The Prose Edda (15 page)
Authors: Snorri Sturluson
The Giant Hrungnir
Bragi told Ãgir, âOnce, when Thor had gone into the east to fight trolls, Odin rode Sleipnir into Giant Land and came to the giant called Hrungnir. Hrungnir asked who it was that wore a golden helmet and rode through the sky and over the sea on such a fine horse. Odin said he would wager his head that no horse in Giant Land was its equal. Hrungnir answered that Sleipnir was a good horse but let on that he himself had a horse that took far bigger strides, and “this horse is named Gullfaxi [Golden Mane]”.
âLosing his temper, Hrungnir jumped on to his horse and raced after Odin, hoping to repay him for his bragging. Odin galloped so fast that he stayed ahead of the giant, always just over a hill. But Hrungnir was in such a giant fury that he had passed through the gate of Asgard before he realized it.
âWhen he arrived at the hall doors, the Ãsir invited him to drink. Walking into the hall, he demanded the drink. Then Thor's usual drinking bowls were brought out, and Hrungnir drained them all. When he became drunk, there was no end to his boasting.
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He said he would lift up Valhalla and take it to Giant Land, bury Asgard, and kill all the gods except Freyja and Sif, whom he wanted to take home with him. When Freyja went to serve him, he vowed that he would drink all of the Ãsir's ale.
âWhen the Ãsir grew tired of Hrungnir's boasting they called on Thor, who quickly entered the hall, his hammer raised in the air. Enraged, he asked who had allowed the cunning giant to drink there. Who had granted Hrungnir permission to be at Valhalla, and why should Freyja be serving him as though he were feasting among the Ãsir? Then Hrungnir answered, his eyes showing no friendship for Thor. He said that Odin had invited him to drink and that he was there on Odin's safe conduct. Thor said Hrungnir would regret that invitation before he left. Hrungnir replied to Thor of the Ãsir that there was little renown in killing him weaponless, but Thor would find it a greater test of courage if he dared to fight him on the border at Grjotunagardar [Courtyards of Rocky Fields].
â“It was very foolish of me,” said Hrungnir, “that I left my shield and whetstone at home. If I had my weapons here, we would now be testing each other in a duel; as matters stand, however, I lay on you a charge of cowardly betrayal if you choose to kill me when I am weaponless.” Thor wanted on no account to miss the opportunity to take part in a duel, because no one had ever challenged him before.
âHrungnir now went back the way he had come, galloping as fast as he could until he reached Giant Land. There among the giants his trip became famous, not least because a contest
had been arranged between him and Thor. The giants felt that there was much at stake in who would gain the victory, for it seemed to them that they would have little hope against Thor if Hrungnir was killed, since he was their strongest.
âThe giants then fashioned a man from clay at Grjotunagardar. He was nine leagues high and three leagues wide under the arms. They could not find a heart that was suitably large for him until they took one from a mare, but this heart became unsteady as soon as Thor arrived. Hrungnir had a heart that was famous. It was made of hard stone with three sharp-pointed corners just like the carved symbol called Hrungnishjarta [Hrungnir's Heart]. His head was also made of stone, as was his shield, which was wide and thick. Holding his shield in front of him, he stood waiting at Grjotunagardar for Thor. He had a whetstone for a weapon, and it rested ready on his shoulder. He was not a welcoming sight. Standing terrified at Hrungnir's side was the clay giant, called Mokkurkalfi. It is said that, on seeing Thor, he wet himself.
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âThor, accompanied by Thjalfi, went to the duelling ground. Thjalfi ran ahead to where Hrungnir stood and said to him: “You stand unprepared, giant, holding your shield in front of you. Thor has seen you. He is travelling underneath in the earth and will come at you from below.”
âHrungnir then shoved his shield under his feet and stood on top of it, grasping the whetstone with both hands. He saw flashes of lightning and heard enormous claps of thunder. Then he saw Thor in his divine rage. Thor was rushing towards him, but when still at a long distance away, he raised his hammer and threw it at Hrungnir. The giant, using both hands, lifted his whetstone and threw it towards Thor. The whetstone struck the hammer in mid flight and broke into two. One part fell to the earth, and from it come all whetstones. The other part pierced Thor's head so that he fell to the earth. But the hammer Mjollnir landed right in the middle of Hrungnir's head. It smashed his skull into small pieces, and he fell forward, landing on top of Thor with his leg lying across Thor's neck. Meanwhile Thjalfi attacked Mokkurkalfi, who fell in such a way that it is hardly worth a story.
