The Jotun, commonly called giants, are the ancient enemy of the gods in Norse mythology. But don’t let the name fool you, being of enormous stature was not one of the main characteristics of the jotun. Instead, they were supernatural beings very similar to the gods, and who often interbred with the gods. This suggests that they are a different tribe of the same order of beings, but while the Aesir gods represented law and order, the giants represented chaos. This put them in conflict.
Read on to discover the origins of the giants, their role in Norse myth, and meet some of the most important jotun including, of course, the trickster Loki.
Origins of the Jotun
The giants are among the oldest beings in the Norse cosmos and are technically even older than the gods themselves.
According to the creation story in Norse mythology, at the beginning of time, there was a giant void called the Ginnungagap in which nothing existed. But at the far reaches of the void, at the very top, was a source of heat and fire known as Muspell. At the very bottom of the void was a source of ice and mist.
Over an immense period of time, the heat and mist seeped into the Ginnungagap and mixed to create a primordial goop. It was from this goop that life emerged. The first two creatures were a primordial cow called Audumbla and the very first jotun, Ymir.
The jotun sustained himself by drinking Audumbla’s milk, while she sustained herself by licking at salt rocks that also emerged from the primordial goop. After three days of feeding, she licked the first of the gods, Buri, from this salt rock.
Both Ymir and Buri went on to procreate and are the progenitors of all jotun and gods. Ymir is described as giving birth asexually, with jotun jumping from his skin as he sweats. While most are “humanoid”, described as men and women, Ymir also gave birth to some monstrous-looking jotun, including a six-headed being that sprung forth from one of his legs.
Meanwhile, both Buri and Ymir’s jotun offspring seem to have given birth “the old-fashioned way”. While we do not know exactly how Buri had his son, Bor, his son mated with the jotun Bestla and had three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve. Despite Odin being half-giant, in the Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda, Odin, in the guise of High, assures King Gylfi that Ymir was no god, but a monstrous jotun like all his offspring. Moreover, none of the gods are ever called half-giants they are always just gods.
The Murder of Ymir
While the gods and lesser jotun were mating and procreating, more jotun continued to spring forth from Ymir. This meant that the jotun quickly outnumbered the gods. While the creation myth does not list any crimes or problems caused by the jotun, we are perhaps meant to infer from their very nature that they were causing chaos in the universe. Whatever their justification, Odin and his brothers decided to kill Ymir.
When they killed Ymir, blood gushed from his body and flooded much of the known universe, killing most of his giant offspring and bringing the balance between gods and giants back into order. Then, according to Viking mythology, Odin and his brothers used Ymir’s immense body to shape new worlds.
They took Ymir’s body to the middle of the Ginnungagap and used it to fashion the earth and used his gushing blood to create the lakes and seas. His bones and teeth became rocks and stones. They took his skull and hung it over their new earth to create the sky.
This new earth seems to have encompassed two of the nine worlds of the Norse cosmos. The earth they created was a circular disk, and they gave the outskirts of the land to the jotun. It became their homeland, Jotunheim. They then used Ymir’s eyelashes to separate Jotunheim from the inner land, which they called Midgard. The gods also created mankind to populate it.
It was probably at this time that the gods separated some of the other worlds. They decided to build their home world of Asgard separate from their new creation but built the Rainbow Bifrost Bridge to give them access to Midgard.
At this time, they also seem to have closed off the Muspell, creating a world called Muspelheim. Some jotun, led by a fire jotun called Surtr, were also trapped in this world when it was closed off. They are called fire giants to distinguish them from those in Jotunheim, which are sometimes called frost giants in popular culture, but this term is not common in the surviving myths.
The gods may have done something similar with the world of cold and mist and created Niflheim. While the gods could travel to Niflheim, as we know that Odin often visited Mimir there at the Well of Wisdom, the underworld of Helheim was also placed there. Crossing into the realm of the dead was challenging and treacherous.
How the other worlds of the Norse cosmos were created is unclear. What is clear is that the Vikings believed they lived in a world fashioned from the corpse of a jotun.
Jotunheim
Jotunheim, pronounced “yo-tun-hame”, literally means home of the giants. According to descriptions of Jotunheim, it is a grim environment of deep dark forests and stark mountain peaks that is fairly inhospitable. There is no fertile land there, so the giants live through hunting and fishing. Jotunheim is separated from Midgard and Asgard by the river Iving, which never freezes offer, therefore preventing the giants from crossing over into these two worlds.
Jotunheim was also known as Utgard, which means “world beyond the fence”. This is a name taken from Germanic mythology and refers to land beyond the boundaries of a property or a community. As such, it referred to lands beyond law and order, and the social norms that govern society. It is the name for lands where chaos presides.
