Thor and Geirrod

This story begins with one of the times when Loki got himself in trouble. He’d borrowed Freya’s falcon cloak and was flying around the Nine Worlds, doing spy duty for Odin. Somewhere in Jotunheim, however, he ended up taking a rest on the wall of a stone fortress. It belonged to a giant named Geirrod, who saw the falcon and suspected that something was up. Geirrod ordered a servant to climb the wall and grab the falcon. Loki saw the servant coming – it was a long and difficult climb – and sat there laughing internally, knowing that he could fly away as soon as the giant neared him.

However, Geirrod had a few spells of his own, and when Loki tried to fly away, he found his feet stuck fast to the stone wall. Screaming in outrage, he then found himself nabbed, popped into an iron cage, and brought before Geirrod. The old giant took one look at the falcon’s eyes and knew that this was no animal. He demanded that the spy identify himself, but Loki kept silent. Geirrod, knowing that he had the advantage, stuck the cage in a corner and refused to feed the hapless falcon.

After three months, Loki was starving and couldn’t take it any more, He told Geirrod who he was, and the angry giant made him swear an oath: he would be released and not die of starvation in the cage, but only if he would bring Thor to Geirrod’s place … without his hammer, magic belt, or gloves of iron. Loki agreed in order to save his life, but was already thinking of loopholes in his promise as he flew away.

Then it was just a matter of convincing Thor to leave Asgard and travel in Jotunheim without his hammer and other gear … which apparently wasn’t too hard, as Thor trusted Loki implicitly at this point in his life. Instead of leading him straight to Geirrod’s fortress, though, Loki stopped in at the home of another giantess, Grid – an old flame of Odin’s, and the mother of Vidar the god of Vengeance. Grid was a warrior, and sympathetic to Loki and Thor. Loki told her the problem – he’d promised to bring Thor without his hammer and other gear, but he hadn’t made any promises about not bringing him in with borrowed weapons! Grid immediately lent Thor her own belt of strength, gloves of iron, and a magical fighting staff.

Thor and Loki came to the river Vimur, which boundaried Geirrod’s land. Thor buckled on the belt and started swimming, with Loki holding fast to him. However, Geirrod had seen them coming, and sent his daughter to head them off. She started pissing into the river, making the water rise so high that Thor was almost washed away. He grabbed a huge boulder and lobbed it at the mouth of the river, damming it, and climbed out.

Arriving at Geirrod’s house, Thor and Loki were grudgingly welcomed and given accommodations in the goat-house. Inside was only a single chair; Thor sat down in it, and Geirrod’s daughters ran up and tried to lift the chair, slamming it into the ceiling in order to kill Thor. However, the Thunderer used his staff to push himself down and away from the roof, until there was a crack and a scream. Geirrod’s daughters had been broken beneath his weight.

Thor stormed into Geirrod’s hall, but Geirrod grabbed a pair of tongs and picked up a red-hot ingot. He flung it at Thor, but the Thunderer grabbed it with Grid’s iron gloves, and flung it back. Geirrod had hidden behind a pillar, but Thor threw the ingot so hard that it crashed through the pillar and through Geirrod, killing him and bringing down the wall.

Artwork by Daniel Moenster.