Thor

Thor drew his knife and killed both goats that pulled his chariot. He and Loki had reached a farm where Þjálfi and his sister Röskva lived with their parents. The family had little food after a hard winter. They offered vegetables or gruel, but no meat. Thor provided that himself. He skinned the goats and laid the skins beside the fire. He told the household to throw the bones onto the skins and warned them not to break or chew them. The goats would live again when Thor hallowed the skins with his hammer.

Loki ate quickly, while the others ate more slowly. When Thor left the table, Þjálfi took his knife and split one goat’s leg bone to reach the marrow. He placed the broken bone among the others and covered it with unbroken bones. Nobody saw what he had done. Thor and Loki slept at the farm that night.

Before daybreak, Thor covered the bones with the goatskins. He lifted Mjolnir and hallowed the skins with the hammer. The goats rose, but one limped on a hind leg. Thor saw that its thigh bone had been broken. He blamed the farmer or someone in the household for failing to treat the bones properly. He seized the handle of his hammer and threatened to destroy the farm. The farmer became terrified, and his wife began to weep.

Þjálfi confessed that he had broken the bone. He said that his parents had not known what he had done and asked Thor to punish him instead. He offered to become Thor’s bondservant. Röskva said that Þjálfi would not leave without her. Thor accepted them both. He told Röskva to remain for the time being and tend the injured goat, named Grinder in one account, until he returned. Þjálfi left in Thor’s service, and Röskva entered the same service. The goat remained lame because of the broken bone.

Loki flew in Freyja’s falcon guise and perched by a window in Geirröðr’s hall. A servant captured him after Geirröðr noticed that the bird’s eyes were not those of a true falcon. Loki secured his release by promising to bring Thor to the giant’s hall without his hammer, belt of strength, or steel gloves. He fulfilled the promise and travelled with Thor towards Geirröðr’s dwelling.

On the way, Thor visited the giantess Gríðr, the mother of Víðarr the Silent. She warned him that Geirröðr was dangerous and difficult to deal with. Gríðr lent Thor her belt of strength, her iron gloves, and her staff, called Gridarvolr. Thor then reached the Vimur, the greatest of rivers. He fastened on the belt and used the staff to steady himself against the torrent. Loki held fast to the belt as Thor waded into the stream.

The river rose until its waves reached Thor’s shoulders. He declared that it must not grow while he was crossing to the giants’ dwelling. Looking upwards, he saw Gjalp, Geirröðr’s daughter, standing in a cleft and causing the flood to rise. Thor lifted a great stone from the river and threw it at her, saying that the stream must be stopped at its source. He crossed the Vimur and defeated Geirröðr’s daughters.

Geirröðr then invited Thor into the hall for games. Fires burned along its length. Geirröðr seized a pair of tongs, took up a red-hot iron wedge, and threw it at Thor. Thor caught the wedge in Gríðr’s iron gloves and raised it into the air. Geirröðr sprang behind an iron post, but Thor hurled the wedge with such force that it passed through the post, struck Geirröðr, pierced the wall, and entered the ground.

Thor and Týr set out in Thor’s chariot, drawn by the goats Snarler and Grinder. The gods had decided to hold a feast and had compelled Ægir, the sea giant, to prepare it. Ægir agreed, but demanded a cauldron large enough to brew beer for the whole company. Only Hymir possessed one of the required size, and obtaining it would be dangerous.

Thor and Týr reached Hymir’s fortress and tied the goats to a tree. Inside, they found a giantess cutting onions as large as boulders and cabbages the size of boats. She had nine hundred heads. Týr greeted her and asked to borrow Hymir’s cauldron. She called for Týr’s mother, who was Hymir’s wife. The giantess gave advice that helped the visitors at important moments.

Thor then joined Hymir on a fishing expedition. Hymir caught two whales, while Thor nearly caught the Midgard Serpent. He threw his hammer at the monster, but it vanished into the cold sea before the blow could land. The hammer returned to Thor. Their boat began to sink, so Hymir bailed out the water while Thor rowed towards the shore. Hymir said that his hall was still many miles away and demanded that Thor carry the boat, the oars, Hymir, and the whales. Thor agreed and carried them all along the shingle to the hall.

At the feast, Hymir gave Thor a test. Thor had to smash a drinking cup against something hard. If he succeeded, the cauldron would be his. Thor threw the cup against a granite pillar, but the cup survived while the pillar shattered. Following the giantess’s advice, he struck the cup against Hymir’s hard forehead. The cup broke, and Hymir wept because his greatest treasure was gone. Thor and Týr took the cauldron and fled. The giants pursued them, but Thor fought them off while carrying it and escaped with the vessel for the gods’ feast.

