Thor in Skaldskaparmal

Thor in Skaldskaparmál

Thor's origin, names, titles, and descriptive kennings from
Anthony Faulkes' translation of the Prose Edda.

And a selection of Thor tales , including Thor's battles with Hrungnir and Geirroð, about Aurvandil, and the Treasures of the Gods, including Sif's hair and the origin of Thor's hammer.

From Jean I. Young's
translation of the Prose Edda.

Back to Thor Texts Index

How shall Thor be referred to?
By calling him son of Odin and Iord, father of Magni and Modi and Thrud,
husband of Sif, stepfather of Ull;
ruler and owner of Mjollnir and the girdle of might, of Bilskirnir,
defender of Asgard, Midgard,
enemy and slayer of giants and troll-wives,
killer of Hrungnir, Geirrod, Thrivaldi,
lord of Thialfi and Roskva,
enemy of the Midgard serpent,
foster-son of Vingnir and Hlora.

The poet Bragi said this:

"Vidrir's (Odin's) heir's (Thor's) linke lay by no means slack on Eynaefir's ski (boat) when Iormungand uncoiled on the sand."

Olvir Hnufa said this:

"The encircler of all lands (Midgard Serpent) and Iord's son became violent."

And as Eystein Valdason said:

"Thrud's father looked with piercing eyes on steep-way's (land's) ring (Midgard Serpent) until red-fish's dwelling (sea) surged over the boat."

Eystein also said:

"Sif's beloved quickly brought out his fishing gear with the old fellow. We can stir Hrimnir's (giant's) horn-flow (mead)."

And he also said:

"The coal-fish of the earth (Midgard Serpent) responded thus, that Ull's relative's (Thor's) fists banged out on the gunwale; broad planks pushed forward."

Bragi said this:

"Oflugbardi's terrifier (Thor) lifted his hammer in his right hand when he recognized the coal-fish that bounds all lands (the Midgard Serpent)."

Gamli said this:

"While Bilskirnir's lord, who never nursed treachery in his heart, did quickly destroy the sea-bed-fish (Midgard Serpent) with gorge-whale's (giant's) bane (Miollnir)."

Thorbiorn Disarskald said this:

"Thor has with Ygg's (Odin's) angels (the Æsir) defended Asgard with might"

Bragi said this:

"And the ugly ring (serpent) of the side-oared ship's road (sea) stared up spitefully at Hrungnir's skull-splitter."

Brgi also said:

"Well have you, cleaver apart of Thrivaldi's nine heads, held back your steeds with notorious giant-feast drinker (Thrym=thunder)."

Eilif said this:

"The oppressor (Thor) of the kinfolk (trolls) of evening-faring women (troll-wives) yawned with his arm's mouth (fist) over the heavy red lump of tong-weed (iron)."

Bragi said this:

"The stockily built stumpy one (Hymir) is said to have thought tremendous danger in the goat-possessor's (Thor's) enormous heavy haul"

Ulf said this:

"The most mighty fell-Gaut's (giant's) feller made his fist crash on the reed-bed-bone (rock) frequenter's (giant's) ear. A mighty hurt was that."

Ulf also said:

"Vidgymnir of Vimur's ford struck the ear-bed (head) from the shining snake by the waves. Within have appeared these motifs."

Here he is called giant of Vimur's ford. Vimur is the name of a river that Thor waqded when he was on his way to Geirrod's courts. And Vetrlidi said this:

"You broke Leikn's bones, you pounded Thrivaldi, you cast down Starkad, you stood over the dead Gialp."

And Thorbiorn Disarskald said this:

"There was a clang on Keila's crown, you broke Kiallandi completely, before that you slew Lut and Leidi, you made Buseyra bleed, you halted Hengiankiapta, Hyrrokkin died previously, yet was the dusky Svivor's life taken earlier."

