Thor Lightning

Hrungnir had a heart that is
renowned, made of solid stone and spiky with three points just
like the symbol for carving called Hrungnir’s heart has ever since
been made. His head was also of stone. His shield was also stone,
broad and thick, and he held the shield before him as he stood at
Griotunagardar waiting for Thor, and he had a whetstone as
weapon and rested it on his shoulder and he did not look at all
pleasant. On one side of him stood the clay giant, whose name
was Mokkurkalfi, and he was quite terrified. They say he wet
himself when he saw Thor. Thor went to keep his appointment for
the duel, and with him Thialfi. Then Thialfi ran on ahead to where
Hrungnir was standing and said to him:

‘You are standing unguardedly, giant, you’ve got your shield in
front of you, but Thor has seen you and he is travelling by the
lower route underground, and he is going to come at you from
below.’

Then Hrungnir shoved the shield beneath his feet and stood on
it, and held the whetstone with both hands. Next he saw lightnings
and heard great thunders. Then he saw Thor in an As-rage, he was
travelling at an enormous rate and swung his hammer and threw
it from a great distance at Hrungnir. Hrungnir raised the whet-
stone with both hands, threw it in return. It met the hammer in
flight, the whetstone, and the whetstone broke in two. One piece
fell to the ground, and from it have come all whetstone rocks. The
other piece crashed into Thor’s head so that he fell forwards to the
ground, but the hammer Miollnir hit the middle of Hrungnir’s
head and shattered his skull into small fragments, and he fell
forwards over Thor so that his leg lay across Thor’s neck. Thialfi
attacked Mokkurkalfi, and he fell with little glory. Then Thialfi
went up to Thor and went to remove Hrungnir’s leg from him and
was unable to manage it. Then all the Æsir came up when they
found out that Thor had fallen, and went to remove the leg from
him and could not move it at all. Then Magni, son of Thor and
Iarnsaxa, arrived. He was then three years old. He threw Hrung-
nir’s leg off Thor and said:

‘Isn’t it a terrible shame, father, that I arrived so late. I think I
would have knocked this giant into Hel with my fist if I had come
across him.’

Then Thor stood up and welcomed his son warmly and said he
would grow up to be a powerful person.


- Prose Edda, Skaldskaparmal


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14. 15. Advancing, they saw a shattered section of cliff and not far away
on a higher platform an old man with a perforated body sitting opposite
the area of broken rock. They saw also three women, their bodies laden
with tumours and, so it seemed, with no strength in their backbones,
occupying adjacent couches. Since his comrades were curious to know,
Thorkil, who was well aware of the reasons behind things, taught them
that once the god Thor, harassed by the giants’ insolence, had driven a
burning ingot through the vitals of Geirrøth, who was struggling
against him, and when this fell farther it had bored through and
smashed the sides of the mountain; he confirmed that the women had
been struck by the force of Thor’s thunderbolts and had paid the
penalty for attacking his divinity by having their bodies broken.


- Gesta Danorum, Book VIII