Jotunn

A **jotunn** (Old Norse: ***jǫtunn*** (singular), ***jǫtnar*** (plural)) is a type of entity contrasted with gods and other figures, such as dwarves and elves, though in actuality they are not a separate species but rather a different family, related to the Aesir and Vanir through both blood and marriage, but is considered to be of a lower status. The majority of jotunns dwell in Jotunheim, one of the nine worlds of Norse cosmology.

Although jotunns are not technically a different species, or race, many of them are alarmingly grotesque in appearance than your average beings of Norse myth, some of them are exceedingly beautifully, such as Skadi, and some are giant in size. The jotunns are often at war with the Aesir and the Vanir, and sometimes depicted as the sworn enemy of the gods. For this reason, jotunns have historically been characterised negatively, being called both ***risi***, ***thurs*** (monsters) and *trolls*.

The first being in the cosmos was Ymir, a primeval giant jotunn, the first of his kind and ancestor of all beings in the cosmos. The world of Midgard was constructed out of his body by Odin and his younger brothers, Vil and Ve, All Three of whom were half-jotunn themselves, by way of Ymir's son, Buri. Ymir had thousands of offspring. The sweat of his armpits formed into many jotunns, and his legs or feet had sexual intercourse with one another, giving birth to many more jotunns. Many of these jotunns were slain by Odin and his brothers, as they viewed the many bodies writhing on Ymir's own body as chaotic and wrong. Some of the jotunns survived the killing of Ymir by sailing on the floods of his blood.

In English, the term "*jǫtunn*" has been mistakenly translated as "giant" historically.

## History

### Origins

The first being in the cosmos was Ymir, a primeval and giant jotunn, and was created in the primordial yawning gap or void of Ginnungagap, from the drops of water that formed when the ice of the world of Niflheim to the north of the void met the heat of the world of Muspelheim to the south of the void. Another being that was formed from these drops was the primeval cow Audumbla. Ymir fed and survived on the milk of Audumbla.

Ymir began to sweat out of his armpits and from these sweat drops a male jotunn and a female jotunn were formed. Then his legs or feet had coitus with one another, resulting in the birth of the six-headed jotunn. Meanwhile, Audumbla had been licking at the salty rime-stones (iceblock), and uncovered a male humanoid being called Buri. Buri is sometimes considered the first of the Aesir, a tribe or blood-line of Norse gods. He is the father of the god Borr by an unknown process. Borr and the jotunn-woman Bestla, daughter of the jotunn-man Bolthorn, had three sons: Odin, the king of the Aesir, Vili and Ve. Although Odin, Vili and Ve were Aesir and gods by way of Buri, they were all at least half-jotunns. The jotunns continued to multiply and made their home on the colossal body of Ymir, however Odin, Vili and Ve, who were the great-grandchildren of Ymir, decided that the masses of jotunns on Ymir's body was one big chaos and morally wrong, and so they killed Ymir.

### Creation of Midgard and Jotunheim

Odin, Vili and Ve, and possibly other Aesir that had been born since their birth, charged from the sky down on Ymir and slaid the giant primeval jotunn. Many of the jotunns living on Ymir's body drowned in the flood of his blood, though many also survived by building boats and sailing on the floods. Then Odin, Vili and Ve, and possibly other gods that existed at the time, decided to create a better world out of the body of the slain Ymir. They used his flesh to create the earth, his bones and teeth to make mountains and caverns, his hair to make vegetation like trees and bushes, his brain became the clouds in the sky, his skull was lifted up and became the firnament of the sky, and his blood flooding the new world became the rivers, lakes and the ocean that surrounded the world. This world is Midgard and is one of the nine worlds of Norse cosmology, and was the first to be created by people.

Odin, Vili and Ve decided that Midgard should be populated by its own species, and so they made humankind, in the form of a man and a woman. The two humans were made out of two pieces of timber or out of two fallen trees, that Odin, Vili and Ve found at a shore while walking a beach. This wood was of ash tree and elm tree, and one of the brothers gave the wood the breath of life, the second gave the movement and intelligence, and the third gave them a shape (most likely through carving), speech, hearing and sight. They also gave them clothing and the names "Ask" and "Embla". Thus Ask and Embla went on to become the progenitors of all of humanity and were given a home within the walls of Midgard.

Meanwhile, the jotunns had come to dwell on a part of Midgard, and to protect humanity and Midgard the gods took the eyelashes of Ymir and fashioned a great wall around Midgard out of them to separate the worlds of humans (Midgard) and jotunns which came to be known as "Jotunheim". The majority of Jotunheim is barren and rough, and some of the geography is extreme, with huge mountains of strange shapes. There is scracely any vegetation, though there do exist plants, though they tend to be gnarly and strange-looking.

In Jotunheim, the fortress or "gard" of a certain jotunn named Utgard-Loki came to be considered a central hub for most jotunns, and Utgard-Loki became a king of many of the jotunns, sometimes considered king of them all, even though Thrym have also been thought of in this way in the past. This fortress was called Utgard or "Utgard-Loki's home", although that name has also been mistakenly used as a synonym for "Jotunheim" historically.

The Áss Loki is of jotunn-kin by way of his father, Farbauti, but is accepted as one of the Aesir as his mother is Frigg, who is the wife of Odin, and he is the blood-brother of Odin. In the mythology, Loki's mother was instead Laufey, an Asynja (female Áss), and not the son of Frigg. Likely because of this mixed heritage, Loki often travels to Jotunheim and drinks mead with Utgard-Loki at his fortress.

## Appearances

* *Valhalla* #1: - *Cry Wolf* (technically jotunns appear, both in the form of Aesir who were born as jotunns and gods who are part-jotunn, though these conditions are not specified in the comic)
* *Valhalla* #2: - *Thor's Wedding* (Utgard-Loki's, Hymir's, Thrym's debut)