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dwarf

Brokkr

The dwarf who bet Loki his head that his brother could out-forge Ívaldi's sons, worked the bellows while a fly stung him, won, and sewed Loki's lips shut.

Brokkr is the dwarf who beat Loki. He appears in one story, told by Snorri in Skáldskaparmál, but it is one of the best-known in the mythology (see The treasures of the gods: Sif's hair and Brokkr's wager).

The wager

Loki has cut off Sif's hair and has had Ívaldi's sons make replacements, along with a ship and a spear. Then he bets his head with Brokkr that Brokkr's brother — Sindri in Brodeur's translation, Eitri in most modern ones — cannot make three treasures as good Skáldskaparmál 35.

The brother works the forge and Brokkr works the bellows. Each time the smith puts metal in the fire, he tells Brokkr not to stop blowing, and each time a fly lands on Brokkr and stings him: on the hand, then on the neck, then between the eyes so that blood runs into them. The text never says the fly is Loki, but the point is clear. Brokkr keeps blowing through the first two stings. At the third he lifts a hand for a moment to sweep the fly away, and the bellows fall flat Skáldskaparmál 35. Out of the forge come a golden-bristled boar, the ring Draupnir, and a hammer — Mjöllnir, with its handle a little short.

The judgement and the stitching

Brokkr takes the treasures to Ásgard. Odin, Thor and Freyr judge them, and the hammer is ruled the best of all, "the greatest defence against the Rime-Giants". Brokkr has won. Loki runs off in his shoes that cross air and water; Thor catches him. Loki then argues that Brokkr may have his head "but not the neck", so he cannot cut it off. Brokkr settles for sewing Loki's lips together with a thong, using his brother's awl. Loki tears the thong out, and Snorri gives even the thong a name, Vartari Skáldskaparmál 35.

Nothing else is told of Brokkr in the hosted texts.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

Then Loki wagered his head with the dwarf called Brokkr that Brokkr's brother Sindri could not make three other precious things equal in virtue to these.
Skáldskaparmál 35 The wager that starts the contest of treasures.
Straightway the fly settled between Brokkr's eyes and stung his eyelid
Skáldskaparmál 35 The fly (implied to be Loki) tries three times to make Brokkr stop blowing the bellows.
Loki said that he might have the head, but not the neck.
Skáldskaparmál 35 Loki escapes paying his head on a technicality.
He stitched the lips together, and Loki ripped the thong out of the edges.
Skáldskaparmál 35 Brokkr takes his revenge by sewing up Loki's mouth.

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

Brokkr appears as Brok, a foul-mouthed blue-skinned smith, in the God of War games (2018 onward), working beside his brother Sindri.

Myths with Brokkr

The treasures of the gods: Sif's hair and Brokkr's wager Loki shaves Sif's head, and to save his own skin sets two families of dwarf-smiths competing. The result is six treasures — golden hair, a folding ship, a spear, a ring, a golden boar and Thor's hammer — and Loki's lips sewn shut.

Related

Eitri The dwarf smith, Brokkr's brother, who forged the boar Gullinbursti, the ring Draupnir and Thor's hammer Mjöllnir; Brodeur's translation calls him Sindri. Loki The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök. Mjölnir Mjöllnir Thor's short-handled hammer, forged by the dwarf brothers Brokkr and Sindri: it never misses, always returns to his hand, kills giants, and hallows brides, pyres and the dead goats it brings back to life. Draupnir Odin's gold ring, forged by a dwarf, from which eight rings of equal weight drop every ninth night; Odin lays it on Baldr's pyre and Baldr sends it back from Hel. Gullinbursti Freyr's golden boar, forged by the dwarf Sindri. It runs through air and water faster than a horse and lights up the darkness with its bristles. Sons of Ivaldi Ívalda synir Dwarf smiths who made three treasures for the gods: Freyr's folding ship Skíðblaðnir, Odin's spear Gungnir and Sif's golden hair. Dwarves dvergar The underground smiths of Norse myth, made from the giant Ymir's flesh or blood; they forge the gods' greatest treasures, brew the mead of poetry, and fear the daylight. Thor Þórr The thunder god, strongest of the Æsir: son of Odin and Earth, husband of Sif, and with his hammer Mjöllnir the gods' defender against the giants, until he dies killing the World Serpent.