One morning mighty Thor woke to find that his hammer, Mjollnir, was missing. He woke all of the other gods and goddesses asking if they had seen his hammer, but none of them had, and became quite upset to hear that Mjollnir was missing. Mjollnir was the most powerful weapon that the gods posessed, and if their enemies heard that Mjollnir was missing then they might attack, and the gods would be powerless against them. Loki, the trickster god, had an idea about who had stolen Mjollnir, so he turned himself into a falcon and flew off to find Thrym, the king of the giants. When Loki found Thrym, the giant confessed that it was indeed him that had stolen the hammer while Thor slept. Thrym also said that he had hidden it in a place where no one could find it, and he would not return Mjollnir until Freyja, the most beautiful of all the the goddesses, was made his bride. Loki flew off to tell the gods the bad news. They debated and argued, but they came to the conclusion that Freyja must become Thrym's wife so that the hammer would be return. Freyja and the other gods started preparing for Freyja's wedding when the god Heimdall came up with an idea: Dress mighty Thor up in Freyja's clothing and send him to marry Thrym. Thor didn't like the idea of dressing up like a woman, but his disliked the idea of beautiful Freyja becoming Thrym's bride even more, so he reluctantly agreed. Thor, dressed as a bride, was accompanied by his "handmaiden" Loki to Thrym's castle. When Thor and Loki arrived, Thrym welcomed them in, and held a feast in their honour. Thor ate and entire ox, a net full of salmon, and six barrels of mead by himself, and when Thrym asked Loki why the "maiden" was eating so much Loki replied that she had not eaten for a week in anticipation of the wedding and was famished. Thinking that "Freyja" was really in love with him he decided to give her a kiss. Thrym lifted her vail and prepared to kiss his bride when he caught sight of her red eyes. Alarmed, he asked Loki why his bride's eyes looked the way that they did. Smoothly Loki replied that she had not slept for a week either, and would be fine once she had had a chance to rest. Dim-witted Thrym accepted this and decided to make his bride wait no longer for the wedding. Fetching Mjollnir and holding it aloft he prepared to bless the union when Thor could take it no longer. He ripped off his bridal clothes, grabbed his hammer, and beat all of the giants to death with it, starting with Thrym. No one said mythology was pretty