âThjalfi then went to Thor, intending to lift Hrungnir's leg off him, but he could not move it. When they learned that Thor had fallen, all the Ãsir came and tried to lift the leg, but they could not budge it. Then Magni, the son of Thor and Jarnsaxa, arrived; he was three years old
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at the time. He flung Hrungnir's leg off Thor and said, “It is a great shame, Father, that I came so late. I imagine that with my fist I would have killed this giant, had I met him.”
âThor stood up and, greeting his son warmly, declared that he would become powerful. “And,” he said, “I want to give you the horse Gullfaxi”, which Hrungnir had owned.
âThen Odin spoke. He said that Thor was wrong to give so fine a horse to the son of a giantess, instead of to Thor's own father.
âThor returned home to Thrudvangar, and the whetstone remained stuck in his head. Then the seeress called Groa arrived, the wife of Aurvandil the Bold. She sang her spells over Thor until the whetstone began to loosen. When Thor felt that, he expected the whetstone would soon be removed. Wanting to please and reward Groa for her healing, he told the story of his return from the north, and how he had waded across the river Elivagar, carrying Aurvandil southwards from Giant Land on his back in a basket. He recounted that one of Aurvandil's toes had stuck out from the basket and had frozen. Thor broke it off and threw it up into the heavens as a token, making from it the star called Aurvandil's Toe.
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Thor added that it would not be long before Aurvandil returned home. Then Groa became so happy that she couldn't remember any of her magic, and the whetstone got no looser but remained lodged in Thor's head. And it is offered as a warning that one should not throw a whetstone across a floor, because then the whetstone in Thor's head moves. Thjodolf of Hvin tells this story in his poem
Haustlong
.'
Thor Journeys to Geirrod's Courts
Then Ãgir said, âTo me Hrungnir seems to have been extremely powerful. Did Thor work any other great feats in his dealings with the trolls?'
Bragi replied, âThe story of Thor's journey to Geirrod's courts is well worth the telling. Loki was with him on the journey and, because of Loki, Thor did not have the hammer Mjollnir, his belt of strength or his iron gloves. This was because of what had happened to Loki earlier when, in order to amuse himself, he put on Frigg's falcon shape, and then, driven by curiosity, he flew into Geirrod's courts. Seeing there a great hall, he landed and looked in through a window. But Geirrod looked in his direction, and then commanded that the bird be seized and brought to him. The henchman charged with doing so, however, had trouble climbing up the wall of the hall because it was so high. Loki was amused to see so much effort expended in getting to him, so he delayed flying away until the man had almost finished the difficult climb.
âJust as the man rushed at him, Loki finally started to fly. He beat his wings but discovered that his feet were stuck fast. So Loki was seized and brought to the giant Geirrod. When Geirrod looked into the bird's eyes he suspected that it was a person, and he demanded that it answer him. But Loki remained silent. Then Geirrod locked Loki in a chest, starving him there for three months. This time, when Geirrod lifted him out and asked him to speak, Loki told him who he was. As ransom for his life he swore to Geirrod an oath that he would devise a way to bring Thor to Geirrod's courts and that Thor would have neither his hammer nor his belt of strength.
âThor came to stay with the giantess named Grid as a guest for the night; she was the mother of Vidar the Silent. She told Thor the truth about Geirrod: that he was a cunning giant and that there was much danger in dealing with him. She lent Thor a belt of strength and iron gloves which she owned. She also lent him her staff, Gridarvol [Grid's Staff].
âThor then travelled to the river Vimur; a great waterway.
He buckled on the belt of strength and supported himself against the current by placing Grid's pole on the downstream side while Loki held on to the belt of power. But when Thor got to the middle of the river, the water had risen so high that it reached to his shoulders. Then Thor spoke this verse:
“Rise not, Vimur,
as I want to wade you,
crossing to the giant's courts.
Beware. If you grow,
divine might will grow in me
as high as heaven!”
âThor looked up and saw in a certain cleft Gjalp, the daughter of Geirrod, straddling the river with one leg on either side, and it was she who was causing the river to rise. Thor took a large stone from the river and threw it at her, saying: “At the source will a river be stemmed!” He did not miss his target.
âJust then he was swept towards the shore, where he was able to grab hold of some rowan branches,
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and so was able to climb up from the river. This event is the origin of the expression that rowan trees are Thor's salvation.
âWhen Thor arrived at Geirrod's, he and his companions were first directed to a goat shed as their lodgings. There was only one chair, and Thor sat on it. But he soon noticed that the chair under him was rising towards the roof. He stuck Grid's pole up into the rafters and pushed down hard on the chair. Then came the sound of a loud crack, followed by a loud scream. Geirrod's daughters, Gjalp and Greip, had been under the chair, and he had broken both their backs.
