Thor and the Giants(1) Thor und die Giganten(1) Thor y los gigantes (1) Thor et les géants(1) トールと巨人（1） Thor i giganci(1) Thor e os Gigantes(1) 雷神与巨人(1)

It was the beginning of the summer, and Thor was bored.

'I'm bored!' he said to Loki.

'But this is Asgard!' said Loki. 'It's the most beautiful place in all of Yggdrasil.'

'Yes, but it's quiet here,' replied Thor. 'Too quiet.'

'So what do you want to do?' asked Loki.

'I think I should go and fight some giants!' he said. 'There are too many giants.'

'But if the giants are quiet, why don't we leave them alone?' asked Loki.

'Sooner or later they'll make trouble for us!' said Thor.

Loki did not think this was a good idea, but he knew that when Thor decided something it was impossible to stop him. 'Very well, then,' he said. 'But remember this, Thor - you need to be clever to fight giants. And you're not always very intelligent, are you?'

'That's ridiculous!' replied Thor. 'I was clever when I stopped the dark elf Alvis from marrying my daughter.'

'Yes, that's true,' said Loki. 'But that doesn't happen often. If you're going to fight giants, then I think I should come with you!'

'I'm not sure about that, Loki,' replied Thor. 'You might start playing some of your tricks.'

'I promise I won't play any tricks,' said Loki.

'Very well then!' said Thor. 'Together we'll be able to fight all the giants! Come on. Let's go! Right now!'

'It's late now,' said Loki. 'We should wait until early tomorrow. Then we'll have a day to travel to the country of the giants.'

Thor agreed, and the next morning they took Thor's chariot and put the two goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr in front of it. Thor's two goats were very special: they were very strong goats, so they could pull Thor's chariot through the sky. But at the end of each day, Thor killed and ate them. しかし、毎日の終わりに、トールはそれらを殺して食べました. The next day, they came back to life. 翌日、彼らは生き返った。

Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr pulled Thor and Loki across the sky. They flew above Asgard, and looked down.

'Look how beautiful it is!' said Loki.

'Yes, it is,' said Thor. 'But I want to go and fight some giants! Come on, quick!' he shouted to the goats. They travelled all day, but when night came, they were still in Midgard, the country of the humans.

'We should stop here for the night,' said Loki.

'Can't we continue?' asked Thor. 'I want to see some giants, at least!'

'The goats are getting tired now,' replied Loki. 'Look, there's a farmhouse! We can stop there.'

Thor stopped the chariot on the ground, next to the farmhouse. The house was very old. It looked very poor.

'Does anyone live in this place?' asked Thor.

'I don't think so,' said Loki. 'But knock on the door and see.'

Thor knocked on the door of the old farmhouse. He was so strong he nearly broke the old door. To their surprise, a woman came out.

'Who are you, and what do you want?' she asked.

'We're the gods Thor and Loki!' said Thor. 'And we want a place to stay for the night.'

The woman looked very surprised. She went back inside, then came out with her husband, the farmer. 'Who are you, and what do you want?' asked the farmer.

'Don't get angry!' said Loki to Thor.

'I've just said - we're the gods Thor and Loki, and we want a place to stay for the night!' Thor said again.

'Of course you can stay here for the night,' said the farmer. 'But I'm afraid we have very little food, and no meat.' 「しかし、残念ながら私たちには食べ物がほとんどなく、肉もありません。」

'No meat?' said Thor. 'Don't worry about that - I have my two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr. I'll kill them now, and then we can all eat!'

They went inside the farmhouse and started a fire. Thor killed his goats, and they cooked them on the fire.

'This is our son, Thialfi,' said the farmer. 'Can he eat with us too?'

'Of course,' said Thor. 'There's lots of meat from the goats you can eat - but don't eat any of the bones!'

They were all very hungry, and ate both of the goats. Then they were all tired, so they went to bed. But the farmer's son, Thialfi, was still very hungry. When everyone was asleep, he got up and took a leg bone from one of the goats. There was a lot of meat on the bone, so Thialfi put it under his bed.

'I'll eat this later,' he thought. 'No one will know.'

That night, they all slept very well.

The next morning, Thor used his hammer Mjollnir to bring the goats back to life. The goats lived again, but Thor saw that one of them could not walk properly. 'Tanngrisnir has no bone in his back leg,' said Thor. 'I told you not to eat the bones, only the meat! That is why my goat Tanngrisnir has no bone in his back leg!'

Thor was becoming very angry now, and the farmer, his wife and his son were very worried.

'I didn't eat the bone!' said the farmer.

'I didn't eat the bone,' said the farmer's wife.

'Loki - is this one of your tricks?' asked Thor.

'No, it isn't,' replied Loki. 'I didn't eat the bone.'

Then very quietly, Thialfi said, 'It was me. I ate the bone!'

Thor was angry, and lifted up his hammer to hit Thialfi.

'No! Stop!' said Loki. 'Don't hit him! He's only a poor, hungry boy. I've got a better idea.'

'What's that?' asked Thor.

