Giant king in Utgard who deceived Thor with illusions and magical contests.
Utgarda-Loki (Old Norse Útgarða-Loki) is the ruler of the stronghold Utgard in Jotunheim. In Gylfaginning Thor, Loki, and Thjalfi visit his fortress and are challenged to contests that all turn out to be illusions. Loki ate against wildfire, Thjalfi ran against thought, and Thor tried to lift the Midgard serpent disguised as a cat.
Thor also drank from a horn whose end reached the ocean, wrestled old age in the form of an old woman, and failed to lift more than one paw of the cat. Utgarda-Loki revealed the deception afterward and admitted that Thor's strength had terrified him. Then the fortress vanished. The story has no counterpart in the Poetic Edda and is unique to Snorri's prose.
Sources in the Eddas
- Gylfaginning 44-47
- Snorri's account of Thor's visit to Utgard and the illusory contests with Utgarda-Loki.
Interpretive traditions
A What we know
Utgarda-Loki deceived Thor with illusions in Utgard, attested in Gylfaginning 44-47.
B What we think we know
Whether Utgarda-Loki and Loki were originally the same figure or always distinct characters is debated.