Erik and the Gods

Chapter 4 – Suttung’s Mead

CHAPTER 4 – SUTTUNG’S MEADThey continued across the Rainbow Bridge and every colour of the rainbow shone intensely.

“Help me keep an eye out for Jotuns,” Thor said, standing upright at the front of the chariot. His long red hair and beard were blowing in the wind, and he looked like a true god of war, Erik thought, huge and formidable.

“Can you really handle all of the giants with your hammer?”

“No, unfortunately not,” Thor answered. “Some can only be dealt with through cunning, as they are often just as clever as the Gods. Utgard-Loki is one such Jotun, a rather unpleasant creature. You will probably hear a lot more about him. The cleverest giant is called Mimir, and no one can match him in wisdom. Odin, for example, had to sacrifice his eye just to get some of his knowledge.”

“What do Jotuns look like?”

“They come in many shapes and sizes,” Thor answered, “but most of them are incredibly ugly and stupid, the males in particular. Some of them are enormous, as big as a mountain. I once slept inside the glove of a Jotun that size. It was Utgard-Loki’s glove, in fact, but at the time I thought it was a house or a large cave.

Some are small, almost like gnomes or dwarves. When you are travelling in Jotunheim, you never know what kind of creatures you will encounter. Many Jotuns can transform into fish or birds. There is a big Jotun we call Hræsvelg, the corpse swallower, who looks like a giant eagle. He is so big that when he flaps his wings it causes the wind to blow. He is an odd fellow and for the most part he remains unseen. But he is so strong that he can set the seas in motion, and with one swoosh of his wing he can make a small fire flare up into an inferno.

Some giants are extremely dangerous, and you should be very careful of them. There’s a female giant in a forest called the Iron Woods, far to the east of Jotunheim. She has many offspring, all monstrous wolves, and few trespassers make it out of that place alive.

The Jotuns and the Æsir have long been enemies, but fortunately I can take care of most of them on my own. All it takes is one blow squarely on the noggin with my iron hammer here, and then they are done for.” Thor patted his hammer.

Erik got up and stood next to Thor. The wind was blasting in his face and Erik really had to hold on hard to keep his footing. The goats were galloping at full pace, and sparks flew from their hooves as the chariot hurtled on.

“There’s one!” Thor yelled and threw his hammer in a flash. The big long-haired Jotun, hobbled in front of them on the Rainbow Bridge. It turned and grinned at them hideously, but just then the hammer struck it in the middle of its forehead, splitting its head in two. The hammer then zoomed back into Thor’s hand, ready for its next victim.

The giant was still grinning when they drove past. But its smile was now frozen in two parts.

Thor laughed, in a much better mood now. “There’s another one!” he screamed and hurled the hammer again.

An ape-like Jotun toppled over at once.

“Yeehaw!” Thor was screaming like an American cowboy who had just tamed a bucking bronco.

The hammer flew off a third time and slammed into an enormous face that had popped up by the edge of the bridge. The head was bigger than the chariot they were riding in, but the hammer blow had the desired effect, and the Jotun’s head disappeared instantly.

“Yeehaw!” Thor shouted, now in high spirits.

“There’s another one,” Erik said and pointed at a big, shiny black horse.

“Are you mad?!” Thor shouted and got the goats to come to a stop. “That is Hófvarpnir, Frigg’s horse!”

“What’s it doing here?”

“It must have run off because nobody can be bothered looking after it anymore. We had better take it back with us,” Thor said, then jumped out of the chariot and ran over to the horse. “It might get eaten by the giants otherwise. They eat just about anything. Come on!” he said and patted Hófvarpnir gently. The horse followed him, almost like a dog. “Follow the chariot!” he shouted to Hófvarpnir and then got the goats moving again.

Hófvarpnir followed at a smooth trot and even though the goats were fast, the horse kept up easily.

“Say something to it!” Thor said.

“Why?” Erik asked.

“If you want to make friends with an animal, you have to talk to it. A lot. You almost have to talk to it like it was another person.”

“But what should I say?”

“That’s up to you,” Thor replied as he scouted for more Jotuns.