That Jotunheim was seen as a world of chaos is clearly demonstrated in the story of Thor and Loki’s visit to the stronghold of Utgard in Jotunheim, where the giant Utgard-Loki lives. While there, they find that nothing is as it appears and that it is almost impossible to distinguish between dream and reality.
But while Jotunheim seems to have been imagined by the Vikings as a world of chaos, they also seem to have imagined it as a world that resembled their own. It is spotted with strongholds ruled over by giant chieftains, much like their own world, but on a much grander scale.
Several giant strongholds are described in the surviving texts. As well as the castle of Utgard-Loki, which was made from blocks of snow and icicles and was so big that you could not see the top of it, there are also the castles of Gastropnir, which was the home of the giantess Menglad, and Thrymheim, home of the giant Thiazi.
The most well-known giant lord was Thrym, known for having stolen Thor’s hammer Mjolnir. Thor famously dressed up in drag to try and fool the giant into thinking that he was the beautiful goddess Freya there to marry him in order to trick the giant into bringing out the hammer to bless the wedding. When Thrym brought the hammer out, Thor stole it back and killed all of the giants in the hall.
But this story too points to the fact that the Vikings still saw Jotunheim as a world recognizably like their own. In a land of true chaos, weddings would not need to be blessed in the same way as those of men.
Ancient Enemy of the Gods
The jotun are generally described as the ancient enemies of the gods. Thor, as the strongest of the gods, is charged with protecting both Asgard and Midgard from the jotun, which he does with his hammer Mjolnir. But in most surviving stories, the jotun and the gods seem cozy.
Take the giant Loki. He is allowed to live in Asgard among the gods because of a pact between himself and Odin. He is treated as one of the gods, attending their meetings and giving advice. For example, he helps the gods trick a builder into building the fortifications of Asgard for no pay. In the end, they discover that the builder is a jotun and kill him for that reason alone. Nevertheless, Loki could take a goddess for a wife, Sigyn.
Loki makes some trouble, but it is usually just pranks, such as when he removed the hair of Thor’s wife Sif. This resulted in Loki having to procure something to replace it, which also saw him procure other treasures such as Thor’s hammer. Loki sometimes gets in more serious trouble, such as when he helped the jotun Thjazi kidnap the goddess Idun. But again, he also helped the gods solve the problem later.
Loki only fell out with the gods when he plotted and caused the death of Balder, the son of Odin and Frigg. After this, the gods no longer accept him, leading to the famous Lokasenna dinner story in which Loki insults most of the gods and reveals some cryptic secrets about each. In the end, they decided to imprison him. They shackled him to a stone and hung a venomous snake over him to drip poison onto his body.
But Loki is not the only jotun who gets pretty cozy with the gods. Many gods mate with Jotun women. Odin had Thor with the jotun Jord, Thor had his two sons with the jotun Jarnsaxa, and Freyr married the jotun Gerd, to name just a few.
Other jotun were also welcome in Asgard. The jotun Skadi showed up in Asgard seeking justice after the gods killed her father Thjazi. They offered to pay her for the death, and this payment included letting her marry one of the gods. The catch was that she had to choose her husband by looking only at their feet.
While Skadi wanted to marry the beautiful god Balder, she instead chose the sea god Njord. The marriage didn’t last long as the two were just too different, but Skadi continued to be accepted in Asgard. She even became one of Odin’s lovers. Plus, in the story of the punishment of Loki, it is Skadi who procures the serpent and hangs it over Loki’s head.
In return, the gods also seem to have been welcome on most of their trips to Jotunheim. In another story, Thor goes to visit the jotun Hymir, who is described as the father of the god Tyr. He is there to borrow a cauldron to brew enough mead for a big party that the gods are planning in the hall of Aegir, another jotun.
While Thor annoys his host by eating everything in sight and trying to catch the great serpent Jormungandr on his fishing line, he is treated as a welcome guest. This atmosphere of mutual acceptance characterizes most stories of interactions between the gods and jotun.
Ragnarok: Gods vs Giants
Despite these cordial relations, Ragnarök, the Norse apocalypse, is described as a battle until mutual destruction between the gods and the jotun.
The specific cause we are given in the sources is the falling out between the gods and Loki. Even before the death of Balder, things may have been strained. When the gods learned about the children of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, they deemed them too dangerous to run free and decided to deal with them, much as they had previously with Ymir.
Rather than kill the children, they placed each somewhere they could do the least harm. They chained up the wolf Fenrir, threw the serpent Jormungandr into the waters surrounding Midgard, and sent the half-living and half-dead giantess Hel to be the mistress of the underworld.
It is worth noting that while most giants are described as humanoid, both Fenrir and Jormungandr as the sons of two giants, but one is an enormous wolf and the other is a giant serpent, suggesting that jotun could take many forms.
