Thor's Visit to Utgard-Loki (Campfire Story)

Of all the gods of the North, the strongest was THOR, god of thunder. He had a red beard, a terrible temper, and a hammer named Mjolnir that could flatten a mountain. And THOR knew he was the strongest. Everybody knew it. He told them often.

One day THOR decided to march into Jotunheim, the land of the GIANTS, and show them who was boss. Along for the trip came LOKI, the trickster god, who was always hungry and always up to something. With them came a farm boy named Thialfi, the fastest runner in all the world of men.

They walked all day through a dark forest, and at nightfall they found a strange, empty hall with a wide-open doorway and a little side room. They slept inside. In the middle of the night the ground shook, and in the morning they found out why. Lying in the woods, snoring like an avalanche, was the biggest of all the GIANTS. And the hall they'd slept in? It was his glove. The little side room was the thumb.

The giant woke, yawned, and said his name was Skrymir. He offered to carry their food in his bag along with his own, and that night he tied the bag shut and went to sleep. THOR was hungry, so he tried to untie the knot. He pulled. He tugged. He couldn't loosen it one bit.

That made THOR furious. He swung his hammer and hit Skrymir right on the head. The giant opened one eye. 'Did a leaf fall on me?' he said, and went back to sleep. THOR hit him again, harder. 'Was that an acorn?' Skrymir mumbled. THOR hit him a third time, with all his might. Skrymir sat up and rubbed his cheek. 'Birds must be dropping twigs on me,' he said. 'Oh well. Good morning!'

At last they came to the fortress of Utgard-Loki, king of the GIANTS. Its walls were so tall they had to bend their heads back until their necks cracked to see the top. Inside, hundreds of GIANTS sat at long tables, and the king smiled down at them. 'So this little fellow is the mighty THOR? Nobody stays here unless he's the best at something. What can you do?'

LOKI spoke up first. 'Nobody can eat faster than me!' So the king called for a giant named Logi, and they set a long wooden trough full of meat between them. LOKI started at one end and Logi at the other, and they met exactly in the middle. But LOKI had eaten only the meat. Logi had eaten the meat, the bones, and his half of the trough. LOKI lost.

Then Thialfi raced a slim young giant named Hugi. Thialfi ran like the wind. But every time, Hugi was already at the finish line, turning around to wave at him. Thialfi lost.

'Now for the mighty THOR,' said the king, and he handed Thor a long drinking horn. 'A good drinker empties it in one gulp. A poor one, in three.' THOR drank and drank until his eyes watered. When he looked, the horn was barely lower than when he started. He drank again, and again. The horn was only a little less full.

'Hmm,' said the king. 'Maybe something easier. Our little children like to lift my cat.' A big gray cat padded out. THOR put his hands under its belly and heaved. The cat arched its back higher, and higher, and higher, until at last THOR managed to lift one paw off the floor.

'Well,' said the king, 'perhaps you could wrestle my old nurse, Elli.' In hobbled a tiny, wrinkled old woman with a cane. THOR grabbed her, but the harder he pushed, the firmer she stood. Slowly, slowly, she forced the god of thunder down onto one knee.

THOR had never been so embarrassed in his life. The next morning the king walked them to the edge of his land. And there, where no other GIANTS could hear, he told them the truth.

'I was Skrymir,' he said. 'I tied that food bag with iron wire, and you nearly broke it anyway. When you swung your hammer, I put a mountain in the way. Look over there.' Far off stood a mountain with three deep, square valleys punched into it. 'Logi, who ate against LOKI, was fire itself, and fire eats everything. Hugi, who raced Thialfi, was my own thought, and nothing is faster than thought.'

'And the horn?' asked THOR.

'The other end of that horn was dipped in the ocean,' said the king. 'Go look at the shore. You drank so much that the sea went down, and that's why the tide goes out to this day. The cat was the World Serpent, who coils around the whole earth, and you lifted it nearly to the sky. And old Elli was Old Age, who beats everyone in the end. You held her off longer than anyone ever has.' He shivered. 'You are far too strong, THOR. Please don't ever come back.'

THOR raised his hammer in a rage. But the king and his fortress vanished like mist, and the three travelers stood alone in an empty field. THOR stomped all the way home, grumbling. LOKI laughed the whole way.

Storyteller tips: teach the three cues before you start, and keep the giants' stomp big. The fun is in the contests, so slow down for each one and let the audience feel Thor's frustration. Save the king's explanation for the very end, and let the "aha" land one trick at a time.

Retold from the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, written in Iceland around 1220. The ocean tide is the original explanation in the myth.