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Heathen Folklore - Tales from the Norse Shadows #1
351 Plays6 days ago
Thunder, Trickery, and Tides: The Epic Tale of Thor and Loki
In this podcast episode, Ulfhedinn, Odin's son, narrates a captivating Norse mythology tale about Thor and Loki's adventures in Jotunheim, the realm of giants. Ulfhedinn invites listeners to gather around a fire, enjoy mead, and listen to the story, which explores themes of humility, deception, and the nature of strength. Thor and Loki face various challenges posed by the giants, including contests of eating, racing, drinking, and lifting. Ultimately, they learn that appearances can be deceiving and that even the mightiest can be humbled. The episode concludes with a promise of more mythological tales to come.
Pour yourself a horn of mead and settle in for a wild ride through ancient myths where strength can deceive you.
Music by Pillars Of Valhalla (Viking Ethnic)StudioKolomna
Narrated by Richard Chew
Edited and produced by Emma Swailes of The Bell Witch Podcast 2025 https://linktr.ee/friendlygreenwitch
Support the show on Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/c/TheBellWitchPodcast
#gods #heathen #viking #mythsandlegends #folklore #thore #norse #lore #mythology
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Transcript
Invitation to Norse Mythology
00:00:21
Speaker
Hail and well met. May the gods be with you on this finest of eves. Brothers and sisters, Sons and daughters of Allfather, I, Hulfodin Odinson, take you by the hand.
00:00:37
Speaker
I cordially invite you to my stead, where I shall regale you with the most famous stories in the Norse mythos, the very backbone of my even faith.
The Tale of Thor and Utgarder Loki begins
00:00:50
Speaker
Today marks the first part in a trifecta of tales, beginning with one of my favourites. Come, sit with me by the fire. Pour yourself a tall horn of mead and grab yourself a snack.
00:01:05
Speaker
For this is the story of Thor and Utgarder Loki.
00:01:15
Speaker
One day, a long time ago, gods of Asgard, Thor and Loki, were riding across the nine worlds. In Thor's wane, pulled by his goat's tooth gnatcher,
00:01:27
Speaker
and tooth grinder. It soon approached nightfall, and in the distance the pair spotted welcoming-looking farmhouse with lights aglow in the windows.
00:01:40
Speaker
Thor and Loki arranged lodging for the night with the farmer and his wife, the couple who had bared two children, a daughter by the name of Roskva, and a son called Hjalfi.
Encounter with the Farmer
00:01:55
Speaker
That night, Thor slaughtered his goats and invited all to eat with him. He laid out the pelts for them to lay the bones upon. But, against one of Thor's instructions, the son, Yalfi, broke one of the bones in order to suck the marrow.
00:02:13
Speaker
The next day, when Thor hallowed the bones and brought the goats back to life, he had noticed that one of the goats had a lame hind leg. And in that moment, he knew Thor must have happened.
00:02:28
Speaker
Angry and furious, Thor was ready to kill the family. But the father had offered his two children. He said to Thor, We do not wish to anger you almighty Thunder God.
00:02:42
Speaker
Please, take my son. Take my daughter. do as the honour of sparing our lives and may they serve you well. And Thor agreed.
Journey to Jotunheim
00:02:53
Speaker
Leaving the goats behind, foreigners' companions then began the treacherous journey to Jotunheim, the realm of the giants, across vast deep ocean and through old forest until it began to grow dark again.
00:03:09
Speaker
As they were looking for a place to camp, they spotted ah great hall in the forest that no one seemed to be occupying, and they decided to settle down for the night inside of it.
00:03:21
Speaker
In the middle of the night, Thor awoke to a great sound that shook the land like an earthquake. A most terrifying sound indeed. Thor brought the others into another, smaller room in the hall and stayed near the door with his hammer, Mjolnir in hand, ready to defend them at any cost.
00:03:41
Speaker
But when the sun rose the next day, Thor went to investigate outside. And what did he discover? toy his dismay, he found A giant, alone sleeping in the forest, and his snores making the most terrible of noise. Thor disliked the giants with great disdain, but as he approached the giant to slay him with hammer in hand, the giant suddenly stood up to greet them.
