wager against Loki in a contest of craftsmanship, claiming the trickster's head as the prize. His tale is the story of how the gods came by their mightiest weapon.
The Dwarf-Smith
Brokkr (Old Norse Brokkr) was a dwarf, one of the legendary smiths of the underground — for in Norse myth the dwarves were the supreme craftsmen of the cosmos, master metalworkers who forged the most precious and powerful objects of gods and men. Brokkr worked alongside his brother Eitri (also called Sindri), and together the two brothers were among the finest smiths in all the worlds, their forge the source of wonders.
The Wager with Loki
Brokkr's great tale began with a boast by Loki. The trickster had commissioned treasures from the dwarf sons of Ivaldi (golden hair for Sif, the ship Skidbladnir, the spear Gungnir) and then, to stir trouble, wagered his own head that Brokkr and Eitri could not forge three treasures to equal them. The brothers took up the challenge. Eitri worked the forge while Brokkr worked the bellows — and Loki, desperate to win the bet and save his head, transformed himself into a fly and bit Brokkr again and again as he pumped the bellows, trying to spoil the work.
The Forging of the Treasures
Despite Loki's torment, Brokkr never stopped pumping the bellows, and the brothers forged three magnificent treasures. First, the golden boar Gullinbursti, with bristles of gold that shone in the dark, for the god Frey. Second, the golden ring Draupnir, which dripped eight new golden rings every ninth night, for Odin. And third — greatest of all — the hammer Mjölnir for Thor: but here Loki's fly-bites nearly succeeded, for at the crucial moment the fly bit Brokkr's eyelid so hard that blood ran into his eye and he paused the bellows for an instant to wipe it. As a result, the hammer's handle came out a little short — the one small flaw in the gods' mightiest weapon, the price of Loki's sabotage.
The Forfeit of Loki's Head
The gods judged the contest, and they declared Mjölnir — the hammer that would defend them against the giants — the greatest treasure of all, so that Brokkr won the wager and the right to Loki's head. But the cunning Loki argued that he had wagered his head, not his neck, and so Brokkr could not cut it off without harming the neck, which was not his to take. Foiled, Brokkr settled for sewing Loki's lips shut with an awl and a thong — a fitting punishment for the silver-tongued trickster. Brokkr endures as one of the great dwarf-smiths of Norse myth, the maker (with Eitri) of Mjölnir, Draupnir and Gullinbursti, the craftsman who endured Loki's torment to forge the gods' greatest treasures and won the trickster's head — if not, in the end, the right to take it.
He pumped the bellows through every bite of Loki's fly-form to forge the hammer that guards the gods — and won the trickster's head, though Loki's cunning saved his neck.