Tales of Valhalla

by Martyn Whittock

  That evening the plan of Loki to disrupt the building was revealed in the form of a mare who galloped out of the woods to distract the stallion, Svadilfaeri. The plan worked, for the stallion broke free of his harness, abandoned the hauling of stones and made off after the mare who galloped back into the woods. The builder ran after them but could not catch or control his horse. And so, all night, the stallion pursued the mare and the builder pursued them both and no work was done on the fortification. The next day the work was behind schedule for lack of stone hauled to the site. The builder realised that, with time running out, he was not now going to complete the work and he was furious, with a terrible rage.

  Seeing the way he raged, the Æsir knew for certain that the builder was none other than a mountain-giant. Since the Æsir were ancient enemies of the mountain-giants they decided that the agreement they had made with the builder was null and void. They considered themselves no longer bound by the oaths that they had sworn and so they called on Thor to settle matters with the mountain-giant builder in the traditional manner. In no time at all, Thor returned and was wielding his giant hammer, Miollnir, the skull-smasher. With that mighty hammer he ‘paid’ the builder all right and that was with a blow so violent that it smashed his skull to pieces. And so, instead of the promised payment to him of Freyia as his wife, and ownership of both the sun and the moon, the giant received a payment of death. He was not to return to Giantland; instead he was sent down into Niflhel, that is ‘misty Hel’ (the lowest level of Hel, the place of the dead). In this way the gods went back on their oaths and Freyia – the wife of Od – was not given to be the wife of one of the giants.

  Though the Æsir were spared from paying the builder, Loki had to pay a price for the tactic he had used to distract the stallion. For it was Loki who had appeared in the form of the mare. While he was in the form of the mare he had distracted the stallion to the extent of being mated by it. As a result, he gave birth to a foal, and this was no ordinary foal for it was the best horse of all horses owned by gods and by men. It was grey in colour and had eight legs and it became Sleipnir, the horse used by Odin All-Father.

  Thor goes on an expedition with Loki

  The gods have access to such strength and magic that they are hard for their enemies to overcome. Take the creation of the great ship called Skidbladnir, for example. Made by dwarfs and owned by Freyr, it is large enough to contain all the Æsir with their weapons and always gains a fair wind – yet it can be folded up and carried in a pocket! Such a ship is a reminder of the magic at the disposal of the gods and yet, even so, once Thor got into such a difficult situation that it almost overcame all his magical strength. It is a story that is not often told, for all declare that Thor is the mightiest, and yet it happened this way, even to him.

  The story began when Thor and Loki went off on a journey together. They set off in Thor’s chariot drawn by two goats (named Tanngniost and Tanngrisnir). After a day’s travel, they stopped at the house of a peasant for the night. Thor killed both his goats, skinned them and prepared them for the evening meal. Thor and Loki were joined by the peasant, his wife and their children. The farmer’s son was named Thialfi and his daughter was named Roskva and they shall play an important part in this story. When the goat stew was being eaten, Thor took the two goatskins and laid them on the floor beside the fire; he told the peasant and his family to throw the bones – from which they had eaten the meat – onto the goatskins. But unbeknown to Thor, Thialfi the peasant farmer’s son split the ham bone in order to get at the juicy marrow inside. Only after doing that did he throw it onto the goatskin.

  That night everyone went to sleep but Thor was the first to wake. Before dawn he dressed and raised his hammer, Miollnir, over the goatskins. At once, the goats were restored to life and stood up – but one was lame in its rear leg. Thor knew exactly what had happened; that the bone had been broken by one of the peasant family. He was terribly angry: his brow hooded his eyes and his hands were white as they clutched his hammer’s handle in fury. All in the peasant family were utterly terrified and went down on their knees and begged Thor to have mercy on them. When he saw the depth of their terror his anger subsided. In payment for the damage to the goat’s leg he accepted the gift of the young people – Thialfi and Roskva – to become his servants; and they have remained his servants ever since.

  Thor and Loki, accompanied by Thialfi and Roskva, left the farmstead and travelled eastward to Giantland and even beyond there as far as the great sea. They left the goats behind and walked the way that led there. When, finally, they reached the sea they journeyed over it to a distant land and, at last, the four of them made landfall there. A little way inland was a thick wood and they journeyed through it until evening. They needed somewhere to stay but there was nowhere to be seen.

  At last, after travelling through the trees in the dark, they came on a place of shelter. In the gloom they could only make out that it seemed a long building and the doorway into it took up the whole of one end. So in they went and settled down to sleep. In the middle of the night they were woken by a great earthquake. Thinking that perhaps great enemies were approaching, Thor called his companions and they moved further down the building until they found a side-chamber. Into it they went and Thor kept watch at the entrance, armed with his hammer, Miollnir. But no enemies came – and so there they passed the night, with Thor on guard. Round about them echoed great noises throughout the night: rumblings that made the earth shake.

