“Is your husband at home?” asked Thor, speaking to the pretty woman who had opened the door.
“He is not,” was the answer. “He is catching fish in the warm waters of the sheltered bay; or, mayhap, he is tending his cows in the open sea, just around the headland.”
For the great icebergs that float down from the frozen sea are called old Hymer’s cows.
“We have come a very long journey,” said Tyr. “Will you not give two tired strangers food and lodging until they shall have rested themselves?”
The woman seemed in nowise loath to do this; and she set before the two Asa-folk a plentiful meal of the best that she had in the house. When they had eaten, she told them that it would be far safer for them to hide themselves under the great kettles in the hall; for, she said, her husband would soon be home, and he might not be kind to them. So Thor and Tyr hid themselves, and listened for Hymer’s coming. After a time, the great hall-door opened, and they heard the heavy steps of the giant.
“Welcome home!” cried the woman, as Hymer shook the frost from his hair and beard, and stamped the snow from his feet. “I am so glad that you have come! for there are two strangers in the hall, and they have asked for you. One of them I know is Thor, the foe of the giants, and the friend of man. The other is the one-armed god of war, the brave Tyr. What can be their errand at Hymer’s hall?”
“Where are they?” roared Hymer, stamping so furiously, that even his deaf old mother seemed to hear, and lifted up her heads.
“They are under the kettles, at the gable-end of the hall,” answered the woman.
Hymer cast a wrathful glance towards the place. The post at the end of the hall was shivered in pieces by his very look; the beam that upheld the floor of the loft was broken, and all the kettles tumbled down with a fearful crash. Thor and Tyr crept out from among the rubbish, and stood before old Hymer. The giant was not well pleased at the sight of such guests come thus unbidden to his hall. But he knew that his rude strength would count as nothing if matched with their skill and weapons: hence he deemed it wise to treat the two Asas as his friends, and to meet them with cunning and strategy.
“Welcome to my hall!” he cried. “Fear no hurt from Hymer, for he was never known to harm a guest.”