Utgard-Loki

What contests did Thor attempt?

Thor and his companions reached a great castle in Utgard. Before its king, Utgard-Loki, Loki challenged Logi to an eating contest. While Loki ate all the meat, his opponent ate the bones and the wooden trough too.

Thjalfi raced a boy named Hugi. However many times they ran, he could not catch him. In their last race, Hugi reached the finish and turned back before Thjalfi had made it halfway.

Thor tried a contest of emptying a drinking horn. He drank for as long as he could hold his breath, but the level barely fell. By his 3rd attempt, he had lowered it a little, but he could not empty the horn. He handed it back.

Next came a challenge to lift a large gray cat. Thor put his hand beneath its belly and heaved, but the cat raised only a single paw. Then he wrestled an old woman named Elli, who had been the king’s nurse. He struggled with all his strength, but at last he fell to one knee.

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