Behind the veil Thrym sought a kiss, But back he sprang The length of the hall: Why are Freyja’s Eyes so sharp? From her eyes it seems That fire doth burn. Sat there the shrewd Maid-servant near, And thus she spake, Answering the giant: Slept has not Freyja For eight nights, So much did she long For Jotunheim. In came the poor Sister of Thrym; For bridal gift She dared to ask: Give from the hand The golden rings, If thou desirest Friendship of me, Friendship of me— And love. Spoke then Thrym, The king of giants: Bring me the hammer My bride to hallow: Place the hammer In the lap of the maid; Wed us together In the name of Var.[70] Laughed then Thor’s Heart in his breast; Severe in mind He knew his hammer, First slew he Thrym, Tho king of giants, Crushed then all That race of giants; Slew the old Sister of Thrym, She who asked For a bridal gift; Slap she got For shining gold, Hammer blows For heaps of rings; Thus came Odin’s son Again by his hammer. Thrym (from _þruma_) is the noisy, thundering imitator of Thor. While the thunder sleeps, the giant forces of nature howl and rage in the storms and winds, they have stolen the hammer from Thor. Thor goes and brings his hammer back and the storms are made to cease. It has been suggested that Thor is the impersonation of truth, and the Younger Edda speaks of him as one _never having yet uttered an_ UNTRUTH. It has also been claimed that the name of his realm _Thrud_-vang contains the same root as our English word _truth_, but this we leave for the reader to examine for himself. Before the Norsemen learned to make the sign of the cross, they made the sign of the hammer upon themselves and upon other things that they thereby wished to secure against evil influences.