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104-795: A jötunn (also jotun ; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse , jǫtunn / ˈ j ɔː t ʊ n / ; or, in Old English , eoten , plural eotenas ) is a type of being in Germanic mythology . In Norse mythology , they are often contrasted with gods (the Æsir and Vanir ) and other non-human figures, such as dwarfs and elves , although the groupings are not always mutually exclusive. The entities included in jötunn are referred to by several other terms, including risi , þurs (or thurs ) and troll if male and gýgr or tröllkona if female. The jötnar typically dwell across boundaries from

208-540: A euhemerized prose account relates that Freyr was a much loved king in what is now Sweden . Freyr's wife was Gerðr and their son was Fjölnir . Gerðr's fate is not provided, but after Freyr's death their son goes on to become king and their family line, the Ynglings , continues. In a verse stanza found in chapter 16 of Haralds saga Gráfeldar , Gerðr is mentioned in a kenning for "woman" ("Gerðr-of-gold-rings"). Small pieces of gold foil featuring engravings dating from

312-421: A beautiful woman, so beautiful that he was filled with grief and that he would soon die if he could not have her. Freyr tells Skírnir that he must go gain her hand on his behalf—whether the woman's father agrees or not—and he will be rewarded. Skírnir replies that he accepts the mission but only in exchange for Freyr's sword, which can fight on its own. Freyr gives him the sword and Skírnir sets off. Skírnir asks for

416-727: A change known as Holtzmann's law . An epenthetic vowel became popular by 1200 in Old Danish, 1250 in Old Swedish and Old Norwegian, and 1300 in Old Icelandic. An unstressed vowel was used which varied by dialect. Old Norwegian exhibited all three: /u/ was used in West Norwegian south of Bergen , as in aftur , aftor (older aptr ); North of Bergen, /i/ appeared in aftir , after ; and East Norwegian used /a/ , after , aftær . Old Norse

520-474: A disdain for the ringing of church bells. Similarities are also both seen in their role in the construction of stoneworks. Akin to the Old Norse tale of the jötunn who built the wall of Ásgarðr , giants often enter into wagers involved in the building of churches which they later lose, as with the tale of Jätten Finn who is attributed with the construction of Lund Cathedral . Ruins are also attributed to

624-417: A female raven or a male crow. All neuter words have identical nominative and accusative forms, and all feminine words have identical nominative and accusative plurals. The gender of some words' plurals does not agree with that of their singulars, such as lim and mund . Some words, such as hungr , have multiple genders, evidenced by their determiners being declined in different genders within

728-412: A front vowel to be split into a semivowel-vowel sequence before a back vowel in the following syllable. While West Norse only broke /e/ , East Norse also broke /i/ . The change was blocked by a /w/ , /l/ , or /ʀ/ preceding the potentially-broken vowel. Some /ja/ or /jɔ/ and /jaː/ or /jɔː/ result from breaking of /e/ and /eː/ respectively. When a noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb has

832-409: A given sentence. Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns were declined in four grammatical cases – nominative , accusative , genitive , and dative  – in singular and plural numbers. Adjectives and pronouns were additionally declined in three grammatical genders. Some pronouns (first and second person) could have dual number in addition to singular and plural. The genitive

936-700: A group of wolves is referred to as "Gríðr's grey herd of horses". Wolf-riding gýgjar are referred to as myrkriður ("riders in the night") or kveldriður ("dusk riders"). Hræsvelgr is told in Vafþrúðnismál (37) and Gylfaginning (18) to be a jötunn in an arnarhamr (eagle-guise) who creates the wind by beating his wings. Other jötnar , such as Þjazi and Suttungr are able to become eagles by wearing their arnarhamir , or resemble them like Griðr in Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra who has hands like eagle talons. In later material composed during

1040-454: A herdsman (unnamed) sitting on a mound , greets him, and asks the herdsman how he may speak to the maiden beyond Gymir's dogs. An exchange occurs between the herdsman and Skírnir, during which the herdsman tells Skírnir that he will never speak to the girl. Hearing a terrible noise in her dwellings, Gerðr asks where it is coming from, noting that the earth trembles and that all of Gymir's courts shake. A serving maid (unnamed) notes that outside

1144-584: A long vowel or diphthong in the accented syllable and its stem ends in a single l , n , or s , the r (or the elder r - or z -variant ʀ ) in an ending is assimilated. When the accented vowel is short, the ending is dropped. The nominative of the strong masculine declension and some i-stem feminine nouns uses one such -r (ʀ). Óðin-r ( Óðin-ʀ ) becomes Óðinn instead of * Óðinr ( * Óðinʀ ). The verb blása ('to blow'), has third person present tense blæss ('[he] blows') rather than * blæsr ( * blæsʀ ). Similarly,

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1248-466: A man has dismounted his horse and has let it graze. Gerðr tells the serving maid to invite the man to come into their hall and to partake of some of their "famous mead ," yet Gerðr expresses fear that the man outside may be her "brother's slayer". Gerðr asks the stranger if he is of the elves, Æsir , or the Vanir , and why he comes alone "over the wild fire" to seek their company. Skírnir responds that he

