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giant

Útgarða-Loki

The giant king of Útgarðr who beats Thor and his companions in a series of contests by illusion, then admits the truth: they nearly destroyed him.

Thor bei Skrymir
Thor bei Skrymir, Emil Doepler (1905). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Útgarða-Loki rules the giant stronghold of Útgarðr and is the only enemy in the myths who defeats Thor outright, though only by trickery. The full story is in Gylfaginning Gylfaginning 44-47 (see Thor's journey to Útgarða-Loki).

The giant in the forest

On the way east, Thor, Loki, Þjálfi and Röskva shelter for the night in a hall with a side-room, and wake to find it was the glove of a sleeping giant who calls himself Skrýmir Gylfaginning 45. Thor cannot undo the knots on Skrýmir's food-bag, and three hammer blows to the giant's head seem to him like a falling leaf, an acorn and bird-droppings. Skrýmir then warns them that "ye shall see taller men, if ye come into Útgardr" Gylfaginning 45.

The contests

In the hall Útgarða-Loki calls Thor a "toddler" Gylfaginning 46 and sets the guests to prove themselves. Loki loses an eating match to Logi; Þjálfi loses three races to a boy named Hugi. Thor cannot empty a drinking horn in three draughts, can lift the king's grey cat only enough to raise one paw, and is forced down on one knee by the king's old nurse Elli Gylfaginning 46.

The truth

Next morning, outside the walls, the king tells them everything Gylfaginning 47. He was Skrýmir. The food-bag was bound with iron, and he dodged the hammer blows by putting a mountain in their way, which now has three deep valleys. Logi was wildfire, Hugi was thought, the horn's end lay in the sea (which is why the tides ebb), the cat was the Midgard Serpent, and Elli was Old Age. Everyone had been terrified. Thor raises his hammer, but the king and his castle have vanished Gylfaginning 47.

That cat was not as it appeared to thee: it was the Midgard SerpentGylfaginning 47

Snorri frames the tale with care. His speaker Hárr is unwilling to tell of anything that overmatched Thor Gylfaginning 44, and the next chapter has Thor go fishing for the Serpent to settle the score Gylfaginning 48.

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.

he looked at them in his own good time, and smiled scornfully over his teeth, and said: 'It is late to ask tidings of a long journey; or is it otherwise than I think: that this toddler is Öku-Thor?
Gylfaginning 46 Útgarða-Loki greets Thor with mockery.
But I made ready against thee eye-illusions; and I came upon you the first time in the wood
Gylfaginning 47 At parting the king reveals that he was also Skrýmir, the giant in the forest.
the other end of the horn was out in the sea, but thou didst not perceive it
Gylfaginning 47 Every contest was a trick: the drinking horn was joined to the sea, the cat was the Midgard Serpent, the old woman was Old Age.
In the thumb of a glove didst thou hide, thou great one, And there forgot thou wast Thor.
Lokasenna 60 Loki taunts Thor with the glove episode, so the story was known to the poets too.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Snorri is the only full source. Lokasenna names the glove giant Skrýmir (Lokasenna 62), but Hárbarðsljóð seems to tell the same glove story with a giant called Fjalar (Hárbarðsljóð 26).
  • The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus has a giant called Utgarthilocus, but his story is quite different.

Myths with Útgarða-Loki

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. Thor's journey to Útgarða-Loki Thor travels east with Loki, Þjálfi and Röskva, sleeps in a giant's glove, and loses every contest in the hall of Útgarða-Loki: to fire, to thought, to the sea, to the World Serpent and to old age. Only at parting does he learn he was tricked.

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. 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. Þjálfi and Röskva Þjálfi ok Röskva A farmer's son and daughter whom Thor takes as servants after Þjálfi cracks a goat's bone. Þjálfi, swiftest of men, goes with Thor against Útgarða-Loki, Hrungnir and Geirröðr. Logi Útgarða-Loki's man who beats Loki in an eating contest by devouring meat, bones and trough together, because he is wildfire itself. Elli Útgarða-Loki's old nurse, who brings Thor down on one knee in a wrestling match because she is Old Age, which no one can withstand. Útgarðr The castle of the giant Útgarða-Loki, far to the east beyond the sea, so huge that Thor's party must crane their necks to see over it. It vanishes when Thor tries to smash it. 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. 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.