Útgarða-Loki

For the Marvel Comics character, see Utgard-Loki (Marvel Comics).

[The] Giant Skrymir and Thor (c. 1891), by Louis Huard.

"I am the giant Skrymir" (1902) by Elmer Boyd Smith.

In Norse mythology, Útgarða-Loki (Anglicized as Utgarda-Loki and in other ways) was the ruler of the castle Útgarðr in Jötunheimr. He was one of the Jötnar and his name means literally "Loki of the Outyards," to distinguish him from Loki, the companion of Thor.

Prose Edda

According to the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Thor, Þjálfi and Loki encounter a giant named Skrýmir ("Big-looking") and then go with him to Útgarðr. They took part in several contests organized by Útgarða-Loki. The tests were all rigged. Loki participated in an eating contest against fire personified. Þjálfi competed in running against the mind of Útgarða-Loki. Thor wrestled with Elli who was Old Age personified, tried to lift Jörmungandr appearing as a cat and finally tried to empty a drinking horn connected to the sea.

Gesta Danorum

Thorkil in Utgarthilocus' chamber, illustration by Louis Moe (1898)

In Gesta Danorum a ship meets strong winds and sacrifices are made to various gods to obtain favorable weather, including to one called Utgarthilocus. With vows and propitiations to him a beneficial spell of weather is obtained. Later an expedition to the land of the giants comes upon this figure.

Ex qua item atrum obscenumque conclave visentibus aperitur. Intra quod Utgarthilocus manus pedesque immensis catenarum molibus oneratus aspicitur, cuius olentes pili tam magnitudine quam rigore corneas aequaverant hastas. Quorum unum Thorkillus, adnitentibus sociis, mento patientis excussum, quo promptior fides suis haberetur operibus, asservavit; statimque tanta foetoris vis ad circumstantes manavit, ut nisi repressis amiculo naribus respirare nequirent.

From here the visitors could see a murky, repulsive chamber, inside which they descried Utgartha-Loki, his hands and feet laden with a huge weight of fetters. His rank-smelling hairs were as long and tough as spears of cornel-wood. Thorkil kept one of these as a more visible proof of his labours by heaving at it with his friends till it was plucked from the chin of the unresisting figure; immediately such a powerful stench rolled over the bystanders that they had to smother their nostrils in their cloaks and could scarcely breathe.

Apart from the name of the giant there is little that reminds of Snorri's Útgarða-Loki. The bound giant figure is more reminiscent of the bound Loki who likewise lies chained and tortured in a cave.

References

• Davidson, Hilda Ellis (ed.) and Peter Fisher (tr.) (1980). Saxo Grammaticus : The History of the Danes : Books I-IX.
• Lindow, John (2001). Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515382-0