Hafthór Björnsson became famous for playing Ser Gregor Clegane, “The Mountain That Rides,” on season four of HBO’s Game of Thrones—the third actor to play the role (previously played by Conan Stevens in season one and Ian Whyte in season two)—culminating in an epic battle to the death with Prince Oberyn Martell, “The Red Viper.” But while the character he plays on Thrones is an awful beast of a man, it’s what he’s done off the small screen that has truly endeared him to the masses such as breaking 1,000-year-old viking weightlifting records while dominating strongman competitions or just being plain awesome for the kids.

Now Hafthor is taking on one of the UFC’s up and coming superstars, current interim Featherweight division titleholder Conor McGregor. The two sparred together recently, and you can see the video of their session below.

Game of Thrones The Complete Fourth Season
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital | DVD l Limited Edition
CREATORS: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, George R.R. Martin (author)
STARRING: Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Natalie Dormer, Stephen Dillane, Conleth Hill, Aidan Gillen, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Iain Glen, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Jack Gleeson, Sophie Turner, Diana Rigg, Alfie Allen, Liam Cunningham, Rory McCann, Gwendoline Christie, Carice van Houten, Charles Dance, Kristian Nairn, John Bradley, Jerome Flynn, Sibel Kekilli, Finn Jones, Rose Leslie, Pedro Pascal, Daniel Portman, Ian McElhinney, Ciarán Hinds, Liam Cunningham, Hannah Murray, Kristofer Hivju, Ellie Kendrick, Thomas Sangster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Iwan Rheon, Jacob Anderson, Indira Varma, Michael McElhatton, Hafthor Bjornsson, Roger Ashton-Griffiths
HBO
RELEASE DATE: February 17, 2015

Another year has come and gone, and a new season of Game of Thrones is on the horizon—season five, to be specific, which will premiere on April 12th.

As always, HBO has released the previous season, season four, on Blu-ray and DVD just in time to help get us through these undeniably difficult final couple of months of waiting for the new season to arrive. Once again we offer our review without any spoilers—in case you’ve not yet started or finished the latest season—and focus mainly on what fans of the show who are caught up want to know, which is what special features are included on the discs. If you’ve never seen the show at all, why on earth are you reading a review of season four instead of watching season one, episode one? Go now!

We already know that Hafthor Bjornsson, the Icelandic giant who plays The Mountain on HBO’s Game of Thrones, is a monster of a man. We also know he can be good with kids and lift a whole lot of weight.

Now, Bjornsson is breaking a 1,000-year-old Viking weightlifting record. Though “record” may be the wrong word, as it sounds more like he took on the challenge left by an old fable. While competing in the World’s Strongest Viking competition—which he won for the second time in a row—Hafthor basically carried a tree on his back that weighed in at 650 kg (over 1,400 pounds) and measured 10 m long (almost 33 feet) for five steps, besting the millennium-old legend’s three steps taken by Ormur Stórólfsson.

You can read more and see the latest feat of strength accomplished by The Mountain that Rides in the video here below, as well as an image that shows just how large the log was.

Ser Gregor Clegane, or “The Mountain That Rides,” is a monster…in more ways than one, as anyone who’s read George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series or watched HBO’s Game of Thrones can tell you. The character has been played by three different actors over the course of the series, the most recent being Hafthor Bjornsson, a physical specimen out of Iceland. But unlike the character he’s playing, Hafthor is not a monster at all (at least not intentionally—let’s face it, at 6 ft 9 in tall and 421 lbs, you’re gonna be f’n terrifying from time to time whether you mean to or not).

Bjornsson went all out for one three-year-old’s birthday party, getting his entire body painted to make him look like The Incredible Hulk. Despite being a fan of the Marvel superhero, the child was quite frightened (because see above), but Hafthor took photos with whoever was willing to get close enough.

You can see a video of the Incredible Hulk transformation and birthday party appearance below, plus a bonus video of Hafthor deadlifting almost 1,000 lbs, which is why he gets to be The Mountain and Hulk.