Thor’s battles with giants appear across Eddic poems, skaldic verse, and Snorri’s prose. They are not one continuous campaign. Each episode tests strength, appetite, courage, or cosmic order, and Thor does not always understand the forces opposing him.
Hrungnir and Geirröðr
Thor defeats the stone-hearted Hrungnir in a formal encounter, though part of the giant’s whetstone remains lodged in his head. In the tale of Geirröðr, Thor travels without Mjölnir and survives with gifts from the giantess Gríðr, including a staff and iron gloves.
Fishing for the world serpent
In Hymiskviða and Snorri’s account, Thor rows with the giant Hymir and hooks Jörmungandr using an ox head. Thor raises the serpent and strikes or prepares to strike it, but Hymir cuts the line in Snorri’s version. Other poetic evidence leaves the ending different or uncertain.
Strength with limits
At Útgarða-Loki’s hall, Thor fails challenges that disguise cosmic things as ordinary tasks: drinking from the sea, lifting the world serpent, and wrestling old age. The story honors his power by revealing how close he came to overcoming the impossible, not by making him undefeated.