Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Ten

 

“It is the same with your own trials.” Skrymir told Thor. “When you took such deep draughts from the cup of penance you had no idea about what a wonderful feat you had performed. The other end of the horn - the cup of penance - is the ocean. Now when you go to the sea, you will see how far the waters have fallen away from the shores.” The giant smiled at Thor. “After today when people go out of the tide they will call it the ebb or draught of Thor.”

Thor was speechless as Skrymir continued. “In your second feat you lifted the paw of the cat. That was no cat. It was the Midgard serpent that encircles the world. When you moved the paw, the very earth shook by your strength.” The giant smiled. “Do not be ashamed of your third feat. Elli looks old, but she has never been defeated before and she never will be defeated either.”

Thor did not know what to say when the giant nodded at him. “This is where we part. Do not come back here, because I will always defend my city from everyone who tries to harm it.”

Thor was about to raise his hammer to challenge the giant to a round of strength, but the giant vanished.

The city vanished too and Thor found himself in an empty plain.

“I was fooled by a mountain giant.” Thor cried out aloud.

A voice from the skies smiled at Thor. “I told you that you would learn lots of things about yourself during this travel. I think you did.”

Thor realized that this was Skrymir, but he could not find the giant anywhere, but he saw a cloud capped mountain in the horizon.

Realizing that he would not find the giant, Thor returned to his place a wiser man.

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Nine

The king of the giants invited Thor and his friends to sit at their table and to spend the night with them, as their guests.

Thor was confused at the behaviour of the giants, but he knew that he had been defeated by the giants and decided to bear that with good grace.

The next morning, the king of the giants accompanied Thor and his friends to the gates.

That was when Thor could feel that the king of the giants was Skrymir, the giant whom he had met in the forest.

Skrymir looked at Thor. “I told you that you would meet better men than yourself. Wasn’t I right?”

Thor sighed at Skrymir. “It makes me sad but I realize that in Jotunheim, I will always be considered as a man of little worth.”

“No! That is not true!” The giant cried at Thor. 

Thor was surprised as the giant continued. “All this while, I have deceived you with my enchantments.”

Thor was shocked.

“In the forest when you threw your Miolnir at my head, I should have been crushed by your blows. But I placed a mountain between you and me. The three blows from your hammer fell on the mountain. These blows created deep ravines in the mountain which shall henceforth be called as verdant valleys.” The giant told Thor.

“In all the contests in my kingdom too, I deceived you. Logi, who was against Loki in the hunger competition, was fire. That is why Logi was faster. Hugi, who ran faster than Thialfi, is my thought. What can be faster than thought?”

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Eight

 

A great gray cat came into the hall.

Thor tried to lift the cat. First Thor tried it gently and then put in all his strength and tugged hard like he had never done before.

All Thor could do was lift the paw of the cat a little way off the ground.

The king of giants smirked at Thor. “We can all see that the cat is large and we think you, Thor, are but a little fellow.”

“Think what you want!” Thor cried. “I dare one of you to wrestle with me.”

The king looked around the hall. “I do not think anyone here would want to wrestle with you. But I will call an old crone Elli. She has defeated far better people than Thor.

An old, withered and toothless old woman came to the hall.

Thor felt horrified that he had to fight with an old woman. But he realized that he had no choice.

After the fight started, she threw her arms around him and dragged Thor to the ground.

Thor found it almost difficult to break from her grasp.

The two of them fought for a long time, but suddenly Thor felt a strange weakness.

He tottered and fell on his knee.

The giants all laughed at Thor.

Utgard, the king of the giants then came to the old woman. “Please leave the hall.” The king of the giants then turned to Thor. “The trials are now over.”

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Seven

The king of the giants turned to Thor. “Most of us can drink the contents of the cup in a single draught. Some take two, but the puniest among us, manage it in three draughts.”

Thor took the cup and had one mighty drink because he was thirsty. He thought he had finished the drink and looked at the cup and was shocked. Instead of being empty, the cup was now not so full that it could not even be moved without the danger of spilling.

Utgard, who was the king of giants, laughed at Thor. “I see that you have been saving your energy for the second pull.”

Thor took another pull from the cup and this time he did not stop till his breath failed. But when Thor put his cup down, the drink had gone down a little from the brim of the cup.

The king of giants laughed at Thor. “Do you mean to take the drink in three draughts? Then you have a very unfair share in the third cup.”

Angrily Thor took a long gulp for the third time, but the drink had not reduced much this time too.

“I will not try to empty the cup anymore.” Thor told the king of giants wearily.

The king of giants then shrugged. “That means that Thor, you are not the kind of man whom we are supposed to be with.”

“Choose another feat.” Thor told the king of giants. “I will try that.”

The king of giants studied Thor. “We have a game that children play.” The king of giants had a sly smile. “It is a childish amusement actually. I would not have suggested this any other time. But now I will. You have to lift my cat from the ground.”

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Six

 

The chief of the giants turned to Thialfi. “What can you do?”

“I am the swiftest runner among all the people in my country.” Thialfi replied.

The chief of the giants then called Hugi to compete with Thialfi.

They came to a huge open space in the back of the banquet hall which was to be the race ground.

The first time, Thialfi ran fast, but Hugi was faster. So much so that Hugi reached the goal and ran back and met Thialfi who was halfway to the goal.

The king of giants asked Thialfi to try again.

This time Thialfi ran as fast as an eagle flew before swooping down on its prey. But Thialfi was still a bow-shot from the goal when Hugi reached it.

The third time, Thialfi was too tired and could not even run a little further away from the starting line when Hugi had already reached the finish line.

The giants realized that Thialfi could not run and the running competition was stopped.

The chief of giants set a competition for Thor. “How would you like to prove your worth, Thor?”

Thor studied the king and nodded. “I would like to have a drinking match with any of you.”

Thor suggested this competition because he did not want to perform anything more worthy than that before these giants.

The chief of giants and the other giants then went back to the banquet hall.

“Bring the cup of penance.” The chief of giants told his people.

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Five

The streets of the huge city were gloomy. Thor and his friends walked on and finally came up to a huge building where the doors were open.

“Let us go inside that.” Thor told his friends.

They agreed.

Inside the place, they found that it was a banquet hall. There was a massive table in the centre of the hall and stone thrones around the table. There were giants sitting on the stone thrones around the table.

One of the giants looked like the leader and so Thor went to him and greeted him.

The giant carelessly studied Thor. “I am not going to ask you any questions about your journey. I know that you are Thor. And the others are your friends.” The giant waved at the table. “We have a rule that only the worthy can sit on this table. So if you wish to sit here, you should be able to prove your worth by some feat.” The giant studied Thor. “What are you going to do?”

Loki came forward. “I am known to eat food very fast.” Loki studied the giants. “Keep some food before me and I can eat it faster than any one of your giants.”

The chief giant nodded. “That is a good trait.” The giant turned to his people. “Get Logi here.”

Logi was a thin giant who came to the table.

A huge trough of meat was placed on the table and Loki was on one side and Logi was on the other side.

The competition started and both of them ate as fast as possible and it almost seemed like Loki and Logi met at the middle of the table eating exactly half.

But it was found that Loki had eaten only the meat, but Logi had eaten the bones too.

So Logi was decided to be the winner of this competition.

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Four

Thor threw his Miolnir at the giant.

The giant turned and smirked. “Did a leaf touch me?”

Thor caught the Miolnir which always returned to his hand and was shocked. But Thor threw his hammer again.

The giant caught his forehead. “I think an acorn fell on my head.”

Thor threw the Miolnir again, the hardest that he could manage.

The giant laughed out aloud. “There must be a bird on that tree that let a feather fall on my face.”

The giant then turned and walked towards the forest. But before that, the giant gave a word of advice to Thor. “Thor, you think I am a tall man, but there are much taller giants than me. Turn back now and be satisfied with what you have learnt from your trip to Jotunheim.”

Thor shook his head and shouted after the giant. “I will never turn back. We will meet again and there is something that we will learn from each other at that time.” 

The giant did not reply and walked into the forest.

Thor and his friends looked for the giant in the forest and then when they could not find the giant, they continued their journey.

It was noon, when Thor and his friends reached the end of the forest. After the forest was a vast barren plain land and a great city stood there.

Thor and his friends came to the city and found that the gates of the city were closed. But the space between the bars of the closed doors was so huge that Thor and his friends were able to pass through the space between the gates.

Thor and his friends easily went inside the city.

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Three

Thor took his hammer, the Miolnir and watched the door of the house, all night.

At the dawn of the day he went into the forest.

Thor was stunned to see a gigantic man lying in the forest. The giant’s breath swayed the treetops. 

Thor realized that this giant was the reason for their disturbances last night.

Thor bravely went up to the giant to wake the giant up, when the giant itself woke up and looked at Thor.

“Who are you?” Thor demanded. “You made enough noise last night to prevent your neighbours from sleeping well.”

The giant looked at Thor. “I am Skrymir.”

Before Thor could say anything else, the giant continued. “I know who you are. You are little Asa Thor of Asgard.”

Thor was surprised as Skrymir continued. “What have you done with my glove?”

Even as the giant spoke, the giant picked up the ‘hall’ in which Thor and his friends had spent the night.

The hall was the glove and the room where Loki and Thialfi had slept was the thumb of the glove.

Thor was sure that this was a dream.

But Thor raised his hammer. “I have come to Jotunheim to fight and win against evil giants like you.” Thor nodded at the giant. “I am ready to try my strength against yours.

The giant studied Thor. “Try it then.”

Thor picked up the Miolnir and threw it at the giant’s head.

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part Two

Thialfi was terrified because he realized the importance of Thor’s words. What was worse was that one of the goats limped a little with its hind legs.

Thor saw this and he was angry.

Thialfi wanted to run away from there. But he came forward and fell at Thor’s feet and begged for pardon for what he had done.

