12 - The Helpful Giantess

Summary

‘Behold thy mother!’

John 19,27

Chapters 8 to 11 focused on the giantess who is destroyed or exploited by the male protagonist. This chapter will consider the helpful giantess who actively helps the protagonist, and some of the meanings which may have been traditionally attached to her.

1. The pseudo-mother

In the oldest myths, the friendly giantess often treats the protagonist (usually a Þórr-figure) as if he were her son, although she is literally the mother of his half-brother or foster-brother. The relationship between Þórr and Gríðr appears in the oldest version of the Geirrøðr myth (Eilífr Goðrúnarson's Þórsdrápa), and must have been traditional by the late tenth century (see Chapters 8 and 10).

Gríðr is the mother of Þórr's half-brother Viðarr. As both she and Þórr's actual mother Jõrð are giantess-concubines of Óðinn, she must be assumed to be motivated by a continuing love for Óðinn. Her most important service to Þórr is to lend him her pole, which he uses to save himself from being washed away (Þórsdrápa 4–11), possibly to destroy Gjálp and Greip (14), and in his fight with the surviving giants after Geirrøðr has been destroyed (20). It functions both as a symbol of the protagonist's virility and as a weapon, though in Þórsdrápa the first role seems more prominent. In Skáldskaparmál ch. 18 Gríðr also gives Þórr a belt of strength and a pair of iron gloves. The latter were probably traditional; they are also a gift from the giantess in Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar, and the game of throwing a red-hot ball which motivates them can also be found in Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns.

The implication of Gríðr's relationship with Þórr seems to be that the protagonist needs to be given confidence; this is regarded as a female function, and specifically that of a mother, connected with nature and hence with giantesses. He needs it partly to face his male enemies, but mainly to deal with threats to his virility from alien women. Even today, feminists often ask why many women bring up their sons to behave chauvinistically towards other women.