Study › Runes & Norse › Thor's Duel with Hrungnir
Hrungnir was the strongest of the giants, with a heart and a head of stone. He boasted in Asgard that he would carry off Valhalla, and Thor met him in a duel.
Hrungnir's boast
Odin rode Sleipnir into Jotunheim and boasted of his horse to the giant Hrungnir, whose horse Gullfaxi was thought the fastest there. They raced all the way into Asgard, where the gods politely offered their guest a drink. Hrungnir grew drunk and boasted he would carry off Valhalla, sink Asgard and take Freyja and Sif for himself, until Thor returned and a duel was set.
The duel
Hrungnir had a heart of stone with three sharp corners, and a head of stone, and he fought with a great whetstone. The giants built a clay giant, Mökkurkálfi, to help him; it was so afraid that Thor's servant Thjalfi felled it with ease. Thor threw Mjollnir; Hrungnir threw the whetstone. The two met in the air: the whetstone shattered, the hammer went on and smashed Hrungnir's head, but a piece of the whetstone lodged in Thor's head. Hrungnir fell with his leg across Thor's neck, and only Thor's son Magni, three nights old, could lift it.
The stone in Thor's head
The seeress Groa began chanting to loosen the stone. Thor, pleased, told her news of her husband, and she forgot her spell. So the whetstone stayed in Thor's head, and people said you should never throw a whetstone across a floor, for then the stone in Thor's head stirs.
Read about Thor, Mjolnir and Sleipnir.
Questions
What was Hrungnir's heart made of?
Stone, with three sharp corners.
Who lifted Hrungnir's leg off Thor?
Thor's son Magni, three nights old.