“You may think that you are very stout,—you who dared attack the Midgard snake, and lifted him out of the sea. Yet there are many little things that you cannot do. For instance, here is the earthen goblet from which I drink my ale. Great men, like myself, can crush such goblets between their thumbs and fingers; but such puny fellows as you will find that they cannot break it by any means.”
“Let me try!” cried Thor.
He took the great goblet in his hands, and threw it with all his strength against a stone post in the middle of the hall. The post was shattered into a thousand pieces, but the goblet was unharmed.
“Ha, ha!” laughed the giant. “Try again!”
Thor did so. This time he threw it against a huge granite rock that stood like a mountain near the seashore. The rock crumbled in pieces and fell, but the goblet was whole as ever.
“What a very stout fellow you are!” cried Hymer in glee. “Go home now, and tell the good Asa-folk that you cannot even break a goblet!”
“Let me try once more,” said Thor, amazed, but not disheartened.
“Throw it against Hymer’s forehead,” whispered some one over his shoulder. “It is harder than any rock.”
Thor looked, and saw that it was the giant’s handsome wife who had given him this kind advice. He took the goblet, and hurled it quickly, straight at old Hymer’s head. The giant had no time to dodge. The vessel struck him squarely between the eyes, and was shattered into ten thousand little pieces. But the giant’s forehead was unhurt.
“That drink was rather hot!” cried Hymer, trying to joke at his ill luck. “But it doesn’t take a very great man to break a goblet. There is one thing, however, that you cannot do. Yonder is my great brewing-kettle, a mile deep. No man has ever lifted it. Now, if you will carry it out of the hall, where it sits, you may have it for your own.”