Giants, Gods and Beasts: A Guide to Norse Mythology

The Jotnar, Terror of the Mountains

The Battle of the Riddles
As he watched Jotunheim from his throne, Odin noticed Vafthrudnir, an elderly giant who tried to advise his people in vain, for the jotnar were wild and bloodthirsty. He challenged the jotun sage to a riddle-duel. Vafthrudnir obliged, arriving at Asgard the next morning and confronted Odin, with Frigg watching both of them. The two then engaged each other in oral combat, quizzing each other about the history of the Aesir, the jotnar, and the nine realms. It all came down to a draw, as it seemed they had the same amount of knowledge about the world. Odin had found his match.

Thrym and the Hammer of Thor
One morning, Thor discovered that his hammer was missing, much to the horror of the Aesir, since it was Mjolnir that kept the jotnar at bay. Loki traveled to Jotunheim and visited the frost giant Thrym. He claimed to be the culprit and said said he would only give the hammer back if Freya married him. She refused, so Thor grudgingly disguised himself as her and headed to Thrymheim with Loki. At the wedding feast, the gluttonous god nearly gave himself away, with his enormous appetite and red eyes, but Loki cleverly claimed the bride had neither eaten nor slept for nine days. Mjolnir was brought out and so Thor snatched up the hammer and brought an end to Thrym and his entire clan. Seeing thunder down in Jotunheim, the Aesir sighed with relief, knowing Asgard and Midgard were safe once more from the jotnar.

The Duel with Rungnir
There once was a giant named Rungnir, who was very proud of his gold-maned horse Gullfaxi. One day, he challenged Thor to a duel, with either Gullfaxi or Thor's hammer and wife as the prize. While the thunder-god returned to Asgard to train, the giant went back to Jotunheim and loudly boasted he was going to defeat the only one they ever feared. Although every jotun wanted to get rid of Thor, they weren't feeling brave enough to be Rungnir's second, so they created a golem-like behemoth called Mokkurkalfi to back up the brave giant. The next days, the two giants confronted Thor, who killed both of them with one throw of his hammer. However, a fragment of Mokkurkalfi got lodged in his head and one of Rungnir's legs pinned him down until his three-year old son Magni lifted the leg off his father with ease. Thor gratefully gave Gullfaxi to his son, but he couldn't get the fragment out of his head, so he had to leave it in there.

Geirrod and the Staff of Grid
Loki felt bored one day, so he decided to visit his kin in Jotunheim. He changed into a hawk and flew off, only to be caught by Geirrod, a strong giant who hated Thor. He threatened Loki to lock him away unless the thunder-god was brought to him unarmed. The trickster quickly rushed back to Asgard and told Thor all about the magnificent feasts of Geirrod. The gluttonous god decided to visit said giant without his hammer to appear peaceful. Along the way, he visited one of his stepmothers, Grid, a giantess who bore Odin his son Vidar. She warned Thor about Geirrod and gave him her Gridavolur, her staff. Then he continued on his way until he came across a raging river. Looking up, he saw that the river was being straddled by the legs of the giantess Gjalp, a daughter of Geirrod. Thor killed her with a well-aimed rock and arrive at Geirrod's hall, where he rested on a stool. Greip, another daughter of Geirrod, tried to avenge her sister by raising the stool to smash him against the ceiling. Unfortunately for her, Thor pushed on the rafters with Gridavolur until the stool came down and broke the sturdy back of the giantess. He entered the dining chamber and confronted Geirrod, who threw a red-hot coal at the thunder-god. With a swing of the staff, Thor sent it flying back through the giant, killing him. Then he headed back to Asgard with an enormous appetite against Loki, who had attempted to trick him.

