#geirrod

[incorrectnorse-quotes]

About the tampon invention myth. It is the story of geirröd and i think there are two versions. One where he captures Loki and makes him swear to bring Thor to his abode if he lets him go. In another he captures Odin and tortures him but Loki escapes and runs to get Thor to help him free Odin.

Ohhh yeah I don't think I've ever heard the second one?? Interesting!

[norsemythologypics]

Norse Mythology - Thor Journeys to Geirrod's Courts

Subscribe for more videos: https://goo.gl/Uudd2p The story of Thor who journeys to Geirrod's courts in Jotunheim from Skáldskaparmál which is the second part...

Thor Journeys to Geirrod's Courts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAESA3oGuNQ

[mistress-of-words]

I don’t want to reblog the post and can’t reply to it since I don’t follow OP, but thought someone should know the Geirrod in the R.B. Anderson post is most likely the jotunn Geirrodr (not the Valkyrie like OP guessed). Geirrodr makes more sense because he locked Loki in a literal chest, nearly starving him until Loki would promise to bring Thor to him.

Awesome! That does indeed make more sense.

This one is for you @jonquilclegane

[gangleri-allfather-blog]

Once, Thor and Loki came across the giantess Gjalp and her sister Greip, who were both the daughters of Geirrod. The sisters wanted to kill the two gods, and even before their arrival, they plotted to put an end to them. As the two gods made their way to the hall of Geirrod, Gjalp added a torrent of her menstrual blood to a river in an attempt to drown them. When this failed, Thor threw a stone at her head and sent her running home.

Once they arrived at the hall, the two sisters tried again to kill them. As Thor slept in a chair, the sisters attempted to raise his chair and knock his head against the rafters, in order to kill him. However, Thor awoke just in time to force the chair downwards with the help of a magic staff. The massive weight this created caused the backs of the two sisters to break, and they died instead.

[101lokis-blog]

Thor carries Loki across a river - illustration and story from Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Gillian McClure [UK, 1980/1993]

Thor Visits Geirrod - PART TWO:

(Part One) Thor said he had never heard of Geirrod. ‘He’s rather ugly,’ said Loki, ‘but he has two attractive daughters. He’d like to meet you and you’d like to meet them.’ Thor puckered his mouth, wishing he had brought his hammer Mjollnir and his girdle of strength in case things did not turn out too well.

'What's more,' said Loki, 'we can stay with Grid tonight - her door is always open.'

Thor liked the sound of that.

Thor kept walking and before nightfall Grid welcomed the two of them into her hall.

Not long after supper Loki spread out some straw and fell asleep. In the flickering firelight his expression seemed to change from moment to moment, light and dark, gay and grim.

'Now that Loki is asleep,' said Grid, 'let me tell you the truth about Geirrod.'

Thor looked at the giantess drunkenly.

'Listen!' said Grid. 'Geirrod has little love for the gods, and even less for the god who killed Hrungnir.'

'But that was me!' exclaimed Thor.

'That's what I am saying,' said Grid sharply. 'Listen! Geirrod is as cunning as a fox; he'll let you walk into his hall but arrange for you to be carried out of it.'

Thor wished the ale-mist would clear from his head. He kept screwing up his eyes, then opening them wide and rolling them round and round.

'Go if you must,' said Grid, 'but go well armed. I'll lend you my own weapons.' Then the giantess gave Thor her belt of strength, her iron gloves and unbreakable staff.

Thor thanked her and fell asleep.

The next morning Thor and Loki left Grid's hall and continued their journey. Loki looked at Thor's weapons and wondered what Grid had told him after he had fallen asleep; Thor looked at Loki and wondered how much he knew about Geirrod.

After a while the two gods came to a torrent, a great surge of water that frothed and hissed as it hurried downstream.

Thor secured the belt of strength and told Loki to hang on to it.

Then he grasped Grid's staff and, putting his weight on it, began to wade across the river.

By the time the two gods were midstream, Loki had his arms round Thor's neck. The river was breaking over Thor's shoulders and seemed to be rising all the time. Thor cursed and shouted at the river, 'You cannot stop me on my way to the giants. However high you rise, I'll rise higher. I'll rise as high as heaven!'

Then the power of the torrent became so great that Thor was swept off his feet, with Loki still clinging to his neck. As he was carried downstream he grabbed hold of a rowan tree growing in the river. So Thor recovered his footing, and from there he was able to make his way into the shallows and so, at last, on to the far bank.

'That rowan tree saved our lives,' said Thor.

Late in the afternoon, the two gods reached Geirrod's hall. Geirrod himself was nowhere about but their arrival was clearly expected for a giant servant welcomed them and offered to show them where they would be sleeping.

Thor and Loki readily accepted. They were tired, and caked with mud after their journey.

