the sight of Thor, whereas Hrungnir, whose heart, head and shield appear to be made of stone, is "standing unguardedly". After the fight is over and Hrungnir eventually defeated, Thor turns out to be stuck under the jötunn's leg. Thor's three-year-old son Magni is the only one able to lift up the gigantic leg among all the present Æsir (gods). As a reward, Thor offers him Hrungnir's horse Gullfaxi. Skaldic poetry Haustlöng (Autumn-long, 14–20), a poem written by the early 10th-century skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir and from which Snorri claims to derive his own account, depicts Thor's journey to the duel while the cosmological elements are reacting: the "ground all low" (earth) is "battered with hail" and "all the hawk's sanctuaries" (the skies) are in flame; "Svolnir’s widow" (Odin's consort, Jörð [Earth]) practically split apart". Then Hrungnir and Thor fight by hurling their weapons at each other (the jötunn's whetstone and Thor's hammer), and the poem alludes to the removal of the piece of whetstone from Thor's head. Compared to Snorri's account, Þjóðólfr emphasizes more on Thor's journey to the battle, escorted by noise and flames, while Snorri makes relatively little of it and also describes Hrungnir's journey. Thor's servant Þjálfi and Hrungnir's clay-made giant Mokkurkálfi are absent from Þjóðólfr’s 10th-century version. In Ragnarsdrápa, the 9th-century skald Bragi Boddason mentions "Hrungnir's skull-splitter". Bragi also refers to the shield as "Hrungnir's sole-blade" and refers to Hrungnir as the "thief of Þrúðr", the daughter of Thor. Theories According to scholar John Lindow, the reaction of cosmological elements (the earth is cracking, the sky burning) during Thor's journey to the battle, as told in Haustlöng, "suggests the cosmic nature of Thor’s duel with Hrungnir". The motivation for the duel, which is not mentioned by 10th-century skald Þjóðólfr in Haustlöng, could have originally been the abduction of Thor's daughter Þrúðr by the stone-made giant Hrungnir, as suggested by an earlier kenning by 9th-century skald Bragi: 'leaf of the soles of the thief of Þrúðr [SHIELD]' (blað ilja Þrúðar þjófs). Georges Dumézil argues that the story involves the initiation of Þjálfi by Thor in the killing of the clay-made monster. See also Conchobar mac Nessa, an Irish king from the Ulster Cycle, who is wounded in a very similar manner by Cet mac Magach References Bibliography Jötnar