Jotunheim is the cold, mountainous wilderness where the jotnar make their home, the gods' oldest adversaries and, through marriage, sometimes their kin.
At a glance
- Old Norse
- Jotunheimr
- Meaning
- "Home of the giants"
- Type
- Mountainous wilderness realm
- Inhabitants
- The jotnar (giants)
- Notable jotnar
- Ymir, Thrym, Utgarda-Loki, Skadi, Angrboda
- Connects
- Midgard, Asgard, Muspelheim
- Notable rivers
- The Elivagar
- Sources
- Poetic Edda, Prose Edda
Jotunheim is a cold, mountainous wilderness where the jotnar make their home, the gods' oldest adversaries and, through marriage, sometimes their kin. It lies within reach of both Midgard and Asgard, a hard country of rock, forest, and storm on the far side of every border the Aesir try to hold.
A wilderness beyond the wall
Where Asgard is fortress and hall, Jotunheim is open, harsh, and largely unshaped. The sources describe it as forested and mountainous, cut by dangerous rivers such as the Elivagar, and lacking the ordered halls the gods built for themselves. It is nonetheless a full realm with named strongholds, chief among them the hall of the giant-king Utgarda-Loki, deep within a maze of illusion.
The jotnar, the gods' oldest kin and rivals
The jotnar are not simply monsters. The very first being in the cosmos, the primordial giant Ymir, was a jotunn, and the Aesir gods themselves descend in part from giant stock, since Odin's own father Bor married the giantess Bestla. What follows in myth after myth is less a war of extermination than an uneasy, constantly renegotiated boundary between two related but rival peoples.
| Jotunn | Role in the myths |
|---|---|
| Ymir | The primordial giant, killed by Odin and his brothers to build the nine worlds |
| Thrym | Steals Thor's hammer Mjolnir and demands Freyja as ransom |
| Utgarda-Loki | Giant-king who tricks Thor and his companions with illusions in his hall |
| Skadi | Giantess who marries into Asgard after her father's death |
| Angrboda | Giantess who bears Loki three monstrous children in Jotunheim |
Gods who cross the border
Thor travels to Jotunheim more than any other god, journeying to Utgarda-Loki's hall where he is humbled by illusions disguised as ordinary contests, and later to Thrym's hall to win back his stolen hammer, dressed as a bride to do it. Odin also crosses into Jotunheim in disguise, matching wits with the giant Vafthrudnir in a contest of knowledge and winning mead from the giant Suttung through cunning and theft.
Marriage across the border
Despite the hostility, the line between Asgard and Jotunheim is repeatedly crossed by marriage. Skadi, daughter of the slain giant Thjazi, is given a place among the gods and briefly marries Njord. Angrboda, a giantess of Jotunheim, becomes Loki's lover and bears him three children who will each play a role at Ragnarok - the wolf Fenrir, the serpent that rings Midgard, and Hel, ruler of the dead.