Sacred Texts: Legends and Sagas

Teutonic Myth and Legend: Chapter XII. The City of Enchantments

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This is a chapter from Donald A. Mackenzie's 1912 popular retelling of Norse mythology, presenting the story of Thor and Loki's journey to Jotunheim and their encounter with the giant Utgard-Loki. The narrative follows Thor as he travels with Loki, Thjalfe, and Roskva through the land of giants, where they are repeatedly humiliated: Loki loses an eating contest, Thjalfe loses a footrace, and Thor fails to lift a great cat or defeat an old woman in wrestling. A key episode features the deceptive giant Skrymer, whose "glove" the travelers mistake for a house, and whose skull Thor strikes three times with his hammer Mjolner to no effect. The work draws on the Eddic tradition—specifically the Gylfaginning section of the Prose Edda—and Mackenzie renders it in an elevated, pseudo-archaic prose style aimed at a general audience. A distinctive feature is Mackenzie's framing of Loki as a scheming antagonist ("the Evil One") who actively engineers conflict between Thor and his human ally Orvandel, emphasizing Loki's treacherous nature more explicitly than some other retellings. The excerpt ends before the reveal that Skrymer, Utgard-Loki, and all the challenges were magical illusions—suggesting this is mid-chapter and the full argument of the episode (the limits of brute strength against deception) is yet to land.

Teutonic Myth and Legend: Chapter XII. The City of Enchantments

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