While it is not stated in the surviving sources, Loki’s determination to kill Balder may have been motivated by the treatment of his own children. The death of Balder is then the final straw, with the gods fully turning on Loki. This drives a wedge between the gods and at least one jotun family. When Ragnarök comes, it is then no surprise that it is Loki and his children who are leading the charge.
The other main “bad guy” in Ragnarök is the fire jotun Surtr, who seems to have been imprisoned with others of his kind in Muspelheim since the creation of Midgard. Ragnarök also allows him to break out of his prison and seek revenge.
In the end, Odin is killed by Fenrir, who is in turn killed by Odin’s son Vidarr. Thor kills Jormungandr but dies shortly after from the snake’s venom. Loki and Heimdall kill one another. Freyr and Surtr kill one another. The battle causes so much destruction that the realms created by Odin and his brothers following their murder of Ymir are destroyed.
Important Giants in Norse Mythology
Let’s meet some of the most important giants that appear in Norse mythology. You can learn more about Loki, Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel in their dedicated articles (linked).
Aegir and Ran
The giant Aegir was considered a god of the sea, but with a cruel and unforgiving temperament. He would smash ships to procure their treasure for himself. His partner was the giantess Ran, also a goddess of the sea. She would catch sailors in her nets and pull them beneath the water. The underworld for men who died at sea was believed to be with Ran.
Aegir is most famous for hosting a party for all the gods of Asgard, from which Loki was excluded. The trickster showed up anyway and began to throw insults at everyone in what is known as the Lokasenna.
Angrbora
Angrboda was the partner of Loki who gave birth to Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel. Her name means “bringer of grief”. She is described as living in a wood east of Midgard called Ironwood where she is the mother of a pack of wolves. She may also be able to shapeshift into a wolf herself.
Bestla, Jord, Rindr, Gridr, and Jarnsaxa
These giantesses are all known for being mothers of the gods in Viking mythology. Bestla is the mother of Odin with the god Bor. Odin fathered Thor on Jord, a giantess considered a personification of the Earth. This may account for Thor being the strongest of the gods. Odin fathered Vali on Rindr. He grew to manhood in just one day in order to kill Hodr for his role in the death of Balder. Odin fathered Vidarr on Gridr. Vidarr will avenge his father’s death at Ragnarok by killing the wolf Fenrir.
Jarnsaxa means “iron dagger” and she may be one of the nine waves, daughters of Aegir. Thor fathered Magni on Jarnsaxa, and at just three years old Magni was able to lift a dead giant off his injured father when no one else had the strength.
Gerdr
Gerdr, whose name means “fenced in” is a beautiful giantess living in Jotunheim. The god Freyr catches a glimpse of her from Odin’s throne, Hildskjalf, which allows the god to look out over the Norse cosmos. Freyr instantly fell in love and then fell into a depression when he realized he could not have Gerdr.
In the end, Freyr sends his servant Skirnir to negotiate for Gerdr’s hand in marriage. She initially refuses but agrees to meet and marry Freyr in three days after in response to threats. Skirnir threatened to kill Gerdr’s father, send her mad, imprison her in her body, only able to watch what is happening around her, and make her the laughingstock of all gods and men. Despite the rocky start, the couple seems to have lived happily ever after.
Hrungnir
Hrungir is a giant who bet Odin that his horse was faster than Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged steed. The two raced, and Hrungnir lost, but Odin appreciated his good humor and invited him into Asgard for a drink. But the giant drank too much and started harassing and threatening all the gods. This annoyed them, so they called on Thor to kill him.
Thor planned to kill him from behind, but Hrungir realized and called him a coward, leading the two to duel. Odin killed Hrungnir, breaking his death open, by throwing his hammer Mjolnir. But Hrungnir also through a stone at Thor that was embedded in his dead and could never be removed. When Hrungnir died he also fell on top of Thor. Weakened, Thor could not free himself, and none of the other gods had the strength to lift the body. Only Thor’s three-year-old son Magni was able to lift the incredible weight and free his father.
Hymir
Hymir is described as the father of the gods Tyr, and Thor and Tyr go to Hymir’s house to find a cauldron big enough to brew ale for all the gods. Hymir invites them to stay for dinner, and Thor eats two oxen on his own. Unwilling to kill more of his animals to feed the god the next day, he tells Thor that they must fish for their food and tells the god to find the bait. Thor kills the rest of Hymir’s oxen and uses their heads as bait.
Hymir is angry, but cannot break the rules of hospitality. They row out to sea and catch several whales with the bait, but Thor seems unhappy and always wants to go deeper. Finally, when they are the deepest that they dare go, Thor begins to fish. He catches something on his line so big that it destabilizes the god a little. Hymir realizes that this must be Jormungandr and he begs Thor to let it off the line, but Thor refuses. Eventually, Hymir becomes so concerned that he cuts Thor’s fishing line. This makes Thor so angry that he pushes Hymir into the water. But they later make up.
