Jotunheim- Norse LocationLocation · Realm"Land of the Giants"

Ymir's Blood

The Jötnar are older than the gods. Ymir, the first giant, formed from the meeting of fire and ice in Ginnungagap before the world existed. The cosmic cow Auðumbla fed him, and from the sweat beneath his arm the first frost giants were born. Auðumbla licked the salt-ice and uncovered Búri, grandfather of Odin. Gods and giants came from the same primordial scene.

Odin, Vili, and Vé killed Ymir and built the world from his body. His blood drowned nearly all the frost giants. Only Bergelmir and his wife survived, escaping in a vessel that carried them over the flood. From them descend all the Jötnar who fill Jotunheim. The giants remember that slaughter. It is the first grievance in an enmity that will outlast the world.

Gods and Giants

The gods carry giant blood. Odin's mother Bestla was a giantess, and Thor's mother Jörð was counted among the Jötnar. The two races are kin, and they have never stopped fighting.

Skaði, daughter of the slain giant Þjazi, came to Asgard armed and demanding compensation for her father's death. The gods offered her a husband chosen by his feet alone. She picked the most beautiful pair, thinking them Baldr's. They were Njörðr's. The match proved unhappy: she preferred the howling of wolves in her mountain home to the cries of gulls at Nóatún. Freyr gave away his self-fighting sword to win the giantess Gerðr, a sacrifice that would leave him unarmed when he faced Surtr at Ragnarök.

Odin and Vafþrúðnir

Odin ventured to Jotunheim disguised as Gagnráðr and staked his life in a riddle contest with the ancient giant Vafþrúðnir. Back and forth they matched wits on the origins of the cosmos and the fates of the gods. Vafþrúðnir answered every question with knowledge stretching back to the first age. Odin won only by asking what he had whispered in Baldr's ear on the funeral pyre, a question only he could know. He left the giant's hall alive, but the contest had proved something: the Jötnar's wisdom ran as deep as his own.

Mímir's Well lies beneath Yggdrasil's root in giant territory. Odin sacrificed an eye for a single drink of its waters. The knowledge the gods need most is kept in Jotunheim.

Thor's Journeys East

No god crossed into Jotunheim more often or more violently than Thor. When the giant Þrymr stole Mjölnir and demanded Freyja as his bride, Thor put on a bridal veil and traveled to Jotunheim with Loki as his handmaiden. At the wedding feast, Þrymr placed Mjölnir in the "bride's" lap to consecrate the marriage. Thor seized the hammer and killed every giant in the hall.

The strongest of all Jötnar was Hrungnir, who had a head and heart of stone. He challenged Thor to single combat after a drinking bout in Asgard. The giants built a clay colossus nine leagues tall to stand as his second. Thor hurled Mjölnir at Hrungnir's stone skull while the giant threw his whetstone. Both struck. Mjölnir shattered Hrungnir's head, but a shard of whetstone lodged in Thor's own skull, where Snorri says it remains. The dead giant's leg pinned Thor to the ground until his son Magni, three nights old, walked over and lifted it.

Útgarðr

The outer fortress of Útgarðr hosted Thor on his most humbling journey. Its king, Útgarða-Loki, set Thor a series of contests. Thor tried to drain a drinking horn: it was connected to the ocean, and the tide fell. He wrestled an old woman: she was old age itself, and she brought him to one knee. He tried to lift a cat: it was Jörmungandr in disguise, and when Thor raised a single paw the giants went pale. Every defeat was an illusion, and every illusion a measure of Thor's strength turned against him.

To reach Jotunheim from Midgard, one travels east through forests and across wild rivers. The Ívingr marks one boundary, its waters never freezing despite the surrounding cold. Beyond it the land opens into glaciers, mountain passes, and woods so thick that light barely penetrates.

Ragnarök

At the end, the frost giants will march. Hrym will captain the ship Naglfar, built from the fingernails of the dead. From the south, Surtr and the fire giants of Muspelheim will advance with flames. Fenrir will break free and run with jaws stretched from earth to sky. They will cross Bifröst and it will shatter.

On the plain of Vígríðr, gods and giants will destroy each other. The enmity that began in Ymir's blood will end in everyone's.