On, on, across the skies they flew. Before their mighty force, the clouds scattered hither and thither, striking against each other with a crashing sound that to the earth-people was like the voice of Thor.
From the eyes of the steeds the lightnings flashed; and from their reeking sides the foam fell in showers upon the earth below. The people, terror-stricken, ran to their caves and prayed the gods to protect them from the fury of the blast.
“It is like no storm we ever knew,” they whispered, one to the other. “The thunder! the lightnings! the scurrying clouds! and with it all, the roaring winds and the falling of great white flakes, now like hail, now like snow! Has Odin forgotten his children? Have the Frost giants fallen upon Asgard?” But now the storm was over. Odin and Hrungner both had reached the walls of Asgard. Through the great rolling gateway both had burst together; for the steed of the bold Hrungner had indeed proved himself equal to the snow-white Sleipner, whose magic powers no one but Odin fully knew.
Hrungner, elated with his success, and never once dreaming that, had Odin so willed it, he, with his brave steed Goldfax, might have been left far behind in the race, strode into the halls of Asgard and called loudly for food and drink and rest.
All these were granted him, and the giant threw himself down upon a golden couch and stared insolently upon the gods. All were there save Thor. “And where,” bellowed Hrungner, “is the great god Thor, the mighty thunderer who dares defy the Frost giants; and whose strength is boasted greater than that of Hrungner, the chief of the mighty Frost giants?
“Bring him into my presence,” roared the giant. “Let me prove to you that one giant at least dares defy even the greatest and most warlike of you all.”
Away upon the sea, Thor heard this boast. “Who challenges me and defies my power?” he thundered; and with the swiftness of the wind, hastening upward toward the shining city, he burst in upon the giant stretched out upon the golden couch.
“I challenge you!” bellowed the giant, springing from his couch and facing the god of thunder.
Thor raised his hammer. The lightnings flashed from his eye. “Halt!” roared the giant. “Little credit will it be to the god of Thunder to fall in battle upon a Frost giant unarmed and unprotected. You are a coward! Fight me as becomes a great god on equal grounds and under fair conditions. Come to me in the land of Jotunheim, and there will I challenge you to battle. Then will your victory, if you win, lend lustre to your greatness; and the fear of you throughout the land of the Frost giants be greater than ever before.”
“As you say,” answered Thor with a sneer. “Go now, and make ready for the holmgang,[1] in which the insolent, boastful Hrungner shall learn the power of the gods whom, in his ignorance, he dares defy.”