Then Thor and Tyr set out on their journey towards the land of Elivagar;
and they travelled many a league northwards, across snowy mountains
and barren plains, until they came to the shores of the frozen sea. And
there the sun rises and sets but once a year, and even in summer the sea
is full of ice. On the lonely beach, stood Hymer's dwelling,--a dark
and gloomy abode. Tyr knocked at the door; and it was opened by Hymer's
wife, a strangely handsome woman, who bade them come in. Inside the hall
they saw Hymer's old mother, sitting in the chimney-corner, and crooning
over the smouldering fire. She was a horribly ugly old giantess, with
nine hundred heads; but every head was blind and deaf and toothless. Ah,
me! what a wretched old age that must have been!

"Is your husband at home?" asked Thor, speaking to the pretty woman who
had opened the door.

"He is not," was the answer. "He is catching fish in the warm waters of
the sheltered bay; or, mayhap, he is tending his cows in the open sea,
just around the headland."

For the great icebergs that float down from the frozen sea are called
old Hymer's cows.

"We have come a very long journey," said Tyr. "Will you not give
two tired strangers food and lodging until they shall have rested
themselves?"

The woman seemed in nowise loath to do this; and she set before the two
Asa-folk a plentiful meal of the best that she had in the house. When
they had eaten, she told them that it would be far safer for them to
hide themselves under the great kettles in the hall; for, she said, her
husband would soon be home, and he might not be kind to them. So Thor
and Tyr hid themselves, and listened for Hymer's coming. After a time,
the great hall-door opened, and they heard the heavy steps of the giant.

"Welcome home!" cried the woman, as Hymer shook the frost from his hair
and beard, and stamped the snow from his feet. "I am so glad that you
have come! for there are two strangers in the hall, and they have asked
for you. One of them I know is Thor, the foe of the giants, and the
friend of man. The other is the one-armed god of war, the brave Tyr.
What can be their errand at Hymer's hall?"

"Where are they?" roared Hymer, stamping so furiously, that even his
deaf old mother seemed to hear, and lifted up her heads.

"They are under the kettles, at the gable-end of the hall," answered the
woman.

Hymer cast a wrathful glance towards the place. The post at the end of
the hall was sh