Because of traditional reflexes, the audience stopped to listen to the music but Satie and Milhaud kept saying « Whatever you do, don’t listen! »… And that’s the day what we now know as background music was born. As a true avant-garde artist and a serial jokester, with that experience, Satie wanted to do away with the idea of music happening as an organized and paid for event. During that intermission, music was therefore a non-event, a piece of furniture in the grand scheme of things, just like lighting or heating. What was seen as a joke then is our life now, and it even has a name, « elevator music »: shops, elevator, bars, restaurants… Every moment is a musical one and it’s barely noticeable because it should not be. It’s ironic that the Gymnopédies, written way before Satie’s concept, eventually became mainstream elevator music.

Thjalfi, known for his incredible speed, offered to race anyone in the castle, only to be bested. Thor, known for his immense strength and love of drink, then challenged the inhabitants of the castle to a drinking contest, and was humiliated. Utgarda-Loki revealed that the contests had been illusions, and the gods left the castle wiser and more cautious for having encountered the cunning Utgarda-Loki. And the tale of their encounter would be told and retold, a cautionary reminder of the folly of underestimating the power of illusion and trickery.