According to one well-known myth about Thor, Thrym, king of the giants, came into possession of Mjolnir and declared that he would give it back to Thor only if the beautiful goddess Freyja (pronounced FRAY-uh) agreed to marry him. She angrily refused, and the trickster god Loki (pronounced LOH-kee) came up with a clever plan to recover Mjolnir. Using women’s clothing and a bridal veil to disguise Thor as Freyja, Loki escorted “Freyja” to Jotunheim (pronounced YAW-toon-heym), the home of the giants. Thrym greeted his bride, though he was surprised at her appetite at the wedding feast. “Freyja” consumed an entire ox, three barrels of wine, and much more. Loki explained that she had been unable to eat for a week because of her excitement at marrying Thrym. The giant accepted this explanation, and the wedding proceeded. When the time came for a hammer to be placed in the bride’s lap according to custom, Thor grabbed Mjolnir and threw off his disguise. Then he used the hammer to smash the giants and their hall.
During another visit to Jotunheim, Thor and Loki met Skrymir (pronounced SKREE-mir), an especially large giant. He was so big that when they wandered into one of his gloves, they thought they were in a mansion and slept in one of the fingers. In the morning they found Skrymir sleeping, and Thor tried to crush the giant’s head with Mjolnir. Skrymir simply brushed away the blow as though it were no more than a falling leaf.
The gods traveled on to Utgard (pronounced OOT-gard), a city of giants, where the giants challenged Thor to drain their drinking cup and lift their cat from the floor. He could not do either—the cup was connected to the sea, and the cat was really Jormungand (pronounced YAWR-moon-gahnd), the serpent that encircles the world. Although Thor failed the tests, he came close to draining the ocean and removing the world serpent.
Several early Norse sources recount the myth of Thor’s encounter with the giant Hymir. Thor disguised himself as a young man and went fishing with Hymir, first killing the giant’s largest ox to use for bait. Thor then rowed their boat far out of sight of land and cast his hook. Something bit at the ox, and Thor drew up his line to discover that he had hooked Jormungand, the giant serpent. Placing his feet on the ocean floor, Thor pulled and pulled on the line, while the serpent spit out poison. Just as Thor was about to strike Jormungand with his hammer, Hymir cut the line and the serpent sank back down to the depths. Many myths say, however, that Thor and Jormungand remained bitter enemies, fated to fight again on the day called Ragnarok (pronounced RAHG-nuh-rok), the end of the world, when they will kill one another.
World History
