Aurivandil's Toe

 Another tale is that of the giant Hrungnir's duel with Thor. Odin

and Hrungnir had a wager together, each insisting that he had the

finer horse. Odin galloped off on Sleipnir and Hrungnir after him on

his horse Goldmane, and Hrungnir inadvertently found himself inside

the realm of the gods before he drew rein. The Aesir allowed him to

drink from Thor's great beakers, and he grew boastful, declaring

that he was going to sink Asgard into the sea and carry off Freyja

and Sif. Thor at this point came in, furiously demanding why a giant

was sitting drinking among them, but Hrungnir claimed safe-conduct,

and challenged Thor to a duel.

 For this duel the giants made a clay man, called MistCalf, to

support Hrungnir. Hrungnir himself had a sharp, three-cornered heart

of stone, and a stone head, and he was armed with a stone shield and

a whetstone. Thor came out with Thialfi to meet him, and Thialfi

told the giant he had better stand on his shield, in case Thor

attacked him from below. Then Thor bore down on Hrungnir with

thunder and lightning, and hurled his hammer at him, while the giant

threw his whetstone. The weapons met in mid air, and the whetstone

was shattered, but one piece lodged in Thor's forehead. The hammer

went on to strike Hrungnir's skull and break it in pieces. Meanwhile Thialfi

had dealt with the day figure without much difficulty. The only problem was

caused by Hrungnir falling on top of Thor, for no  one could move his great

leg off the god until Thor's little son, Magni, came up and pushed it away.

Magni received the horse Goldmane as a reward. A seeress tried to sing

spells to get the piece of whetstone out of Thor's head, but he began to

tell her how he had once carried her husband Aurvandil in a basket out of

giantland, and when one toe of Aurvandil had frozen, he bad flung it up into

the sky to become the star called Aurvandil's Toe. She was so

interested that the spell was never finished, and so the stone

still remains in  Thor's head.

            (Davidson, 41)

     Davidson, H.R. Ellis Gods and Myths of the Viking Age New York:

            Barnes & Noble Books, 1996.