Blushing Bride

Before I begin this tale, I would like to apologise to the readers for such a silly title. The title probably should be "Thor and Thrym" or "Mjollnir Stolen" or something more appropriate. Though the story, I must admit, is rather silly anyway.

Thor woke up one morning to find that someone had stolen Mjollnir, his magic war-hammer made by the dwarves – Brokk and Eiti (see the Gifts of the Dwarves).

Thor asked Loki to help him to find Mjollnir. Loki went to Freyja to borrow her feather cloak. The cloak enabled the goddess to transform into a falcon, so it allowed her to fly.

As a falcon, Loki flew to the realm of the giant Jötunheim (Jotunheim). Loki found out that Thrym had stolen and hidden Mjollnir. Thrym was the leader of the frost-giants. Thrym would only return Mjollnir to Thor if he could marry Freyja.

Loki returned to Asgard with the news of Thrym's demand. Freyja, a promiscuous goddess among the Asynior who had slept with gods, elves, humans and dwarves, was nevertheless outraged by Thrym's demands and refused to marry the giant.

It was Heimdall who thought of the idea to dress Thor in a bridal gown, disguising the thunder-god as Freyja. Thor would go to Jötunheim instead of Freyja. Loki insisted that this was the best plan and volunteered to go with Thor as the fake bridesmaid.

Thor reluctantly agreed, since he had little choice if he wished to recover Mjollnir. They put a bridal veil or headdress to cover Thor's face and he wore Freyja's necklace of gold (Brisingamen) to complete the disguise.

Loki accompanied Thor to Jötunheim. Thrym welcomed his new bride to the kingdom. The giants prepared a great feast in honour of Freyja.

During the feast, Thrym and the other giants were astonished that his bride (Thor) ate a whole ox, eight salmons and drank three large tankards of mead.

When Thrym demanded an explanation, the cunning bridemaid (ie. Loki) replied that Freyja had been so excited she had not eaten in eight nights, since she heard the news that she was going to marry the king of giants.

Thrym tried to kiss his new bride under the veil. However when the giant peeped under the bride's veil, Thrym was taken back by his bride's burning intensity of her red eyes. Again, Loki made some silly excuse – Freyja had not slept in eight nights since she was so eager about the marriage.

A giantess who was Thrym's sister arrived, demanding a gold ring from Freyja (Thor), if the goddess wished to marry her brother. Thor would only agree if Thrym would place Mjollnir on her lap. Thrym ordered the giants to retrieve Mjollnir and placed the hammer on his bride's lap.

When Thor recognised his hammer, the god was exultant for having recovered the hammer. With Mjollnir in his hands, he struck down Thrym. Thor began to kill all the giants in the hall, including Thrym's sister.