Hyrrokkin
The giantess Hyrrokkin was said to live in the darkest forest of Jotunheim. She had a mighty horse that could transform itself into a wolf, and in order to control it in wolf form she used reigns made from poisonous snakes. She was so strong that she was called to Asgard pull Balder’s funerary ship out to sea as none of the Aesir gods, not even Thor, was strong enough.
Skadi
Skadi is considered the goddess of winter and skiing, but she is a giantess, the daughter of Thjazi. Her father was killed by the Aesir gods, so Skadi went to Asgard looking for justice. Rather than fight, the Aesirr agreed to pay for her father. They agreed to complete an impossible task, which was to make Skadi laugh, and give her an impossible gift, which was to place Thjazi’s two eyes in the sky as stars.
For a husband, Skadi was told that she could choose but must do so by only looking at the feet of the gods. Wanting to marry the beautiful god Balder, she chose the best-looking feet, but this belonged to the sea god Njord, who had a haggard appearance due to his years by the sea. The two married, but it was short-lived as Skadi could not stand his seaside village home, and he could not stand her cold mountainous home.
After they split, Skadi was still welcome in Asgard and became a mistress to Odin, whom she gave many (unnamed) son. When the god imprisoned Loki for his crimes, it was Skadi who hung a venomous snake above the trickster.
Surtr
Surtr is the leader of the fire giants who have been trapped in the firey world of Muspelheim since near the beginning of time. He sits at the closed gates that keep him trapped and watches. When Ragnarok comes, the tremors that shake the universe will open these gates and Surtr will lead his people through. He will begin to decimate the world with his burning sword. He will eventually meet Freyr in battle and the two will kill one another.
Suttungr, Baugi, and Gunnlod
Suttungr is the giant who took possession of the Mead of Poetry from the dwarves who created it, demanding it in payment for the dwarves killing his father. Suttungry hid the mead in his mountain home and charged his daughter Gunlod with guarding it. But when Odin learned of the existence of mead, he must have it for himself.
Odin disguised himself as a working hand and tricked his way into the service of Baugi, Suttungr’s brother. In return for his work, Odin made Baugi agree to help him access Suttungr’s mountain by drilling a hole in the mountainside. Baugi tried to double-cross Odin by making the hole too small for a man, but Odin turned himself into a serpent and crawled up the mountain.
Once inside, Odin pretended to be in love with Gunnlod and begged her for a drink of the mead so that he would have the knowledge to put his passion into words. Once Odin got access to the mead, he drank it all and turned into an eagle to fly back to Asgard. He was pursued by Suttungr, who was killed, and Odin spat the mead out to be stored in Asgard.
Thjazi
Thjazi is another giant who turned himself into an eagle. He followed Odin, Loki, and Hoenir when they were traveling and magically prevented them from lighting a fire unless they agreed to share their food with him. When Loki tried to scare the bird away, he picked Loki up and sailed into the sky. He only agreed to let the trickster go if he helped Thjazi kidnap Idun, the goddess that cares for the orchard of golden apples that maintains the youth of the gods.
Idun was kidnapped, and the gods eventually noticed when they started to age. They suspected Loki and sent him to retrieve her. He did this by borrowing Freyja’s falcon feather cloak to turn into a bird, and then turning Idun into a nut so that she was small enough to carry back to Asgard.
When Thjazi learned what had happened, he turned into an eagle and pursued them. But the god was prepared, and as soon as Loki flew into Asgard, they created a ring of flames around the stronghold, which killed Thjazi when he tried to pass.
Thrym
Thrym is famous for having stolen Thor’s hammer and saying that he would only return it in exchange for the hand of the goddess Freyja in marriage. When Freyja refused to either marry him or participate in a ruse, Thor was convinced to disguise himself as Freyja and go after the hammer.
Accompanied by Loki, who shapeshifted into a handmaiden, Thor’s appetite and volatile nature almost gave him away, but Loki was able to cover for him. Eventually, when Thrym summoned the hammer to bless the wedding, Thor took it back and killed everyone in the giant’s hall.
Utgard-Loki
When Thor and Loki travel to Jotunharm, Utgard-Loki uses illusion to trick them every step of the way. First, he disguises himself as another giant called Skrymir and replaces his head with a mountain so that Thor cannot kill him with his hammer.
At his hall, he then tricks Loki into an eater competition with “fire”, which devours everything, including the table. He tricks another of Thor’s companions into racing against time. He tricks Thor into trying to wrestle with age, drink from a bottomless cup connected to the Midgard sea, and pick up a cat which is actually Jormungandr. Utgard-Loki and his companions mock them when they fail at each task.
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