Knowra Jötunn Jötunn A being in Norse mythology, often translated as a giant, associated with the jötnar and their complex relations with the gods. Jötnar can oppose, ally with, or marry into the divine families.
Norse mythology : The body of myths and legends associated with pre-Christian Scandinavia and related Germanic cultures. Jötnar are among the beings who shape its accounts of gods, worlds, and cosmic conflict.
Ymir : The primordial being in Norse myth whose body becomes the world after the gods kill him. His origin story makes a jötunn the material source of the cosmos.
Dwarf (Norse mythology) : A supernatural being in Norse mythology, often associated with underground life and skilled craftsmanship. Dwarfs and jötnar are distinct kinds of beings, despite overlapping supernatural roles.
Poetic Edda : A collection of Old Norse poems preserving mythological and heroic traditions, surviving in a medieval Icelandic manuscript. Its poems name many jötnar and preserve stories of their encounters with gods.
Ragnarök : The foretold series of conflicts and disasters culminating in the deaths of major gods and the renewal of the world. Jötnar and their descendants join the forces that fight the gods at the world's end.
Æsir : One of the principal groups of gods in Norse mythology, including Odin, Thor, and Týr. The Æsir are frequent adversaries and relatives of jötnar, though the groups are not simply opposites.
Skaði : A jötunn associated with mountains, skiing, and hunting who becomes the wife of the god Njörðr. Her marriage to a god illustrates kinship across the jötunn-divine divide.
Elf (Norse mythology) : A supernatural being in Norse tradition whose precise nature and boundaries are uncertain. The uncertain distinction between elves and jötnar cautions against treating mythic categories as fixed.
Prose Edda : A medieval Icelandic handbook of poetic language and Norse mythology written by Snorri Sturluson. It organizes myths involving jötnar while explaining the poetic references that depend on them.
Fenrir : A monstrous wolf in Norse mythology, bound by the gods and destined to kill Odin at Ragnarök. His jötunn mother links his catastrophic role to the gods' entanglements with jötnar.
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