Hrungnir Hrungnir Hrungnir (Old Norse "brawler") was a jötunn in Norse mythology, slain by the god Thor with his hammer Mjölnir. The account is documented in the "Skáldskaparmál", in the "Prose Edda" by Snorri Sturluson. Prior to his demise, Hrungnir engaged in a wager with Odin in which Odin stakes his head on his horse, Sleipnir, being faster than Hrungnir's steed Gullfaxi. During the race, which Sleipnir wins, Hrungnir enters Valhalla, and there becomes drunk and abusive. After they grow weary of him, the gods call on Thor to battle Hrungnir. Thor and his servant Thjalfi challenge the giant, who hurls
Gná and Hófvarpnir the Vanir and Gná "strange" and points out that it's unclear why it should specifically be the Vanir that witness Gná flying through the air. Ulla Loumand cites Hófvarpnir and the eight-legged horse Sleipnir as "prime examples" of horses in Norse mythology as being able to "mediate between earth and sky, between Ásgarðr, Miðgarðr and Útgarðr and between the world of mortal men and the underworld." In the 19th century, Jacob Grimm proposed a cognate in the personified rumor in Roman mythology; Fama. However, Grimm notes that unlike Fama, Gná is not described as winged but rather that Hófvarpnir, like