Thor's journey to the Jotunheim ( Battle of Thor with the Giants ) Norse Mythology Tales

 THOR’S UNLUCKY JOURNEY TO JOTUNHEIM  

 Thor, the god of thunder, was the most ardent enemy of the Giants; yet he did not always come out the victor in his encounters with them. Once upon a time, he drove off with his goats, attended by Loki; as night fell, they found lodging with a countryman. Here Thor slaughtered his goats, flayed them, and caused them to be cooked; then he invited the countryman, with his wife, his son, and his daughter, to share the meat with him but asked them to throw all the bones down on the goats’ hides. They did as he bade them, all but Thjalfi, the farmer’s son, who broke a thigh bone to get at the marrow. At dawn Thor rose, donned his garments, raised Mjollnir aloft, and with the hammer consecrated the goats’ hides; at once the goats sprang to their feet, as much alive as ever, except   

 

  

that one of them halted on one hind leg. Then Thor understood that the countryman or someone in his house had been careless enough to break the thigh bone; in anger, he knitted his eyebrows and gripped the hammer so tightly that his knuckles grew white. The countryman, and his whole family with him, begged for mercy and offered in recompense all that they possessed. When Thor saw how frightened they were, his wrath cooled and he allowed himself to be appeased. By way of ransom, he agreed to take the countryman’s two children, the son Thjalfi and the daughter Roskva; and these two have followed him ever since.  Leaving his goats with the countryman, Thor continued on his journey to Jotunheim. He reached the seashore, crossed the deeps of the ocean, and stepped on land once more with his followers. Soon they came to a great forest, which they traversed all day until darkness fell. Thjalfi, swift of foot, carried Thor’s wallet filled with food, for there was little to be picked up on the way. When night came, they looked about for lodging and discovered an immense cabin, with a door on one side just as wide as the cabin itself. They went inside and lay down to sleep. At midnight they felt an earthquake so violent that the whole building shook; Thor roused his companions and bade them go into a smaller room through a door in the middle of the wall; as for himself, he sat down at the threshold with Mjollnir in his hand. A dreadful din and rumbling filled his ears. In the morning he went out and saw a gigantic man lying snoring nearby in the wood; then he understood what had caused all the 

 

the noise he had heard. He buckled on his belt of strength but just at that moment the man awoke, and for once, so it is said, Thor found himself little disposed to strike a blow. Instead, he asked the man his name. The man answered: “My name is Skrymir, and small need have I to ask for your name; I know you are Asa-Thor. But what have you done with my glove?” With these words, Skrymir bent down to pick up his glove, and Thor saw that what he had taken by night to be a cabin was nothing else than Skrymir’s glove and that the penthouse was the thumb. “Shall we not travel together?” asked Skrymir. “Yes,” said Thor. Before starting they ate their breakfasts, each party by itself, Skrymir from his own wallet, Thor and his companions from theirs; then Skrymir proposed that they put their food together in one sack. Thor gave his consent, and so Skrymir tied both their victuals and his own in a bag, which he slung on his back. He walked before them with tremendous paces during the day and in the evening chose a night’s lodging for them beneath a huge oak tree. “Here I am going to lie down to sleep,” he said; “you may take the wallet and eat your supper.” Skrymir fell asleep at once and was soon snoring heavily. Thor set about untying the wallet, but with very little success; when he had struggled a long while with his task, he grew angry, seized Mjollnir in both hands, and struck Skrymir on the head. Skrymir awoke and asked if a leaf had not fallen on his head. “Have you had your supper?” he asked. “Yes,” replied Thor; “we are just going to bed.” In the middle of the night, Thor again heard 

 

