Alfaleith.org - The Prose Edda

Then said Gangleri: “What are the names of the other Æsir, or what is their office, or what deeds of renown have they done?” Hárr answered: “Thor is the foremost of them, he that is called Thor of the Æsir, or Oku-Thor; he is strongest of all the gods and men. He has his realm in the place called Thrúdvangar,¹ and his hall is called Bilskirnir;² in that hall are five hundred rooms and forty. That is the greatest house that men know of; it is thus said in Grímnismál:

Five hundred floors and more than forty,
So reckon I Bilskirnir with bending ways;
Of those houses that I know of hall-roofed,
My son's I know the most.

Thor has two he-goats, that are called Tooth-Gnasher and Tooth-Gritter, and a chariot wherein he drives, and the he-goats draw the chariot; therefore is he called Oku-Thor.³ He has also three things of great price: one is the hammer Mjöllnir, which the Rime-Giants and the Hill-Giants know, when it is raised on high; and that is no wonder,— it has bruised many a skull among their fathers or their kinsmen. He has a second costly thing, best of all: the [36] girdle of might; and when be clasps it about him, then the godlike strength within him is increased by half. Yet a third thing he has, in which there is much virtue: his iron gloves; he cannot do without them when he uses his hammer-shaft. But no one is so wise that he can tell all his mighty works; yet I can tell thee so much tidings of him that the hours would be spent before all that I know were told.”

1. Plains of strength.

2. From the flashing of light (Cl.-Vig.).

3. According to Cleasby-Vigfússon, a popular etymology. "Oku is not to be derived from áka (to drive), but is rather of Finnish origin, Ukko being the Thunder-god of the Chudic tribes.' Jónsson, however, allows Snorri's etymology to stand.

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