A Myth of Thor from Egil and Asmunds Saga
Egil and Asmund were searching for King Hertrygg's daughters and fared far to the north until they reached Jotunheim. One day when they were short of food they came across a herd of fat goats and decided to slaughter one. They were interrupted by a monstrous woman, broader than she was high who spoke with a bell like voice. Egil and Asmund greeted her politely.
The woman introduced herself as Skin-beak, the daughter of Queen Eaglebeak. The travellers gave her a gold ring and asked if she could find them lodgings for the night. Eaglebeak was an old hag who was delighted to have the two young men come to stay with her. She had plenty of food, her goats gave as much milk as cows and her wheat field provided grain every day. She treated her guests with game and venison for supper and suggested that they should all tell the stories of their lives and adventures.
Egil and Asmund obliged and told of their adventures. Eaglebeak said nothing much had ever happened to her but she told her tale...
Oskrud was a king of Jotunheim, he had two brothers and eighteen daughters, his youngest daughter was Eaglebeak. Oskrud died and his estate was divided between his relatives, his brothers took the kingdom, his horn and his chess set, while the sisters took the farm and his gold ring.
Eaglebeak's sisters picked on her because she was the youngest and forced her to work as a servant. When she complained they beat her. Finally Eaglebeak became so distressed that that she called on Thor for help. She offered him any goat he wanted if he would come and straighten things out between her and her sisters.
Soon after Thor visited the farm, and he slept with the eldest of the sisters. The other giantesses were so jealous that they murdered their sibling after he left. Thor slept with each sister in turn and each one was murdered the following morning. Each sister gave a curse when she died, that if the next eldest survived to have a child by Thor, that child would neither grow no thrive. Finally Thor slept with Eaglebeak and the child of their union was Skin-beak. The curse held because by then Skin-beak was a yard shorter than when she was born.
After sleeping with Thor Eaglebeak was left with an insatiable lust for men. Desiring Prince Hring of the Smalands she attempted to carry him of from his marriage bed. Her attempt was foiled and to save her life she had to undertake a quest to collect three magical treasures. Her adventures gave her a succession of injuries and her hag like appearance of later life.
The interesting aspect of this story is Thor's cunning method of removing Eaglebeak's sisters, revealing a crafty personality more often attributed to Loki or Odin. The carefully pre-meditated genocide is certainly contrary to that common Victorian image of Thor as a club wielding oaf with a single figure IQ.
The ethical basis of the tale is somewhat alarming, but Thor has no direct hand in the murders, and Eaglebeak pays for her own hand in the killings through the curse on her daughter.
This tale also shows Thor to be a Dark Age sex idol, for if he was anything less the giantesses' terminal jealousy would not have been aroused, nor indeed anticipated. Thor myths with a sexual element were probably very common but the Christian historians have failed to record them. Further evidence for their existence is the parody tale 'The Elf Princess'.
The link between Thor and goats seems to be underlined in this story, and the remarkable yield of Eaglebeak's farm is a rare reference to Thor's role as a god of agriculture.