Thjazi- Norse GiantGiant

The Abduction of Iðunn

Odin, Loki, and Hœnir were traveling and tried to roast an ox, but the fire would not cook the meat. A great eagle sat in the oak above them and offered to let the fire work if the three would give him his fill. They agreed. The eagle dropped from the branch and seized the shoulders and both haunches. Loki grabbed a staff and struck at the bird, but the staff stuck fast to the eagle's body, and Loki's hands stuck fast to the staff. The eagle rose. Loki dangled beneath it, battered against rocks and dragged through treetops, until he screamed for mercy.

The eagle was Þjazi. He would release Loki on one condition: bring Iðunn and her apples outside Ásgarðr's walls. Loki agreed. Back in Ásgarðr, he told Iðunn he had found apples in the forest that rivaled hers and led her beyond the gates. Þjazi swooped down in eagle form and carried her to his mountain hall Þrymheimr. Without the apples, the gods began to age. Their hair greyed. Their skin loosened. The Skáldskaparmál records the whole episode.

The Rescue and Þjazi's Death

The gods discovered Loki's part in the abduction and threatened him until he agreed to retrieve Iðunn. He borrowed Freyja's falcon cloak, flew to Þrymheimr, turned Iðunn into a nut, and carried her back toward Ásgarðr in his talons.

Þjazi saw the falcon fleeing and gave chase in eagle form. The gods watched from the walls: a small falcon racing ahead, a vast eagle closing behind. They piled wood shavings inside the ramparts and waited. The moment Loki cleared the wall, they lit the pile. Þjazi could not stop. His feathers caught fire, and he crashed burning inside Ásgarðr. The gods killed him where he fell.

Skaði's Price

Þjazi was the son of the giant Allvaldi, whose gold hoard was so large his sons divided it by each taking a mouthful. That image became a kenning: gold as "the mouthful of Þjazi's kin."

His daughter Skaði came to Ásgarðr in full armour to demand compensation for her father's death. The gods offered her a husband chosen from among them and placed Þjazi's eyes in the sky as two stars. The Grímnismál names his hall Þrymheimr, standing in the mountains. Skaði inherited it and preferred its frozen peaks to the seaside Nóatún of her husband Njörðr.