When Loki reported to Odin the result of his journey, the gods held a council to decide what it was best to do. Of course it was out of the question to try to induce Freya to become Thrym’s wife, and Odin could not feel justified in demanding such a sacrifice. When the maiden herself learned of the giant’s proposal, she grew so angry at the insult that the necklace of stars which she wore around her slender throat broke; and as the shining pieces fell through the air, people in Midgard exclaimed with delight at the shooting stars.
Since it was impossible to think of yielding Freya to a giant even to recover Mjölner, the gods tried to form some other plan, and again they turned to Loki for help, for he alone was clever enough to outwit the giant.
“There is no way to get the hammer,” said Loki, “except by giving Thrym a bride; and since we cannot send any of the goddesses to the cold northland, we must find the giant another wife. Let us dress up Thor like a woman and send him instead.”
“Never,” roared Thor; “I should be the laughing-stock of every one in Asgard.”
“Nonsense,” replied Loki, who rather enjoyed having Thor at his mercy; “and what if you were? Is that anything compared to seeing the whole race of frost-giants at the gates of Asgard? If something is not done very soon, they will be ruling here in our places.”
The situation was indeed so critical that at length Thor consented to the plan, though much against his will. So Loki put on him a rich robe embroidered with gold, and wound a chain about his neck and put a beautiful girdle at his waist. Then he threw over Thor’s head a long bridal-veil, while he attired himself as a waiting maid to attend the bride. The gods harnessed Thor’s milk-white goats to the chariot, and together Thor and Loki set out for the frost-giants’ country. It was very difficult to restrain the pretended bride from thrusting her sinewy hands from under the veil, and Loki feared that even a love-lorn giant would not be fooled into believing that those massive shoulders belonged to a maiden.
When Thrym beheld the bridal party coming, he was filled with joy and ran to meet them. He wished very much to raise the bride’s veil, but Loki forbade him until after the wedding ceremony.
“The goddess Freya who has come to be your wife is very timid,” said Loki, “and you must not distress her with your attentions, or she may grow frightened and wish to return to Asgard.” So Thrym obeyed Loki’s command, and led the bride to his palace, where his kinsmen were assembled. There they found the tables spread with meat and wine as if for a feast. Thrym urged his bride to partake of the fruits and delicacies which had been brought especially for her, and with some show of reluctance the supposed woman began to eat. First she devoured eight large salmon, then twelve roasted birds, and soon followed this up with eating a whole ox and drinking three barrels of mead.
“Did ever a maiden eat like this one?” thought the giants, and in their hearts they pitied Thrym for getting such a wife. When they spoke of the bride’s appetite to Loki, he replied, “It is eight days since Freya has eaten anything, for she was so overjoyed at wedding Thrym, that she could not touch any food.” Thrym was too happy to notice what the bride ate, and when the feast was over he cried to his brother, “Bring hither the hammer Mjölner and place it in the bride’s lap; then let us be wedded in the name of Var.”
So the hammer was brought and placed in Thor’s hand; but the minute his fingers closed around it he tore the veil from his face, and the terrified giants beheld, not the mild countenance of Freya, but the face of the Thunderer himself. It was too late now to escape, and the giants were so frightened that they could not move, even if they had known where to flee from the fierce anger that blazed in Thor’s eyes. He had barely swung the hammer twice around his head when thunder and lightning was mingled with the crash of falling buildings; and those of the giants who were not killed by the blows of the hammer were buried beneath the crumbling ruins. Thus did Mjölner return at last to Asgard.