oelnir, his hammer, with him.

Their way was through Midgard, the World of Men. Once, as they were
traveling on, night came upon them as they were hungry and in need of
shelter. They saw a peasant's hut and they drove the chariot toward it.
Unyoking the goats and leaving them standing in a hollow beside the
chariot, the two, looking not like Dwellers in Asgard, but like men
traveling through the country, knocked at the door of the hut and asked
for food and shelter.

They could have shelter, the peasant and his wife told them, but they
could not have food. There was little in that place, and what little
there had been they had eaten for supper. The peasant showed them the
inside of the hut: it was poor and bare, and there was nothing there to
give anyone. In the morning, the peasant said, he would go down to the
river and catch some fish for a meal.

"We can't wait until morning, we must eat now," said Thor, "and I think
I can provide a good meal for us all." He went over to where his goats
stood in the hollow beside the chariot of brass, and, striking them with
his hammer, he left them lifeless on the ground. He skinned the goats
then, and taking up the bones very carefully, he left them down on the
skins. Skins and bones he lifted up and bringing them into the house he
left them in a hole above the peasant's fireplace. "No one," said he in
a commanding voice, "must touch the bones that I leave here."

Then he brought the meat into the house. Soon it was cooked and laid
smoking on the table. The peasant and his wife and his son sat round the
board with Thor and Loki. They had not eaten plentifully for many days,
and now the man and the woman fed themselves well.

Thialfi was the name of the peasant's son. He was a growing lad and had
an appetite that had not been satisfied for long. While the meat was on
the table his father and mother had kept him going here and there,
carrying water, putting fagots on the fire, and holding a blazing stick
so that those at the table might see to eat. There was not much left for
him when he was able to sit down, for Thor and Loki had great appetites,
and the lad's father and mother had eaten to make up for days of want.
So Thialfi got little out of that plentiful feast.

When the meal was finished they lay down on the benches. Thor, because
he had made a long journey that day, slept very soundly. Thialfi lay
down on a bench, too, but his thoughts were still upon the food. When
al