![]() To his shock, he saw what had caused the noises in the night, a vast giant, sleeping in the forest. Uneasy, Thor left the hall early in the morning and walked into the light. Their sleep was not easy, broken by loud roars, and tremors in the Earth. Door as wide as the walls, and possessed of many passages leading into it, the gods made camp for the night. When night fell once again on their journey, the travelers chanced upon a strange hall in the wilderness. Rounding on the family in fury, Thor took along Thjálfi on his journey as repayment. The god, however, soon noticed that one of his goats was lame in one leg, since its bone had been broken by the boy the night before. For the goats were no mere earthly goats, for at the Thunderer’s command, they returned to life, ready to serve their master once more. Waking next morning, Thor strides over to the remains of his loyal goats, and waves Mjöllnir – the famous hammer of Thor – over the bones. Asking that they spare the skins and bones, Thor and his company have their merry feast, although Thjálfi, the son of the host family, secretly snapped one of the goat’s bones so as to acquire the marrow. Taking pity on them, Thor slaughtered Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, the two goats which pulled the thunder god’s chariot through the sky. Unable to afford meat, the hosts offer a vegetable soup, not knowing that their guests were something more than the ordinary travelers. Coming late one night on the Earth to a lowly hut, the two gods were warmly received by a small family, noble in spirit yet desperately poor. Thor and Loki did one day take leave of Asgard for the towering heights of Útgarða, home to the King of the Giants amid the cruel wastelands of Jötunheim. Our story here is one such time when the gods made such a visit upon the Jötunn. The supremacy of the gods depended on this. There were times when the balance had to be restored, when the Jötunn needed to be shown their true place, for ever present was the looming prospect of Ragnarök, the day of all out war, when the Nine Worlds will be overturned with fire – a day which must be delayed at all costs. The harmony of the Nine Worlds depended on a delicate and fragile balance of power between the various races of the cosmos, a balance which the cruel Jötunn ever sought to overturn. Though the Aesir, or war gods, of Asgard and the Jötunn of Jötunheim (for more on these, please click here) were on occasion the most terrible of foes, there were also times when both god and giant turned their hands to means other than war to humiliate the other. ![]() Most famous of these deities is undoubtedly the son of Odin, the god of thunder and war - Thor. The Norse gods live, fight and die, and venture forth from Asgard to partake in splendid adventures. This is particularly true in the sagas of the Norse gods, who are not even truly immortal, remaining so only so long as they eat from the Blessed fruit – which on one occasion was hidden from them, with disastrous consequences. For the deities of the pagan religions, unlike the lone god of the Abrahamic faiths, are portrayed as far from perfect, and susceptible to very human faults. But at times the gods, too, are tested and their weaknesses revealed. The stories of mythology are rich with stories of the trials of men and heroes against mighty foes. ![]()
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