1352-435: A much wider semantic scope in Old Norse literature than solely jötnar , also including individuals with unusual or supernatural traits such as witches, abnormally strong, large or ugly people, ghosts and berserkers . Terms for jötnar are often translated into Modern English as "giant" or "giantess". John Lindow uses the glosses to contrast them with the gods but notes that they are not giant, being similar in size to

1456-586: A naturalistic standpoint. Despite this, a system of motifs repeat when travelling to the jötnar . In the Prose Edda that the jötnar dwell in Jötunheimr which is at points located in the North or East and in Þrymskviða can only be reached by air, however jötnar are also found South and across water . Jötnar such as Suttungr and Skaði live in mountains, which is further reflected in

1560-474: A noun must mirror the gender of that noun , so that one says, " heill maðr! " but, " heilt barn! ". As in other languages, the grammatical gender of an impersonal noun is generally unrelated to an expected natural gender of that noun. While indeed karl , "man" is masculine, kona , "woman", is feminine, and hús , "house", is neuter, so also are hrafn and kráka , for "raven" and "crow", masculine and feminine respectively, even in reference to

1664-476: A similar development influenced by Middle Low German . Various languages unrelated to Old Norse and others not closely related have been heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman language ; to a lesser extent, Finnish and Estonian . Russian, Ukrainian , Belarusian , Lithuanian and Latvian also have a few Norse loanwords. The words Rus and Russia , according to one theory, may be named after

1768-403: A storehouse. Freyr became heartsick for the girl. Freyr has a page named Skírnir . Freyr's father Njörðr and, in verse, the goddess Skaði tells Skírnir to find out what troubles Freyr. An exchange occurs between Freyr and Skírnir in verse, where Freyr tells Skírnir that he has seen a wondrous girl with shining arms at the home of (her father) Gymir , yet that the gods and elves do not wish for

1872-574: A type of being. Old Norse risi and Old High German riso derive from the Proto-Germanic masculine noun * wrisjon . Orel observes that the Old Saxon adjective wrisi-līk 'enormous' is likely also connected. Old Norse þurs , Old English þyrs , and Old High German duris 'devil, evil spirit' derive from the Proto-Germanic masculine noun * þur(i)saz , itself derived from Proto-Germanic * þurēnan , which

1976-608: A voiced velar fricative [ɣ] in all cases, and others have that realisation only in the middle of words and between vowels (with it otherwise being realised [ɡ] ). The Old East Norse /ʀ/ was an apical consonant , with its precise position unknown; it is reconstructed as a palatal sibilant . It descended from Proto-Germanic /z/ and eventually developed into /r/ , as had already occurred in Old West Norse. The consonant digraphs ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ occurred word-initially. It

2080-467: A vowel or semivowel of a different vowel backness . In the case of i-umlaut and ʀ-umlaut , this entails a fronting of back vowels, with retention of lip rounding. In the case of u-umlaut , this entails labialization of unrounded vowels. Umlaut is phonemic and in many situations grammatically significant as a side effect of losing the Proto-Germanic morphological suffixes whose vowels created

2184-480: A wand, that it will tame her to his desires, and says that she will never again be seen by "the sons of men". From early morning, Gerðr will sit on an eagle's mound , looking outward to the world, facing Hel , and that "food shall be more hateful to you than to every man is the shining serpent among men". Skírnir declares that when Gerðr comes out she will be a spectacle; Hrímgrímnir will "glare" at her, "everything" will stare at her, she will become more famous than

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2288-532: A welcome to Skírnir and tells him to take a crystal cup containing ancient mead , noting that she thought she would never love one of the Vanir . Skírnir asks her when she will meet with Freyr. Gerðr says that they shall meet at a tranquil location called Barri , and that after nine nights she will there grant Freyr her love: Skírnir rides home. Standing outside, Freyr immediately greets Skírnir and asks for news. Skírnir tells him that Gerðr says she will meet with him at Barri. Freyr, impatient, comments that one night

2392-448: A word. Strong verbs ablaut the lemma 's nucleus to derive the past forms of the verb. This parallels English conjugation, where, e.g., the nucleus of sing becomes sang in the past tense and sung in the past participle. Some verbs are derived by ablaut, as the present-in-past verbs do by consequence of being derived from the past tense forms of strong verbs. Umlaut or mutation is an assimilatory process acting on vowels preceding

2496-519: Is Aurboða , and that they are related to Þjazi (the nature of the kinship is not specified)—father of the goddess and jötunn Skaði . In chapter 37 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning , Gerðr is introduced by the enthroned figure of High as the daughter of Gymir and the mountain jötunn Aurboða, and is described as "the most beautiful of all women". High reports that Freyr went into Hlidskjalf and looked over all worlds. When Freyr looked to

2600-544: Is classified as Old West Norse, and Old West Norse traits were found in western Sweden . In what is present-day Denmark and Sweden, most speakers spoke Old East Norse. Though Old Gutnish is sometimes included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations, it developed its own unique features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th-century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes , Norwegians , Icelanders , and Danes spoke

