Editing Útgarða-Loki (section)

==''Gesta Danorum''==
[[Image:Thorkild hos Udgaardsloke.jpg|thumb|Thorkil in Utgarthilocus' chamber, illustration by [[Louis Moe]] (1898)]]

In ''[[Gesta Danorum]]'' a ship meets strong winds and sacrifices are made to various gods to obtain favorable weather, including to one called '''Utgarthilocus'''. With vows and propitiations to him a beneficial spell of weather is obtained. Later an expedition to the land of the giants comes upon this figure.

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''Ex qua item atrum obscenumque conclave visentibus aperitur. Intra quod Utgarthilocus manus pedesque immensis catenarum molibus oneratus aspicitur, cuius olentes pili tam magnitudine quam rigore corneas aequaverant hastas. Quorum unum Thorkillus, adnitentibus sociis, mento patientis excussum, quo promptior fides suis haberetur operibus, asservavit; statimque tanta foetoris vis ad circumstantes manavit, ut nisi repressis amiculo naribus respirare nequirent.''
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From here the visitors could see a murky, repulsive chamber, inside which they descried Utgartha-Loki, his hands and feet laden with a huge weight of fetters. His rank-smelling hairs
were as long and tough as spears of [[Cornus_mas|cornel]]-wood. Thorkil kept one of these as a more visible proof of his labours by heaving at it with his friends till it was plucked from the chin of the
unresisting figure; immediately such a powerful stench rolled over the bystanders that they had to smother their nostrils in their cloaks and could scarcely breathe.<ref name=FISHER>Davidson & Fisher (1980:269).</ref>
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As a proof of their accomplishments, the men bring back a hair pulled from the giant's beard, stinking so harshly that several men drop dead on smelling it.

Apart from the name of the giant there is little that reminds of Snorri's Útgarða-Loki. The bound giant figure is more reminiscent of the bound [[Loki]] who likewise lies chained and tortured in a cave. [[Gabriel Turville-Petre]] notes that "Utgardilocus appears to be Loki, expelled from Ásgarð into Útgarð" and expresses an opinion that "Snorri appears to be retelling a folktale, which has changed from the original myth in which Útgarðaloki must have been Loki himself".<ref name=TURVILLE-PETRE>Turville-Petre (1975:138).</ref>