Without the giants there would be no Norse world – in the most literal sense. Out of a giant it arose, against the giants the gods fight, and with the giants they are kin and wedded. The Jötnar are the primal forces of the North: chaos and nature, older than the gods themselves.
„Giant“ is not a single word in Old Norse. The most important names are Jötunn (plural Jötnar, often interpreted as „devourer, glutton“), Thurs (þurs, rather „the mighty one, the raging one“) and Troll (later „fiend, sorcerous being“). To these are added the frost giants (Hrímþursar) out of the ice, and the mountain giants. These beings are not simply „big“ – they are the wild, the untamed, that which was before all order.
The first giant is Ymir, born of the rime of the primal chasm Ginnungagap. Out of his slain body the gods shaped the world: from the flesh the earth, from the blood the sea, from the bones the mountains, from the skull the sky. So the giants are not only opponents of order – they are its raw material. From Ymir’s line stem all later giants; the frost giants nearly all drowned in his blood, only Bergelmir escaped and became the forefather of the new giant races.
The relationship of gods and giants is no simple front line. Yes, Thor slays giants wherever he meets them; the giants constantly threaten Asgard and would seize the sun, the moon and the goddess Freyja. But at the same time the gods themselves are half giants: Odin’s mother Bestla is a giant’s daughter, Thor’s mother Jörd (the earth) likewise. Many gods take giantesses to wife – Freyr the beautiful Gerd, Njörd the giantess Skadi. And Loki, who lives in the midst of the Æsir, is a giant by birth.
The North knows countless giants. Some of the most important:
Ymir – the primal giant from whom the world was made. Thjazi – the eagle giant who carries off Idun and is father of Skadi. Thrym – the giant who steals Thor’s hammer (the comic bridal journey of the Þrymskviða). Hymir – at whose place Thor obtains the great brewing cauldron and experiences the fishing trip against the Midgard Serpent. Suttung and his daughter Gunnlöd – guardians of the mead of poetry. Utgard-Loki – the master of illusion who shames Thor with sensory deceptions. Surtur – the fire giant who burns the world. And the giantess Angrboda, with Loki mother of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel.
Ymir & the creation of the world · Surtur · Skadi · The dwarves · Jötunheim & the nine worlds · Ragnarök.
Poetic Edda: Völuspá, Vafthrúdnismál, Þrymskviða, Hymiskvida, Skírnismál. Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda (Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál), c. 1220. English public domain: Henry Adams Bellows (1923). Scholarship: Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology; John Lindow, Norse Mythology (2001); Gro Steinsland on god–giantess marriages.