sight. To his surprise, however, he felt it rising
beneath him, and fearful lest he should be crushed against the rafters,
he pushed the borrowed staff against the ceiling and forced the
chair downward with all his might. Then followed a terrible cracking,
sudden cries, and moans of pain; and when Thor came to investigate,
it appeared that the giant's daughters, Gialp and Greip, had slipped
under his chair with intent treacherously to slay him, and they had
reaped a righteous retribution and both lay crushed to death.

"Once I employed
My asa-might
In the realm of giants,
When Gialp and Greip,
Geirrod's daughters,
Wanted to lift me to heaven."

Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).

Geirrod now appeared and challenged Thor to a test of strength and
skill, but without waiting for a preconcerted signal, he flung a
red-hot wedge at him. Thor, quick of eye and a practised catcher,
caught the missile with the giantess's iron glove, and hurled it
back at his opponent. Such was the force of the god, that the missile
passed, not only through the pillar behind which the giant had taken
refuge, but through him and the wall of the house, and buried itself
deep in the earth without.

Thor then strode up to the giant's corpse, which at the blow from his
weapon had been petrified into stone, and set it up in a conspicuous
place, as a monument of his strength and of the victory he had won
over his redoubtable foes, the mountain giants.

The Worship of Thor

Thor's name has been given to many of the places he was wont to
frequent, such as the principal harbour of the Faroe Islands, and to
families which claim to be descended from him. It is still extant
in such names as Thunderhill in Surrey, and in the family names of
Thorburn and Thorwaldsen, but is most conspicuous in the name of one
of the days of the week, Thor's day or Thursday.

"Over the whole earth
Still is it Thor's day!"

Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).

Thor was considered a pre-eminently benevolent deity, and it was for
that reason that he was so widely worshipped and that temples to his
worship arose at Moeri, Hlader, Godey, Gothland, Upsala, and other
places, where the people never failed to invoke him for a favourable
year at Yule-tide, his principal festival. It was customary on this
occasion to burn a great log of oak, his sacred tree, as an emblem of
the warmth and light of summer, which