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Thor is called Atli and Asabrag. He is Ennilang and Eindridi, Biorn, Hlorridi and Hardveur, Vingthor, Sonnung, Veud and Rym.
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Everyman edition of the Edda by Snorri Sturlusson, 1996 reprint
J. M. Dent
Orion Publishing Group
Orion House,
5 Upper St Martin's Lane,
London WC2H 9EA
and
Charles E. Tuttle Co. Inc.
28 South Main Street,
Rutland, Vermont 05701
ISBN 0 460 87616 3
Includes introduction, text summaries, indees and chronology of early Icelandic literature.
Translated and edited by Anthony Faulkes

Purchase the Faulkes translation of Snorra Edda (the Prose Edda)

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Thor's Battle with Hrungnir-

Bragi told Ægir that Thór had once gone to the east to fight trolls, when Óðin rode Sleipnir into Giantland and came to the giant called Hrungnir. Hrungnir asked who the man was in the golden helmet who was riding through the air and over the sea, adding that he had a remarkably fine horse. Óðin replied that he would wager his head its equal was not to be found in Giantland. Hrungnir said that Sleipnir was a fine horse, but maintained that he possessed one called Gold-mane that could step out much better, and losing his temper he sprang on to his mount and galloped after Oðin, intending to pay him out for his big talk. Óðin galloped on so hard that he was on the other side of a hill on the horizon in no time, but Hrungnir was in such a towering rage that, before he knew where he was, he was inside the gate of Asgarð. When he arrived at the door of the hall, the Æsir invited him in to drink: with them. He went into the hall and asked to be served with drink. The beakers Thór was accustomed to drink from were brought to him and Hrungnir tossed off both. When he was drunk, big words were not in short supply; he declared that he would pick up Valhalla and carry it into Giant-land, sink Asgarð in the sea and kill all the gods except Freyja and Sif whom he would carry off home with him. Then Freyja went to pour out more ale for him and he declared he would drink up all the Æsir had. When the Asir were tired of his big talk, however, they summoned Thór. At once Thór came into the hall in a fury with his hammer raised aloft and asking on whose authority sly devils of giants were drinking there, and under whose safe-conduct Hrungnir was inside Valhalla, and why Freyja was waiting on him, as if it were a banquet of the gods. Hrungnir looking at Thór in no friendly manner answered that Óðin had invited him to drink with him, and that he was there under his safe-conduct. Thór declared that Hrungnir would be sorry for this invitation before he left. Hrungnir said that it would not enhance Thór's reputation to kill him unarmed as he was, and that it would be a greater test of courage if he dared to fight him on the frontier at Grjótúnagarðar (stone fence house). 'I've been a great fool', he added, 'to leave my shield and hone at home; if I had my weapons we should fight a duel now. On the other hand, I pronounce you dastard if you are intending to kill me unarmed.' No one had ever challenged Thór to a duel before, so he would not on any account fail to meet Hrungnir in single combat. Hrungnir went off on his way home galloping furiously until he reached Giantland. This expedition of his and the fact that he had arranged to meet Thór won him great fame amongst the giants. They felt that it mattered a good deal which of them should prove victorious; they could expect the worst from Thór if Hrungnir perished, for he was strongest of them.

Then the giants made a man of clay at Grjótúnagarðar. He was nine leagues high and three broad under his armpits and they could not get a heart large enough to fit him, until they took a mare's, and this was not steady in him when Thór arrived. Hrungmr's heart is famous. It was of hard stone and sharp-edged and three-cornered like the runic character known as 'Hrungnir's heart' which has since been made that way. His head, too, was of stone, also the broad, stout shield which he held before him while he was standing at Gjótúnagarðar waiting for Thór. As weapon of attack he had a hone poised on his shoulder and he looked an ugly customer. At his side stood the clay giant called Mist Calf, and it was terrified. It is said that it made water when it saw Thór.

Thór went to the duelling ground, and with him Thjálfi. Then Thjálfí ran forward to where Hrungnir was standing and told him: 'You're taking a risk the way you're standing, giant, with your shield in front of you; Thór has seen you. Put it down on the ground beneath you for he will come at you from below.'

Hrungnir shoved his shield under his feet and stood on it, grasping the hone with both hands. At once he saw flashes of lightning and heard great claps of thunder; he was seeing Thór in his divine wrath. (The god) bore down on him at tremendous speed and brandishing his hammer hurled it at Hrungnir from a great distance. Hrungnir lifted up the hone in both hands and flung it against the hammer, and the hone colliding with it in mid-air was smashed to pieces. One part of it fell to the ground and all hone quarries have come from those fragments. The other pierced Thór's head so that he fell forward on the earth. The hammer Mjöllnir, however, struck Hrungnir in the middle of his head shivering his skull into small fragments, and he fell prone across Thór with one leg over Thór's neck. Thjálfi attacked Mist Calf and he fell with little renown.

