Whose Foal He Is

The Prose Edda tells it as the ugly end of a bad contract. A builder had nearly won an impossible wager with the help of his stallion, so Loki — who had talked everyone into the terms — took the shape of a mare and led the horse away into the woods. The wall went unfinished. Some time later Loki came back leading a grey foal with eight legs. The tradition records the parentage without embarrassment and then, in the same breath, calls the result the finest horse among gods and men. Both things are simply true.