Erik turned to Hófvarpnir and thought about it carefully. What do you say to a horse?

“Talk to it so it learns to recognise your voice!”

Erik cleared his throat. “Hi,” he said.

Thor looked down at Erik. “That is not going to be enough, but you will learn. Do you know how to ride, by the way?”

“No,” Erik answered. “I only tried it once, at a horse show, but there was a girl leading the horse.”

“Well,” Thor began. “You are going to have to learn in a hurry. You will need to know how to ride for your journey.”

Erik looked at the horse warily and wondered what exactly it was that Thor had in mind for him.

Hófvarpnir looked Erik in the eyes with a great, warm look like only a horse could do. Its forelock and thick mane billowed in the wind as it ran alongside the chariot. Erik reached out and stroked Hófvarpnir and it whinnied faintly, like they had been friends forever. Hófvarpnir continued running next to the chariot. Was it to stay as close to Erik as possible, or did it want him to climb on its back?

Erik remained firmly in the chariot. Even though he’d always been a little afraid of horses, he felt that he would never be afraid of Hófvarpnir. It was the biggest horse he had ever seen, but he got a clear sense that it would never kick him or try to buck him if he rode it. It was a wonderful feeling.

Thor looked back at Erik and smiled to himself.

For a long time they didn’t encounter any more giants and Erik began getting a little bored. To pass the time, he asked Thor what he meant when he said Odin was to blame for all the trouble in Asgard.

“Well,” Thor began. “It started many years ago actually, in fact when Idun, one of the Asynjur, was snatched by the Jotuns,” Thor explained. “And just so you know, the Æsir are the male gods and the Asynjur are the female gods. Idun possesses some magical apples that keep all of us young and healthy, and it was Odin’s fault that she was taken by the Jotuns.

You see, Odin discovered that a giant by the name of Suttung was said to possess a strange nectar, a very special drink that we call the skaldic mead of inspiration. This mead can make whoever drinks it burst into song or poetry that is as heavenly as birds singing in the spring.

Odin had to get his hands on that mead. So one summer’s day, he disguised himself using an old tattered cloak and a cane, and set out to find Suttung, thinking that nobody in Jotunheim would recognise him like that.

On his journey, he arrived at a field where nine peasants were gathering hay. Odin stopped to enjoy the smell of the freshly cut grass.

But he could see that the harvest was hard work for the peasants, who were growing weary because their scythes were so blunt. So Odin offered to sharpen their blades with his grindstone, which he happened to have in his pocket. The peasants had no objections, and after Odin had finished, they noticed that their scythes were cutting far better than before.

They were keen to purchase Odin’s grindstone and he was willing to sell it as long as they were willing to pay a fair price. But they had to choose which of them would get it.

So Odin threw the grindstone in the air, and all nine peasants were so eager to get their hands on it, they tripped over one another in the scramble and accidentally sliced one another in two with their sharpened blades.

Of course that was a sad outcome but nothing could be done about it, so Odin continued on his way. In the evening, he came across a Jotun named Baugi and asked if he might be permitted to be his guest that night. Baugi, who happened to be Suttung’s brother, asked for Odin’s name. Odin said his name was Bolverk, and since there were no Gods by that name, Baugi believed Odin to be a peaceful man and let him stay the night.

While they sat drinking that evening, Baugi began to share his woes. All of a sudden, everything was a mess at his farm, he complained. All nine of his peasant workers had killed themselves. What was he going to do about the harvest? He could not cut the grass alone, nor could he leave it to rot in the fields.

How terrible, Odin thought, and offered to work in their stead. He was confident he could do the work of nine men, he said, and all he wanted for it was a sip of Suttung’s mead.

Baugi was unable to promise him that, because it was up to his brother, Suttung. “But at the end of the summer, I will take you to see him and plead your case,” he promised.

So Odin spent the entire summer at Baugi’s farm. He did the work of the nine peasants and when the first day of winter arrived, he asked for his payment.

Baugi could not refuse him that, so they paid a visit to Suttung. Baugi told him of Bolverk’s work and of his wish to drink a sip of the mead.