The builder’s wall rose around Asgard, growing higher and stronger each day. He had agreed to complete it before the first day of summer. In return, the gods had sworn to give him the sun, the moon, and Freyja in marriage. They had believed the task impossible, but the builder had a magic stallion called Svadilfari. The horse dragged huge boulders from the quarries, while the builder carried and set them into the wall.

As the end of winter approached, almost all the work was finished. Only the gateway remained, and three days were left before summer. The gods feared that the builder would fulfil his part of the bargain. They suspected that he was a giant, since no ordinary man could have built the wall so quickly. They blamed Loki for the agreement and threatened him with death unless he found a way to make the builder lose his payment without breaking their oath.

That evening, Loki took the form of a mare and appeared beside the path as the builder led Svadilfari back to the quarry. The mare lured the stallion into the woods. The builder called and cursed, but Svadilfari did not return until morning. Without the horse, the builder could not bring enough stone to finish the gateway in time. In anger, he revealed his true form as a huge rock giant and ran towards the gods with a lump of granite in each hand.

Thor had returned from fighting trolls in the east. The gods stood aside, and the giant saw Thor behind them. Thor wore iron gauntlets and held his iron hammer. He swung it once and released it. Lightning flashed beneath the clear sky, followed by thunder. The hammer grew larger as it flew towards the giant and struck him. The giant saw nothing more. The gods then finished the wall themselves, hauling the last ten blocks from the mountain quarries and setting them at the top of the gateway. Later, Loki gave birth to an eight-legged foal, which Odin named Sleipnir and claimed as his own.

Thor reached a fjord crossing on his way home from the east and called to the ferryman, Hárbarðr. He carried a basket on his back and said that he had eaten his fill of herrings and oatmeal before leaving home. Hárbarðr mocked this breakfast and suggested that Thor’s mother was dead. Thor replied that most people would consider such news welcome. Hárbarðr then jeered at his clothing, saying that he owned no decent farms and stood barelegged in a beggar’s gear without breeches.

Thor ordered him to steer the oaken ship to the landing stage. Hárbarðr said that Hildolf, a warrior wise in counsel from Counsel-island Sound, had charged him with guarding the ship. He was not to ferry highwaymen or horse-thieves, only good men whom he clearly recognised. Thor identified himself as Magni’s father and demanded passage. Hárbarðr refused, and the two began a contest of insults.

Thor spoke of his deeds in the east. He had defended a river when Svarang’s sons attacked him and pelted him with stones. He boasted of fighting giants and said that his work had protected Midgard. Hárbarðr answered that he had been in Valland, where he followed the war and incited princes without reconciling them. He said that Odin owned the nobles who fell in battle, while Thor owned the race of thralls. He then accused Thor of strength without courage and mocked him with a tale of Thor hiding in a glove, too frightened to sneeze or break wind lest Fialar hear him.

Thor threatened to knock Hárbarðr into hell if he could reach across the water. Hárbarðr continued to taunt him. Thor recalled fighting she-wolves that had threatened his ship and chased Þjálfi, while Hárbarðr claimed to have been with an army raising battle-banners. Thor condemned his words, and Hárbarðr said he had learned them from ancient men whose home was in the woods. At last Thor asked for directions. Hárbarðr refused passage and told him to follow the road towards Verland, where Fiorgyn would meet her son and show him the way to Odin’s land. Thor asked whether he could arrive that day. Hárbarðr said that he would reach it only with toil and difficulty. Thor ended the quarrel by warning that he would repay the refusal if they met again, and Hárbarðr sent him away towards the monsters.

Thor cast his line into the sea with the head of a cow as bait. Jörmungandr bit it, swallowed it, and plunged beneath the waves. Thor pulled with all his strength. The struggle lasted for hours, until the line slackened and the serpent began to weaken. Thor hauled the creature halfway out of the water and raised his hammer to kill it. Hymir was terrified by the beast and cut the line with his sword. Jörmungandr sank into the depths, and Thor did not see it again until Ragnarök.

Jörmungandr was the serpent offspring of Loki. Odin had thrown it into the ocean, where it grew until its coils could circle the earth. Its jaws could hold its tail in its mouth. When the serpent moved beneath the sea, it made huge waves. At Ragnarök, Jörmungandr flung itself upon the shore and uncoiled its body. Thor went down to the beach to face it, and the earth trembled.

The gods and their enemies met in battle. Thor faced the Midgard Serpent and crushed its head with Mjölnir, his hammer. The serpent's poison reached him. He retreated only nine paces before he fell dead, suffocated by the venom.

After the gods, giants, and men had fallen, smoke rose around the ash tree Yggdrasil, and flames reached the heavens. The graves of the gods, giants, and men were swallowed by the sea. Then the earth rose again, green and renewed. Fields waved with golden harvests, and the asas awoke.