to leave my weapons at home. Had I my shield and my flint stone with me, we would now try a duel. But I declare you to be a coward if you kill me unarmed.” Thor would not excuse himself from such a challenge the like of which no one had ever offered him before. Hrungner now went his way and hastened home. This journey of Hrungner was much talked of by the giants, and especially did his challenge of Thor awaken their interest, and it was of great importance to them which of the two should come out from the combat victorious. For if Hrungner, who was the most powerful among the giants, should be conquered, they might look for nothing but evil from Thor. They, therefore, made a man of clay, nine miles high and three miles broad between the shoulders. They could not find a heart corresponding to his size and therefore took one out of a mare; but this fluttered and trembled when Thor came. Hrungner had a heart of hard stone, sharp and three-cornered; his head was also of stone, and likewise his shield, which was broad and thick, and this shield he held before him when he stood waiting for Thor. His weapon was a flint stone, which he swung over his shoulders, so that it was no trifle to join in combat with him. By his side stood the clay giant, who was so extremely terrified that the sweat poured from off him. Thor went to the duel together with Thjalfe, a servant, whom he had got from a peasant by the sea. Thjalfe ran to the place where Hrungner was standing, and said to him: “You stand unguarded, giant; you hold the shield before you, but Thor has seen you; he comes with violence from beneath the earth and attacks you.” Then Hrungner hastily put the shield beneath his feet and stood upon it, but he seized his flint stone with both hands. Presently he saw flashes of lightning and heard loud crashings, and then he saw Thor in his might rushing forward with impetuous speed, swinging his hammer and throwing it from the distance against Hrungner. The latter lifted the flint stone with both his hands and threw it with all his might against the hammer; the two met in the air and the flint stone broke into two pieces, one piece of which fell on the ground (and hence the flint mountains), while the other flew with such force against the head of Thor that he fell forward to the ground; but the hammer Mjolner hit Hrungner right in the head and crushed his skull into small pieces, he himself falling over Thor, so that his foot lay across Thor’s neck. Thor could only be released from the giant’s foot by his own son Magne (strength), and to this day the flint stone sticks fast in Thor’s forehead. * * * * * Longfellow calls Thor the brother of Zeus. Zeus is, however, only like Thor in his character of the thunderer. As the All-father of the Greeks he is like Odin.