‘I’ll lead you as far as I can,’ Skrymir said. ‘I’m not heading back to Utgard myself, but I’ll show you to the city gates. Walk with me, and I’ll carry your gear.’

And so we handed over our packs, with the last of our food, our dry clothes and all we had for the journey. Then we followed Skrymir – or at least, we tried to. But the big guy was moving far too fast, and with such giant strides that he soon left the rest of us behind. Even Thialfi, who was young and energetic, could only keep up with him at a sprint, and was soon exhausted.

But Skrymir wasn’t hard to track; we heard his progress from afar and saw the trail he left through the woods; a broken line of fallen trees. We followed the trail throughout the day, getting hungrier and more irritable as the hours passed, and finally, we caught up with him under a stand of ancient oaks; sitting on his bedroll and finishing the last of a giant meal.

Thor strode up to him, looking grim.

Skrymir gave his giant smile. ‘Oh, there you are, Asa-Thor,’ he said. ‘I was just about to turn in. I get so tired after a day in the fresh air.’

‘What about our dinner?’ growled Thor.

‘Help yourself,’ said Skrymir. ‘The food’s in my pack. I’m going to sleep.’ And he wrapped himself in his bedroll, and was very soon snoring like thunder.

But the knots that fastened the giant’s pack were deceptively complicated. Thor struggled with them without success, then turned to Yours Truly.

‘Here, you try. You’re good with knots.’

But even I couldn’t open the bag. The knots were too tight, too slippery. I handed the bag to Thialfi and Roskva, thinking that perhaps their small fingers would prove more agile, but even they failed to open the bag.

‘Skrymir did this on purpose,’ said Thor. ‘He’s been putting us down from the very first. He’s trying to make us look small.’

I shrugged. ‘Well, that’s not difficult. For a guy the size of a mountain.’

Thor picked up his hammer. ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall,’ he said, and hurled Mjølnir at Skrymir’s head.

Skrymir awoke. ‘What’s that?’ he said. ‘Did a leaf fall onto my head?’ He stirred and rolled over. ‘Thor, is that you? Have you had your dinner yet?’

Thor was so taken aback at this that he just opened his mouth and stared.

‘Then go back to sleep,’ said Skrymir. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

Within two minutes, he was asleep again and snoring like an army of pigs. The rest of us exchanged glances, shrugged and prepared to go to bed hungry.