Thrym the Hollow, Jothunheim's deposed King of the Frost Giants, has risen from the dead. This time he will not rest unti his foes are slaughtered and his tyranny reigns across the realm of Midgard -- Earth. When an unnatural lightning storm in Sweden uncovers a massive skeleton with an iron hammer gripped in its fist, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense sends its top operatives to investigate -- the amphibian humanoid Abe Sapien and the equally anomalous crimson demon called Hellboy. Only Hellboy can lift the great hammer from the lifeless giant. And when a lightning bolt fuses the iron weapon to his stone right hand, the occult investigator becomes joined to the mightiest weapon in Norse mythology -- the hammer of Thor. Once instrumental in Thrym's downfall, the hammer subjects Hellboy to an ancient life he has never lived, and visions only he can see. Regardless of whether or not he succeeds in defeating the risen Thrym, he may be lost forever to an essence not his own...