So Loki was taken and brought before Geirrödr the giant; but when Geirrödr saw his eyes, he suspected that this might be a man, and bade him answer; but Loki was silent. Then Geirrödr shut Loki into a chest and starved him there three months. And now when Geirrödr took him out and commanded him to speak, Loki told who he was; and by way of ransom for his life he swore to Geirrödr with oaths that he would get Thor to come into Geirrödr's dwelling in such a fashion that he should have neither hammer nor Girdle of Might with him.

"Thor came to spend the night with that giantess who was called Grídr, mother of Vídarr the Silent. She told Thor the truth concerning Geirrödr, that he was a crafty giant and ill to deal with; and she lent him the Girdle of Might and iron gloves which she possessed, and her staff also, which was called Grídr's Rod. Then Thor proceeded to the river named Vimur, greatest of all rivers. There he girded himself with the Girdle of Might and braced firmly downstream with Grídr's Rod, and Loki held on behind by the Girdle of Might. When Thor came to mid-current, the river waxed so greatly that it broke high upon his shoulders. Then Thor sang this:

Wax thou not now, Vimur,
For I fain would wade thee

Into the Giants' garth:

Know thou, if thou waxest,

Then waxeth God-strength in me

As high up as the heaven.

"Then Thor saw Gjálp, daughter of Geirrödr, standing in certain ravines, one leg in each, spanning the river,

and she was causing the spate. Then Thor snatched up a great stone out of the river and cast it at her, saying these words: At its source should a river be stemmed.' Nor did he miss that at which he threw. In that moment he came to the shore and took hold of a rowan-clump, and so climbed out of the river; whence comes the saying that rowan is Thor's deliverance.

"Now when Thor came before Geirrödr, the companions were shown first into the goat-fold' for their entertainment, and there was one chair there for a seat, and Thor sat there. Then he became aware that the chair moved under him up toward the roof: he thrust Grídr's Rod up against the rafters and pushed back hard against the chair. Then there was a great crash, and screaming followed. Under the chair had been Geirrödr's daughters, Gjálp and Greip; and he had broken both their backs. Then Geirrödr had Thor called into the hall to play games. There were great fires the whole length of the hall. When Thor came up over against Geirrödr, then Geirrödr took up a glowing bar of iron with the tongs and cast it at Thor. Thor caught it with his iron gloves and raised the bar in the air, but Geirrödr leapt behind an iron pillar to save himself. Thor lifted up the bar and threw it, and it passed through the pillar and through Geirrödr and through the wall, and so on out, even into the earth. Eilífr Gudrúnarson has wrought verses on this story, in Thórsdrápa:

[The winding sea-snake's father

Did wile from home the slayer

1 So Cod. Reg. and Cod. Worm.; Cod. Upsal. and Cod. Hypn. read gesta hús =guest's house. Gering, Simrock, and Anderson prefer the latter reading. I have followed Jónsson in accepting geita hús.

Of the life of the gods' grim foemen;

(Ever was Loptr a liar)—

The never faithful Searcher

Of the heart of the fearless Thunderer Declared green ways were lying

To the walled stead of Geirrödr.

No long space Thor let Loki
Lure him to the going:

They yearned to overmaster
Thorn's offspring, when the Seeker
Of Idi's garth, than giants
Greater in might, made ready
In ancient days, for faring

To the Giants' Seat, from Odin's.

Further in the faring

Forward went warlike Thjálfi

With the divine Host-Cheerer
Than the deceiving lover

Of her of enchanted singing:
-(I chant the Ale of Odin)-
The hill dame's Mocker measured
The moor with hollow foot-soles.

And the war-wonted journeyed
Till the hill-women's Waster
Came to Gangr's blood, the Vimur;
Then Loki's bale-repeller,

Eager in anger, lavish

Of valor, longed to struggle

Against the maid, kinswoman

Of the sedge-cowled giant.

And the honor-lessener

Of the Lady of the Sea-Crag

Won foot-hold in the surging

Of the hail-rolled leaping hill-spate;
The rock-knave's swift Pursuer

Passed the broad stream of his staff's road,
Where the foam-flecked mighty rivers
Frothed with raging venom.

There they set the staves before them
In the streaming grove of dogfish;
The wind-wood's slippery pebbles,
Smitten to speech, slept not;

The clashing rod did rattle

'Gainst the worn rocks, and the rapid Of the fells howled, storm-smitten, On the river's stony anvil.

The Weaver of the Girdle
Beheld the washing slope-stream
Fall on his hard-grown shoulders:
No help he found to save him;
The Minisher of hill-folk

Caused Might to grow within him
Even to the roof of heaven,
Till the rushing flood should ebb.

The fair warriors of the Æsir,
In battle wise, fast waded,

And the surging pool, sward-sweeping,
Streamed: the earth-drift's billow,
Blown by the mighty tempest,

Tugged with monstrous fury
At the terrible oppressor

Of the earth-born tribe of cave-folk.

Till Thjálfi came uplifted

On his lord Thor's wide shield-strap:
That was a mighty thew-test

For the Prop of Heaven; the maidens
Of the harmful giant stiffly

Held the stream stubborn against them;
The Giantess-Destroyer

With Gridr's staff fared sternly.

Nor did their hearts of rancor
Droop in the men unblemished,
Nor courage 'gainst the headlong
Fall of the current fail them:
A fiercer-daring spirit

Flamed in the dauntless God's breast,

With terror Thor's staunch heart-stone Trembled not, nor Thjálfi's.

And afterward the haters

Of the host of sword-companions,
The shatterers of bucklers,
Dinned on the shield of giants,
Ere the destroying peoples

Of the shingle-drift of monsters