Jotnar: the giants Odin nearly wiped out

The Jotnar, commonly called the Giants, were the most ancient race of the Norse cosmos, emerging from Ginnungagap and native to Jotunheim, Muspelheim, and Niflheim. Long at war with the Aesir, they were a gifted and largely peaceful people whose power of precognition earned them the eternal hatred of Odin. Hunted nearly to extinction by Odin and Thor, they locked their souls away in the hope of a future return.

Origins and the first kingdom#

The Jotnar were the most ancient race in the cosmos, and the progenitor of all of them was Ymir, the largest Giant there ever was. Ymir brought forth more of his kind from his own body, and they in turn had offspring, marking the beginning of the race. Yet the Aesir, also of Ymir's making, desired control over all creation, and Odin together with his brothers Vili and Ve slew the primordial Giant. Ymir's bleeding fluids drowned nearly all of his descendants, and the only survivors were the Giant Bergelmir and his wife Nal.

Bergelmir and Nal searched for a land where their people could be safe, and found it in Jotunheim. As king and queen they reproduced greatly and ensured that the Jotnar alone would rule their new home. Bergelmir never sought revenge against the Aesir, desiring only that his people prosper, and for this the first king of the Giants was remembered ever after as Bergelmir the Beloved.

A civilized and gifted people#

Despite their name, not all of the Jotnar were large, and many were no bigger than mortals, while others took the shapes of animals. They were an intelligent and civilized race who practised architecture, masonry, art, trade, and prophecy, and counted famous warriors and hunters among them. They spoke their own native tongue, the Ancient Tongue, said to be so old it predated the mountains.

Most notable of all their gifts was precognition, the power to see visions of the future. This allowed the Jotnar to foresee the twilight of the gods, a secret they guarded closely. They also possessed the innate ability to shapeshift, which at times passed to those who carried their blood, and they were gifted magicians whose mastery was as great as that of the Vanir. Many Giants visited and lived in Midgard, where they once kept a marketplace and traded with many races.

The varieties of Giants#

The Jotnar took several forms. The Frost Giants were the most numerous line, descended from Bergelmir and Nal. The Stone Giants were built from other stones and born without a head or a heart, the only known one being Hrungnir. The Fire Giants were all born in the burning realm of Muspelheim, beginning and ending with Surtr, the first being born after Ymir, who was said to have created the sun and stars with his primordial flames. There were also Animal Giants, such as Hraesvelgr, who was naturally a great raven, the wolf-giant Garm, and the colossal World Serpent Jormungandr, a Giant whose soul was placed inside a snake.

Odin's hunt#

The Jotnar were a mostly peaceful race who kept clear of the war between the Aesir and the Vanir, lacking even an organised army. Yet their gift of foresight made them a target, for Odin both feared their knowledge of Ragnarok and coveted the precognition he himself did not possess. To this end he commissioned the creation of Mjolnir, the weapon that would become the bane of Giant-kind.

After the Giants helped Tyr build his temple, they invited Odin to Jotunheim in the hope of peace. Instead, Odin used the visit to memorise the events shown on their tapestries and triptychs, until a watchful Giant noticed and sounded the alarm. Odin transformed into a hawk and fled. The Giants spared Tyr, knowing his heart was noble, but made him swear to sunder his temple's connection to Jotunheim, and announced that they would recall every Giant in Midgard so they might live in solitude. Enraged at being driven off before he could steal more, Odin ordered Thor to carry out a genocide of the Jotnar still in Midgard. With Tyr's help many escaped home, and Tyr then severed the road by destroying the original travel crystal and hiding the corresponding tower, leaving the gate atop Midgard's highest mountain the only way left into the realm.

The locked souls#

Fearing that Odin would in time find a way into their home, the Jotnar made a final choice. The magic of Angrboda's father was used, before his death, to lock their souls into magical marbles inscribed with their names. These marbles were hidden all across the Nine Realms by the last living Frost Giants, and corpses were left throughout the mountains of Jotunheim to confuse Odin. Only someone with knowledge of the old magic could transfer a soul back into a body. Not all the Giants made this choice, for some fled to the corners of Jotunheim and others vanished, never to be seen again.

Angrboda, her grandmother Gryla, and Sinmara are counted among the last living Giants of pure blood, while Laufey, who stayed behind in Midgard, and Jormungandr were the last Giants in the Middle Realm. Atreus, himself half Giant through his mother, took up the task of finding and freeing the locked souls, so that the Jotnar might once again return to the realms.