This post finishes the story of Hymir’s kettle, which began in Thor and Tyr Face the Anger of Hymir. Aegir had no kettle big enough to brew mead for all the gods, and Tyr knew that his father, the giant Hymir, owned one. The fishing trip in between is told in Thor and Hymir Fish for the Midgard Serpent.
Upon remembering Thor’s fishing prowess, Hymir decided to challenge Thor’s strength. “If you’re so strong, break this goblet, and I will give you the kettle, Mile-Deep.”
Hymir’s Unbreakable Goblet
Because the two gods, Thor and Tyr, made the trip for the Mile-Deep kettle, Thor agreed. He used all his strength and threw the goblet against a wall. The goblet went through the wall and remained undamaged. Thor tried the same gambit a second time with the same result. The goblet appeared to be stronger than anything Thor could throw it at.
Hymir’s wife sat at her spinning wheel. She whispered for Thor to throw the goblet at Hymir’s head. She softly sang:
Hard the pillar,
Hard the stone,
Harder yet the giant’s bone.
Stones shall break
and pillars fall;
Hymir’s forehead breaks them all. (Keary and Keary)
Thor threw the hard goblet at Hymir’s forehead, and the goblet shattered. Hymir’s forehead did not even bruise.
Thor and Tyr Escape With Hymir’s Kettle
Tyr saw their chance to grab the kettle and run, but he wasn’t strong enough to move Mile-Deep alone. He tried twice and could not move it. Thor seized the rim, his feet broke through the floor, and he swung the kettle up onto his head, its handles clattering at his heels.
Hymir saw the two gods escaping with his kettle, and rage boiled inside him. He gathered his giant friends together and chased Thor and Tyr.
When Thor heard the giants’ great footsteps behind him, he turned and threw Mjölnir at them. They turned to stone, and Thor and Tyr took Mile-Deep back to Aegir’s hall.
At last, Aegir had a kettle big enough to brew mead for all the gods, and the feast could begin.
The giants turned to stone in Annie and Eliza Keary’s 1893 retelling, The Heroes of Asgard, which also gives the verse above. In the Poetic Edda’s Hymiskviða, Thor simply strikes the pursuing giants down.
Next: the hammer that saved the kettle has a story of its own. The dwarves who forged it appear in Loki, Thor’s Hammer, Mjölnir, and other Treasures.
Sources
- The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse L. Byock (Penguin Classics, 2005).
- The Definitive Guide to Norse Mythology: The Gods, Heroes, Monsters, and Legends of Viking Culture by Finn D. Moore (2022).
- The Poetic Edda, “Hymiskvitha,” stanzas 29–40, translated by Henry Adams Bellows (1923)
- The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology by Annie Keary, Eliza Keary (1893), “Part II: The Serpent and the Kettle.”
