thless old woman then entered the hall, and was told by Utgard-Loki
to take hold of Thor. The tale is shortly told. The more Thor tightened
his hold on the crone the firmer she stood. At length after a very
violent struggle Thor began to lose his footing, and was finally brought
down upon one knee. Utgard-Loki then told them to desist, adding that
Thor had now no occasion to ask any one else in the hall to wrestle with
him, and it was also getting late; so he showed Thor and his companions
to their seats, and they passed the night there in good cheer.

The next morning, at break of day, Thor and his companions dressed
themselves and prepared for their departure. Utgard-Loki ordered a table
to be set for them, on which there was no lack of victuals or drink.
After the repast Utgard-Loki led them to the gate of the city, and on
parting asked Thor how he thought his journey had turned out, and
whether he had met with any men stronger than himself. Thor told him
that he could not deny but that he had brought great shame on himself.
"And what grieves me most," he added, "is that ye will call me a person
of little worth."

"Nay," said Utgard-Loki, "it behooves me to tell thee the truth, now
thou art out of the city, which so long as I live and have my way thou
shalt never enter again. And, by my troth, had I known beforehand that
thou hadst so much strength in thee, and wouldst have brought me so near
to a great mishap, I would not have suffered thee to enter this time.
Know then that I have all along deceived thee by my illusions; first in
the forest, where I tied up the wallet with iron wire so that thou
couldst not untie it. After this thou gavest me three blows with thy
mallet; the first, though the least, would have ended my days had it
fallen on me, but I slipped aside and thy blows fell on the mountain,
where thou wilt find three glens, one of them remarkably deep. These are
the dints made by thy mallet. I have made use of similar illusions in
the contests you have had with my followers. In the first, Loki, like
hunger itself, devoured all that was set before him, but Logi was in
reality nothing else than Fire, and therefore consumed not only the
meat, but the trough which held it. Hugi, with whom Thialfi contended in
running, was Thought, and it was impossible for Thialfi to keep pace
with that. When thou in thy turn didst attempt to empty the horn, thou
didst perform, by my troth, a deed so marvelous that had I not s