Thrym- Norse GiantGiant"King of the Giants"
Also known as: Þrymr and Thrymr
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Description
He stole Mjölnir and buried it eight leagues deep, demanding Freyja herself as his bride. When a veiled figure arrived at the wedding feast, Þrymr never suspected the burning eyes beneath the bridal veil belonged to Thor — not until the hammer was laid in the bride's lap.
Mythology & Lore
The Theft of Mjölnir
In the Þrymskviða, Thor wakes to find Mjölnir gone. The one weapon that kept Asgard safe from giants has vanished while he slept. He sends Loki to find it.
Loki borrows Freyja's falcon cloak and flies to Jötunheim. He finds Þrymr sitting on a burial mound, braiding gold collars for his dogs and trimming the manes of his horses. The giant king admits to the theft freely: he has buried Mjölnir eight leagues beneath the earth, and no one will see it again unless the gods send him Freyja as his bride.
The Impossible Demand
Loki carries the news back, and the gods gather. Without Mjölnir, Asgard lies open. They approach Freyja with the proposal. She breathes so hard in fury that her necklace Brísingamen bursts from her neck. She will not go to Jötunheim.
The impasse holds until Heimdall proposes an alternative: let Thor go to Jötunheim disguised as Freyja, veiled and wearing the necklace, with Loki as his maidservant. Thor refuses. The humiliation is too much. But the gods remind him what happens to Asgard without the hammer. He agrees.
The Wedding Feast
Þrymr welcomes his "bride" with a great feast. The disguise holds poorly. The veiled figure devours an entire ox and eight salmon, then drains three casks of mead. Þrymr stares. What bride eats like this?
Loki, quick beside him, explains that Freyja has not eaten for eight days, so desperate was she to reach Jötunheim. The giant accepts it. But when Þrymr lifts the veil to kiss his bride, he sees eyes blazing with a heat no lovesick woman ever carried. He stumbles back. Loki speaks again: Freyja has not slept for eight nights. Her eyes burn from longing and exhaustion.
Þrymr believes him.
The Hammer Returned
Þrymr calls for Mjölnir to hallow the bride, as was custom in Norse weddings. The hammer is laid in the bride's lap. Thor's heart laughs within him. He seizes the handle, and the veil falls.
Þrymr dies first, struck by the weapon he stole. His sister, who had come forward to ask for bridal gifts, receives hammer blows instead of gold rings. Every giant at the feast follows. Thor walks out of Jötunheim with Mjölnir in hand, and no source records Þrymr's name in any other tale.