2704-493: Is commonly seen as "the divine coupling of sky and earth or at least fertility god and representative of the soil." Lindow adds that, at the same time, the situation can be read as simply the gods getting what they want from the jötnar . Hilda Ellis Davidson comments that Gerðr's role in Skírnismál has parallels with the goddess Persephone from Greek mythology , "since it is made clear that if [Gerðr] remains below in

2808-540: Is commonly theorized to be a goddess associated with the earth . Gerðr inspired works of art and literature. Gerðr is attested in two poems in the Poetic Edda , in two books of the Prose Edda , and in two books in Heimskringla . In the Poetic Edda poem Skírnismál , the god Freyr sat on the high seat Hlidskjalf and looked into all worlds. Freyr saw a beautiful girl walking from the hall of her father to

2912-610: Is etymologically connected to Sanskrit turá - 'strong, powerful, rich'. Several terms are used specifically to refer to female entities that fall into this wider category, including íviðja (plural íviðjur ), gýgr (plural gýgjar ) and tröllkona (plural tröllkonur ). Terms for jötnar are also found in Old Norse compound words such as bergrisi , ("mountain-risi") and hrímþurs ("rime-þurs", or "frost-þurs"). The cognates jötunn and eoten , and þurs and þyrs have been equated by scholars such as J. R. R. Tolkien and Rudolf Simek , with

3016-465: Is expected to exist, such as in the male names Ragnarr , Steinarr (supposedly * Ragnarʀ , * Steinarʀ ), the result is apparently always /rː/ rather than */rʀ/ or */ʀː/ . This is observable in the Runic corpus. In Old Norse, i/j adjacent to i , e , their u-umlauts, and æ was not possible, nor u/v adjacent to u , o , their i-umlauts, and ǫ . At

3120-403: Is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects : Old West Norse (Old West Nordic, often referred to as Old Norse ), Old East Norse (Old East Nordic), and Old Gutnish . Old West Norse and Old East Norse formed a dialect continuum , with no clear geographical boundary between them. Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway , although Old Norwegian

3224-520: Is inhabited by jötnar and beings associated with them. A common motif is the journeying to obtain secret knowledge from the jötnar . In the Eddic poem Hyndluljóð , Freyja travels to the gýgr Hyndla to obtain understanding of the lineage of Ottar , and the "ale of remembrance" ( Old Norse : minnisǫl ) so that he does not forget it. In the Eddic poem Vafþrúðnismál , Óðinn travels to

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3328-450: Is long, as is two nights, and questions how he will bear three, noting that frequently a month seemed shorter than half a night before being with Gerðr. A stanza in the poem Lokasenna refers to Gerðr. In the poem, Loki accuses the god Freyr of having purchased Gymir's daughter (Gerðr) with gold and comments that, in the process, Freyr gave away his sword. Referring to Freyr as a "wretch", Loki then posits how Freyr intends to fight when

3432-584: Is more common in Old West Norse in both phonemic and allophonic positions, while it only occurs sparsely in post-runic Old East Norse and even in runic Old East Norse. This is still a major difference between Swedish and Faroese and Icelandic today. Plurals of neuters do not have u-umlaut at all in Swedish, but in Faroese and Icelandic they do, for example the Faroese and Icelandic plurals of the word land , lond and lönd respectively, in contrast to

3536-575: Is not interested in the ring, for she shares her father's property, and Gymir has no lack of gold. Skírnir turns to threats; he points out to Gerðr that he holds a sword in his hand and he threatens to cut her head from her neck unless she agrees. Gerðr refuses; she says that she will not endure the coercion of any man, and says that if Gymir encounters Skírnir then a battle can be expected. Skírnir again reminds Gerðr of his blade and predicts that Gerðr's jötunn father will meet his doom with it. Skírnir warns Gerðr that he will strike her with his Gambanteinn ,

3640-536: Is noted for having the likeness of a þurs . As the influence of Christianity grew, jötnar became demonised and typically portrayed as less intelligent, easier to outwit and more monstrous, as is common with giants in later Germanic folklore . In some later sagas, such as Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss , risar are clearly distinct from jötnar however in others the terms are used interchangeably, albeit with an overall trend that jötnar have begun to be seen negatively relative to risar . Troll has

3744-479: Is of none of these groups, yet that he has indeed sought her out. Skírnir offers Gerðr 11 golden apples (or apples of eternal life , in a common emendation) to gain her favor. Gerðr rejects the apples—no matter who offers them—and adds that neither will she and Freyr be together as long as they live. Skírnir offers Gerðr a ring, here unnamed (Draupnir), that produces eight more gold rings every ninth night and "was burned with Odin 's young son". Gerðr responds that she

3848-470: Is sometimes used to gloss the word " jötunn " and its apparent synonyms in some translations and academic texts, this is seen as problematic by some scholars as jötnar are not necessarily notably large. The terms for the beings also have cognates in later folklore such as the English yotun , Danish jætte and Finnish jätti which can share some common features such as being turned to stone in

3952-459: Is that the nonphonemic difference between the voiced and the voiceless dental fricative is marked. The oldest texts and runic inscriptions use þ exclusively. Long vowels are denoted with acutes . Most other letters are written with the same glyph as the IPA phoneme, except as shown in the table below. Ablaut patterns are groups of vowels which are swapped, or ablauted, in the nucleus of