The Challenges of Utgard-Loki
En route to Jotunheim one day, Thor and Loki decided to stay at a farmhouse in Midgard, with the former butchering his immortal goats for dinner. He told them not to break a single bone, but Thjalfi, the farmer's son, broke a shinbone on the sly to suck out the tender marrow. The next morning, when Thor revived the goats with a swing of his hammer, he discovered one of them had a lame leg, much to his anger. To appease the angry god, the farmer offered Thjalfi and Roskva, his sister, as servants, which the thunder-god accepted. And so Thor, along with his new servants as well as Loki, headed off to Jotunheim. That night, as they slept in an enormous oak, a loud, rumbling noise kept them up. The culprit was a sleeping giant. Thor tried to silence him by bashing his head with Mjolnir, but the jotun merely stirred. On the third blow, he woke up, though it was morning anyway. After eating an enormous breakfast, he continued on his way, but not before warning the travelers about Utgard-Loki, the trickster king of the jotnar. Intrigued by this, Thor and his companions walked on until noon. They had reached Utgard, a fortress so high they had to bend their backs all the way to see the ramparts. The four travelers managed to squeeze inside and found themselves in a dining hall full of jotnar, with Utgard-Loki himself seated on a colossal throne. Upon noticed Thor's party, he decided to challenge them so as to prove their strengths. Loki competed in an eating competition with the fire jotun Logi and lost, as did Thjalfi when he went up against another jotun, Hugi, in a footrace. Thor himself failed to empty an incredibly long drinking horn, lift up Utgard-Loki's cat, and defeat Elli, a crone, at wrestling. After the feast was over, the jotun king called back the treaters for a moment to reveal the truth: he had been fooling them throughout the whole trip. The sleeping giant was an apparition he sent forth and the jotnar from the competitions were actually natural forces. Logi was wildfire, Hugi was a thought, the drinking horn was connected to the ocean, the cat was the sea serpent Jormungand, and Elli was old age. Then Utgard-Loki, along with his entire fortress, all vanished. His face burning with shame, knowing he had been tricked, Thor, along with Loki, Thjalfi, and Roskva, departed for Asgard, all of them in the lowest of spirits.

Aegir and the Cauldron of Hymir
Aegir was a stormy sea giant who was an ally of the Aesir, since they kept him in, though his family was a different matter. Ran, Aegir's wife, was a greedy hag who capsized ships, drowned their crews, and collected their treasure in their nets. The nine daughters of Aegir, the red-headed maidens representing the waves, were no better because they sadistically overturned ships so their mother would have more gold. Despite all this, Aegir remained on good terms with the gods and one day, he decided to hold a feast for them. He didn't have a cauldron big enough to cook enough food, though, so Thor and Tyr decided to borrow one from the latter's grandfather, the frost giant Hymir. He happened to be on his way to the sea when the two gods showed up, so he let them tag along. At sea, Hymir and Tyr, grandfather and grandson, each hooked a fat whale. As for Thor, he casted out his line, which was baited with the head of an ox, and pulled up none other than the dreaded sea serpent Jormungand. The great snake thrashed and writhed and would've drowned Midgard if not for Tyr cutting the line, letting the monster sink back into the sea. The three of them headed back to the Hymir's home, where his wife, a nine-headed hag, boiled the two whales for dinner. When they were done eating, Tyr asked his grandfather for a cauldron. Hymir said they could take the cauldron if Thor could prove his strength by breaking his favorite crystal goblet. Rod, Tyr's mother, whispered in the thunder-god's ear that her father's had head would be a great target. Taking her word, Thor threw the goblet at Hymir, shattering it upon his stony skull while killing him in the process. The two gods won the cauldron and departed with it. A mob of jotnar tried to avenge Hymir by attacking them, but Thor killed them all with his trusty hammer. The pair gave the mighty cauldron to Aegir, who cooked up a feast that knew no equal. It was a success, with Ran's horde glowing in the hearth, the drinking horns refilling themselves on their own accord, and Fimafeng and Eldir, the two servants, heaped food before the hungry gods. Aegir, in a very good mood, promised to hold a feast every year from then on.