Sinmara: Surtr's Frost Giant Wife in God of War Ragnarök

Sinmara is a frost giant from Niflheim and the wife of Surtr, the first fire giant, in God of War Ragnarök. The prophecy of Ragnarök said the two of them would merge into one monstrous giant to destroy Asgard, and that it would kill them both. She never appears on screen, but her frozen heart is the key to how Ragnarök finally happens. (God of War Ragnarök)

Who is Sinmara in God of War Ragnarök?#

Sinmara is one of the oldest beings in the Norse cosmos, a Jötunn counted among the Primordials, who existed before the Nine Realms were made. She and Surtr didn't start well. They were hostile when they first met, until other enemies came for them both. They won that fight together, fell in love and married. (God of War Ragnarök)

Then they learned what the prophecy had planned for them. At Ragnarök they would combine into one huge giant, carry a great sword to Asgard and plunge it into its heart, and the act would destroy them both. Surtr couldn't accept Sinmara dying with him. So he parted from her, and before they separated they exchanged hearts, so that each would always carry a piece of the other. Sinmara went back to Niflheim and Surtr stayed in Muspelheim with her frozen heart in his chest. (God of War Ragnarök)

The pairing is fire and ice. Surtr is the first fire giant, born from Ginnungagap soon after Ymir, and Sinmara belongs to frozen Niflheim on the other side of the void. (God of War Ragnarök)

How Sinmara's heart made Ragnarök#

Sinmara's heart is why Surtr wouldn't help at first. When Kratos and Atreus reached his forge to ask him to become Ragnarök, he turned them away. Odin deserved to die, he agreed, but he would not let Sinmara be sacrificed to make it happen. He had spent eons forging swords in the hope of destroying Asgard on his own, and none of them had been strong enough. (God of War Ragnarök)

What changed his mind was the Blades of Chaos. Surtr sensed primordial fire in them and saw a way to change without her. At the Spark of the World he poured his own fire into the blades, then told Kratos to stab them into Sinmara's frozen heart, still beating inside his chest. The blow started his transformation, and Ragnarök rose without Sinmara ever being part of it. (God of War Ragnarök)

Surtr insisted on one more thing. Sinmara was to be kept out of it, and when Atreus asked whether they should tell her what he was doing, Surtr refused. (God of War Ragnarök)

Does Sinmara appear in the game?#

No, not in person. Her story comes out in two ways. The first is Surtr's shrine in Muspelheim, which Atreus and Angrboda find together. The carvings show the fire giant and the frost giant falling in love, and Angrboda uses them to explain where Ragnarök comes from. The second is Surtr himself, who talks about her when Kratos and Atreus come to his forge. (God of War Ragnarök)

After Ragnarök burns Asgard down, Sinmara is the one left behind. When Kratos returns to Niflheim with Mimir and Freya, her grieving can be heard somewhere in the mist. Mimir suggests finding her to tell her what happened to Surtr. Kratos says she already knows. (God of War Ragnarök)

Tyr hears her too, after Kratos frees him from the Asgardian prison in Niflheim. When the group meets him again at the Spark of the World in Muspelheim, he asks them to leave her alone with her grief, and they agree. (God of War Ragnarök)

Sinmara in Norse myth vs the game#

The real Sinmara comes from Fjölsvinnsmál, an eddic poem that survives in later manuscripts and is usually printed alongside the Poetic Edda. In it the hero Svipdagr questions the giant watchman Fjölsviðr about a guarded hall, and Sinmara comes up as the keeper of the weapon Lævateinn. The poem says Lopt, a name for Loki, made it, and that Sinmara keeps it in a chest held by nine locks. (Fjölsvinnsmál)

The poem also sets up a riddle with no way out. Lævateinn is the only thing that can kill the bright rooster Víðófnir, but Sinmara will only hand the weapon over to someone who brings her a shining feather from that same rooster's tail. (Fjölsvinnsmál)

Her link to Surtr is thin in the myth. It rests on one line about Víðófnir troubling "Both Surt and Sinmora", as Bellows prints it, which is an editor's emendation rather than what the manuscripts actually say. Henry Adams Bellows, in his 1923 translation, calls her "presumably Surt's wife", and that guess is where the marriage comes from. (Fjölsvinnsmál)

God of War takes that guess and builds a whole love story on it. The game drops Lævateinn and the rooster riddle, makes Sinmara a frost giant of Niflheim, and gives the couple the swapped hearts and the shared prophecy. The myth never says what kind of giant she is. (God of War Ragnarök; Fjölsvinnsmál)