4056-557: Is unclear whether they were sequences of two consonants (with the first element realised as /h/ or perhaps /x/ ) or as single voiceless sonorants /l̥/ , /r̥/ and /n̥/ respectively. In Old Norwegian, Old Danish and later Old Swedish, the groups ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ were reduced to plain ⟨l⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , which suggests that they had most likely already been pronounced as voiceless sonorants by Old Norse times. The pronunciation of ⟨hv⟩

4160-499: Is unclear, but it may have been /xʷ/ (the Proto-Germanic pronunciation), /hʷ/ or the similar phoneme /ʍ/ . Unlike the three other digraphs, it was retained much longer in all dialects. Without ever developing into a voiceless sonorant in Icelandic, it instead underwent fortition to a plosive /kv/ , which suggests that instead of being a voiceless sonorant, it retained a stronger frication. Primary stress in Old Norse falls on

4264-605: The jötunn Vafþrúðnir whereupon they engage in a wisdom contest. He also travels to the jötnar to obtain from Suttungr the Mead of poetry , which imparts skill in poetry to any who drink it. The völva who tells the Völuspá prophecy to Óðinn, while not explicitly described as a jötunn but was raised by them. Cosmology in Germanic mythology, as with other oral cultures, has many apparent contradictions when viewed from

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4368-592: The Faroese and Shetlandic popular customs of dressing up as giantesses referred to as Grýla (plural grýlur ), or other similar terms, in costumes traditionally made from a combination of animal skins, tattered clothes, seaweed, straw and sometimes featuring masks. Grýla is a female creature described in Sturlunga saga as having fifteen tails, and listed as a tröllkona in the Nafnaþulur section of

4472-535: The Latin alphabet , there was no standardized orthography in use in the Middle Ages. A modified version of the letter wynn called vend was used briefly for the sounds /u/ , /v/ , and /w/ . Long vowels were sometimes marked with acutes but also sometimes left unmarked or geminated. The standardized Old Norse spelling was created in the 19th century and is, for the most part, phonemic. The most notable deviation

4576-691: The Migration Period into the early Viking Age (known as gullgubber ) have been discovered in various locations in Scandinavia , almost 2,500 at one location. The foil pieces have been found largely at sites of buildings, only rarely in graves. The figures are sometimes single, occasionally an animal, sometimes a man and a woman with a leafy bough between them, facing or embracing one another. The human figures are almost always clothed and are sometimes depicted with their knees bent. Scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson says that it has been suggested that

4680-559: The Prose Edda who features in folklore throughout the North Atlantic islands settled by Scandinavians. Place-names derived from þurs or cognate: England Old Norse Old Norse , also referred to as Old Nordic , or Old Scandinavian , was a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with

4784-682: The Ring of Brodgar as dancing giants who were turned to stone by the morning sun. This motif is also seen in Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar , in which the gýgr Hrímgerðr engages in a senna with Helgi Hundingsbane until the sun rises and she is turned to stone. The Orcadian tradition of Gyro Night derives its name from Old Norse : gýgr and consisted of two older boys dressing up as masked old women one night in February and chasing smaller boys with ropes. Similar to this are

4888-667: The Rus' people , a Norse tribe, probably from present-day east-central Sweden. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi , respectively. A number of loanwords have been introduced into Irish , many associated with fishing and sailing. A similar influence is found in Scottish Gaelic , with over one hundred loanwords estimated to be in the language, many of which are related to fishing and sailing. Old Norse vowel phonemes mostly come in pairs of long and short. The standardized orthography marks

4992-472: The Sons of Muspell ride over the wood Myrkviðr (an event during Ragnarök ). Freyr's servant, Byggvir , interjects and the poem continues. In the poem Hyndluljóð , Óttar 's ancestry is recounted and information is provided about the gods. One stanza that actually belongs to Völuspá hin skamma relates that Freyr and Gerðr were married, that Gerðr is the daughter of the jötunn Gymir, that Gerðr's mother

5096-562: The Viking Age , the Christianization of Scandinavia , and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse

5200-407: The jötunn Eggþér who has been interpreted as either a guardian of the gýgjar who live there or a herdsman of the wolves. Wolves are also taken as mounts by gýgjar such as Hyndla and Hyrrokkin , the latter of which using snakes as reins. This is further attested in skaldic poetry in which "wolf" is described by the kennings " Leikn's horse", " Gjálp's horse", " Gríðr's horse", while

5304-517: The watchman of the gods , and that she will "gape through the bars". Gerðr will experience "madness and howling, tearing affliction and unbearable desire" and that, in grief, tears will flow from her. Skírnir tells Gerðr to sit down, for her fate will be even worse yet. She will be harassed by fiends all her weary days. From the court of jötnar to the halls of the hrimthurs , Gerðr shall everyday crawl without choice, nor hope of choice. Gerðr will weep rather than feel joy, suffering tearfully. She will live

