Jotuns, or frost giants, lived in Jotunheim, (also known as Utgard) at the very bottom below the
roots of the Yggdrasil. Ymir was the first living thing recorded in Norse Mythology, and he was a Jotun. They were mainly made of brute strength, and their land, Jotunheim was made of bitterly cold dense forests, with no fertile land. Jotuns were mostly aggressive and hostile towards the gods, and were normally the antagonists of each myth they were in. Loki, the infamous god of mischief actually marries a female Jotun by the name Angrboda. Loki and Angrboda create three major creatures in Norse mythology. Fenrir being one of them who is a horrific wolf, and was tied down in the underworld by the gods because of their fear of his outbreak. Another of them being Hel, who is a giantess and goddess of Helheim, which is the home of the dead. The last creature created was the Jormungandr, also known as the “Midgard Serpent.” It is said that his swirling around in the ocean is the cause of the waves on beaches. During Ragnarok, Jotuns are the ones that swarm Asgard and kill the majority of the gods. At the end of Ragnarok, there are only two living survivors, (one of them being Baldur) and they attempt to reproduce and start a new era. |