Top: Thor and Gjøgleriet in Utgaard, or Thor lifting the Midgard Serpent, by Niels Hansen Jacobsen. Plaster, 1891.
This quote from N. M. Petersen's Nordic Mythology was printed in the catalog of the 1891 exhibition as a follow-up text for the sculpture: There ran a big, gray cat on the floor. Thor put his hand under his belly, and for all that he lifted, the cat curved his back, but he could not bring it higher than that the cat lifted one foot from the ground. When Thor and his companions left, Utgard-Loki said, "Now I will tell you the truth, I have used illusions. That you could lift the cat with one foot from the ground, terrified all; It was the Midgard Serpent which is in all lands; You lifted it so high that it was close to the sky.
Like in his Loki-statue, Jacobsen paid attention to details from the mythology: the hammer has a very short handle, and despite being otherwise naked, Thor is still wearing his magical belt.
Middle: Niels Hansen Jacobsen working on the Thor statue.
Bottom: An old photograph from the Sculpture Hall, with the Thor between other statues. (The source doesn’t say where this Sculpture Hall is. It mentions exhibitions in Charlottenborg in 1891 and in Den Frie Udstilling in 1901.)
Sources:
http://www.vejenkunstmuseum.dk/Dansk/samlingen/skulpturer2013/thor.html
http://www.vejenkunstmuseum.dk/Dansk/udstillinger/nataabent2004.htm
