Giants as a mythological creature exists all around the world. Here we’ll explore two types of giants – the ones in Norse mythology and the ones in Scandinavian Folklore. They differ rather drastically from each other.
In the Norse mythology, the giants were adversaries to the Gods. In Viking mythology, the world was created from the body of the giant Ymer. Although he must have been gigantic, other giants in the Norse mythology were not uncommonly large in stature. The name giant (Swedish: ”jätte”) does not refer to size either, but to their large appetite.
The giants in Norse mythology were great warriors, and both wise and cunning. Even though they were opponents to the Gods, there were friendly relationships between Gods and giants as well, even marriages such as the one between Njord and the giantess Skade.
And even if the giants are portrayed as the opposition to the Gods, it was often the Gods who went after the giants then the other way around. Tor in particular seemed to enjoy messing with them, something that survived in the Folktales, where giants are said to fear him and his hammer Mjölnir.
In the Nordic Folklore, the giants are rather different. Here, they are indeed very large, even though they can vary from a bit larger than humans to as huge as mountains. They are also different in the aspect that in the Folktales, they are often stupid and brutal.
Giants are described as an ancient remnant from when the world was young. Folktales about giants often have an explanatory aspect, usually to explain natural formations, such as large rocks on an otherwise plain field or the formations of islands. Huge rocks – that we today know were dragged there by the ice sheet during the Ice Age – were supposedly thrown by giants. If a church lay close by, it was said that the giants tried to hit the church. Otherwise, the stones could have been thrown during fights between the giants, or just as sport.
The giants, that used to occupy the Earth, has withdrawn to the mountains. The most used explanation is that they hated and feared the church bells and could not stand the sound. But other stories stated that the giants left areas where humans settled, beacuse it was their turn to inhabit the Earth.
One legend states that an old giant woman found a farmer and his family and animals on a field, and thinking that they are toys, she picks them up in her apron and shows them to her husband who tells her to put them back because:
”They are the small, clever people that shall succeed us”.
In the next post I will retell an old story about how a giant helped built Lund’s Cathedral.
Sources:
Egerkrans, Johan. ”Nordiska väsen”
Wall, Tora. ”Folktrons väsen”