The next morning, at break of day, Thor and his companions dressed themselves and prepared for their departure. Utgard-Loke ordered a table to be set for them, on which there was no lack of victuals or drink. After the repast, Utgard-Loke led them to the gate of the city, and on parting asked Thor how he thought his journey had turned out, and whether he had met with any men stronger than himself. Thor told him that he could not deny but that he had brought great shame on himself. “And what grieves me most,” he added, “is that thou wilt call me a person of little worth.” “Nay,” said Utgard-Loke, “it behooves me to tell thee the truth, now thou art out of the city, which so long as I live and have my way thou shalt never enter again. And, by my troth, had I known beforehand that thou hadst so much strength in thee, and wouldst have brought me so near to a great mishap, I would not have suffered thee to enter this time. Know then that I have all along deceived thee by my illusions.” He then complimented Thor upon each feat he had performed, and as for the cat, he said, “Thou hast indeed performed a wonderful feat by lifting up the cat, and to tell thee the truth, when we saw that one of his paws was off the floor we were all of us terror-stricken, for what thou tookest for a cat was in reality the Midgard serpent that encompasseth the earth, and he was so stretched by thee that he was barely long enough to enclose it between his head and tail.” The wolf Fenris was also one of Loke’s children, and gave the gods a great deal of trouble until they succeeded in chaining him. He broke the strongest fetters as if they were made of cobwebs. Finally the gods sent a messenger to the mountain spirits, who made for them the chain called Gleipnir. It was fashioned of various things: the noise made by the footfall of a cat, the roots of stones, the breath of fishes, the nerves of bears, and the spittle of birds. When finished it was as smooth and soft as a silken string. But when the gods asked the wolf to suffer himself to be bound with this apparently slight ribbon he suspected their design, fearing that it was made by enchantment. He therefore only consented to be bound with it on condition that one of the gods put his hand in his (Fenris’s) mouth as a pledge that the band was to be removed again. Tyr alone had sufficient courage to do this. But when the wolf found that he could not break his fetters and that the gods would not release him, he bit off Tyr’s hand. Tyr, consequently, has ever since remained one-handed. THE STORY OF APOLLO AND PHAËTON (_Greek: After Ovid_)