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Harbarthsljoth

  Thor spake:21. "Thou didst repay good gifts with evil mind."
  Harbarth spake:22.[1] "The oak must have  what it shaves from another;In such things each for himself.What, Thor, didst thou the while?"
  Thor spake:23.[2] "Eastward I fared,  of the giants I felledTheir ill-working women  who went to the mountain;And large were the giants' throng  if all were alive;No men would there be  in Mithgarth more.What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?"
  Harbarth spake:24.[3] "In Valland I was,  and wars I raised,Princes I angered,  and peace brought never;The noble who fall  in the fight hath Othin,And Thor hath the race of the thralls."
  1. ↑ The oak, etc.: this proverb is found elsewhere (e.g., Grettissaga) in approximately the same words. Its force is much like our "to the victor belong the spoils."
  2. ↑ Thor killed no women of the giants' race on the "journey to the East" so fully described by Snorri, his great giant-killing adventure being the one narrated in the Thrymskvitha.
  3. ↑ Valland: this mythical place ("Land of Slaughter") is elsewhere mentioned, but not further characterised; cf. prose introduction to Völundarkvitha, and Helreith Brynhildar, 2. On the bringing of slain heroes to Othin, cf. Voluspo, 31 and note,

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