8 - Fighting the Giantess: Þórr

Summary

1. Þórr's destruction of Giantesses

‘Ec var austr oc iǫtna barðag,

brúðir bǫlvísar, er til biargs gengo;

mikil myndi ætt iǫtna, ef allir lifði,

vætr myndi manna undir miðgarði.’

‘I was in the east and fighting giants, those girls skilled in evil,

as they went towards the rock; the tribe of giants would be

large if all of them lived – there would not be a single human

being throughout the world.’

Hárbarðsljóð 23,1–8

The myths in which the Æsir encounter Other-World females can be divided into what I shall call myths of exploitation and of confrontation. In the first group, the protagonist is usually Óðinn, and the giantesses he seduces seem to represent a natural power which gods and men need in order to defend themselves, generate ruling families or gain poetic inspiration. These are myths about exploitation of and co-operation with the Other World (see Chapters 10–11). But this chapter and the next will consider myths of confrontation, which reject the Other World, assert the defence of mankind against it, and often regard any negotiation with it as dishonourable. The god who typifies this attitude is Þórr, who is an exultant destroyer of giants and giantesses. Þrymskviða 32 is typical: Þórr, finally recovering his lost hammer, immediately uses it to strike down Þrymr's grasping giant sister, and we are clearly expected to regard her destruction as right and proper.

Hárbarðsljóð

In the quotation above, Þórr destroys giantesses to prevent the giants from multiplying to the point where they would oust human beings from the world. Similarly, in Þrymskviða 18,5–8 Loki tells Þórr that unless he dresses up as Freyja in order to get his hammer back, the giants will soon be living in Ásgarðr. In these texts, the natural fertility of giantesses will lead to disaster unless they are vigorously ‘culled’. In Hárbarðsljóð there is also a more general fear of the natural-magical powers of brúðir bǫlvísar, ‘brides/women skilled in evil’. The only other use of the adjective bǫlvís in verse (Sigrdrífumál 27,4) warns against women skilled in evil who sit near the path and blunt the swords and minds of warriors.