Northern mythology

54 NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY.
lodging was assigned him in a chamber where there was
only one chair; sitting on w4iich^ he found that the seat
rose mth him np to the roof, whereupon, placing Grides
staff against the rafters, and pressing against it with all
his might, a loud crash was heard, accompanied by an
appalling cry.
Geirrod^s daughters, Gialp and Greip, were
under the seat, and Tlior had broken their backs. After
this Geirrod invited Thor into his hall to play. Along
one side of the hall were huge fires, from which, as Thor
came just opposite to Geirrod, the latter, wath a pair of
tongs, snatched a red-hot iron wedge, and hurled it at
Thor, who catching it with his iron glove cast it back.
Geirrod took refuge behind an iron pillar, but Thor had
hurled the wedge with such force, that it passed through
the pillar, through Geirrod, through the wall, and deep
into the earth without ^
The Hammer fetched.—Ving-Thor awoke and missed
his hammer ;
his beard shook, and his head trembled with
rage. He made known his loss to Loki, and they went
to Freyia's fair abode, to borrow her falcon-plumage.
this Loki flew to Jotunheim, and found the giant chieftain,
Thrym, sitting on an eminence without his dwelling, plaiting
a collar of gold for his dog,
In
and smoothing the manes
of his horses. " How fares it with the Msiv/' said he,
" and how \\ith the Alfar ? A^Tiy comest thou alone to
the giants' land?'^ "Ill fares it with the ^sir, ill mth
the Alfar. Hast thou hidden Hlorridi's hammer ?'' an-
^ Skaldskap. 18. According to the popular belief, the lightning is
accompanied by a black bolt or projectile, which penetrates as far as the
highest church steeple is long into the earth, but rises towards the surface
every time it thunders, and at the expiration of seven years again
makes its appearance on the earth. Every house in which such a stone
is preserved is secure from the effects of thunder-storms, on the approach
of which it begins to sweat. Grimm, D, M. pp. 163-165. The same
idea seems expressed by the myth that the hammer always returns to
Thor's hand. See p. 39.