But Suttung was having none of it, Odin was not going to get a single drop, not over his dead body! So they left emptyhanded.

“Well, since he refuses to give me some, I guess I will have to take some,” Odin said when they got outside. “Will you help me?” In order to repay Bolverk for all the work he had done, Baugi was willing to help, and a single sip of Suttung’s mead, what was that? Bolverk had asked for so little for his work, he should be rewarded properly. Baugi was certainly no miser. But how were they going to get it?

Suttung’s mead was hidden deep inside a mountain, where his beautiful daughter, Gunnlod, watched over it. It was impossible, Baugi thought. But Odin had a solution. Like some kind of conjurer, he pulled out a drill from his sleeve and asked Baugi to drill a hole into the mountain.

Baugi drilled and drilled until he was exhausted. Finally he yanked out the drill and said he thought the hole should now be deep enough to reach Gunnlod.

Odin blew into the hole, but got dust all over his face. Although Baugi had made a hole in the rock, it still wasn’t quite deep enough. So Baugi drilled some more, and after a good while Odin blew into the hole again. This time no dust flew back, meaning that Baugi had drilled all the way through the side of the mountain. Odin instantly transformed himself into a snake and slithered into the hole.

Baugi was furious when he saw that, realising that he had been deceived. But he didn’t dare warn Suttung, so instead he thrust the drill into the hole in an effort to spear Odin with it. But Odin was too fast. He just managed to slip into Gunnlod’s cave in time to escape the drill.

Once inside the cave, Odin transformed into a handsome young man and went over to Gunnlod. She had been bored and extremely lonely and as soon as she saw Odin, she was happy and fell in love with him on the spot. Odin spent three nights with her. Gunnlod fussed over him, had him sit on a golden chair and offered him the best food she had. She also brought out the precious mead and said that he could try something that nobody before him had tasted. She said he could have three sips, one from each of the barrels.

Odin didn’t wait to be asked twice. With his first sip he emptied one barrel, with his next the second, and with his final sip he drained the third barrel. Then he changed into a great eagle and launched himself into the air, escaping through an opening at the top of the cave, before setting off for Asgard.

Odin flew away as quickly as he could with his belly full of Suttung’s mead, and he didn’t even spare a backward glance for poor Gunnlod. She was distraught at being abandoned and stood in her cave with tears pouring down her cheeks.

Unfortunately Odin was spotted by Suttung. The strange shape of the eagle gave him away. Suttung transformed into an eagle as well and launched himself after Odin. Weighed down by all the mead, Odin flew more like a stuffed goose than an eagle, and Suttung drew closer and closer.

But before Suttung could sink his claws into him, Odin reached the walls of Asgard. The rest of the Gods saw him flying over the wall, and quick as lightning, they positioned three large barrels outside of Valhalla. Odin flapped away with Suttung right on his tail. And when he flew over the barrels, he regurgitated all the mead he had swallowed. Most of the mead landed in the barrels, though not all, and with his load lightened, Odin was able to flee from Suttung and hide.

Naturally, Suttung was furious when he returned home and resumed his normal form. He asked his brother about the incident and Baugi was forced to confess. A man named Bolverk had tricked him and stolen the mead!

When Suttung heard that, he travelled to Asgard and asked if they knew of a man named Bolverk, as he would like to have a word with him. Not only had he stolen his precious mead, he had made his daughter so unhappy that she had to cry herself to sleep every night.

But no. There was certainly nobody called Bolverk in Asgard, he was told. Suttung was forced to leave emptyhanded. He cursed and swore until he was blue in the face.

– There’s another one!” Thor shouted, pointing at a Jotun riding off on a boar. The hammer flashed across the Rainbow Bridge and smashed the giant right in the face. Thor steered the goats in its direction and grabbed the boar at full speed. “We’ll have this for dinner tonight!” he laughed.

“The skaldic mead turned out to be a wonderful drink, so wonderful in fact, that it was very easy to get addicted to. That was what… well, you will see for yourself when we arrive,” Thor said gravely.