Jord- Norse GodDeity"Earth Mother"
Also known as: Jörð, Fjörgyn, and Hlóðyn
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Description
The living earth itself, given divine form and name. Her name is simply the Old Norse word for "earth." She bore Thor to Odin, and for that the skalds never let her be forgotten: every kenning calling Thor "son of Jörð" kept her alive in the poetry.
Mythology & Lore
The Earth Named
Jörð is the earth, not a goddess who governs it. Her name is the Old Norse word for the ground underfoot. Snorri in the Gylfaginning calls her a daughter of Nótt and Anárr, which makes Night her mother. He also counts her among the Ásynjur, though she is a giantess by birth.
She carried more than one name. Skalds called Thor's mother Fjörgyn in some poems and Hlóðyn in others. The Völuspá uses Hlóðyn when it describes Thor striding out to fight Jörmungandr. A masculine form of the name, Fjörgynn, appears elsewhere as the father of Frigg, as though the word once named an earth-being that could take either shape.
Son of Jörð
Jörð never speaks, never acts, never enters a hall or crosses a threshold. Where other gods have stories, she has a son. The skalds built kenning after kenning around that fact: Jörðar sonr, Jörðar burr. Each named Thor through his mother, not his father. In the Hárbarðsljóð, when Odin taunts Thor from across a strait, Thor's strength and stubbornness are his mother's earth in him. The god who wades through rivers and hauls serpents from the sea carries the weight of the ground itself.