the line so that his feet went through the bottom of the boat and down to the ocean floor. Yet ever he pulled, so stoutly that presently the hideous head of the Midgard snake appeared above the surface.
Nothing daunted by the floods of venom which the beast spouted out at him, Thor darted fiery glances at his enemy, still striving to lift the head into the boat.
Hymir, however, terrified beyond measure and feeling the craft sink beneath him, took his knife out of the sheath and cut the line just as Thor launched his hammer.
The monster fell back and sank again to his immemorial abode.
We know not whether those speak truly who declare that Miolnir struck off its head at the bottom of the sea, or whether it still lies encircling the earth. But it is related among the exploits of Alexander the Great that being lowered in a glass cage to the depths of the ocean he beheld a prodigious monster going past, and sat for two days, watching its body ooze along all the time, before its "tail and hinder parts" appeared. Which sounds as if Thor had not made a thorough job of it.
Certain it is, however, that Hymir said no word till they were again at the shore. Then he muttered:
"Do your share: carry the whales in or make the boat fast."
Whereupon Thor picked up boat, oars, whales and all, and bore the whole thing up the wooded hillside to the Jotun's dwelling.