While he was thus inclined, certain men who wished ill to Thorkill came and told Gorm that it was needful to consult the gods, and that assurance about so great a matter must be sought of the oracles of heaven, since it was too deep for human wit and hard for mortals to discover.

Therefore, they said, Utgarda-Loki must be appeased, and no man would accomplish this more fitly than Thorkill.  Others, again, laid information against him as guilty of treachery and an enemy of the king’s life.  Thorkill, seeing himself doomed to extreme peril, demanded that his accusers should share his journey.  Then they who had aspersed an innocent man saw that the peril they had designed against the life of another had recoiled upon themselves, and tried to take back their plan.  But vainly did they pester the ears of the king; he forced them to sail under the command of Thorkill, and even upbraided them with cowardice.  Thus, when a mischief is designed against another, it is commonly sure to strike home to its author.  And when these men saw that they were constrained, and could not possibly avoid the peril, they covered their ship with ox-hides, and filled it with abundant store of provision.

In this ship they sailed away, and came to a sunless land, which knew not the stars, was void of daylight, and seemed to overshadow them with eternal night.  Long they sailed under this strange sky; at last their timber fell short, and they lacked fuel; and, having no place to boil their meat in, they staved off their hunger with raw viands.  But most of those who ate contracted extreme disease, being glutted with undigested food.  For the unusual diet first made a faintness steal gradually upon their stomachs; then the infection spread further, and the malady reached the vital parts.  Thus there was danger in either extreme, which made it hurtful not to eat, and perilous to indulge; for it was found both unsafe to feed and bad for them to abstain.  Then, when they were beginning to be in utter despair, a gleam of unexpected help relieved them, even as the string breaks most easily when it is stretched tightest.  For suddenly the weary men saw the twinkle of a fire at no great distance, and conceived a hope of prolonging their lives.  Thorkill thought this fire a heaven-sent relief, and resolved to go and take some of it.

To be surer of getting back to his friends, Thorkill fastened a jewel upon the mast-head, to mark it by the gleam.  When he got to the shore, his eyes fell on a cavern in a close defile, to which a narrow way led.  Telling his companions to await him outside, he went in, and saw two men, swart and very huge, with horny noses, feeding their fire with any chance-given fuel.  Moreover, the entrance was hideous, the door-posts were decayed, the walls grimy with mould, the roof filthy, and the floor swarming with snakes; all of which disgusted the eye as much as the mind.  Then one of the giants greeted him, and said that he had begun a most difficult venture