  At dawn, Thor went outside and saw a huge giant asleep on the ground. He was enormous and it was his snoring that had sounded like the rumbling of an earthquake in the night. Even Thor felt fear and clutched at his magical power-belt, called Megingjorth, and so increased his mighty strength, which is called his As-strength. Yet for once he was afraid to wield his skull-crushing hammer!

  The giant looked at him and Thor asked him his name. The giant replied that he was called Skrymir. He recognised Thor of the Æsir and asked what he was doing with the giant’s ‘glove’? At that, Thor realised that the building in which they had spent the night was merely the glove of this giant and that the chamber into which they had retreated was merely the thumb of that huge glove!

  The giant, Skrymir, asked if Thor and his companions would like to travel with him and he offered to carry their provisions – along with his own – in the bag that he carried on his back. Thor agreed and so they set off.

  After a day’s walk they rested, come evening, under a large oak tree. Skrymir went to sleep but left his bag full of provisions open for Thor and his companions to help themselves to what was within and to have their supper. But Thor could not untie a single one of the knots which secured that bag no matter how he pulled on them or sought to shift the strap-ends. Even mighty Thor could not open the bag. Soon he became very angry. In his fury he reached for his hammer, strode over to the snoring Skrymir and struck him on the head with Miollnir, the skull-smasher. But not only did it not smash his skull, it did not even hurt him in the slightest. Instead, he merely stirred from his sleep and asked if a leaf had drifted down onto his head! He asked if Thor and his companions had eaten and were ready to sleep. Thor said that they were and they settled down under another oak tree. They were all afraid of the giant.

  In the middle of the night, Thor resolved to finish off Skrymir, who snored so loudly that the forest shook. Thor struck him hard on the middle of the head and his hammer sank deep into the head of the giant. But Skrymir just woke and asked if an acorn had fallen from a tree and struck him. Thor replied that it was midnight and there was time to get back to sleep.

  A third time Thor determined to kill Skrymir. This time he waited until just before dawn and then he rushed at the deeply snoring giant and drove his hammer down into the giant’s forehead. The hammer went in as far as the handle. At this, Skrymir woke and wondered if a twig had been disturbed by a roosting bird and had fallen on his head!

  Skrymir said that it was time to get up and continue journeying. He
told them that the fortress called Utgard lay ahead and in it there lived bigger creatures than himself; for he had heard how Thor and his companions were whispering about his great size. He warned them to be careful how they acted for these giants would not put up with insolence or pride from such tiny people. If they could not do that then it would be better that they turned back. However, if they were resolved to go on to Utgard, they should strike out for the east but he himself was heading north to the mountains.

  Journeying on, they reached a vast fortress at noon and it was so tall that they struggled to look up at it. Even Thor could not force open its doors but they managed to squeeze through its bars and so made their way to a great hall. Within that hall there were large people sat on benches and a king named Utgarda-Loki (not to be confused with Loki). He greeted them mockingly and referred to the diminutive size of Thor and the inability of his party to impress those assembled in the hall.

  At this challenge Loki spoke up and said he doubted that anyone there could eat food faster than he could! King Utgarda-Loki accepted Loki’s challenge and called forth one of his retainers who was called Logi. A trencher was brought and topped with much meat and Loki and Logi were set at either end and ate towards each other. They met in the middle but, while Loki had consumed all the meat off the bones, his rival – Logi – had eaten meat, bones and trencher!

  This had not started well and King Utgarda-Loki asked if there was another feat that Thor’s party might excel at? Thialfi replied that he was a very fast runner and so was set to race one of King Utgarda-Loki’s retainers, who was named Hugi. But Hugi won the race so convincingly that he met Thialfi as he ran back! A second time Thialfi was beaten, although he was fast on his feet. A third time Thialfi was also convincingly beaten by Hugi. And so the second contest was lost as the first had been.

  Then King Utgarda-Loki asked Thor at what feat he excelled. And Thor replied that he could compete at drinking with anyone. And so a drinking horn was brought and King Utgarda-Loki said that it could be drunk in one go, or perhaps two; but never more than three gulps were ever needed. Now the horn was long but not really that big and Thor felt confident. But when he took his first deep drink (until he was forced to stop to breathe), it looked as if he had taken only a little from the horn. The second drink was a little better. And the third great gulp made more of an impression on the contents of the drinking horn . . . but still it had not been emptied.

  King Utgarda-Loki then asked if Thor might be able to excel at something else, for so far he felt that the claims of the Æsir had disappointed him. Thor was determined to go on, though, and so King Utgarda-Loki challenged him to lift his cat, a thing done easily by the young retainers in that hall. And so a grey cat appeared but, try as he might, Thor could not lift it up, for the cat arched its back and not a paw was lifted from the ground; when at last Thor could raise it no higher, at that point just one paw had been raised!

  Thor grew angry and demanded that someone should come and fight him! King Utgarda-Loki said that since Thor was so small, nobody in the hall would lower themselves to this contest, so Thor should fight an old woman named Elli who was summoned to the hall. It was that ancient old woman against Thor of the Æsir, but she bested him! Try as he might, he could not make her lose her footing. On the other hand, she was skilled in wrestling and soon Thor was forced down on one knee. Yet another contest had been lost.

