Like a burst from a hundred volcanoes at once, the giants’ laughter came booming down the hall.
The giant king smiled. “The giants welcome the gods,” he said kindly, “but we can bow only before proofs of greater power than our own.”
At that, Loki who was nearly starving, could stand it no longer. “Greater power!” he shouted. “Greater power! Let any one here eat food faster than I!”
The giants clapped their hands with a noise like waves smiting the beach. “Hear! Hear!” they roared.
“Have my cook Logi bring a trough of meat,” called the giant king.
Setting the trough before the throne, Logi sat down at one end, and Loki at the other.
“Ready!—Start!” cried the king.
Click-clack! Loki’s little jaws were at it before Logi got his great mouth open. Click-clack, click-clack, they kept on while Logi’s great tongue swept down the trough. Squarely in the middle, their heads bumped, Loki’s little head against Logi’s big one.
“A tie!” cried Thor. And so it seemed. But while Loki had eaten every morsel of meat from the bones, Logi had devoured meat, bones, trough and all.