INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

This week we’re staying in Scandinavia for the terrifying Jotunn of Norse mythology - these are specifically Norse, so at least there is some variation from last week’s culture!

DESCRIPTION:

Probably one of the best well known Norse monsters are the Jotunn, or Jotnar as it’s official plural. They are the legendary Frost giants who terrorise the Norse gods up in Asgard, the home of the Norse gods - including Odin, Thor and all your favourites from Marvel and history alike. There are going to be mentions of the nine different realms of Norse myth within this episode, so I’ll talk about these a bit later so you know what I’m talking about if you’re not clued up on these!

Jotunn are described as either unbelievably hideous, or outrageously beautiful beings, who are descended from one of the oldest beings noted in Norse mythology, Ymir - who I’ll go into later - it’s a big story, and no he’s not a hero so I’m not going against my own ‘no hero story’ policy here. The ugly versions have claws, fangs, and deformed features but are incredibly strong. Some of them may even have many heads, some of them having up to nine - however, don’t think because of their size and features that they’re dumb, they have knowledge lost to the other races from the bygone era before the Norse gods, making them one of the most dangerous enemies to them.

The Jotun lived in the realm of Jotunheim, where it was permanently freezing cold, consisting mostly of rocks, wilderness, and dense forests, and it lies in the snowy regions on the outermost shores of the ocean. The giants live mostly from the fish from the rivers, and the animals from the forest, as there is no fertile land in Jotunheim. Jotunheim is separated from Asgard by the river Iving, which never freezes over. Utgard is the stronghold of the Jotnar, and could be called the giants’ version of Asgard, and it is so tall that it is hard to see the top of it. The fortress is carved from blocks of snow and glistening icicles, the Jotunn king Utgard-Loki lives inside, overruling all Jotnar.

There are three different types of Jotunn, the Frost Jötunn being the most famous. They’re called Hrimthursar, and are the most ancient of the Jotnar, who were created when the world was, making them also one of the oldest races. Then there are the Fire Jotunn, known as the Eldthursar. The Fire Jötnar are most famous for being super into Ragnarok, the Norse version of the apocalypse and believe in the fiery destruction of the cosmos. They actually lived separately from the Frost Jotunn, in the realm of Muspelheim. Lastly, there are the Beast Jotunn, these are monsters from Norse myth, even though they usually have very divine lineage, they often resemble animals of some kind. A few good examples of these are Fenrir, Jormungandr and Skoll and Hati, who will all have their own little episodes in the podcast I’m sure.

They’re said to be giants, however there isn’t really any evidence to say that they were any bigger than the gods of Asgard, the humans of Midgard, or the elves in Alfheim. The only reference to this would be in more modern depictions of them, and older paintings.

They’re sometimes linked to the nice classic monster of a troll, which are also Germanic mythos descended - however, they weren’t all terrible. There were so many different well known Jotnar within Norse myth, that we can certainly see that there was definitely a more malevolent bunch in comparison to the others. There were actually a few of them who married into the godly races of the Vanir and the Aesir - who lived in Asgard and Vanaheim respectively and ruled over the Norse myth world. We’ll talk about the famous Jotnar a bit later!

ORIGIN:

Okay pals, let's get onto some etymology this week. The word Jotunn translates to very literally ‘giant’ - yep, so you know I was saying earlier that nothing actually tells us that they are any bigger than humans, this is literally the only thing that kind of throws about the giant myth - so enjoy that fact. Another fun fact though is that the rumour of Jotunn made it across the Northern Sea to the Anglo-Saxon England, who had then created their own version of the Jotunn in the Ettin. They were actually giants who often wielded massive clubs, and had at least two heads. If you’ve played World of Warcraft at any point, you’ll be shuddering at the thought of them like I am, they are always very hard to take down. 

Now I did promise that before we went too far, I would explain the nine realms of Norse myth. This is one of my favourite parts of Norse mythology - so they all stem from the World Tree, Yggdrasil, which gives life to all the separate worlds. 

Then we have the realm of the gods, Asgard - where all our Norse Pantheon or the Aesir, live out their lives in luxury and peace. Then we have the realm of the Vanir in Vanaheim, who are the Norse equivalent of the Greek Titans, really old magical god-like beings - the gods Freyr, Njord and Freya moved to Asgard from here. Then there are the darker and oldest realms, one of these realms being Niflheim, home of the dark elves, a cold and misty place. Then there is Muspelheim, the land of fire - filled with lava, fire giants and ruled by the giant Surtr who has an important role in Ragnarok. 

Then we have the three realms of races, Jotunnheim, which we’ve discussed - home of the Jotunn. Then there is Alfheim, a lush wooded realm of the light elves and Svartalfheim, the home of the dwarves, covered in mountains and mostly constructed of mines and tunnels.

Lastly, the two mortal based realms - Midgard, the home of humans, literally where we are meant to live, so I guess it’s Earth. Then the realm of the dishonourable dead, Helheim, where the goddess of death, Hel, reigns over and makes sure that no-one there feels happiness again.

This is all very interesting Erin, I hear you say, but you’ve just given me a whole load of names and stuff - how is this relevant to Jotnar, our MONSTER?

I’ll tell you why - I don’t just tell you things for the sake of it you know! All of these realms, bar the oldest two - were formed because of the first Jotunn, his name was Ymir. You might have heard of this legendary figure within Norse myth - let me tell you this great story.