  Since it was late, all then retired to bed and, early in the morning, Thor and his companions dressed and made to leave but King Utgarda-Loki cheerfully laid food and drink before them and walked with them a short distance when they left. As they walked, he asked Thor what he thought of his time in the fortress of Utgard? And Thor replied that he had been humiliated and dishonoured by the contests.

  Then King Utgarda-Loki revealed that Thor and his companions had been tricked in these encounters. Otherwise Thor would have been too strong and his companions would have succeeded. For King Utgarda-Loki was the same person as the giant Skrymir that Thor had met in the forest. The bag had been fastened with magical wire and when Thor had wielded his hammer, Skrymir had secretly moved a mountain into the way to receive Thor’s blows. Then, in the hall at Utgard, other tricks had been played. Logi, who outconsumed Loki, was really named ‘flame’ and appeared in the form of a man, and that was why he could consume trencher, bones and meat. Hugi, who outran Thialfi, was really named ‘thought’ and appeared in the form of a man and could race faster than a man can run. The drinking horn was connected to the sea and Thor had lowered the sea level in that contest! The cat was really the Midgard serpent in disguise and he is so huge that he encircles the earth and even raising that ‘cat’ by one paw was an amazing feat. And the old woman was old age whom nobody can defeat. That was why she had forced even Thor to one knee.

  When he discovered how he had been tricked, Thor raised his hammer to wreak vengeance but King Utgarda-Loki was gone and the fortress of Utgard had vanished. At this, Thor led the way back to his own hall at Thrudvangar but he resolved that he would meet again with the Midgard serpent and once more enter into a trial of strength with it.

  Thor and the giant, Hymir, fish for the Midgard serpent

  It was not long before Thor set out to get revenge on the Midgard serpent that he had failed to lift in the hall of King Utgarda-Loki. He was so eager to do this that he set out without a companion and without his chariot pulled by the two goats (Tanngniost and Tanngrisnir). On this journey he changed his appearance to that of a young boy and in this disguise he set out across Midgard. He travelled until one evening he arrived at the home of a giant who was named Hymir, where he stayed the night. The next day he asked if he could accompany Hymir on a fishing trip. Hymir was not impressed with the assistance he might get from one so young and small but, nevertheless, he agreed. Nor did he think the young lad would much appreciate the discomfort of staying out fishing for as long as Hymir was inclined to do.

  Thor was angry and thought of using his famous hammer on the giant but held himself in check, since he needed to reserve his strength for what he intended to accomplish on the fishing trip. Hymir told him to find his own bait and so Thor tore off the head of an ox, named Himinhriot, that belonged to Hymir.

  Together, Thor and Hymir rowed out to sea and Hymir was impressed with the strength of Thor’s rowing. Indeed, when Hymir was ready to stop, it was Thor who insisted that they rowed even further out from the shore. At this, Hymir became alarmed and said that instead of taking his usual catch of flatfish he feared that they might meet the Midgard serpent in such deep water. But Thor rowed further, much to the displeasure of Hymir, who was now alarmed at how far they had travelled out to sea.

  At last, they reached a point where Thor threw overboard his ox-head bait and it sank to the seabed. It was there that the Midgard serpent seized that bait, and the huge hook within it dug into the mouth of the serpent. The serpent pulled away in alarm and Thor’s hands came down on the side of the boat with a great crash. At this, anger rose in Thor and he summoned up his As-strength from within himself and braced himself so hard that his feet tore through the bottom of the boat and he stood on the seabed. So braced, he hauled the serpent up to the boat. There Thor glared at the Midgard serpent and the serpent glared back at Thor and spat poison!

  The giant Hymir panicked to see the serpent hauled to the boat and the water cascading in. In his fear he drew his knife and, instead of cutting bait, he cut Thor’s fishing line. And that, just as Thor was raising his hammer to strike the Midgard serpent! Thor threw his hammer after the serpent and some say it struck it on the head and killed it, while others think that the Midgard serpent escaped and still lies in the sea that surrounds the world. What is certain is that Thor then struck Hymir and the blow threw him head first into the sea. Thor, on the other hand, waded back to the shore.

  8

  The killing of Baldr and the punishing of Loki

  FOUND IN the Tricking of Gylfi section of the Prose Edda, these stories tell of how
the god Baldr was killed, along with the punishment of Loki and the end of the world. Other references to the killing of Baldr are found in the Poetic Edda, in Baldr’s Dreams.

  Loki’s role in the death of Baldr is represented very differently in the two Eddas. In the Prose Edda, Loki is clearly held responsible for the death of Baldr, while in the Poetic Edda there is no mention of Loki in connection with his death. One of the Old Norse poetic kennings used for Loki in The Language of Poetry is ‘Ráðbani Baldrs’ (‘cause of Baldr’s death’); while the description of Baldr’s killing in The Tricking of Gylfi shows Loki was not pleased when he saw that Baldr was unharmed by things thrown at him and that, due to this, Hod took the mistletoe and threw it at Baldr, at Loki’s instigation.