'Because the boy ate the bone, and we told him not to, he must come with us on our journey,' said Loki. 'He can help us fight the giants!'

'But he's only a boy,' said Thor. 'He can't help us!'

'I'm not sure,' said Loki. 'I think a human might be able to help us.'

'Very well then,' said Thor. 「それでは、」ソーは言いました。 'Thialfi, you will come with us!'

The farmer and his wife were sad to see their son leave, but knew they could not stop Thor.

So Thor, Loki and Thialfi got in the chariot and flew off again. They travelled for a long time. They crossed mountains and seas, and when the day was ending, they stopped in the middle of a big forest.

'I don't like this place,' said Loki.

'What? Are you frightened?' asked Thor. 'The god Loki is frightened of the forest!'

'I'm not frightened,' said Loki. 'But we don't know where we are. And it's very dark here. Thialfi - go into the forest and see if there's a house near here.'

Thialfi was worried. He did not want to go into the dark forest on his own at night, but he knew he had to go. He walked off into the forest.

After a long time, he found a big house. It was a very unusual house. It did not have any doors or windows, for example. It only had a big space for a door.

'This house is unusual, but it's very big,' thought Thialfi. 'We can stay here tonight.' He ran back through the forest to Thor and Loki and told them about the house. The three of them went through the dark forest to sleep in the big, strange house.

In the middle of the night, there was a loud noise. It sounded like thunder.

'Is that you, Thor?' asked Loki. 'Making thunder with your hammer Mjollnir?'

'No,' replied Thor. 'I was asleep.'

'Something is not right here,' said Loki. 'Look - over there is a smaller room. I think it isn't so dangerous if we sleep in there.'

Thor, Loki and Thialfi moved from the big room to the small room, and again went to sleep. But after a few minutes, the loud noise came again. They looked around, but could see nothing, so they tried to sleep again.

Next morning they woke up and walked out of the house into the forest, and found out what the noise was. Next to the house was a giant, lying asleep on the floor of the forest. The giant made a loud sound while he slept. He was snoring.

'So that was the noise!' said Thor. 'This sleeping giant!'

They all looked at the giant. He was very big, even for a giant.

'I'll hit him with my hammer!' said Thor.

'No! Don't do that!' said Loki. 'It's more intelligent if we ask him who he is, and where there are other giants.'

'Very well,' said Thor, sadly.

They woke the giant up. When he stood up, he was taller than the trees.

'Who are you?' asked Thor.

'Skrymir,' said the giant. 'It means 'big man'.'

'I'm not surprised,' said Loki.

'I know who you are - you are Thor and you are Loki. But who's this boy?' asked Skrymir.

'That's Thialfi. He's helping us,' said Thor.

'Where are my gloves?' said Skrymir. The giant looked around, and then picked up the house.

'And so that was our house!' said Loki. They all looked at the house, and saw that it was not a house at all. It was the giant's glove! The fingers of the glove were the rooms.

'That's why it has no doors!' laughed Thialfi.

'I'm going to the country of the giants,' said Skrymir. 'Why don't you come with me?'

'I want to fight him now,' said Thor to Loki.

'Not now!' said Loki. 'He's a very big giant. We should go with him, so we can meet more giants.'

'Very well,' said Thor, sadly.

'But we have to walk there,' said the giant. 'I can't go in your chariot.'

Thor did not like this, but Loki told him it was the best thing to do. They left the chariot and the two goats in the middle of the forest.

They walked all day through the forest. The giant walked very quickly. It was difficult to walk as fast as the giant. When evening came, they were very tired.

'Let's sleep here,' said Skrymir.

'But we have no food to eat!' said Thor.

'Oh, I've got lots of food in my bag,' said the giant. He put a bag as big as five men on the floor. 'You can have anything you want. I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight!' And the giant lay down on the floor, and went to sleep.

Thor, Loki and Thialfi were very hungry.

'There's lots of food in the giant's bag!' said Thor. 'Let's eat.'

They tried to open the bag, but it was impossible. They pulled and pulled and pulled, but the bag would not open. Thor became very angry. 'That giant has tricked us!' he shouted. 'I'm going to hit him with my hammer!'

This time, Loki could not stop Thor. Thor picked up his hammer and hit the giant on the head with it, very hard.

The giant woke up. 'I thought I felt something,' he said. 'Was that a leaf falling on my head?' Then he went back to sleep again.

Now Thor was even more angry. He picked up his hammer again, and this time hit the giant even harder.

The giant woke up again. 'I can't get any sleep tonight,' he said. 'Was that a bird on my face?' He did not wait for an answer, but went back to sleep, and started snoring again.

'There's nothing we can do,' said Loki. 'This giant is too big for us. We'll have to go to sleep hungry, and see if he takes us to the other giants tomorrow.'

The next morning they all woke up.

'I'm going this way,' said Skrymir the giant. 'But if you want to go to the country of the giants, it's that way. It's not far, but be careful! If you go there, you'll find giants who are bigger than me!' Then, he walked away.