Brísinga-men

"Necklace of the Brísings." The precious necklace owned by Freyja. In the eddic poem Þrymskviða, it shivered when Freyja learned that the giant Þrymr wanted to marry her in exchange for Thor's hammer, which he had previously stolen. At Heimdallr's suggestion, Thor dresses up as Freyja to go in her place and wears the Brísinga necklace.

The 10th-century skaldic poem Húsdrápa appears to allude to a precious piece of jewelry or stone, which Loki and Heimdallr fought over at Singasteinn. Snorri Sturluson's interpretation of the poem is that this objects was in fact the Brísinga-men, and that it was stolen by Loki. In the ninth-century skaldic poem Haustlöng, Þjóðólfr of Hvinir describes Loki as "the thief of Brísing's girdle." A valid kenning for Loki is, according to Snorri, Thief of Brísinga-men.

In the late 14th-century narrative Sörla þáttr, Freyja came upon four dwarfs as they were forging a golden necklace. She asked them to sell it to her, offering them gold and silver, but they told her that they would only give it to her if she would lie one night with each of them. After four nights they gave her the necklace and she returned to her bower, telling no one. Loki somehow found out and told Odin, who then commanded Loki to steal the necklace for him. Loki changed himself into a fly and entered Freyja's bower through the keyhole. He stung the sleeping figure, who was lying on the necklace, to make her move. When Freyja discovered the necklace missing she went to see Odin. He offered to return the necklace to her if she would make two kings and twenty subordinate kings fight forever, which she did (cp. Hildr). This necklace may be the Brísinga-men, although this is not explicitly stated.

Another precious item of jewelry, and clearly similar, appears in the Beowulf poem, and is called Brosinga mene ("necklace of the Brosings").

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