Then Thjálfi went up to Thór to lift Hrungnir's leg off him, but he could not move it at all. When they heard that Thór was down, all the Asir went up to him to lift off the leg, but they were unable to do anything. After that Magni, the son of Thór and Járnsaxa (Iron cutlass, a giantess), came up to them - he was three years old then -and he flung Hrungnir's leg off Thór saying: 'What a pity I didn't come sooner, father; I reckon I'd have struck the giant dead with my bare fist if I had met him.' Thór stood up then and gave his son a fine welcome saying he would be a strong man:

'And', said he, 'I'll give you the horse Gold-mane' - which Hrungnir had had. Óðin spoke then declaring that Thór was doing wrong to give a fme horse like that to the son of a giantess instead of to his own father.

-Of Aurvandil-

Thór went home to Thrúðvangar with the hone stuck in his head. Then the sibyl called Gróa, wife of Aurvandil the Brave, came to him and recited spells over Thór until the hone worked loose. When Thór noticed that and felt that there was a chance of her getting it out, he wanted to reward Gróa for healing him and to make her happy. He told her the (good) news that he had waded south over Élivágar carrying Aurvandil on his back in a basket out of Giantland in the north, and, in proof of this, that one of his toes had stuck out of the basket and been frozen, so Thór had broken it off and thrown it up into the sky and made of it the star called Aurvandil's Toe. Thór added that it would not be long before Aurvandil came home. Gróa was so delighted, however, that she forgot her spells, and the hone did not work any looser; it is still in Thór's head. Hones should never be thrown across the floor as, in that case, the hone is moved that is stuck in Thór's head.

Thjóðólf of Hvin has made up a poem about this story in Haustlöng. (autumn long) Then Ægir said: 'I've been thinking that Hrungnir was a powerful person. Did Thór perform any more great exploits when he was fighting trolls?.'

-Thor's Battle with Geirröð-

Then Bragi answered: 'The story of Thór's journey to Geirröðargarðar is well worth the telling. On that occasion he had neither the hammer Mjöllnir nor the belt of strength nor the iron gauntlets, and Loki who went with him was to blame for that. It had happened once to Loki, when he was flying about amusing himself in Frigg's falcon coat, that out of curiosity he flew into Geirröð's grounds. He saw there a great hall, and settled on a window4edge and looked in. Geirröð, however, caught sight of him and ordered the bird to be captured and brought to him. The messenger found it hard to climb up the wall of the hall; it was so high. Loki was delighted that the man had such difficulty in approaching him and had no intention of flying away, until he had completed the tricky ascent. When the man reached out for him, he spread his wings for flight, bracing his feet but found them caught. Then Loki was seized and brought before giant Geirröð and, when the giant saw his eyes, he suspected that they were a man's and bade him answer him, but Loki kept silent. Then Geirrbð shut Loki up in a chest and starved him there for three months. When Geirröð took him out then and required him to speak, Loki told who he was and promised Geirröð on oath to bring Thór into Geirröð's stronghold without either hammer or belt of strength.

'Thór came to stay with a giantess called Gríð, the mother of Víðar the Silent. She told Thór the truth about giant Geirröð, that he was as cunning as a fox and a dangerous enemy. She lent him her belt of strength and iron gloves and her staff which is called Gríðs stick.

'Thór travelled until he reached the Vimur which is a very big river. He put on the belt of strength and braced himself against the current by leaning on Gríð's stick while Loki clung to the belt. When Thór reached midstream, the water rose so that it was breaking over his shoulders. Then Thór said this:

"Vimur, don't wax now
I happen to be wading through you on my way to the giants;
you know that if you do, so will my strength divine,
until it reaches up as high as heaven! "

Then Thór looked up a rocky ravine and saw Geirröð's daughter, Gjálp, standing there astride the river, and it was she who was causing it to swell. He picked up a great boulder from the river and flung it at her with the words: "A river must be dammed at its fountain-head!" He did not miss what he aimed at. At that moment he was carried ashore and catching hold of a rowan tree climbed in this way out of the river. This is why we say that the rowan is Thór's salvation.

