Jotnar: The Giants of Norse Mythology - (Norse Mythology Explained)

[Music] there are many different entities that appear in Norse and Germanic folklore and today we'll be discussing the owner what many consider to be the race of giants and although that may be correct for some Yona not every yotan is a giant the word yotan or yacht nur if are referring to more than just one came from the old norse third or third sir which came from a proto-germanic word meaning to consume or to devour now as for the assumption that every yotan is a giant that story is quite long and spans across numerous cultures so I'll try and summarize it as best I can the word that we use today in English to refer to a giant comes from the French Azure which became part of the English language in the year 1066 BCE when William the Conqueror took control of England the French word Jian refers to the Giants of Greek mythology and we know they didn't have the best relationship with their deities so as it possible there was a comparison drawn between the Giants of Greek mythology and the Yoda of Norse mythology based on the fact that some of them were giant in size and hated their respected deities well yeah it's entirely possible that that may have caused some confusion so if you are someone who genuinely gets upset about the yotan are being referred to as Giants then you can blame the ancient Greeks the French the British the Marvel Universe and the new God of War a lot of people to be angrier so if the Ahtna aren't the same as Giants but they aren't quite gods then what exactly are they what makes a yotan a yotan that in itself is a difficult question to answer simply the first being to exist after the creation of the universe was the giant Amir the father of giants who also happens to be a yotan so the Yona are technically the first race of Norse mythology the first God to appear was bawdy the grandfather of Odin now during this period the owner and the gods lived in harmony and the race is married and had children together bori had a son named board who then married bestia a yotan so Odin and his two brothers are in fact part yotan and the exact percentage we don't really know because the circumstances surrounding the birth of board are very ambiguous but if we assume that Bor was 100% God then Odin and his siblings are at the very least 50% yotan this is important because Odin had many children from many different mothers and that would make all of them party Odin if we take a look at the most famous example Thor his mother was a yotan woman which of course would make Thor 75% or three-quarters yotan which is quite ironic for reasons we'll discuss a bit later the point I'm trying to make here is that Thor and Odin are perhaps the most famous gods that come from Norse mythology and Odin is only half God while Thor is actually more yotan than God so when did this conflicts between God and yotan begin as tensions grew between the two races it would be the actions of Odin and his two brothers Vili and they that would change the dynamic of the cosmos forever the three brothers would then slay Amir and from his body much of the cosmos and the Norse world was created this is why we rarely distinguish between God and yotan and even between the gods themselves the three brothers were considered the first of the ICA tribe despite all those that came before them in a way that was quite similar to what we see with the Olympians who were granted their title because they rebelled against their ancestors with the nine worlds and much of the north cosmos now formed the split between God and Yona began those who followed Odin and his brothers would then make Asgard their new home the odhner who disagreed of Odin would then make their home in Jotunheim a vast unforgiving and inhospitable land where winter never ceases this description of a harsh icy wasteland could definitely be another reason why some believed all yet no to be frost giants in reality the Ahtna are quite a versatile race some of them are indeed giant in size but some of them can also alter the way they look Loki being the most famous example transforming into several different animals and objects they can also be described as extremely ugly or like the giant s scardy they can be described as extremely beautiful so if they don't always resemble Giants and they have similar supernatural abilities to the Norse deities then how do we really distinguish between them appearance is evidently quite misleading because at first glance you'd assume Odin Thor and Loki to be just gods but technically you'd be wrong about all three one of the main beliefs in the differences between them was that the yoader were never worshiped in the same way that the eye sear and the veneer were this may have been true for certain periods in time but we know that scardy was worshipped by the Vikings and even today has become part of some neo-pagan istic circles so the owner not being worshipped wasn't and isn't always the case the simplest way to distinguish between the two is in the way they behave and what they represent it's fairly common for the yoader to be shown as chaotic and destructive forces but what they really represent is the period of chaos before creation if we go back to the first ever being created Ahmir he was born when the fires of Muspelheim met the ice of nifflheim in the chaos that led to it maybe in slain we then have the creation of the cosmos from his decaying body we also have Ragnarok which symbolizes the eternal struggle between God and yotan the owner wanting to sink the world into