âThen Geirrod had Thor called into the hall for contests. Large fires were burning down the length of the hall, and Thor approached until he stood opposite Geirrod. With his tongs, Geirrod grabbed a glowing piece of iron and threw it at Thor. Thor caught the red-hot piece in the iron gloves and, lifting it into the air, he threw it back at Geirrod, who ran behind an iron pillar to save himself. But the lump of glowing metal was thrown in such a way that it pierced the pillar and then Geirrod
himself, before crashing through the wall and landing on the ground outside.'
The Dwarves Make Treasures for the Gods
âWhy is gold called Sif's hair?'
âAs a prank, Loki, son of Laufey, cut off all Sif's hair. When Thor learned of this, he grabbed hold of Loki and would have broken every bone in his body had Loki not sworn to find a way to get the dark elves to make hair from gold for Sif, which would grow like any other hair. Then Loki went to those dwarves called the sons of Ivaldi, and they made the hair, Skidbladnir, and Odin's spear, called Gungnir.
âLoki then wagered his head with the dwarf named Brokk that Eitri, Brokk's brother, could not make three treasures equally as good. When they entered the smithy, Eitri placed a pigskin in the forge. He told Brokk to work the bellows and not let up until Eitri had removed from the forge what he had put into it. But as soon as Eitri left the smithy and the other began to pump the air, a fly landed on Brokk's hand and bit him. Brokk continued, nevertheless, to work the bellows as before, and kept on until the smith pulled the work from the forge. It was a boar with bristles of gold.
âNext Eitri put gold in the forge. He asked the other to work the bellows and not to stop pumping until he returned. Then he left. The fly returned and settled on Brokk's neck, and this time it bit twice as hard. Still Brokk continued to pump until the smith took from the forge a gold ring, the one called Draupnir.
âThen the smith placed iron in the forge, telling the other to pump air with the bellows. He said that his work would be ruined if the bellows failed. This time the fly landed between Brokk's eyes, biting his eyelids. Finally, with blood flowing into his eyes, he was unable to see. So, as quickly as he could, he took his hand from the bellows on the down stroke and swatted the fly away. At that moment the smith returned and said that everything in the forge had just barely escaped ruin. Then he took a hammer from the forge, and, entrusting all the treasures
to his brother Brokk, he asked him to go to Asgard to settle the wager.
âWhen Brokk and Loki arrived and displayed their treasures, the Ãsir took their places on their thrones of fate. Odin, Thor and Frey were to be the judges, thus settling the matter. Loki gave to Odin the spear Gungnir; to Thor, the hair for Sif; and to Frey, Skidbladnir. He then described the characteristics of each of the treasures: the spear always pierced cleanly through, never stopping during the thrust; the hair would grow fast to the skin as soon as it came on to Sif's head; and Skidbladnir would receive a fair wind whenever its sail was raised, no matter where it was going. It could also be folded up like a cloth and put into one's pouch if so desired.
âBrokk then brought out his treasures. He gave the ring to Odin, saying that every ninth night eight rings of equal weight would drip from it. To Frey he gave the boar, remarking that night or day it could race across the sky and over the sea better than any other mount. Furthermore, night would never be so murky nor the worlds of darkness so shadowy that the boar would not provide light wherever it went, so bright was the shining of its bristles. Then he gave the hammer to Thor, and said that with it Thor would be able to strike whatever came before him with as mighty a blow as he wished, because the hammer would never break. And if he decided to throw the hammer, it would never miss its mark, nor could it ever be thrown so far that it would not find its way back home to his hand. It was also so small that, if he wished, he could keep it inside his shirt. There was, however, one defect: the handle was rather short. It was their judgment that the hammer was the best of all the treasures, and that it provided the best protection against the frost giants. Therefore they decided that the dwarf had won the wager.
âLoki then asked to be allowed to ransom his head, but the dwarf replied that there was no hope of that. “Catch me then,” said Loki. But when the dwarf tried to grab hold of him, Loki was already far away.
âLoki had shoes that allowed him to race through the air and over the sea. The dwarf told Thor that he should catch Loki,
and Thor did so. The dwarf wanted to cut off Loki's head, but Loki said that the dwarf had a right to his head but not to the neck. The dwarf then took a narrow strip of leather and a knife. He intended to cut holes in Loki's lips and to sew his mouth shut, but the knife would not cut. The dwarf said that it would be better if his brother Awl were there. No sooner had he mentioned it than the awl was there, and it punched holes through the lips.
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He then stitched the lips together before ripping away the outer edges. The thong sewing shut Loki's mouth is called Vartari.'