Seiðr Loom

giant

Hymir

The sea-giant who takes Thor fishing for the Midgard Serpent and owns the great kettle the gods need to brew ale; Hymiskviða makes him Týr's father.

Thor's Fishing
Thor's Fishing, W.G. Collingwood (1908). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Hymir is the giant of Thor's fishing trip, the story most often carved and painted from Norse myth. He appears in two versions that agree on the fishing and differ on almost everything else.

Hymiskviða

In the poem Hymiskviða the gods need a kettle to brew ale in Ægir's hall. Týr says his father Hymir, who lives "to the east of Elivagar … at the end of heaven", owns one "a mile in depth" Hymiskviða 5. Hymir's household is strange. His mother has nine hundred heads, and his wife, golden and kind, hides the visitors Hymiskviða 8-9. Hymir comes home with icicles rattling in his frozen beard, and his glance breaks a beam Hymiskviða 10 Hymiskviða 12. Thor eats two of his oxen at one sitting Hymiskviða 15.

The next day they row out. Hymir hauls up two whales at once; Thor baits his hook with an ox-head and draws up the Midgard Serpent, strikes it with his hammer, and it sinks back Hymiskviða 22-25. Hymir rows home sulking. He tests Thor once more with a cup that cannot be broken. Following the wife's advice, Thor smashes it against Hymir's skull, which is harder Hymiskviða 31-32. Thor walks off with the kettle on his head, then turns and kills the "many-headed" giants following Hymir Hymiskviða 36-37.

Snorri's version

Snorri drops the kettle and Týr. In Gylfaginning Thor goes alone, disguised as a youth, to get even for his humiliation by Útgarða-Loki Gylfaginning 48. Hymir mocks him as too small to be any use. When the Serpent comes up, Hymir "grew pale, became yellow", cut the line, and was knocked overboard by Thor's fist Gylfaginning 48.

Late to his home the misshapen Hymir,The giant harsh, from his hunting came;Hymiskviða 10

The fishing scene was popular long before the Eddas were written down. Skalds of the 9th and 10th centuries described it (Snorri quotes them Skáldskaparmál 4), and it is carved on the Altuna runestone in Sweden and the Gosforth fishing stone in England.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

There dwells to the east of Elivagar Hymir the wise at the end of heaven; A kettle my father fierce doth own
Hymiskviða 5 Týr tells Thor where to find a kettle big enough for the gods' ale: with his own father, Hymir.
The icicles rattled as in he came, For the fellow's chin-forest frozen was.
Hymiskviða 10 Hymir comes home from hunting with his beard frozen solid.
There gaped at the bait the foe of the gods, The girdler of all the earth beneath.
Hymiskviða 23 While Hymir catches two whales, Thor hooks the Midgard Serpent.
the giant fumbled for his fish-knife and hacked off Thor's line at the gunwale, and the Serpent sank down into the sea
Gylfaginning 48 In Snorri's version the terrified Hymir cuts the line and is knocked overboard.
Up on his head Sif's husband raised it, And about his heels the handles clattered.
Hymiskviða 35 Thor carries off Hymir's kettle.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

Myths with Hymir

Thor fishes for the World Serpent Sent to fetch a giant's brewing kettle, Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymir, baits his hook with an ox-head and hauls the Midgard Serpent up to the gunwale. The poem Hymiskvíða and Snorri tell it differently, and disagree on how it ended.

Related

Thor Þórr The thunder god, strongest of the Æsir: son of Odin and Earth, husband of Sif, and with his hammer Mjöllnir the gods' defender against the giants, until he dies killing the World Serpent. Týr The one-handed god of battle and courage, who put his hand in the wolf Fenrir's mouth as a pledge so that the gods could bind it, and lost the hand. Jörmungandr Loki's serpent son, thrown by Odin into the ocean, where it grew to encircle the whole earth; Thor's great enemy, whom he hooks once and kills at Ragnarök. Ægir The sea in person and the gods' brewer: his hall is where they feast, his wife is Rán and his nine daughters are the waves. Snorri also makes him the listener to whom Bragi tells the myths in Skáldskaparmál. Élivágar The icy, venomous rivers of the earliest world: the first giant grew from the venom that dripped from them, and later they mark the far border of the giants' land. Mjölnir Mjöllnir Thor's short-handled hammer, forged by the dwarf brothers Brokkr and Sindri: it never misses, always returns to his hand, kills giants, and hallows brides, pyres and the dead goats it brings back to life. The giants (jötnar) jötnar The giants of Norse myth: the oldest race in the world, descended from Ymir, wise and often wealthy, enemies of the gods yet their kin, their wives and their mothers.