Utgarda-Loki- Norse GiantGiant"King of Útgarðr"

The Road to Útgarðr

Thor, Loki, Þjálfi, and Röskva traveled east into Jötunheimr, as Snorri tells it in the Gylfaginning. On the way they sheltered in what seemed a great hall, only to discover at dawn that they had slept inside the glove of a giant called Skrýmir. Thor struck the sleeping giant three times with Mjölnir during the night. Skrýmir woke each time and asked if a leaf had fallen on him. The blows had been redirected into a mountainside, carving deep valleys into the rock.

Skrýmir pointed them toward Útgarðr and disappeared. When they reached the fortress, the giant who sat on the throne called himself Útgarða-Loki and looked down at the travelers with amusement.

The Contests

Útgarða-Loki mocked them as small and dared them to prove their worth. Loki boasted of his speed at eating, and was set against a figure called Logi. Both tore through a trough of meat from opposite ends, but where Loki stripped the bones clean, Logi devoured meat, bones, and the wooden trough itself. Þjálfi, the swiftest runner among mortals, raced a young man called Hugi and lost three times without coming close.

Then Útgarða-Loki turned to Thor. He set a drinking horn before him and said a good drinker could empty it in one draught. Thor drank three times, each pull long and desperate, and the level barely seemed to drop. Next, Útgarða-Loki asked him to lift a grey cat from the floor. Thor heaved with all his strength and managed to raise one paw. The giants in the hall went quiet. Finally, Thor was matched against an old woman named Elli. She forced him to one knee.

Thor had failed every test. He sat in silence.

The Vanishing

The next morning Útgarða-Loki walked them to the gate and told them the truth. Logi had been wildfire. Hugi had been thought. The drinking horn's far end opened into the ocean, and Thor had lowered the sea itself. The grey cat was Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, and the giants had watched in terror as Thor nearly hauled it from the deep. Elli was Old Age, which no living thing defeats.

Thor reached for Mjölnir. But Útgarðr, its king, and every giant in it had already vanished. Where the fortress had stood, there was only an open field.