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5408-668: The word stem , so that hyrjar would be pronounced /ˈhyr.jar/ . In compound words, secondary stress falls on the second stem (e.g. lærisveinn , /ˈlɛːɾ.iˌswɛinː/ ). Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark , runic Old Norse was originally written with the Younger Futhark , which had only 16 letters. Because of the limited number of runes, several runes were used for different sounds, and long and short vowels were not distinguished in writing. Medieval runes came into use some time later. As for

5512-557: The 11th century in most of Old East Norse. However, the distinction still holds in Dalecarlian dialects . The dots in the following vowel table separate the oral from nasal phonemes. Note: The open or open-mid vowels may be transcribed differently: Sometime around the 13th century, /ɔ/ (spelled ⟨ǫ⟩ ) merged with /ø/ or /o/ in most dialects except Old Danish , and Icelandic where /ɔ/ ( ǫ ) merged with /ø/ . This can be determined by their distinction within

5616-979: The 12th-century First Grammatical Treatise but not within the early 13th-century Prose Edda . The nasal vowels, also noted in the First Grammatical Treatise, are assumed to have been lost in most dialects by this time (but notably they are retained in Elfdalian and other dialects of Ovansiljan ). See Old Icelandic for the mergers of /øː/ (spelled ⟨œ⟩ ) with /ɛː/ (spelled ⟨æ⟩ ) and /ɛ/ (spelled ⟨ę⟩ ) with /e/ (spelled ⟨e⟩ ). Old Norse had three diphthong phonemes: /ɛi/ , /ɔu/ , /øy ~ ɛy/ (spelled ⟨ei⟩ , ⟨au⟩ , ⟨ey⟩ respectively). In East Norse these would monophthongize and merge with /eː/ and /øː/ , whereas in West Norse and its descendants

5720-668: The 13th century there. The age of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland is strongly contested, but Swedish settlement had spread the language into the region by the time of the Second Swedish Crusade in the 13th century at the latest. The modern descendants of the Old West Norse dialect are the West Scandinavian languages of Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , and the extinct Norn language of Orkney and Shetland , although Norwegian

5824-536: The Christian period such as the legendary sagas, jötnar are often portrayed as uncivilised and cannibalistic. In the case of Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss and Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra they specifically eat both human and horse meat , the latter of which was directly associated with heathen practices. The post-Christian association between jötnar and pre-Christian practices is also seen in Beowulf , in which

5928-487: The English ettin or yotun , thurse and hobthrust , Danish jætte , Swedish jätte and Finnish jätti . In Germanic folklore , giants often share traits with jötnar , particularly as depicted in legendary sagas, combined with motifs from other European giants and are often interchangeable with trolls . As with jötnar , Germanic giants live outside of human communities, in woods and mountains. They commonly show an aversion to Christianity, often showing

6032-572: The Faroe Islands, Faroese has also been influenced by Danish. Both Middle English (especially northern English dialects within the area of the Danelaw ) and Early Scots (including Lowland Scots ) were strongly influenced by Norse and contained many Old Norse loanwords . Consequently, Modern English (including Scottish English ), inherited a significant proportion of its vocabulary directly from Norse. The development of Norman French

6136-473: The Swedish plural land and numerous other examples. That also applies to almost all feminine nouns, for example the largest feminine noun group, the o-stem nouns (except the Swedish noun jord mentioned above), and even i-stem nouns and root nouns , such as Old West Norse mǫrk ( mörk in Icelandic) in comparison with Modern and Old Swedish mark . Vowel breaking, or fracture, caused

6240-457: The appearance of jötnar are uncommon; however, the progenitor of the jötnar is described as having the form of a man. Some female jötnar are described as being beautiful, such as Gerðr and Hymir 's partner, while others are described as monstrous and having many heads. Some dwarfs are described as jötnar such as Regin and Fáfnir , while in Alvíssmál , the eponymous dwarf

6344-541: The beginning of words, this manifested as a dropping of the initial /j/ (which was general, independent of the following vowel) or /v/ . Compare ON orð , úlfr , ár with English word, wolf, year . In inflections, this manifested as the dropping of the inflectional vowels. Thus, klæði + dat -i remains klæði , and sjáum in Icelandic progressed to sjǫ́um > sjǫ́m > sjám . The * jj and * ww of Proto-Germanic became ggj and ggv respectively in Old Norse,

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6448-521: The claimed ancestors of the Ynglings . Odin also seduces the jötnar Gunnlöð and Rindr and marries Jörð . In the cases when gods marry jötnar , they appear to be fully incorporated into the gods and are referred to as Ásynjur in Nafnaþulur . Consistent with this, reference to Skaði's vés in Lokasenna and toponyms such as Skedevi in Sweden suggests that despite being a jötunn , she

6552-411: The cluster */Crʀ/ cannot be realized as /Crː/ , nor as */Crʀ/ , nor as */Cʀː/ . The same shortening as in vetr also occurs in lax = laks ('salmon') (as opposed to * lakss , * laksʀ ), botn ('bottom') (as opposed to * botnn , * botnʀ ), and jarl (as opposed to * jarll , * jarlʀ ). Furthermore, wherever the cluster */rʀ/