Skrymir snoring so that the whole forest rang with the sound; he stepped up to him, lifted the hammer high in the air, and struck the man such a blow on the crown that the beak of the hammer sank far into the skull. Skrymir woke and asked: “What is up now? Was that an acorn that dropped on my head? How are you faring, Thor?” Thor hurried away, saying that he had just waked up and that the hour was hardly past midnight. “If I might only strike him a third time,” thought Thor to himself, “he should never see the light of day again.” He kept watching until Skrymir once more fell asleep a little before morning, then ran up to him, and with all his might struck him in the temple so that the hammer sank into his skull up to the very handle. Skrymir sat up, stroked his cheek with his hand, and said: “There must be birds sitting in the tree above me; something dropped from the branches upon my head. Are you awake, Thor? It is time to get up now, and you have only a little distance to go to reach the stronghold of Utgard. I have heard you whispering among yourselves that I am not exactly small of stature, but you will see bigger men when you arrive at Utgard. And by the way, let me give you a piece of good advice: Do not be too arrogant; Utgard-Loki’s men do not put up with much bragging from small boys. Else you had better turn back again, and that might be the wiser thing to do after all. But if you must and will go farther, walk toward the east; my way lies north, toward the mountains you see yonder.” With these words, Skrymir picked up the bag of food, slung it on his back, and strode off into 

  

the forest; and the Æsir were very glad to be rid of him.  Thor and his followers walked on until midday. Then they caught sight of a castle standing in the plain, but they had to bend their necks till their heads touched their backs before they were able to look over the top of it. The portals were barred with a gate that they could not unlock; but they crept in between the wickets and, seeing a huge hall, bent their steps toward it. The door stood open. They walked inside and there saw many men, all of the immense size, sitting on benches. Among them sat the king, Utgard-Loki. They saluted him, but he only laughed scornfully and asked if the little boy was not Riding-Thor. “You are no doubt bigger than you seem to be,” he said; “but what kind of manly exercises do you and your traveling companions know? No one is allowed to sojourn here with us who is not able to do something or other better than anyone else.” Loki, who was standing behind the rest, spoke up: “There is one sport in which I am ready to try conclusions at once; nobody here can eat faster than I.” UtgardLoki answered, “We shall soon find out.” Then he commanded a man named Logi to step forward from the end of the bench to the middle of the floor to match his skill in eating against Loki’s. A trencher full of meat was carried in and placed on the floor; Loki and Logi sat down, one at each end of the trencher, and ate with all their might. They met in the middle of the trencher; but while Loki had eaten only the meat, Logi had consumed the meat, the bones, and the 

    

trencher to boot. So Loki was beaten at this game. “What is that young fellow there able to do?” asked Utgard-Loki. “I will try running a race with someone,” answered Thjalfi. “You will need to be swift of foot,” said Utgard-Loki; then he went out into the field and asked a little fellow named Hugi to run against Thjalfi. In the first race, Hugi was so far ahead that he turned back at the goal to meet Thjalfi. “You had better stretch your legs a bit more if you want to win,” said Utgard-Loki; “for that matter, no swifter runner than you has ever visited us.” In the second race, Hugi reached the goal and turned while Thjalfi still had a long bowshot to run. “A very pretty heat,” said Utgard-Loki; “yet I can hardly believe that Thjalfi would win if you two ran a third time.” They ran once more; but when Hugi had reached the goal and turned around, Thjalfi had not covered half the course. All agreed that this contest might very well be regarded as finished. “What kind of manly sport are you going to favor us with, Thor?” asked Utgard-Loki; “we have heard great things about your prowess.” “I will drink with anyone that cares to drink,” answered Thor. “Very good,” said Utgard-Loki; then he went into the hall and asked his cupbearer to take down the great horn that the king’s men were sentenced to drink from when they had done amiss. “We consider it well done,” said Utgard-Loki, “if a man can empty this horn at one draught; some require two, but no one is such a weakling that he cannot drain it in three draughts.” Looking at the horn, Thor did not think it very large but rather long; 

