Then the giant had a huge horn brought on and told Thor to drink three times. Thor drank and drank and drank, but the more he drank the more the horn would fill, until at last he had to give it up with great mortification.
“You cannot even lift my old cat off the ground,” said the giant. Then Thor seized the cat and pulled and pulled, but the cat’s feet never left the earth. Thor was very much mortified at the failure of his friends and himself. But the head giant said:
“Thor, you have some lessons to learn yet. Loki is indeed a great eater, but he was contending with fire that consumed all things; the countryman was running against thought that is swifter than the wind; you were drinking from a horn the other end of which is in the ocean, and my old cat’s legs engirdle the earth.”
When Thor heard these things he went back home and told his father, Odin, that there were some things he could not do after all.
FREYJA’S NECKLACE
A Norse legend to show that sorrow follows in the footsteps of pride and vanity.
You will remember that Freyja was the sister of Frey, and that her other name was Beauty. Everybody loved Freyja and liked to look at her beautiful face and listen to her sweet voice. She had a wonderful husband named Odur whom she loved very dearly and of whom she was very proud.
Now, it happened that all the gods and their wives were to dine at Valhalla one day, and Freyja was greatly distressed because she had no jewels to wear.