Loki continues his
tale with Thor…
Thor and Loki come
upon the giant Skrymir’s home: Utgardhall which they must enter by crawling
under the door. Inside they meet a flaming giant who calls himself Utgard-Loki.
He tells them that they must pass his trials—and all trials are one, to prove
their worthiness, along with that of Asgard, Jotunheim, and Midgard. Loki
proposes an eating and drinking contest. Loki is placed at one end of a table
full of food while a small man named Logi is seated at the other. In a second,
Logi has eaten not just his half of the food but half the table itself. Thor is
given a horn to empty in one draft but he finds the mead unpalatable—and unable
to finish….
Again, we step
back to see that this is a comic book being read by Dario “the Minotaur” Agger.
He has acquired the property for profit but is impressed by the magic added by
the Enchantress as the Executioner stands by….
Loki must race
against a boy named Lukki, not Hugi as he remembers. While Loki laces up his magic
Seven-League Boots, his opponent has already crossed the finish line. [Narrator
Loki is confused by the change of name for his opponent.] Thor is set to
wrestle the giant’s elderly nurse Elli and she puts him in a hold he cannot
break. As a final test, Utgard-Loki orders Thor to pick up an ordinary-looking
cat. He tries but the animal stretches so that it is only but extreme effort
that Thor is able to lift one paw off the ground. Then the illusion falls away:
Skrymir was Utgard-Loki all the time. The bag was tied with the cord of
Eternity’s own fate. Thor’s blows actually turned a mountain into a valley.
Logi was Fire. Lukki was Loki’s own Thought. The horn led to the sea. The
elderly nurse was Death. And the cat is the Midgard Serpent. Utgard-Loki delivers
a warning. The gods are fit to rule—for now. But if Utgard Hall reappears,
expect a catastrophe. The hall then vanishes….
Loki finishes
his tale. Thor has learned that as Toranos (Utgard-Thor) is to him so
Utgard-Loki is to Loki. He wonders why Gaea chose to unleash such creatures.
With a deeper question; Is there an Utgard-Odin…?