00:04:12
Speaker
Hello, my name is Scymir, but I do not need to ask your name, almighty Thunder God, for you Thor. "'and you have been using my glove for a place to sleep, it seems.' "'Confused, Thor and his companions decided to investigate, "'only to come to the realisation that they had been sleeping inside of the giant's glove, "'with the side rube being the thumb of the glove itself. "'Scrimey asked Thor if he could join them on their journey "'and offered to carry all their belongings in his food bag.'
00:04:47
Speaker
Reluctantly, Thor agreed to this and they set off towards the hall of Utgader-Loki, deep within Jotunheim. As evening approaches, the giant found them a place to rest underneath the shade of a great oak tree.
Arrival at Utgard-Loki's Fortress
00:05:04
Speaker
He left Thor, half the bag of provisions, and said he was going to sleep and that Thor should prepare himself for a meal for him and his friends. The giant began to snore, and as Thor tried to open the bag, he found that he could not.
00:05:19
Speaker
No matter how much strength, he was not unable to lift the bag. He was so enraged that he threw his hammer at the sleeping giant's head. But Scryme only awoke for a brief moment, thinking that an acorn had fallen upon his head. It feels like an acorn has dropped upon my head.
00:05:42
Speaker
No matter... And then the giant returned to sleep. Two more attempts in the night, Thor tried to slay the giant. In this way, and it was the same result every time.
00:05:54
Speaker
The giant would awake, thinking that something from the tree had fallen on him, disturbing his sleep. Frustrated, Thor retired to sleep. And in that morning, Scrymere had parted ways with him and company, with a caveat that they were going, that they would find bigger men,
00:06:13
Speaker
that he are not to boast in the hall of Utgard-Loki, for they would be mocked for being so small in stature. For Loki and the two humans were more than happy to see the giant go.
00:06:28
Speaker
They were not happy to see his face. Halfway through the day they came upon a great fortress, a huge fearsome stronghold. We indeed have arrived upon the home of Utgard-Loki.
00:06:43
Speaker
Standing so tall, they strained their necks to see the top. Thor tried to open the gate to enter, but could not, so the party wound up having to squeeze through the bars instead. Once inside, they beheld an enormous hall with two large tables, with several giants seated around them.
00:07:03
Speaker
And in the midst of them was Utgard-Loki himself. Thor introduced himself to the great giants, But Utgard-Alochi commented that there must be more to this mighty four than he sees before him.
00:07:18
Speaker
Ha ha ha ha ha! Utgard-Alochi laughed. This cannot be four! This cannot be the mighty god that the Skals have talked about! I add that no one is permitted to stay who does not contain some skill or knowledge greater than other men.
00:07:35
Speaker
Loki decided to stand to up to the Utgada Loki giant and challenged any man to an eating contest. For he could eat faster than any anyone in the Nine Realms.
00:07:47
Speaker
So Utgada, called to one of his men by the name of Loki, pitted him against Loki in the eating contest. The other giants brought out a huge trough of meat and placed it between the two contestants in the centre hall.
00:08:02
Speaker
They ate and they ate. They feasted and feasted until the end. Loki ate till the middle and Loki met him too.
00:08:13
Speaker
The only difference was that Loki ate but the meat. But Loki ate the meat, the bones, even the trough itself. The giant king called his man the winner of the contest, a victory that no one could deny.
00:08:30
Speaker
Secondly, the great giant asked Fjalfi if he could compete, and Fjalfi replied that I am the fastest man of all the nine realms. No man can beat me in a race.
00:08:41
Speaker
So therefore, they went outside the great stronghold to a large plot of land, and Utgardi called upon a man by the name of Hygi.
00:08:52
Speaker
In the first round, Hugh finished the race to look around to find his opponents that Fjalfi did not fare too well. Two races, and then even losing by a bow's length.
00:09:05
Speaker
It was clear once again that Fjalfi lost the contest. So in the third trial, Utgad Aloki turned to four and asked him, Which challenge do you partake in, Thunder God?
00:09:18
Speaker
Four, visibly angry, said he could outdrink any man. Any man in the Nine Realms dare not take on four in the contest of drink. So Utgarde made a call to his cupbearer, who brought out an enormous horn to the Thunder God.
00:09:36
Speaker
Four turned this horn up and began to drink and drink and drink for what seemed like an eternity. Thor took the horn from his mouth and realised barely a drop had been emptied.
