gard
was eaten in gladness.

A strange and silent figure sat at the banquet. It was the figure of a
Giant and no one knew who he was nor where he had come from. But when
the banquet was ended Odin, the Eldest of the Gods, turned toward this
figure and said, "O Skyrmir, Giant King of Utgard, rise up now and tell
Thor of all you practiced upon him when he and Loki came to your City."

Then the stranger at the banquet stood up, and Thor and Loki saw he was
the Giant King in whose halls they had had the contests. Skyrmir turned
toward them and said:

"O Thor and O Loki, I will reveal to you now the deceits I practiced on
you both. It was I whom ye met on the moorland on the day before ye came
into Utgard. I gave you my name as Skyrmir and I did all I might do to
prevent your entering our City, for the Giants dreaded a contest of
strength with Asa Thor. Now hear me, O Thor. The wallet I gave for you
to take provisions out of was tied with magic knots. No one could undo
them by strength or cleverness. And while you were striving to undo them
I placed a mountain of rock between myself and you. The hammer blows,
which as you thought struck me, struck the mountain and made great
clefts and gaps in it. When I knew the strength of your tremendous blows
I was more and more in dread of your coming into our City.

"I saw you would have to be deceived by magic. Your lad Thialfi was the
one whom I first deceived. For it was not a Giant youth who raced
against him, but Thought itself. And even you, O Loki, I deceived. For
when you tried to make yourself out the greatest of eaters I pitted
against you, not a Giant, but Fire that devours everything.

"You, Thor, were deceived in all the contests. After you had taken the
drinking horn in your hands we were all affrighted to see how much you
were able to gulp down. For the end of that horn was in the sea, and
AEgir, who is here, can tell you that after you had drunk from it, the
level of the sea went down.

"The cat whom you strove to lift was Nidhoegg, the dragon that gnaws at
the roots of Ygdrassil, the Tree of Trees. Truly we were terrified when
we saw that you made Nidhoegg budge. When you made the back of the cat
reach the roof of our palace we said to ourselves, 'Thor is the
mightiest of all the beings we have known.'

"Lastly you strove with the hag Ellie. Her strength seemed marvelous to
you, and you thought yourself disgraced because you could not throw her.
But know, Thor,