Then the servant led the gods through the outhouses to a gloomy goat shed. It was furnished with a heap of rotten straw and a single chair. Thor bristled at such an insult; nevertheless he said nothing.

Loki took himself off to wash in the stream that ran past Geirrod's hall, and Thor sat down in the chair. He clenched his fist round Grid's staff, then he yawned. His fatigue got the better of his anger and he began to drowse.

When Thor closed his eyes, it was not long before he imagined he was crossing the river again - losing his foothold, flailing in the water, floating ... Thor opened his eyes and at once saw the reason for his dream: he was indeed floating once more. He was rising in his chair towards the rafters of the goat shed, and was close to being driven against them, head first.

Conclusion soon!

[101lokis-blog]

From Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Gillian McClure [UK, 1980/1993]

Thor Visits Geirrod - PART ONE:

'Lend me your falcon skin,' Loki said.

Frigg smiled and nodded, and her maidservant fetched the feather coat and draped it over Loki's shoulders.

'That's the trouble,' said Loki, leering at Frigg. 'These things so easily won, barely worth winning . . .' With that he tied on the skin, and flew round Frigg's hall and out of the door.

The Sky Traveller was bored with the string of days in Asgard that unwound without a knot or a twist in them. He headed for Jotunheim and came to a circle of green fields, enclosed by a jumble of silver and grey rock. A hall stood there and Loki swooped and settled on a window ledge.

The Sky Traveller peered in and saw a giant and his two daughters feasting in that hall.

The giant, Geirrod, peered out and saw a handsome hawk sitting on the window ledge. 'Catch that bird,' said the giant. 'Bring it to me.'

Loki's eyes gleamed and when one of Geirrod's servants came out of the hall, he flew up to the eaves just out of his reach.

Geirrod's servant got a foothold on the window ledge and stretched out a hand to snare the hawk. But the Sky Traveller had no intention of allowing himself to be caught. He hopped up the side of the roof, perched on the top, near the chimney hole, and gave a mocking screech. He saw no point in flying off until he had forced the giant servant to climb on to the steep roof where there were no handholds, and risk his life.

Once again the servant reached out and Loki thought it was time to take to the air. He spread his wings, he stood poised. But then, to his dismay, Loki found he was unable to move; his two feet were fixed to the thatch like branches of a tree, and Loki knew what kind of giant it was that he had to deal with. So the servant grabbed the hawk and brought him in to his master, Geirrod.

Loki looked at the giant; his eyes were red and green and subtle.

'This is no hawk,' said Geirrod to his daughters, Gjalp and Greip. 'This is some being in disguise. Look at his eyes.' The giant squeezed the bird in his thorny hand. 'Who are you?' he demanded.

Loki said nothing.

Geirrod squeezed again until Loki felt that he had been moulded into one solid mass. He gasped and screeched; but still he said nothing.

'Hunger opens the mouth,' said Geirrod, getting up from his seat and striding across the hall. He unlocked a huge chest, thrust the hawk into it, slammed down the lid and locked it again.

For three months Loki sat in darkness. He had nothing to eat; he fouled his own nest; he breathed stale air; and he became so weak from hunger that he could not call out loudly enough to make himself heard. At the end of three months Geirrod opened the chest and pulled out the hawk. 'Long enough?' was all he said.

The hawk blinked and looked around.

'Not long enough,' said Geirrod.

'Loki,' said the hawk.

'Ah!' exclaimed Geirrod. He took an even firmer grip on his victim. 'Loki,' he repeated, and smiled.

The Sky Traveller looked longingly towards the hall door. But the giant had much too firm a hold on him for any chance of escape.

'Well, Loki,' said the giant, 'do you want to live any longer?'

Loki listened.

'We can make this bargain,' said Geirrod. 'If you swear on oath that you will bring Thor to this hall without his hammer or his belt of strength, I'll spare your life.'

When Loki said nothing, Geirrod began the terrible squeezing again. So Loki saw that he had no choice but to agree. He swore to bring Thor to Geirrod's hall. Then Geirrod let Loki eat as much as he wanted. The Sky Traveller scowled at Geirrod and Gjalp and Greip, spread his wings and flew home to Asgard.

***

Thor and Loki had a great liking for each other's company, and often travelled together through the nine worlds. Once they were walking through the rocky uplands to the east of Asgard and, trusting as he was, Thor suspected nothing when Loki said they need travel only a little further, across green meadows springy underfoot, to visit the giant Geirrod.

Thor said he had never heard of Geirrod.

'He's rather ugly,' said Loki, 'but he has two attractive daughters. He'd like to meet you and you'd like to meet them.'

Thor puckered his mouth, wishing he had brought his hammer Mjollnir and his girdle of strength in case things did not turn out too well.

...Part Two soon!