Gods and Giant Flashcards
What is the Old Norse word for giant and what is their homeworld called?
Giants are called jotunn, related to Old English eoten deriving from a Photo-Germaninc word meaning ‘to eat’ or ‘devour’.
Their homeworld is called Jotunheim.
What is the relationship between gods and giants?
Socio-racial Fight between gods and giants.
- Already evident by the killing of the original giant Ymir, whose murder leads to the extermination of almost all giants.
- There is a racial distinction between giants and gods, despite the fact that the gods often have giant blood. (Ex: Thor, the giant killer, is 75% giant.)
- The Aesir gods construct a social distinction that is then enshrined as a racial distinction, a distancing manoeuvre degisnged to defty the close genetic relationship.
Describe the distancing manuevour the gods do to construct a social distinction between the giants?
The gods engage in “negative reciprocity”. The male gods inset on having access to giantesses, but they deny the reciprocal right to male giants. The exchange of women is unidirectional.
- The Aesir are imposing exogamy on the Vanir and giants (marring outside), but practice endogamy (marrying inside) when it comes to their own women.
Why did Snorri come up with the theory that berserker meant “bare-shirt”?
Goes back to reports of Celtic tribes that fought naked. There’s classical sources of naked/scantily dressed warriors → Snorri might’ve just been repeating this.
Berserk at the Battle of Stamford Bridge → one berserker held up the entire Anglo-Saxon army on a bridge. Snorri picked up the fact that the Vikings were nude/half dressed during this battle and applied it to all Berserkers.
Why is there a hierarchy between Aesir gods and the giants?
A few possibilities…
A few possibilities:
Giants are inherently evil and need to be contained.
The myths are critical of the way the gods exterminated the giants and then discriminated against their surviving offspring by exiling them to Jotunheim and blocking all reciprocal exchange.
-> The gods are so intolerant that it may be self-destructive, leading to the end of the world.
What is the gender hierarchy between gods and giants?
Male Aesir gods can marry or have sexual relationships with anybody they want, female Aesir gods can only marry male Aesir gods.
Male Vanir gods cannot marry Aesir goddesses, but can marry anybody else.
Male giants can only marry giantesses.
The Aesir are imposing exogamy on both the Vanir and the giants, but they practice endogamy when it comes to their own women.
These are rules in a society where women are often traded → this hierarchy systematically excludes the giants.
Basically: Women can marry on their level or up but not down (which would put women in a superior position), men can marry on their level or down but not up (which would put men in an inferior position). It’s hypergyny (“women marrying up”).
What are giants an explanation for and how does this affect the perception of them in Norse mythology?
Giants are not just a variation of the gods, they’re an adaptation for explaining how order came about and what kind of beings were there prior to the migration of PIE tribes. This could be why giants are seen as old and wise in Old Norse mythology and why Odin seeks them out. They retain knowledge and cultural information of the past that is vital for preserving the present.
Hypergamy?
Marrying up
Women can marry on their level or up, but not down bc it would put the women in a superior position.
Hypogamy?
Marrying down
Men can marry on their own level of down, but not up because it would put the man in a inferior posiror.
Hyergamy’s but gender-specific?
Hypergyny - Women marrying up
Giants are not (necessarily)….
Big
Evil
Ugly
Dumb
Asocial
Giants, are the oldest and the earth was formed from them. Odin sometimes seeks them out for their knowledge and some giants even manage to outsmart Loki.
They also have castles and communities and are no less social than the gods.
Stonehenge and giants?
- Giants play a large role in Old Norse cosmology. They are the oldest and the earth was formed from one of them.
- “Giants” may be an attempt to explain how the cultures (think of Stonehenge) originated which the invading/migrating PIE tribe encountered in Europe.
