Billingr
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In Norse mythology, Billingr was the father of a maiden desired by Odin. According to the Hávamál (stanzas 96 - 102), Odin was told by the maiden (who is nameless in the poem) to meet her after nightfall when it would be safest and she would give herself to him, but when Odin returned he found the path blocked by flames and alert warriors. When he came back at daybreak he discovered that the maiden was gone and had left a bitch tied to the bed in her place. In this way Odin was thwarted in his attempts to possess the girl. The episode is narrated in the first person by Odin himself and used by him as an example of the supposed fickleness and deception of women, and he laments the folly of longing for that which is unobtainable. Billingr was presumably either a giant or a dwarf, and John Lindow in Norse Mythology (2001) presents arguments for both possibilities.
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