Sacred Texts: Legends and Sagas

Teutonic Myth and Legend: Chapter XIV. The Great Stone Giant

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"Teutonic Myth and Legend" (1912) by Donald A. Mackenzie is a retelling and commentary on Norse/Germanic mythology, presented in a narrative prose style that draws from the Eddic tradition. This excerpt recounts the myth of Thor's duel with Hrungner, the Stone Giant: Odin baits the giant into pursuing him to Asgard, where the drunken Hrungner makes grandiose threats, leading to a formal island duel in which Thor defeats Hrungner but is felled and pinned by the giant's corpse, only to be freed by his infant son Magni. The chapter also includes the story of Groa's failed healing — Thor, eager to reward the healer by telling her of her husband Orvandel's rescue, breaks her incantation mid-spell, leaving a flint shard permanently lodged in his forehead. A closing episode presents Odin disguised as a ferryman who taunts and mocks Thor across a river, functioning as comic relief that humanizes the thunder-god through petty bickering. Mackenzie's distinctive approach treats these myths as coherent narrative drama rather than dry catalogue, and his retelling emphasizes character — Odin's cunning and mischief, Thor's brute pride and impatience — as psychological traits rather than mere divine attributes.

Teutonic Myth and Legend: Chapter XIV. The Great Stone Giant

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