Angrboda

Angrboda was a Jotunn of Ironwood and one of the last Giants of Jotunheim, alongside her grandmother Gryla. A painter and keeper of animals, she was destined to reveal to Atreus his role in the prophecy of Ragnarok. She became his closest friend, the keeper of the wolf Fenrir, and a cherished ally to Kratos.

The painter of Ironwood#

Angrboda lived in the forest of Ironwood in Jotunheim, one of the last of the Jotnar remaining after Thor and Odin's slaughter of the Midgard Giants. For most of her adolescence she lived nearly alone, painting visions and portraits, foraging and preserving food, and caring for the wild animals of the realm. Like all Giants she possessed the gift of precognition, which appeared in her paintings, and she practiced the ancient magic of the Jotnar, hurling colored paints in battle. She kept a pet yak named Jalla and a fennec fox named Eisa, and tended the pack of wolves that called Ironwood home.

Her destiny, she explained, was to tell Atreus his own. She had waited all her life to meet him. Their first meeting unfolded exactly as one of her paintings had foretold, with Atreus drawing his knife on her as she introduced herself.

Revealing the prophecy#

Angrboda guided Atreus through Ironwood and brought him to her treehouse, where three draped stones held a fully rendered painting of his and Kratos' journey, including its end: the death of Kratos, Atreus' allegiance to Odin, and the coming of Ragnarok. Overwhelmed, Atreus lost control of his shapeshifting and turned into a golden wolf to attack the painting, but Angrboda calmed him. To ease his fear she began to teach him of his Jotnar heritage and powers.

She revealed to him a bag of marbles, each inscribed with a name. When the Giants first fled into Jotunheim, fearing the Aesir would follow to finish them, her father had whispered the souls of the remaining Jotnar into the marbles so they might wait in peace for their champion. Angrboda told Atreus that, beyond being the champion of the Jotnar, it was his destiny to be the keeper of their souls, and she gave him the bag.

Gryla and the parting#

As they returned, the two found a wolf caught in a trap, taken by Gryla, Angrboda's paternal grandmother. Grief had changed Gryla after the deaths of Angrboda's parents; using her magic, she trapped the animals of Jotunheim and stole their souls, believing she spared them suffering. Determined to save the wolf, Angrboda and Atreus confronted her, and in the struggle they shattered the cauldron that was the source of her magic. Devastated, Gryla disowned Angrboda and threatened to kill her if they met again.

Saddened, Angrboda returned to her treehouse and gave Atreus his mother Faye's marble, telling him her role in his story was over. Atreus assured her that her story was as big as she wished it to be and promised to see her again before clutching the marble and willing himself home.

Ragnarok and after#

Angrboda met Atreus several times more, in Muspelheim and at his old home, and he kept the secret of Ironwood's existence as he had promised. Before his return to Asgard he asked her to care for the wolf Fenrir, and she agreed. During the battle of Ragnarok she rode Fenrir through the carnage, and the great wolf opened the portal that allowed Kratos and Atreus' army to escape as Asgard fell.

After the war, Angrboda led Kratos and Atreus up a mountain to a hidden shrine that revealed how Faye had turned against her own people to protect her family, destroying the final triptych of her son's shrine so that he and his husband could forge their own path. As Atreus prepared to leave the realms to seek the remaining Giants, Angrboda gave him her own marble so that he might always find her. The two embraced and parted. Kratos, who had trusted her with his life during Ragnarok, came to trust her with his son, and grew fond enough of her that he told her plainly that he liked her, a rare thing from him. Mimir and Freya likewise counted her a cherished ally and hoped to see her again.