Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

When the original giants had to abandon the fields populated by Bor's sons
(Völuspá 4), they received an abode corresponding as nearly as possible to their first
home, and, as it seems, identical with it, excepting that Niflheim now, instead of being a
part of chaos, is an integral part of the cosmic universe, and the extreme north of its
Hades. As a Hades-realm it is also called Niflhel.
In the subterranean land with which Skirnir threatens Gerd, and which he paints
for her in appalling colours, he mentions three kinds of beings - (1) frost-giants, the
ancient race of giants; (2) demons; (3) giants of the later race.
The frost-giants together occupy one abode, which, judging from its epithet, hall
(höll), is the largest and most important there; while those members of the younger giant
clan who are there, dwell in single scattered abodes, called gards. 4 Gerd is also to have a
separate abode there (Skírnismál 28).
Two frost-giants are mentioned by name, which shows that they are
representatives of their clan. One is named Hrimgrimnir (Hrímgrímnir - 35), the other
Rimnir (Hrímnir - 28).
Grimnir is one of Odin's many surnames (Grímnismál 47, and several other
places; cp. Egilsson's Lex. Poet.). Hrimgrimnir means the same as if Odin had said Hrim-
Odin, for Odin's many epithets could without hesitation be used by the poets in
paraphrases, even when these referred to a giant. But the name Odin was too sacred for
such a purpose. 5 The above epithet places Hrimgrimnir in the same relation to the frostgiants
as Odin-Grimnir sustains to the Aesir: it characterizes him as the race-chief and
clan-head of the former, and in this respect gives him the same place as Thrudgelmir
occupies in Vafþrúðnismál. 6 But they have other points of resemblance. Thrudgelmir is
"strange-headed" in Vafþrúðnismál; Hrimgrimnir is "three-headed" in Skírnismál (31; cp.
with 35). Thus we have in one poem a "strange-headed" Thrudgelmir as progenitor of the
frost-giants; in the other poem a "three-headed" Hrimgrimnir as progenitor of the same
frost-giants. The "strange-headed" giant of the former poem, which is a somewhat
indefinite or obscure phrase, thus finds in "three-headed" of the latter poem its further
definition. To this is to be added a power which is possessed both by Thrudgelmir and by
Hrimgrimnir, and also a weakness for which both Thrudgelmir and Hrimgrimnir are
blamed. Thrudgelmir's father begat children without possessing gýgjar gaman 7
(Vafþrúðnismál 32). That Thrudgelmir inherited this power from his strange origin and
handed it down to the clan of frost-giants, and that he also inherited the inability to
provide for the perpetuation of the race in any other way, is evident from Alvíssmál 2 (see
below). If we make a careful examination, we find that Skirnirsmál presupposes this
same positive and negative quality in Hrimgrimnir, and consequently Thrudgelmir and
Hrimgrimnir must be identical.
4 Compare the phrase jötna görðum í (30:3) with til hrímþursa hallar (30:4).
5 Upon the whole the skalds seem piously to have abstained from using that name in paraphrases, even
when the latter referred to celebrated princes and heroes. Glum Geirason [Gráfeldardrápa] is the first
known exception to the rule. He calls a king málm-Óðinn. (This is Rydberg's footnote, but was included in f
the text of Anderson's translation; as was the following footnote. I have followed Rydberg and removed
them from the text in order to keep the ideas expressed above more concise.
6 Ymir cannot be regarded as the special clan-chief of the frost-giants, since he is also the progenitor of
other classes of beings. See Vafþrúðnismál 33, and Völuspá 9; cp. Gylfaginning 14.
7 "the pleasure of a giantess."