any stronger than himself. Thor said he must own he had been much
shamed.

"And," said he, "I know you will call me a man of little might, and I
can badly bear that."

"Shall I tell you the truth?" said Utgard-Loki. "We are now out of the
city, and while I live and have my own way, you will never again enter
it. By my word you had never come in had I known before you had been so
strong and would bring us so near to great misfortune. I have deluded
thee with vain shows; first in the forest, where I met you, and where
you were unable to untie the wallet because I had bound it with
iron-thread so that you could not discover where the knot could be
loosened. After that you gave me three blows with your hammer. The first
blow, though the lightest, would have killed me had it fallen on me, but
I put a rock in my place which you did not see. In that rocky mountain
you will find three dales, one of which is very deep, those are the
dints made by your hammer. In the other games, I have deceived you with
illusions. The first one was the match with Loki. He was hungry and eat
fast, but Logi was Flame, and he consumed not only the flesh but the
trough with it. When Thjalfi contended with Hugi in running, Hugi was my
thought, and it was not possible for Thjalfi to excel that in swiftness.
When you drank of the horn and the liquor seemed to get lower so slowly,
you did, indeed, so well that had I not seen it, I should never have
believed it. You did not see that one end of the horn was in the sea,
but when you come to the shore you will see how much the sea has shrunk
in consequence of your draughts, which have caused what is called the
ebb. Nor did you do a less wondrous thing when you lifted up the cat,
and I can assure you all were afraid when you raised one of its paws off
the ground. The cat was the great Midgard serpent which lies stretched