'When Thór came to Geirröð, he and his companions were shown into a goat-shed for a lodging, with a single chair for a seat, on which Thór sat down. He then became aware that. the chair was moving up to the roof with him. He thrust Gríð's stick against the roof, pushing himself down hard into the chair. There was a great crash accompanied by loud screarning. Geirröð's two daughters, Gjálp and Greip, had been under the chair and he had broken both their backs. Then Geirröð had Thór called into the hall to compete with him in games of skill. There were huge fires down the whole length of the hall and, when Thór came face to face with Geirröð, Geirröð picked up a red-hot bolt of iron with a pair of tongs and threw it at him. Thór, however, caught it in mid-air with his iron gauntlets and Geirröð ran behind an iron pillar for safety. Thór threw the bolt and it went through the pillar and through Geirröð and through the wall and so outside and into the earth.’

'Why is gold called Sif's hair?.'

-Of Sif's Hair and the Treasures of the Gods-

'Once, for a joke, Loki, Laufey's son, cut off all Sif's hair, but when Thór got to know this he seized Loki and would have broken every bone in his body, had he not sworn to persuade the dark elves to make hair from gold for Sif that would grow like other hair. After that Loki went to the dwarfs called the sons of Ívaldi, and they made the hair and Skiðlaðnir and the spear that Óðin had, which is called Gungnir. Then Loki wagered his head with a dwarf called Brokk that his brother Eitri would not be able to make three other treasures as fine as these. When they came to the smithy, Eitri laid a pigskin in the furnace and told his brother Brokk to work the bellows and not to stop until he had taken what he had put there out of the forge. No sooner had he left the smithy than a fly settled on Brokk's hand and stung him, as he was working the bellows, but he kept them going as before, until the smith took the object from the forge - and there was a boar with bristles of gold.

'Next he put gold in the furnace and told him to blow without stopping until he returned. He went away, and then the fly came and settled on Brokk's neck, stinging him twice as badly as before. He went on blowing, however, until the smith took from the forge the gold ring called Draupnir.

'Then he put iron in the furnace and told him to blow, and said that everything would be spoiled if the bellows stopped working. This time the fly settled between his eyes and stung him on the eyelids so that the blood ran into his eyes and he could not see at all. He stopped the bellows and as quickly as possible brushed the fly away with one hand. At that moment the smith came in and said that everything in the furnace had been within an ace of being spoiled. Then he took from the forge a hammer and gave all the treasures to his brother Brokk, telling him to take them to Asgarð to settle the wager.

'When he and Loki brought out their treasures, the Æsir sat down on their thrones and the verdict given by Óðin, Thór and Frey was to stand good. Loki then gave Óðin the spear, Gungnir; Thór, the hair Sif was to have; and Frey, Skiðblaðnir, and he explained what sort of treasures they were: the spear never missed its mark, the hair would grow to her skin as soon as it was put on Sif's head, and Skiðblaðnir got a breeze to take it where it had to go as soon as its sail was hoisted, and it could be folded together like a cloth and carried in one's pouch, if so desired. Then Brokk produced his treasures. He gave Óðin the ring, saying that every ninth night eight others as heavy as itself would drop from it. To Frey he gave the boar, saying that it could run through the air and over the sea day or night faster than any horse, and that no matter how gloomy it might be at night or in the wodd of darkness, it would always be brilliantly light where it was travelling; its bristles shone so. Then he gave the hammer to Thór and said that he could hit anything that was in his way with it as hard as he could and the hammer would never break; and if he hurled it at anything he would never lose it - no matter how far it was flung it would return to his hand; also, if he desired, it could become so small that he could keep it in his shirt. It had, however, one fault; it was rather short in the handle.

'The decision of the gods was that the hammer was the most valuable of all the treasures and the best defence against the frost ogres, and they decided that the dwarf had won the wager. Then Loki offered to redeem his head but the dwarf said that he could not expect to do that. "Catch me, then!" said Loki, and when the dwarf tried to seize him he was already a long way off Loki had shoes in which he could run through the air and over the sea. Then the dwarf asked Thór to catch him and he did so. The dwarf wanted to cut off his head, but Loki said he had a claim on his head but not his neck. The dwarf took a thong and a knife and tried to pierce holes in Loki's lips to sew them up, but the knife would not cut. Then he said that his brother's awl would be better and, as soon as he had mentioned it, there it was, and it pierced the lips. He sewed up the mouth, and (Loki) tore the thong out through the holes. The thong with which Loki's mouth was sewn up is called Vartari.'

Translated by Jean I. Young
Cambridge, England:
Bowes & Bowes, 1954.

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