The Ox Head

Thor rows out with the giant Hymir, past the point where Hymir wants to stop, and keeps rowing. For bait he has taken the head of Hymir's best ox. The serpent takes it. What Snorri describes next is a straining contest at the gunwale — Thor braced so hard his feet go through the hull to the seabed, the serpent hauled up spitting venom, the two of them looking at each other. Then Hymir, terrified, cuts the line. It is one of the few Norse myths carved in stone in several places, from Sweden to Cumbria, which says something about which moment people actually wanted to keep.