Gripla - 20.12.2005, Qupperneq 203

fiÓRR’S TRAVEL COMPANIONIN HYMISKVI‹A 201
episode of the poem (sts. 16-27). Upon their return, Hymir tests fiórr’s strength
by having him try to break his goblet. fiórr fails, but Hymir’s wife then ad-
vises him to break the goblet on Hymir’s head. This works, and the giant
relinquishes the cauldron (sts. 28-34). fiórr manages to lift the cauldron, and
he then heads home with it, but Hymir and a horde of giants pursue him, upon
which fiórr wields his hammer and slays them all (sts. 35-6). We are then told
that one of fiórr’s goats is lame, and its lameness is imputed to the lævísi
‘mischievous’ Loki (st. 37), but fiórr nevertheless returns home with the
cauldron for Ægir’s feast (st. 39).
4
Traditions about fiórr’s visit to Hymir did obviously vary. Immediately fol-
lowing fiórr’s humiliating visit to Útgar›a-Loki in Snorra Edda (Gylfaginning
48), Snorri recounts fiórr’s catching the world serpent on a fishing expedition
with Hymir. According to Snorri, fiórr explicitly travels alone to Hymir and
without his chariot and goats: ‘fiórr lei›rétti flessa fer›ina er nú var frá sagt, ok
dval›isk ekki lengi heima á›r hann bjósk svá skyndiliga til fer›arinnar at hann
haf›i eigi rei› ok eigi hafrana ok ekki fƒruneyti. Gekk hann út of Mi›gar› svá
sem ungr drengr, ok kom einn aptan at kveldi til jƒtuns nokkurs; sá er Hymir
nefndr.’9 No cauldron appears in Snorri’s account, and Hymir is indeed dis-
patched out at sea.
Hymiskvi›a provides a variant tradition in which fiórr had a travel com-
panion on his journey to Hymir, and it would be understandable had Loki as-
sumed this function since he accompanies fiórr on other adventures in giant-
land (see below). It has in fact been suggested that Loki was originally fiórr’s
travel companion in Hymiskvi›a, but why the one-handed T‡r should have
replaced Loki in a role that was conventionally Loki’s is not easy to perceive;
some commentators have noted here the possible involvement of the common
noun t‡r, but this interpretation has not been argued in any detail.10
9 Faulkes 1988:44. ‘Þórr got redress for this journey that has just been related and did not stay
at home long before setting out on a journey in such haste that he had with him no chariot and
no goats and no company. He went out of Miðgarðr in the guise of a young boy, and arrived
one evening at nightfall at a certain giant’s; he is named Hymir.’
10 See the secondary literature mentioned in von See et al. 1997:284. One might add comments
in Ólafur Briem I 1985:211; Larrington 1996:78, 273 and 275; and Gísli Sigurðsson 1998:
109.