“The feat for which I am most famed,” he said, “is eating, and it is one which I am just now inclined to perform with right good will. Put food before me, and let me see if any of your followers can dispatch it as quickly as I can.”
“The feat you speak of is one by no means to be despised,” said the Utgard king, “and there is one here who would be glad to try his powers against yours. Let Logi,” he said to one of his followers, “be summoned to the hall.”
At this, a tall, thin, yellow-faced man approached, and a large trough of meat having been placed in the middle of the hall, Loki sat to work at one end, and Logi at the other, and they began to eat. I hope I shall never see any one eat as they ate; but the giants all turned their slow-moving eyes to watch them, and in a few minutes they met in the middle of the trough. It seemed, at first, as if they had both eaten exactly the same quantity; but, when the thing came to be examined into it was found that Loki had, indeed, eaten up all the meat, but that Logi had also eaten the bones and the trough. Then the giants nodded their huge heads, and determined that Loki was conquered. King Utgard now turned to Thialfi, and asked what he could do.
“I was thought swift of foot among the youth of my own country,” answered Thialfi; “and I will, if you please, try to run a race with any one here.”
“You have chosen a noble sport, indeed,” said the king; “but you must be a good runner if you could beat him with whom I shall match you.”
Then he called a slender lad, Hugi by name, and the whole company left the hall, and, going out by an opposite gate to that by which Thor had entered, they came out to an open space, which made a noble race-ground. There the goal was fixed, and Thialfi and Hugi started off together.
Thialfi ran fast—fast as the reindeer which hears the wolves howling behind; but Hugi ran so much faster that, passing the goal, he turned round, and met Thialfi half-way in the course.
“Try again, Thialfi,” cried the king; and Thialfi, once more taking his place, flew along the course, with feet scarcely touching the ground—swiftly as an eagle when, from his mountain-crag, he swoops on his prey in the valley; but with all his running he was still a good bow-shot from the goal when Hugi reached it.
“You are certainly a good runner,” said the king; “but if you mean to win you must do a little better still than this; but perhaps you wish to surprise us all the more this third time.”
The third time, however, Thialfi was wearied, and though he did his best, Hugi, having reached the goal, turned and met him not far from the starting-point.