 

thirsty as he was, he placed it to his lips, drank deep, and thought to himself that he should probably not have to bend his head to the horn again. But when he stopped and looked to see how much he had drunk, it seemed to him that there was left not much less than there was before. “You have drunk pretty well,” said Utgard-Loki, “but no great amount; to be sure, if anyone had told me that Asa-Thor was no better drinker, I should not have believed it; but I am sure you will empty the horn at the second draught,” Thor answered not a word, but took as long a pull as he possibly could; still the other end of the horn had not risen as high as he might have wished. When he paused it seemed to him that the level had sunk even less than before, yet now it was possible at least to carry the horn without spilling any of the liquor. “If you care to drink a third time, you have left the greater part till the last,” said Utgard-Loki; “but if you are not more skilled in other games than in this, you cannot hope to earn as great a name among us as you have among the Æsir.” Thor grew angry and placed the horn to his lips once more. He drank with all his might and kept drinking as long as ever he was able; when he paused to look, he could see that the level had sunk a little, but he did not want to drink anymore. “It is easy to see,” said Utgard-Loki, “that you are not so great a man as we supposed. Perhaps you would like to try your luck at other exercises since you have had such bad luck with this one?” Thor answered, “I am willing to risk it, but unless I am much mistaken my drinking would have earned praise 

 

at home among the Æsir.” Utgard-Loki replied, “Our young boys sometimes find amusement in lifting my cat off the ground; it is only a small matter, and I should not have thought of proposing such a thing to Thor if I had not seen with my own eyes that you are far from being as mighty as I had supposed.” A large gray cat ran out upon the floor of the hall. Thor stepped forward, took hold with one hand under her belly, and lifted; but the more he pulled, the more the cat bent herself into a bow; and when Thor had stretched his hand up as far as he could stretch, the cat raised only one foot off the floor. So Thor was worsted at this game too. Utgard-Loki declared that he might have known as much beforehand since Thor was small in stature as compared with the big men around him. “Let one of them come out and wrestle with me if you think I am so small,” answered Thor, “for now I am really in bad humor.” “Not a man in the hall would demean himself so far as to take a turn with you,” said Utgard-Loki, “but I will call in my old foster mother, Elli.” She accordingly came in and grappled with Thor, but the more Thor tightened his hold, the firmer she stood; at last, she began to use tricks of her own, and in the end, Thor perforce sank down on one knee. “Perhaps that will do,” said Utgard-Loki; “Thor will hardly challenge anyone else here to a wrestling match.” With these words, he showed Thor and his companions to their seats. They remained there the rest of the night and were entertained with the utmost hospitality.  In the morning they rose and prepared to continue 

 

their journey. Utgard-Loki himself came in and caused a table to be spread for them, laden with all kinds of food and drink. Then they set forth on their way. Utgard-Loki accompanied them out of the castle and, as they were about to depart, asked Thor what he thought of the outcome of his expedition. Thor answered that he knew he had added nothing to his fame and that he felt the keenest disappointment to think that he was leaving behind him the reputation of a mere weakling. “Now I will tell you the truth,” said Utgard-Loki, “since you are well outside of the castle. Never with my consent, so long as I live and rule, shall you be allowed to enter it again. And you would never have gained entrance if I had known how strong you were; for you came very near bringing the greatest misfortune upon us. The fact is, you have all been hoodwinked. It was I that you met in the forest; I tied the wallet with troll-iron so that you might not guess how to open it. Each single blow that you struck would have killed me outright if, unknown to you, I had not interposed for my protection the huge mountain you beheld outside the stronghold; there you may see even now three valleys, the one deeper than the other, all of the marks of your blows. The like happened with the games you played: Loki was hungry and ate very well, but Logi (logi = flame) was none other than the fire itself turned loose, which consumed at one time both meat and trencher. Hugi, the fellow with whom Thjalfi ran his races, was my own thought (hugr), which of course was the fleeter of the two. When you drank from the horn, the wonder grew till I could not trust my own eyes; for the other end layout in the ocean itself. If you look closely you can see how the level has sunk; that is what we call ebb tide. When you lifted the cat, we were all alarmed; she is the Midgard Serpent that encompasses all lands, but you raised her so high that head and tail barely touched the floor together. The wrestling match with Elli was no less a marvel, for never a man lived, nor ever shall live, but must fall before her (elli = old age). Now we are to part, and it was best for both of us that you never came back; for the future, I will not fail to be on my guard against arts of that kind.” Thor lifted his hammer, meaning to smite Utgard-Loki, but in a twinkling, he had disappeared. Nor was Thor able again to catch sight of the castle; and so he had to return to Thrudvang. Yet before long, he was bound on another expedition, this time against the Midgard Serpent itself.   

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