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Þökk

The giantess in a cave who alone refused to weep Baldr out of Hel, so that he had to stay with the dead; Snorri says men believed she was Loki in disguise.

Þökk is the giantess who kept Baldr in Hel. Hel had promised to release him if everything in the world, living and dead, wept for him. The gods sent messengers everywhere, and men, animals, earth, stones, trees and metals all wept. On the way home the messengers found a giantess sitting in a cave, who "called herself Thökk." Asked to weep, she answered in verse:

Thökk will weepwaterless tearsFor Baldr's bale-fare;Living or dead,I loved not the churl's son;Let Hel hold to that she hath!Gylfaginning 49

Snorri ends with a report, not a statement: "men deem" she was Loki Gylfaginning 49. Loki's disguise as a woman to trick Frigg earlier in the same story makes the identification natural, and Snorri's next chapter treats Loki as guilty of Baldr's not being redeemed Gylfaginning 50. Þökk is not mentioned in the Poetic Edda; this short scene in Gylfaginning is the only source.

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.

they found, in a certain cave, where a giantess sat: she called herself Thökk
Gylfaginning 49 The messengers find the one being that has not wept.
Thökk will weep waterless tears For Baldr's bale-fare; Living or dead, I loved not the churl's son; Let Hel hold to that she hath!
Gylfaginning 49 Her refusal, in verse, which keeps Baldr in Hel.
And men deem that she who was there was Loki Laufeyarson, who hath wrought most ill among the Æsir.
Gylfaginning 49 Snorri reports the belief that she was Loki.

Myths with Þökk

Hermóðr's ride to Hel After Baldr's death Hermóðr rides Sleipnir nine nights down to Hel to ransom his brother. Hel agrees to let Baldr go if everything in the world weeps for him; one giantess in a cave will not.

Related

Baldr Odin and Frigg's son, the brightest and best-loved of the gods. His death by a mistletoe dart, thrown by his blind brother Höðr, is the first great loss on the road to Ragnarök. Loki The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök. Hel Loki's daughter by Angrboða, half dark and half flesh-coloured, whom Odin cast down to rule the dead in Niflheim; she holds Baldr and sets the price of his return. Hermóðr Odin's son who rode Sleipnir for nine nights down to Hel to ask for his brother Baldr's release, and brought back Hel's condition: that all the world must weep. Frigg Odin's wife and the foremost of the goddesses: she knows the fates of all but never speaks them, and her failed attempt to protect her son Baldr is the hinge of Norse myth.