“My hammer! My hammer!” thundered Thor, awaking and finding it gone.

The gods in all Asgard awoke with a start.

“What a crash of thunder! So quick, so sharp!” cried the earth-people; for they did not know it was a cry of rage from Thor.

“Loke,” thundered Thor again. “Put you on wings. Go you to the home of the Frost giants and bring back my hammer. Some one of them has stolen it. Go! Go! I say.”

And Loke, who had been a very obedient servant to Thor since his theft of the golden hair of Sif, put on the magic wings and fled away.

“What brings you here in the land of the Frost giants?” growled Thrym, as Loke alighted before him.

“I have come for the hammer you have stolen from Thor,” answered Loke boldly, seeing at once, from the jeering look in Thrym’s eye, that he was the thief.

“You will never find it,” sneered Thrym. “It is well hidden; but I will send it back to you if Odin will send me Freyja for my wife.”

Loke begged and coaxed and threatened; but it was all of no avail. “Never,” bellowed Thrym, “until you send Freyja to me.”

“She shall go,” thundered Thor, when Loke came back to Asgard. “Whatever the price, the hammer must be brought back. Asgard is not safe without it.”

But Freyja was as fierce as had been Thrym himself. “I will not go,” she insisted. “Never! Never! Never will I go!”

“I say you must,” thundered Thor. But although Thor’s thunders were terrible and his frown was deep and inky black, Freyja was not to be moved either by pleading or threatening.

“Go yourself,” said she. “Dress yourself as a goddess and go.” Nor would she listen even to another word. Thor thundered and rumbled and rolled. It was all of no avail. Freyja was a goddess and would not be driven.

“I will go,” said Thor at last. “Bring me a bridal dress. Hang a necklace around my neck. Bind a bridal veil about my head. The giants are as stupid as they are large; and I will set forth in the name of Freyja to meet the giant Thrym.”

Thor was quickly dressed, and the bridal party set forth across the sky in the chariot of the Sungod. How the thunder rolled! How the lightnings flashed from the angry eyes of Thor! How he grumbled and rumbled!

Jotunheim was reached. The Sungod lowered his chariot behind the hills; and a soft, red light spread over the earth and sky as the bridal party entered the castle of the giant Thrym.

“Freyja has come! Freyja has come!” bellowed Thrym. “Come, come, everyone to the bridal feast! Come, come to the feast of Thrym and Freyja!”

The giants in all the mountains round about answered to the call of Thrym. An hour, and the huge castle was filled with the huge guests. A great feast was held. But through it all Thor sat silent and motionless. Indeed, he dared not move; he dared not speak lest the thunder burst forth from his lips, or the lightning shoot forth from his eyes.

“Now lift the veil from Freyja’s face,” bellowed Thrym, when all save the bride herself had eaten and drank their fill. “Let me see the eyes of my bride. Let us all look upon the face of my goddess bride.”

“Not yet,” whispered Loke coming forward; “it was the command of Thor that the veil should not be lifted, nor should you claim Freyja for your own, until the hammer was placed in her hand, to be returned to the gods.”

“Bring in the hammer! Bring in the hammer!” roared Thrym, full of loud, good humor.

The hammer was brought. Hardly could Thor wait to have it placed in his hand.

His thunder began to rumble. There was a dangerous light in his eyes; but Thrym and the guests saw none of this. But hardly was the hammer within his reach when forth Thor sprang, seized it in his clutched fingers, tore aside the bridal veil, and with a rumble and a roar that shook the mountains of Jotunheim and razed the great stone castles to the ground, he poured out his lightnings upon the giants, one and all. Right and left he swung the mighty weapon; the giants quaked and trembled with terror; Thrym ran and hid himself behind a mountain; the air was white with lightning; the hills rang with the crashings of the thunder; the seas lashed and foamed and answered back the echoes; the walls of Jotunheim shook and trembled.

And now the chariot of the Sungod was near at hand. Into it Thor and Loke leaped, and were borne back to the city of the gods. The hammer was restored. Again Thor held it in his mighty grasp. He held it, and Asgard once more was safe.