6656-490: The dark kingdom of the underworld there will be nothing to hope for but sterility and famine. She does not become the bride of the underworld, however; her bridal is to be in the upper world when she consents to meet Freyr at Barri." Gerðr has inspired works of art and literature. The Danish poet Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger wrote a series of poems referencing Gerðr as collected in (1819) Nordens Guder . Esaias Tegnér 's (1782–1846) unfinished epic poem Gerda also references

6760-416: The day and living on the periphery of society. Old Norse : jötunn and Old English eoten developed from the Proto-Germanic masculine noun * etunaz . Philologist Vladimir Orel says that semantic connections between * etunaz with Proto-Germanic * etanan ('to eat') makes a relation between the two words likely. The words are cognate with ettin , an archaic word for

6864-536: The descendants of jötnar . A common motif that often forms the core storyline of Eddic narratives is the unsuccessful attempts of jötnar to marry one of the goddesses, be it through either trickery or force. In contrast, the female jötunn Skaði chooses the male Vanr Njörðr as a husband. According to the Ynglinga saga , she later had children with Odin, from whom kings such as Earl Hakon were descended. The Vanr Freyr also marries Gerðr , who are

6968-449: The diphthongs remained. Old Norse has six plosive phonemes, /p/ being rare word-initially and /d/ and /b/ pronounced as voiced fricative allophones between vowels except in compound words (e.g. veðrabati ), already in the Proto-Germanic language (e.g. * b *[β] > [v] between vowels). The /ɡ/ phoneme was pronounced as [ɡ] after an /n/ or another /ɡ/ and as [k] before /s/ and /t/ . Some accounts have it

7072-473: The fight with mother of the eoten Grendel which has been noted by scholars to closely resemble the fight between a trollkona and Grettir in his eponymous saga , wherein the female beings may only be reached by crossing through water. The seemingly ununified location of the jötnar has been suggested to be an outcome of their intrinsically chaotic nature. Even within the same story, what seem like contradictions have been noted by scholars, prompting

7176-464: The figures are partaking in a dance, and that they may have been connected with weddings, as well as linked to the Vanir group of gods, representing the notion of a divine marriage, such as in the Poetic Edda poem Skírnismál ; the coming together of Gerðr and Freyr. In chapter 19 of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál , Gerðr is listed among "rivals" of the goddess Frigg , a list of sexual partners of Frigg's husband, Odin . Instead of Gerðr ,

7280-454: The first gods , resulting in a flood of Ymir's blood, in which all jötnar drowned except Bergelmir and his family, who survive this event by way of sailing upon a luðr . This has been linked to a runic inscription on a sword hilt in Beowulf which describes the eotenas being killed in an ancient flood and has been proposed to derive from Germanic and wider Indo-European mythology . According to Gylfaginning , after Ymir

7384-460: The gods and humans in lands such as Jötunheimr . The jötnar are frequently attested throughout the Old Norse record, with eotenas also featuring in the Old English epic poem Beowulf . The usage of the terms is dynamic, with an overall trend that the beings become portrayed as less impressive and more negative as Christianity becomes more influential. Although the term " giant "

7488-522: The gods, and are best conceived of as a kin or family group, separated by relation rather than physical appearance. Due to this issue, some scholars such as Terry Gunnell, Jeramy Dodds and Benjamin Thorpe either anglicise or leave untranslated terms for jötnar in translations and academic work. In a stanza of Völuspá hin skamma (found in the poem " Hyndluljóð ") all jötnar descend from Ymir . Gylfaginning elaborates on this, describing that

7592-487: The island of Hlesey (now Læsø , Denmark ), including Gerðr. In chapter 19, different ways of referring to the goddess Frigg are provided. One of these names is "rival of Gerðr"; however, this is probably a scribal error (see "Theories" section below). In chapter 57, various goddesses are listed, including Gerðr (between Snotra and Gefjon ). In chapter 12 of Ynglinga saga (as collected in Heimskringla ),

7696-418: The jötunn Gríðr , mother of Odin's son Víðarr according to the Prose Edda , was probably intended. One manuscript has Gríðr corrected to Gerðr. Andy Orchard notes that it may nonetheless be an intentional inclusion in view of "Odin's notorious appetites". Scholar John Lindow comments that Gerðr's name has been etymologically associated with the earth and enclosures and that the wedding of Gerðr and Freyr

7800-399: The long vowels with an acute accent. In medieval manuscripts, it is often unmarked but sometimes marked with an accent or through gemination . Old Norse had nasalized versions of all ten vowel places. These occurred as allophones of the vowels before nasal consonants and in places where a nasal had followed it in an older form of the word, before it was absorbed into a neighboring sound. If

7904-503: The man-eating eoten Grendel is described as having a "heathen soul" and "heathenish hand-spurs". Female jötnar are explicitly described as being heathen in some later sources such as Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar , in which religion prevents her from being with the hero, and the legendary saga Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns , in which she must be baptised before marrying the hero. Giants with names cognate to terms for jötnar are found in later Northern European folklore , such as

8008-507: The meeting could not occur sooner. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda , Gerðr is described as the daughter of Gymir and the jötunn Aurboða . In Heimskringla , Gerðr is recorded as the wife of Freyr, euhemerized as having been a beloved king of Sweden . In the same source, the couple are the founders of the Yngling dynasty and produced a son, Fjölnir , who rose to kinghood after Freyr's passing and continued their line. Gerðr