chaos to create a new one and the gods wanted to contain them and prevent this from ever happening with Ragnarok in this final chaotic a battle the world is not destroyed it's essentially reborn this can be interpreted as the owner finally avenging the Fallen Emir or it can be seen as the cycle that began with the death of Amir finally coming to an end only for a new one to begin this unruly nature is why Jotunheim is also at times referred to as aught guard which roughly means beyond the fence those inside the fence are considered law-abiding individuals and those outside are chaotic and untamed which is why at times you may see the preface of odd guard before a yo teens name this is also why the gods built a wall around Asgard to stop the owner and other enemies invading now not every yotan is seen as a destructive force but that is what most represent and personify so let's begin with the most famous yotan who also happens to be the biggest enemy of the owner everybody's favorite angry hammer wielding jinn German Thor as we mentioned earlier Thor was 75% or three-quarters yotan but that certainly didn't mean he felt any compassion whatsoever towards his kin Thor was one of the primary protectors of asgard and midgard wherever the yote Noah cause in trouble Thor was there to put it into it one of my favorite stories is when the Thor's hammer was stolen after asking around loki discovered that the hammer was in fact stolen by Thrym the king of Jotunheim who had only trade the hammer if he was given the goddess Freyja as a bride as the main defender as Gaunt thorns have immune a course and a serious concern after a long discussion Heimdall offered the idea of Thor dressing up as Freya in order to trick the yotan King Thor reluctantly accepted this plan and along with Loki dressed as he's Maiden they then traveled to Jotunheim eventually after some persuasion from Loki the King accepted his new bride and presented her with the stolen hammer Thor of course pounced this opportunity taken me on air and killing every yotan in sight another interesting story involves the giant known as guy rod one day loki had transformed himself into a falcon and flew over guy rods castle but the giant noticing that this was no ordinary bird captured loki he then locked him in a cage you have no food until he revealed himself he then made a deal to let loki go if he also bring thor to his castle without his hammer when loki returned he told thor of the giants eagerness to meet him he also told him that he had two extremely beautiful daughters thor unable to resist left his hammer behind and followed loki to the castle before reaching the castle they decided to rest in the home of the giant s breather who warned thor of the giant he was about to meet and given him a magical staff and a belt in the process thor and loki set off the next morning but when they came to the river vemma one of guy rods daughters tried to drown thor but by using the staff given to him thor and loki were able to escape and chase the Giants s off by throwing rocks at her when they did finally arrive at the castle thor was taken into a room with a chair which he fell asleep in weary from his travelling the sisters then lifted this chair and tried to push it up against the ceiling to squash Thor but Thor would push up against the ceiling and put all of his weight down onto the chair breaking the backs of both the sisters and crushing them he then confronted guy rod after all he was a guest and his hosts had done nothing but tried to kill him the giant had no interest in thoughts concerns and instead threw a lump of molten iron in his direction Thor however caught this lump of iron and threw it back in the direction that it came from the ball of iron then hit guy rods square in the head and killed him immediately Thor also killed crow near the fiercest yotan of all it's quite obvious a thorny owner didn't see eye to eye and there are many stories of conflict between them sometimes they outsmart Thor and other times they just die normally the result of a hammer or some kind of objects being thrown at them a name I've mentioned a few times in this video is the yotan or the giant s known as scar d she's often described as a beautiful Huntress and her relationship to the gods is fairly neutral if not rather friendly another yotan we can't really forget about is Loki now you can describe Loki as a destructive yotan but I think his tricks alike mentality makes him more of a disruptive nuisance than a force of destruction similar to Loki you have scrummy r the master of illusion also known as aught guard Loki a good example of a destructive yotan is cert or su tear the fire giant of Muspelheim his only real purpose is to ensure that the world burns during Ragnarok so that a new one can be reborn and in this task he is successful there is something poetic about the world being created from a giant of ice to then only be destroyed by a giant of fire if you do have any questions or you'd just like to share your thoughts then please do so in the comments below as always I've been your host mythology in fiction explained [Music]

Channel: Mythology & Fiction Explained

Views: 722,273

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Keywords: Jotnar, Jotnar - The Giants of Norse Mythology, jotun, norse mythology, mythology and fiction explained, Norse Mythology Explained, ice giants, giants norse mythlogy, giants god of war, joton god of war, who are the jotnar?, thor, odin, loki, skadi, Ymir

Id: lCeZr7UZF5k

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2019