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Hymiskvitha

And now make fast  our goat of the flood;Or home wilt thou bear  the whales to the house,Across the gorge  of the wooded glen?"
28.[1] Hlorrithi stood  and the stem he gripped,And the sea-horse with water  awash he lifted;Oars and bailer  and all he boreWith the surf-swine home  to the giant's house.
29.[2] His might the giant  again would match,For stubborn he was,  with the strength of Thor;None truly strong,  though stoutly he rowed,Would he call save one  who could break the cup.
30. Hlorrithi then,  when the cup he held,Struck with the glass  the pillars of stone;As he sat the posts  in pieces he shattered,Yet the glass to Hymir  whole they brought.
31.[3] But the loved one fair  of the giant foundA counsel true,  and told her thought:

    No superscription in the manuscripts. In its place Bugge supplies a line—"These words spake Hymir,  the giant wise." The manuscripts reverse the order of the lines 2 and 3, and in both of them line 4 stands after stanza 28. Goat of the flood: boat.

  1. ↑ Sea-horse: boat. Surf-swine: the whales.
  2. ↑ Snorri says nothing of this episode of Hymir's cup. The glass which cannot be broken appears in the folklore of various races.
  3. ↑ The loved one: Hymir's wife and Tyr's mother; cf. stanza 8 and note. The idea that a giant's skull is harder than stone or anything else is characteristic of the later Norse folk-stories, and

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