Egil

Egil In Germanic mythology, peasant whom the god Thor visited several times. Thor would often leave his goats and chariot for the night. Once he saw that Egil’s family had no food and told them to kill the goats but to make sure they put the bones back into the skin when they had finished. The evil god Loki, however, convinced Egil’s son Thialfito break one of the bones and eat its marrow. When Thor returned, he brought the goats back to life, but
one of them was missing a leg. To appease the god, Egil gave Thialfi and his sister Roskova as gifts to the god. Egil is also the name of a hero who, along with his two brothers Slagfin and Volund, married three Valkyries by stealing their swans after bathing. After nine years of marriage, however, the women returned to their swan shapes. The myth is told in the Poetic Edda in the Song of Volund.

SOURCE:

Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante