Jötnar Shrines

The Jötnar Shrines were wooden triptychs carved by the Jötnar to preserve the stories and prophecies of their most notable kin. Scattered across most of the Nine Realms, they served as the recorded memory and foresight of a vanishing people, and they proved central to the events surrounding Ragnarok. It was by studying these shrines that Atreus began to uncover the destinies woven around himself and his father Kratos.

Carved memory of the Giants#

The Jötnar Shrines were wooden triptychs built by the Giants, each depicting the stories and prophecies of a notable member of their kind. They were left in different places throughout most of the Nine Realms, sometimes in locations tied to the story they told, so that a shrine to the World Serpent could be found where the serpent itself rested. Through the use of giant magic, the true accounts were preserved within certain shrines kept in Jotunheim. Because the Jötnar possessed the gift of foresight, the carvings recorded not only what had been but what was yet to come.

Records of war and Ragnarok#

The shrines bore witness to the suffering of the Giants at the hands of the Aesir. Several depicted the slaughter that swept across Midgard and showed that Thor was not the only god who took part in the killing, contrary to what was widely believed. Above all, the shrines were filled with the prophecy of Ragnarok. The shrine to the seeress Groa recorded her first vision of the doom to come and her murder by Odin for it, while the great triptych to Jörmungandr traced the World Serpent from his birth in the Ironwood to the day he would poison Thor at the end of all things.

During the long winter that preceded Ragnarok, Atreus sought answers about his Jötunn heritage that his father could not give. He secretly partnered with the dwarf Sindri to reexamine the shrines, and there they learned that a God of War and a Champion would be of great importance during Ragnarok. When Kratos discovered his son's activities he reluctantly agreed to help, hoping to turn aside the very fate the carvings foretold.

The shrines of Loki and his parents#

Among the most significant were the shrines tied to the family of Loki. Loki's own shrine, carved into stone rather than wood, stood upon the Giant's Fingers and within Angrboda's treehouse in Jotunheim. Faye, Loki's mother, destroyed the last triptych of that shrine, unwilling to let her husband and son learn their destinies. A separate shrine honored Loki's parents, Laufey and Farbauti. Laufey's portion showed Faye's journey from Jotunheim to Midgard, while Farbauti's depicted Kratos traveling from a ruined Greece to the Northlands, journeying with his son to scatter Faye's ashes, and dying by Thor's hand. Yet because Kratos avoided his prophesied death by opening his heart, Angrboda painted a new prophecy over the old, showing him survive and become a beloved god worshipped by mortals as Farbauti.

Shrines to outsiders#

Not every shrine honored a Giant. Tyr, though an Aesir god, received a shrine in recognition of his great friendship and alliance with the Jötnar, and on seeing it Mimir wondered whether the Giants had made one for him as well, for Tyr and Mimir were the only gods to whom the Jötnar had gifted their special sight. Kratos too was honored with a shrine despite being a Greek god, a mark of the place he came to hold in the fate of the Norse world.