Study › Runes & Norse › The Theft of Mjollnir
In the poem Thrymskvida, the giant Thrym steals Thor's hammer and asks for Freyja as his bride. So Thor goes to the wedding dressed as the bride.
The hammer is gone
One morning Thor woke to find his hammer Mjollnir gone — a disaster, for without it the gods had no defence against the giants. Loki, borrowing Freyja's feather-cloak, flew to Jotunheim and there found the giant Thrym, who boasted that he had hidden the hammer eight leagues deep in the earth and would return it only if he were given Freyja as his bride.
Thor as the bride
Freyja refused with such fury that her necklace Brisingamen burst from her. Then the watchman Heimdall proposed a bolder scheme: let Thor himself go to the wedding disguised as the bride. Thor protested that the gods would mock him, but Loki told him it was the only way — and so Thor was dressed in bridal linen and veil, with Brisingamen at his throat, and Loki went along as his maidservant.
The wedding feast
At the wedding feast the disguised Thor devoured a whole ox, eight salmon, and three casks of mead. Thrym marvelled at his bride's appetite, and shrank back when he lifted the veil to find eyes blazing like fire — but Loki smoothly explained that Freyja had not slept for eight nights in her longing for Jotunheim.
Mjollnir returns
At last, to hallow the marriage, Thrym called for Mjollnir to be laid in the bride's lap. The moment Thor's hands closed on the haft he threw off the disguise, and he slew Thrym and all his kin. The whole story is the eddic poem Thrymskvida.
Read Mjolnir, Thor and Brisingamen.
Questions
Why did Thor dress as a woman?
To win back Mjolnir from the giant Thrym, who would return it only for Freyja as his bride.
Who went with Thor as his maid?
Loki.