ox, eight huge salmon, and all the cakes and
sweets provided for the women, washing down these miscellaneous viands
with the contents of two barrels of mead.

The giant bridegroom watched these gastronomic feats with amazement,
whereupon Loki, in order to reassure him, confidentially whispered
that the bride was so deeply in love with him that she had not been
able to taste a morsel of food for more than eight days. Thrym then
sought to kiss the bride, but drew back appalled at the fire of her
glance, which Loki explained as a burning glance of love. The giant's
sister, claiming the usual gifts, was not even noticed; wherefore
Loki again whispered to the wondering Thrym that love makes people
absent-minded. Intoxicated with passion and mead, which he, too,
had drunk in liberal quantities, the bridegroom now bade his servants
produce the sacred hammer to consecrate the marriage, and as soon as
it was brought he himself laid it in the pretended Freya's lap. The
next moment a powerful hand closed over the short handle, and soon
the giant, his sister, and all the invited guests, were slain by the
terrible Thor.

"'Bear in the hammer to plight the maid;
Upon her lap the bruiser lay,
And firmly plight our hands and fay.'
The Thunderer's soul smiled in his breast;
When the hammer hard on his lap was placed,
Thrym first, the king of the Thursi, he slew,
And slaughtered all the giant crew."

Thrym's Quida (Herbert's tr.).

Leaving a smoking heap of ruins behind them, the gods then drove
rapidly back to Asgard, where the borrowed garments were given back
to Freya, much to the relief of Thor, and the AEsir rejoiced at the
recovery of the precious hammer. When next Odin gazed upon that part
of Joetun-heim from his throne Hlidskialf, he saw the ruins covered
with tender green shoots, for Thor, having conquered his enemy,
had taken possession of his land, which henceforth would no longer
remain barren and desolate, but would bring forth fruit in abundance.

Thor and Geirrod

Loki once borrowed Freya's falcon-garb and flew off in search of
adventures to another part of Joetun-heim, where he perched on top
of the gables of Geirrod's house. He soon attracted the attention
of this giant, who bade one of his servants catch the bird. Amused
at the fellow's clumsy attempts to secure him, Loki flitted about
from place to place, only moving just as the giant was about to lay
hands upon