Hrimthurse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hrimthursen (Icelandic: Hrímþursar) are the frost, frost or ice giants of Germanic mythology . Her progenitor is Wafthrudnir , a son of Ymir . Other stories name Thrudgelmir (þrudgelmir) as the ancestor of the frost giants, which arose from the rubbing of Ymir's feet together. His son is Bergelmir . Thrudgelmir is an ugly, glacier-like creature with six heads.

Etymology Hrimthurse

In Old Norse and Icelandic, hrím means "ripe" in German. In order to avoid confusion with the term "ripe", the term is semantically lightened by the related nouns "frost" or "ice". This is why the terms frost, frost and ice whale / ice giant exist in German .

The noun Thurse is related to Icelandic þurs , Middle English thurse, thursse, thyrce, thurs, thirs , old English þyrs (“giant, demon, magician”). It is based on proto-Germanic * þurisaz, * þursaz, * þursiz (“giant, name of the þ rune”), from the proto-Indo-European root * tur-, * twer- (“rotate, turn, whirl, move”). The semantics of the term refer to the elementary forces.

Genesis of the frost giants

When the gods meet with the giants to deliberate, a dispute ensues. Odin and his brothers Vili and Vé kill Ymir and chop him into pieces. In his endless stream of blood drown all of Ymir's descendants except Bergelmir and his wife. He swims through the bloody waves and pulls his wife by her hair until he manages to crawl ashore at a giant mill, where both survive stretched out and gasping for air and thus save the sex of the frost giants and reproduce.

Appearance, character, environment

The giants that arose from the rubbing of Ymir's feet together are of robust strength and demonic in nature. The growth is oversized, but of human shape. The frost giantesses have a supernaturally beautiful countenance, which is why many of them marry the sir. The male giants, on the other hand, are often extremely ugly. Similar to the titans in Greek mythology, they represent the elemental forces of nature. They are personifications of dead, raw matter and creatures of chaos, which is why they live outside the world of humans and gods. The frost giants live in a part of Utgard , namely in Jötun (n) heim, the giant world. As beings who lived before the birth of the gods, they have an unfathomably deep primal wisdom, but are like children without understanding and for this reason are good-natured and easy to bewitched. But they can also show their physical strength through cruel and violent acts. The frost giants are mortal enemies of the gods and, in contrast to the simple Thursen, are almost always at odds with them . With Thor in particular, they usually fight for their lives. Odin, on the other hand, sometimes visits her and asks for advice. Well-known Hrimthursen are Hymir (the father of Tyr ) and Gymir from Jötunheim (the father of Gerda , the wife of Freyr ). Often the giants are deceived by the gods through a trick. Many of them die at Mjöllnir , the hammer of Thor .

The walls of Asgard

A Hrimthurse not mentioned by name is said to be the builder of the walls of Asgard . For the completion of the building work he asked Freya to be his wife and the sun and moon as a gift from the sir . But these, cunning and inclined to deceive, set the condition that the building should be completed in six months. When it seemed that the giant could do this, Loki , in the form of a mare , kidnapped Svadilfari , the giant's horse, who helped him with his work. This connection resulted in the eight-legged stallion Sleipnir , whom Loki gave to Odin as a gift. As a result of Loki's ruse, the work was not completed on time, and the sir refused the giant builder the promised wages. Angry about this trick of the gods, he revealed himself as Hrimthurse and was immediately killed by Thor with his hammer (Mjöllnir).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brian Branston: Gudar och Hjältar i Nordisk Mytologi.Bokförlaget Legenda AB, Stockholm 1985, p. 20, ISBN 915820047-9
  2. ↑ http://www.heinrich-tischner.de/22-sp/2wo/wort/idg/german/thurs.htm
  3. ^ Brian Branston: Gudar och Hjältar i Nordisk Mytologi.Bokförlaget Legenda AB, Stockholm 1985, p. 20, ISBN 915820047-9
  4. ^ Paul Herrmann: Nordische Mythologie.Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 4th edition 2002, p. 99
  5. ^ Paul Herrmann: Nordische Mythologie.Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 4th edition 2002, p. 100
  6. ↑ Herbert Gottschalk. Lexicon of Mythology. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1993, pp. 397-398, ISBN 3-453-06530-1
  7. ↑ Herbert Gottschalk. Lexicon of Mythology. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1993, pp. 397-398, ISBN 3-453-06530-1