00:09:51
Speaker
Utgard-Alochi had said that great men empty the horn in but one drink. Some lesser great men can empty it in two. But free drinks is not that impressive. Thor, however, tried twice more to empty the horn, down from the brim so it could be carried without spilling.
00:10:10
Speaker
But he failed. The contest was over. Defeated, Thor handed the horn back to Utgard-Alochi. The Thunder God was now enraged, his eyes turning red.
00:10:24
Speaker
So Utgard-Alochi then proceeded to challenge Thor to another contest to lift his cat off the ground. It's usually a child's game. For you, Thunder God, this should be easily enough.
00:10:37
Speaker
A great grey cat pounced down in the middle of the hall, and Thor went out and grasped it, attempting to live it above his head. Unfortunately, the cat's back kept arching, and as large as it was, Thor was only tall enough to bring its paws from the floor.
00:10:55
Speaker
Utgader pronounced that he had predicted this challenge would go like that, since Thor is a smaller man, shorter than the other men in this hall. Thor roared, If you think I'm so small, Jotun, choose someone one to wrestle with me,
00:11:10
Speaker
I am now angry! Udgard-Loki looked around the hall at his men and decided it would not be dignified for any of them to wrestle four. So he called out his nurse, an old woman by the name of Ellie, who he said had brought down men no less stronger than four.
00:11:30
Speaker
Four was insulted, the choice of his opponent, but took on the match anyway. They battled and they battled, back and forth, but four...
00:11:40
Speaker
did not fare well. Every time he put his strength into grapple, the elderly giantess held her ground, and eventually Thor lost his footing, and the giantess put him down into one knee.
00:11:54
Speaker
By then it was late at night, and Utgader Loki stopped the contest. He offered Thor and his companions hospitality and a place to stay for the night.
The Power of Illusions
00:12:05
Speaker
The next day, upon waking, Thor, Loki, and Thor's bond servants... prepared to leave the hall of Utgada, but the great giant met them in the hall with hospitality and a table laden out for breakfast.
00:12:20
Speaker
On the way out of the fortress, Utgada followed Thor and his companions for a short while. That's when the giant decided to tell them the truth. He looked at Thor and told him,
00:12:32
Speaker
that he was really the giant Scrymere, and he would never invite Fall into his hall again, for the Thunder God had almost brought destruction upon them. The night that Thor tried to kill Scrymere, the giant had moved a mountain beside his head.
00:12:48
Speaker
Scrymere admitted to have shape-shifting abilities, so the god would not notice when he moved the mountain. Thor had left three square valleys with the strikes of his hammer.
00:13:00
Speaker
Then when Loki tried to eat faster than Loki, the contest was unfair because Loki was in fact wildfire. And the man Fjalfi raced was Utgada Loki's own fort.
00:13:15
Speaker
The horn that Thor drank from was actually connected the depths of the ocean. So Thor drank and drank, but only so much as to create the tides.
00:13:26
Speaker
And the cat was in fact actually Jormungandr, the great world serpent of Midgard, who was so vast that his body enveloped the entire world.
00:13:38
Speaker
But Thor picked it up almost the world, and so reaching the sky, even he thought that he'd only lifted the paws off the ground. Thor was growing so angry that Utgard-Loki then proceeded to tell him that the old woman that the Thunder God wrestled was actually...
00:13:57
Speaker
old age, time incarnate, impressed by how long Thor kept himself on his feet, but ultimately, all man does fall to time.
00:14:09
Speaker
Finally, Thor lost his temper and threw his hammer at Scryme, but the giant, along with his fortress, suddenly disappeared and left in his wake a beautiful sight, a great flower, dappled plain that stretched out in front of Thor, and his companions,
00:14:26
Speaker
and his great hall were no longer to be seen. Deceived by the Jotun's magic, a cautionary tale of how not everything in this life is what as it seems, and that any ego can be humiliated upon.
00:14:45
Speaker
Thus, the story concludes. I thank you, fellow brothers and sisters, for this time shared together. Join me in the next episode as I lament upon the wrangling of Loki from the poem of Lokasena.
00:15:00
Speaker
And until next time, in Odin's Keep, my friends. Skal!