protruded from the basket and had frozen, wherefore he had broken it off and thrown it up into the sky and made of it the star which is called Orvandel's toe. Finally he added that it would not be long before Orvandel would come home again. But Groa became so delighted with this news that she forgot all her magic songs and the flint-stone became no looser than it was, and it sticks fast in Thor's head yet. Therefore no one must throw a flint-stone across the floor, for then the stone in Thor's head is moved. Thus sings the Skald, Thjodolf of Hvin:
We have ample evidence
Of the terrible giant's journey
To Grjottungard,
With berg-folks' consuming fire
The blood boiled in Meile's brother,[1]
The moon-land trembled.
When earth's son went
To the steel-gloved contest.
In bright flame stood
All the realms of the sky
For Uller's step-father,
And the earth rocked;
To pieces flew Svolner's widow
When the span of goats
Drew the sublime chariot
And its divine master
To the meeting with Hrungner.
The most prominent feature of this myth is the lightning which strikes down among the rocks and splits them. Hrungner (from hruga, to wrinkle, to heap up) is the naked, wrinkled mountains with their peaks. Everything is made of stone. Hrungner's heart and head and shield and weapon were all of stone; beside
- ↑ A name for Thor.
