Tyr is the hero of one important episode,
the chaining of the Wolf, through which he loses his right hand. This
is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in _Lokasenna_, both in the
prose preface ("Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf
had bitten off the other, when he was bound") and in the poem itself:

_Loki_. "I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee."

_Tyr_. "I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each
the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for he must
wait in bonds till Ragnaroek."

Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods:
he speaks in Frey's defence in _Lokasenna_, and in _Hymiskvida_ he
is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem
represents him as a giant's son.

Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his father Odin; he is
the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants,
and his antagonist at Ragnaroek is to be the World-Snake. Like Odin,
he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and
in disguise, to gain knowledge or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are
warlike; in _Lokasenna_ he is absent on a journey, in _Harbardsljod_
and _Alvissmal_ he is returning from one. His journeys are always
to the east; so in _Harbardsljod_: "I was in the east, fighting
the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the
river, when Svarang's sons attacked me." The Giants live in the
east (_Hymiskvida_ 5); Thor threatened Loki: "I will fling thee up
into the east, and no one shall see thee more" (_Lokasenna_ 59);
the fire-giants at Ragnaroek are to come from the east: "Hrym comes
driving from the east, he lifts his shield before him.... A ship
comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the
sea, and Loki steers" (_Voeluspa_ 50, 51). It would not, perhaps,
be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of
early warfare between the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either
Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.

Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the
episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. _Thrymskvida_,
the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mjoellni, from the giant
Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest of the mythological poems;
a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry
at its best. Loki appears as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's
companion