Jötunheim: realm of the giants

Jötunheim, also called Jötunheimr and Utgard, was one of the Nine Realms of the World Tree and the homeland of the ancient race of giants, the Jotnar. Sealed away by Tyr to shelter the giants from Odin's slaughter, it became at once their refuge and their tomb, and it was the final destination of Kratos and Atreus in their first journey through the Norse realms.

A realm of the giants#

Jötunheim was found and named by Bergelmir and his wife, the only Jotnar to survive Odin's slaughter of their forefather, Ymir. From then on it became the sanctuary of the giants, a home where they could grow and prosper. Its landscape rose in mountains so high their peaks pierced the clouds, and the resting bodies of the giants lay across those heights. The realm held few structures, the most notable being a great chamber built within a hand-shaped mountain, the highest peak in the Nine Realms, adorned with statues and carvings of giants, prophecies written upon its walls, and a mural depicting the story of Loki. Within Tyr's Temple, a statue of the stag Duraþrór stood guard over the entrance to the Heart of the Mountain, the gate to the giants' realm left behind after the Jotnar escaped Midgard.

The slaughter and the sealing#

Odin and the Aesir, fearing their own downfall and Asgard's at the hands of the giants come Ragnarok, set out to slaughter the Jotnar throughout the Nine Realms. On the verge of extinction, the giants retreated to Jötunheim with the aid of Tyr, who had refused to take part in the killing. Tyr removed nearly all access to the realm, leaving only two gateways, both in Midgard. One stood atop Midgard's tallest peak and required a sacred rune to open, while the other lay in the Realm Between Realms and could be restored only by flipping Tyr's Temple and using the jeweled eyes the giants had entrusted to their confidants.

With the giants gone, Jötunheim became the tomb of the Jotnar, their bodies littering the mountains as they awaited the return of their guardian. The other realms believed, wrongly, that the survivors were massing as an army there to take their revenge, a fear that gnawed at Odin, who could no longer set foot in the realm. Freya, who came to despise her former husband, took comfort in the belief that Odin would one day get his reckoning at the hands of the giants.

The final destination#

When Kratos and Atreus at last reached Jötunheim to spread Faye's ashes, their guardian was reunited with her people. It was there that Atreus, Faye's son, discovered his heritage, realizing that he and the World Serpent were the last living Jotnar in Midgard. Kratos and Atreus did not return afterward, for repeated travel risked alerting Odin that Mimir's eyes were the key to reaching the realm.

Ironwood#

In the later age of his journey, the realm returned, now reachable through a mystic gateway modified by Brok and Sindri. One region, Ironwood, proved a vast and lush land of stone trees, rivers, and abundant wildlife, far warmer and brighter than the realm's earlier face. There the giantess Angrboda had raised wards to keep the wildlife at bay and remain hidden from Asgard. When Atreus fell asleep, he found himself in Jötunheim, where Angrboda showed him a copy of the mural carved in the Giant's Fingers, revealing the prophesied events to come. She entrusted him with the souls of the surviving giants, sealed in spirit stones to escape Odin's wrath, and together they placed one into the carcass of a dead serpent, beginning the rebirth of Jörmungandr. They also broke the magic cauldron of Angrboda's grandmother, Grýla, to stop her stealing the souls of animals.

Nature of the realm#

Time in Jötunheim ran far ahead of the other realms, so that beings capable of aging did so much faster there. When Atreus returned to Midgard after what felt to him a brief visit, Kratos revealed that he had been gone for exactly two days, an effect like that of the Light of Alfheim. In the aftermath of Ragnarok, Kratos, Freya, and Mimir were able to visit the realm and admire its beauty, finding Angrboda there, though little remained to explore beyond her treehouse, where the wolf Fenrir slept.