Thor heard Thialfi’s words and instead of getting angry, he just nodded.

“I would have punished you, Thialfi. But because you have come forward and confessed your fault so bravely, I will not punish you.” Thor nodded again. “Come on this journey with me so that you can learn the lesson of obedience.”

Rosko also decided to come with her brother.

So from that day, Thor had two faithful servants - Thialfi and Rosko, and they followed him wherever he went.

The four of them - Thor, Loki, Thialfi and Rosko traveled without their chariot and goats. They journeyed to the end of Manhein and came to the strange barren and misty land of Jotunheim.

They crossed a heavy thick forest and were tired.

They came upon a spacious hall and strangely the door was as broad as the house itself.

There was a spacious hall leading into five small rooms.

Thor and his companions were too tired and ate their supper and went to sleep.

But that night, there were strange sounds, louder than any animals that they had ever heard.

Even the house began to shake from side to side and even the earth trembled.

Thor and the others ran to the open door but they could see no enemy.

Thialfi and Loki found a small chamber on the right where they thought they could spend the night in safety from whatever it was.

Adapted from Norse Mythology

Thor’s trip to Jotunheim - Part One

 

Thor and Loki were on a journey in Thor’s chariot, from Asgard to Jotunhein. Thor’s chariot was made of iron and rumbled and was drawn by two milk white goats.

As they traveled all day, they came upon a house in the evening. The house was poor and the people living there had nothing to offer to Thor.

Thor liked to feast and because the people in the house could not provide him with any food, he had to provide for it himself.

Thor killed his own two goats to be served for supper.

Thor asked the family in the poor house to join him. But before they started eating, Thor had a request. “Do not break or throw away any of the bones of the goats that you are going to eat now.”

Thialfi and Roska were the children of the countryman. Thialfi was very surprised with Thor’s condition. “Why should we not break the bones?” Thialfi asked his sister Roska.

Roska did not know the answer.

So when Thor was not looking, Thialfi broke one of the bones that had been served to him, into two.

After eating to their heart’s fill, as directed by Thor all of them threw the bones into the goat skins where Thor had placed it. Thialfi threw the broken bone into the goat skins too.

Thialfi was uneasy with what he had done and could not sleep well that night.

The next morning, Thor held his hammer Miolnir over the goat skins.

Thor muttered some runes onto the goat skins.

When Thor finished speaking the two live goats sprang up and walked towards the chariot.

Adapted from Norse Mythology

The Story of Fafnir the Dragon - Part Four

At night when Hreidmar kept his helmet and sword aside and he was first asleep, Fafnir, his son, stabbed Hreidmar to death.

Subsequently Regin found Fafnir and found Fafnir with their father's helmet and sword. Regin at once realized what that meant. But Regin did not talk to Fafnir about that. “Now that you have our father’s treasure, you have to share it with me. I am your brother.”

Fafnir coldly looked at his brother. “I have killed my father for this.” Fafnir had a cold snarl. “I will not give this away to my foolish brother who is too weak to win it himself.”

Regin was afraid of his brother and he walked away from there immediately.

Fafnir carried all the gold to the heath of Gnitta and spread it out before him.

With the magic ring of Andvari, Fafnir acquired more and more wealth.

Even as Fafnir saw his glowing gold, his heart became cold and wicked. He was soon so corrupted that all he cared about was to protect his gold. He used the helmet of his father and struck terror into the heart of anyone who tried to steal his gold or even tried to oppose him.

All Fafnir did was care about keeping his gold safe from everyone.

Soon Fafnir underwent a terrible change and turned into a dragon.

That was the story of how a dwarf driven by greed had become corrupted by the riches.

Adapted from Norse Mythology

The Story of Fafnir the Dragon - Part Three

From all the treasure that they had obtained from Andvari, Odin kept the ring with himself. Loki did not tell Odin that the ring had been cursed either.

After that both Odin and Loki took the gold and filled the otter skin completely with the treasure that they had obtained.

However, a single small portion of hair was alone not filled up. Hreidmar looked at the ring that Odin had with him and asked that. “Once you hand over this ring too, then I will forgive you for my son’s death.”

Odin seemed reluctant at first but he handed over the ring to Hreidmar too.

Hreidmar then freed Odin and Loki.

“Hreidmar you should know that the ring had been cursed.” Loki told the king of dwarves.

Hreidmar scoffed at them. “I think you are just trying to threaten me. I just want to enjoy my gold in peace. So leave this place immediately.”

Both Loki and Odin left the place immediately.

After this, Hreidmar’s remaining two sons went and spoke to him. “Father, we also need a share in the blood price that you have received. Otr was your son and our brother.”

Hreidmar studied his two sons with pursed angry lips. “No! I shall not give you anything.”

The two sons wisely did not push the matter any further. Hreidmar was a skilled sorcerer and he was also an excellent swordsman. Further Hreidmar also had a helmet that stuck fear in the heart of whoever looked at it.

The two men walked away.

Adapted from Norse Mythology