8112-730: The most conservative language, such that in present-day Iceland, schoolchildren are able to read the 12th-century Icelandic sagas in the original language (in editions with normalised spelling). Old Icelandic was very close to Old Norwegian , and together they formed Old West Norse , which was also spoken in Norse settlements in Greenland , the Faroes , Ireland , Scotland , the Isle of Man , northwest England, and in Normandy . Old East Norse

8216-514: The nasal was absorbed by a stressed vowel, it would also lengthen the vowel. This nasalization also occurred in the other Germanic languages, but were not retained long. They were noted in the First Grammatical Treatise , and otherwise might have remained unknown. The First Grammarian marked these with a dot above the letter. This notation did not catch on, and would soon be obsolete. Nasal and oral vowels probably merged around

8320-577: The north he saw a distant homestead with a large and magnificent building. A woman went to the building, and when she lifted her arms and opened the door to the building "light was shed from her arms over both sky and sea, and all worlds were made bright by her". In punishment for "his great presumption" in having sat in the holy seat, Freyr went away filled with grief. Freyr arrives home and neither sleeps nor drinks, remaining in silence. No one dares speak to him. The god Njörðr sends Freyr's servant Skírnir to speak to Freyr. Freyr tells Skírnir that he saw

8424-641: The other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, and Gaelic ( Scottish and/or Irish ). Although Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have diverged the most, they still retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, particularly if speaking slowly. The languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders. This could be because these languages have been mutually affected by each other, as well as having

8528-654: The potent wrath of the gods". Skírnir declares to the hrimthursar, thursar, the sons of Suttungr , and the "troops of the Æsir " that he has denied both pleasure and benefit from men to Gerðr. Skírnir details that the thurs's name who will own her below the gates of Nágrind is Hrímgrímnir and that there, at the roots of the world , the finest thing Gerðr will be given to drink is the urine of goats. He carves "thurs" (the runic character * thurisaz ) on Gerðr and three runes (unnamed) symbolizing lewdness, frenzy, and unbearable desire, and comments that he can rub them off just as he has carved them—if he wishes. Gerðr responds with

8632-466: The primordial jötunn Ymir formed in the warm waters that arose in Ginnungagap when the rime of Niflheim was melted by the heat of Muspelheim . He lay there asleep, fed by milk from Auðumbla , whereupon from his left armpit he sweated a male and a female, and his legs begat a son with one another. Together, these children became the ancestors of all other jötnar . Later, he was killed by

8736-444: The proposal of a model that the otherworld where the jötnar dwell can be reached from a number of passages or boundaries that cannot be traversed under normal conditions, such as the mountains, darkness and "flickering flame" crossed by Skírnir in Skírnismál . In Eddic sources, jötnar present a constant threat to gods and humans, often leading them to confrontation with Thor . Hárbarðsljóð and Þrymskviða tell that if it

8840-457: The rest of her life in misery with a three-headed thurs or otherwise be without a man altogether. Skírnir commands for Gerðr's mind to be seized, that she may waste away with pining, and that she be as the thistle at the end of the harvest; crushed. Skírnir says that he has been to a wood to get a "potent branch", which he found. He declares that the gods Odin and Thor are angry with Gerðr, and that Freyr will hate her; she has "brought down

8944-536: The root vowel, ǫ , is short. The clusters */Clʀ, Csʀ, Cnʀ, Crʀ/ cannot yield */Clː, Csː, Cnː, Crː/ respectively, instead /Cl, Cs, Cn, Cr/ . The effect of this shortening can result in the lack of distinction between some forms of the noun. In the case of vetr ('winter'), the nominative and accusative singular and plural forms are identical. The nominative singular and nominative and accusative plural would otherwise have been OWN * vetrr , OEN * wintrʀ . These forms are impossible because

9048-441: The same language, dǫnsk tunga ("Danish tongue"; speakers of Old East Norse would have said dansk tunga ). Another term was norrœnt mál ("northern speech"). Today Old Norse has developed into the modern North Germanic languages Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , Danish , Swedish , and other North Germanic varieties of which Norwegian, Danish and Swedish retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Icelandic remains

9152-532: The sight of her shimmering beauty, and has his servant Skírnir go to Jötunheimr (where Gerðr and her father Gymir reside) to gain her love. In the Poetic Edda Gerðr initially refuses, yet after a series of threats by Skírnir she is forced to yield. In the Prose Edda , no mention of threats is made. In both sources, Gerðr agrees to meet Freyr at a fixed time at the location of Barri and, after Skírnir returns with Gerðr's response, Freyr laments that

9256-405: The terms Old Norse : bergrisar (mountain risar) and Old Norse : bergbúi (mountain dweller), a kenning for jötunn . Their lands of inhabitation are not restricted to this, also including forests, underground, and the shore. Sometimes they are referred to as living in specific geographical locations such as Ægir on Læsø . These motifs are also seen in the section of Beowulf concerning

