One of these, the adventure to the house of Thrym,[120] is to recover Thor’s hammer, which has been stolen by the giant and hidden many miles beneath the earth. A spy is sent from Asgard (the city of the gods) into Jötunheim, and brings back word that Thrym will not give up his prize unless Freyja--goddess of Spring and Beauty--be given to him as his bride; and at first Thor proposes this alternative to Freyja herself, little, as may be guessed, to her satisfaction.
‘Wroth was Freyja and with fury fumed, All the Æsir’s hall under her trembled; Broken flew the famed Brisinga necklace.’[121]
But the wily Loki settles the difficulty. Thor shall to Jötunheim clad in Freyja’s weeds,
‘Let by his side, keys jingle, and a neat coif set on his head.’
So taking Loki with him clad as a serving-maid, the god fares to Thrym’s house, as though he were the looked-for bride. It must, one would suppose, have been an anxious time for Thor and Loki, while unarmed they sate in the hall of the giant; for the hero could not avoid raising some suspicions by his unwomanly appearance and demeanour. He alone devoured, we are told, an ox, eight salmon, ‘and all the sweetmeats women should have,’ and he drank eight ‘scalds’ of mead. Thrym naturally exclaimed that he never saw brides eat so greedily or drink so much mead. But the ‘all-crafty’ Loki sitting by, explained how this was owing to the hurry Freyja was in to behold her bridegroom, which left her no time to eat for the eight nights during which she had been journeying there. And so again when Thrym says--
‘Why are so piercing Freyja’s glances? Methinks that fire burns from her eyes,’
Loki explains that for the same reason she had not slept upon her journey; and the foolish, vain giant is gulled once more. At last the coveted prize, the hammer, was brought in to consecrate the marriage, and ‘Thor’s soul laughed in his breast, when the fierce-hearted his hammer knew. He slew Thrym, the Thursar’s (giant’s) lord, and the Jötun’s race crushed he utterly.’
At another time Thor engages Alvîs, ‘of the race of the Thursar,’[122] in conversation upon all manner of topics, concerning the names which different natural objects bear among men, among gods, among giants, and among dwarfs, until he guilefully keeps him above earth till after sunrise, which it is not possible for a dwarf or Jötun to do and live. So Alvîs bursts asunder.[123] This tale shows clearly enough how much Thor’s enemies are allied with darkness.