Too Happy to Remember the Spell

Why is the whetstone still stuck in Thor's head?

Thor returns home with the whetstone still lodged in his head. Groa, a woman skilled in magic and the wife of Aurvandil, comes to visit. As she sings spells over Thor, the whetstone begins to loosen.

Feeling that it is nearly free, Thor wants to repay Groa for her help with some happy news. He tells her how he carried her husband out of the land of the giants in a basket on his back. With Aurvandil on his back, Thor waded through the water to bring him across.

One of her husband's toes had stuck out of the basket and frozen. Thor broke it off, he explains, and tossed it into the sky to make a star. He also tells her that her husband will soon be home. Groa is delighted by the news.

But she is so happy that she forgets the spells. The whetstone loosens no further and stays in Thor's head. *Skaldskaparmal* warns against throwing a whetstone across the floor, because doing so makes the whetstone in his head move.

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