Ymir was born when the fires of Muspelheim and the ice of Nilfheim met in the world's abyss known as the Ginnungagap, and was really the first ever being in the world. He was a massive being, a hermaphrodite and gained all his strength from suckling at a mystical cow. Anyway, the Jotunn literally formed within Ymir’s armpit, as beads of sweat and the first ever god, Buri, sprang from a salt lick that the mystical cow was licking. Buri mated with one of the giants and they went on to have all of the Aesir gods, including Odin, king of the gods and his brothers Vili and Ve. They killed Ymir, and from that formed the other realms, I’ve actually got a great extract from Edda here - 

From Ymir’s flesh the earth was created,

And from his blood, the sea,

Mountains from bone,

Trees from hair,

And from his skull the sky.

And from his eyebrows the blithe gods made

Midgard, home of the sons of men

And from his brains

They sculpted the grim clouds.

The Jotnar were pretty miffed at this, as the Aesir didn’t want them around - and they sailed down the river of blood to their home at Jotunheim, where they were enemies of Asgard ever since.

However, as I said earlier, there were exceptions to this as there were a few Jotunn that coupled up with Aesir or were introduced to the Pantheon. The most famous being Loki, the trickster god, who was very literally a Jotunn, he also went on to father a lot of the bestiary Jotunn that I mentioned earlier with one of his wives who was also a giantess, Angrboda, including Fenrir, the mighty wolf and Jorgumander, the world serpent. 

There was also Aegir, who was the Norse god of the sea - he was exceptionally cruel to humans, but the gods all loved him as he threw banging parties. He also had a Jotunn wife called Ran, and they had nine daughters - who were terrorised by Nixie’s from last week’s episode! 

The last two are Thrym and Hyrrokkin. If you watch my quick myths on Mondays on TikTok or Instagram, you might remember me talking about Thrym - he really wanted to marry Freyr, the goddess of beauty and so stole Thor’s hammer Mjonir. Thor disguised himself as Freyr and killed Thrym to retrieve it. Hyrrokkin was an awesome giantess, who had a huge horse which could also transform into a wolf. She would often use reigns made of poisonous snakes to control her horse when it was in wolf form. She was so strong that once she visited Asgard to help pull Balder, the god of light’s ship out of the sea, as no god was strong enough — not even Thor.

Lastly, we should talk about their role in Ragnarok, when the giants of Jotunheim and the forces of Hel shall launch an attack on the gods. The Jotunn do have a massive part in this as they are the main race who start the attack on Asgard. However, the fire giants and their ruler, Surtr, were literally created to wreak the final destruction of the world by setting fire to the world tree at the end of Ragnarök. The fire giants rode on horses and burned Midgard, killing all the people, some of the gods, and all the fire giants.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

For art this week, I’d say have a look at independent stuff this week if you’re curious, I can’t seem to find many that are linked to older artists I’m afraid! 

For movies, of course we have to talk about the Marvel universe and the Thor movies. All three Thor films and a couple of the Avengers movies do feature Loki, and it is no secret that he is a frost giant from Jotunnheim - his story was that he was adopted by Odin, which is nice. In mythology, Loki has a much bigger part in Ragnarok than he does in the Thor movie though. There’s also the 2017 horror film, The Ritual, where the main antagonist is a Jotunn, and a child of Loki actually!

For TV, Jotunn are in The Librarians, Ragnarok, and obviously Loki, however, they’re only mentioned a little in this. They’re also a massive inspiration for the Titans in the anime and manga Attack on Titan - which is my sister’s favourite.

For video games, they’re in a load including, God of War, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, SMITE, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Fire Emblem, Brawlhalla, Wow, Roki, Northgard and  Guild Wars 2.

My book recommendation for this week would be The Ritual by Adam Nevill - which is the book the movie is based on. It’s a real spooky one, but worth it if you’re into that! Or for more fact based bits, have a look at Amy Hughes’ Norse Mythology - it’s a really good book filled with loads of stories from Norse myth.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? I’m going to say probably not for this one. However, I’m not sure what it is about Norse myth for me, but I think it’s a little too far-fetched for me sometimes, and I struggle to really imagine monsters like the Jotunn in modern context. I think it’s the whole multi-world concept that the Norse myths have that I get a bit mixed into, I’m not sure. 

However, we can certainly see concepts of giants in other mythologies, such as the Ettin from Old English myth or the Cyclops in Greek myth - they’re certainly not an uncommon type of monster, considering also one of the most famous fairy tales features a giant as the main antagonist who just really doesn’t want a small child stealing his things, and then climbing away down a beanstalk.

OUTRO: 

I hope you all enjoyed that, they're really cool monsters and as they’re so well known, it was so fun to research them. Luckily I have a bunch of Scandinavian pals who helped me with the pronunciations this week, so thank you to everyone who assisted with this one! Sorry for the information dump too, but it’s all in good context and I don’t like to make references to things that people might not know, so I’d much rather go over them briefly then have people get confused and have to google all the things I talk about - which is what this podcast is supposed to do for you anyway!

Next week we’re heading back over to the UK, and we’re looking at the horrifying folklore tale of Bloody Mary - based on one of our own queens but now used as a scary dare game. Don’t say her name three times in front of the mirror before next Thursday!

For now thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk.

So come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.