9360-407: The two to be together: Skírnir requests that Freyr give him a horse and Freyr's sword; a sword which fights jötnar by itself. Under the cover of darkness, Skírnir rides the horse over nations and dew-covered mountains until he reaches Jötunheimr , the home of the jötnar, and proceeds to Gymir's courts. Ferocious dogs are tied before the wooden fence that surrounds Gerðr's hall. Skírnir rides out to

9464-497: The umlaut allophones . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , /ɛ/ , /ɛː/ , /øy/ , and all /ɛi/ were obtained by i-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /o/ , /oː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , /au/ , and /ai/ respectively. Others were formed via ʀ-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , and /au/ . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , and all /ɔ/ , /ɔː/ were obtained by u-umlaut from /i/ , /iː/ , /e/ , /eː/ , and /a/ , /aː/ respectively. See Old Icelandic for information on /ɔː/ . /œ/

9568-482: The verb skína ('to shine') had present tense third person skínn (rather than * skínr , * skínʀ ); while kala ('to cool down') had present tense third person kell (rather than * kelr , * kelʀ ). The rule is not absolute, with certain counter-examples such as vinr ('friend'), which has the synonym vin , yet retains the unabsorbed version, and jǫtunn (' giant '), where assimilation takes place even though

9672-404: The woman's hand for Freyr and receives her promise. Nine nights later she is to meet with Freyr at a location called Barey . Skírnir delivers the news to Freyr and Freyr responds with the final stanza from the Poetic Edda poem Skírnismál , lamenting that he must wait. At the beginning of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál , eight goddesses are listed as attending a feast held by Ægir on

9776-531: The words being used to describe the being in either Old Norse or Old English respectively. In the Eddas , jötnar are beings typically with similar power to the gods and may also be referred to by the negative terms troll and þurs . The harmful nature of þursar is also described in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems , where they are identified for causing strife to women. Descriptions of

9880-679: The works of both beings, as in the Old English poem The Ruin and the aetiological story of Wade's Causeway in Yorkshire . Some standing stones in northern Europe are explained as petrified giants such as the Yetnasteen in Orkney which derives its name from Old Norse : Jǫtna-steinn ( Jötunn's stone). According to folklore, it awakens every New Year at midnight whereupon it visits the Loch of Scockness to drink. Orcadian folklore also explains

9984-404: Was a moderately inflected language with high levels of nominal and verbal inflection. Most of the fused morphemes are retained in modern Icelandic, especially in regard to noun case declensions, whereas modern Norwegian in comparison has moved towards more analytical word structures. Old Norse had three grammatical genders – masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives or pronouns referring to

10088-400: Was also influenced by Norse. Through Norman, to a smaller extent, so was modern French. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system. Contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the vowel phonemes, has changed at least as much in Icelandic as in

10192-583: Was heavily influenced by the East dialect, and is today more similar to East Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) than to Icelandic and Faroese. The descendants of the Old East Norse dialect are the East Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish . Among these, the grammar of Icelandic and Faroese have changed the least from Old Norse in the last thousand years, though their pronunciations both have changed considerably from Old Norse. With Danish rule of

10296-503: Was killed, his body was wrought into the world and a sea surrounded it. The gods then gave the surviving families jötnar lands along the shore to settle, placing them in the periphery. Ymir's brows were then used to build Midgard and protect it from the jötnar due to their known aggression. Most stories in Old Norse mythology show a clear division between "This World", pertaining to that of gods and men, and "The Other", which

10400-508: Was not for Thor and Mjöllnir , jötnar would soon overrun Midgard and Asgard respectively. Nonetheless, Thor also has a positive relationship with some gýgjar , such as Gríðr and the unnamed wife of Hymir , who provide magical items and council that enable him to overcome other jötnar . The distinction between gods and jötnar is not clearly defined and they should be seen as different culturally rather than biologically, with some gods, such as Odin , Thor and Loki being

10504-535: Was obtained through a simultaneous u- and i-umlaut of /a/ . It appears in words like gøra ( gjǫra , geyra ), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną , and commonly in verbs with a velar consonant before the suffix like søkkva < *sankwijaną . OEN often preserves the original value of the vowel directly preceding runic ʀ while OWN receives ʀ-umlaut. Compare runic OEN glaʀ, haʀi, hrauʀ with OWN gler, heri (later héri ), hrøyrr/hreyrr ("glass", "hare", "pile of rocks"). U-umlaut

10608-766: Was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, Kievan Rus' , eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language , ranging from Vinland in the West to the Volga River in the East. In Kievan Rus' , it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod , probably lasting into

10712-399: Was used partitively and in compounds and kennings (e.g., Urðarbrunnr , the well of Urðr; Lokasenna , the gibing of Loki). There were several classes of nouns within each gender. The following is an example of the "strong" inflectional paradigms : Ger%C3%B0r In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda , Freyr sees Gerðr from a distance, becomes deeply lovesick at

10816-456: Was worshipped in Old Norse religion . One of the tröllkonur who dwell in the wood Járnviðr is a mother of jötnar in the forms of wolves and from whom are descended all wolves. This tröllkona has been suggested to be Angrboða , the gýgr who begat with Loki the monstrous wolf Fenrir and venomous worm Jörmungandr who become enemies of the gods. Also in Járnviðr dwells

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