Reference Title: Jötnar (God of War)

Videogame: God of War

Developer: Santa Monica Studio

Tags: Tribe Incomplete entry

Description:

The Jötnar (singular jötunn) are a group or tribe of supernatural beings in Norse mythology attested in the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. In God of War and its sequel, God of War: Ragnarök, the jötnar, or "giants" as they are more commonly called in the games, share many similarities with their namesake in the medieval sources. God of War's adaptation of the jötnar is arguably one of the "best" ones I have found in games (and more generally in popular culture), not only maintaining some of their most prominent features as a group and including (either in game or in reference) many named jötnar from the Eddas, but also building on the ambiguities and nuances present in the medieval sources in new and interesting ways.

Chief among these is the conflation of their recurring mistranslation as "giants" with the broader European folkloric giants, as well as their mythological function being compared by early scholars of comparative religions with the Greek Titans. These two features have led to the enduring conception of the jötnar as giants both in name and in nature, while in reality their size is mostly not mentioned in the medieval sources, except in a few cases where a "giant" is also large in stature. They seem to vary by shape and size quite widely, thus making it impossible to generalize. 

God of War (2018) mentions this in dialogue between Atreus and Kratos, as the pair are making their way through the inner system of the tallest mountain in Midgard. It is revealed that, before Dwarves took up residence in the mountain, it was originally carved out and inhabited by jötnar, leading Kratos to remark that the passageways seem too small for giants. Atreus chuckles at his father's misunderstanding, explaining that "Giants are just a race, like Elves and Huldrafolk. It doesn't mean they're big." Kratos counters by asking about the World Serpent (Jormungandr, the Miðgarðsormr), to which Atreus concedes, "Ok, in that case giant also means big." This exchange embodies the nuanced approach to Old Norse mythology as it appears in the sources that Santa Monica Studio took with these games. It is further evidenced by the varying sizes and shapes of jötnar that appear to the player in both Norse God of War games. At the ending of the first game, however, this point about the jötnar is somewhat undercut by the enormous, mountain-sized bodies of dead jötnar littering the landscape of Jotunheim.

Another major detail which is changed in the games is the role of Ymir, the first being in the cosmos and the progenitor of the jötnar. In the Poetic Edda (Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál, and Grímnismál), Ymir is formed from the rime dripping into Ginnungagap where the ice from Niflheimr met the sparks and heat flung out of Múspellsheimr. His armpits couple to give birth to a male and a female (of ambiguous nature, but assumedly jötnar), and his legs give birth to a six-headed being. The Prose Edda, specifically Gylfaginning, adds the detail that the rime also formed a primordial cow, Auðumbla, from whose milk Ymir nourished himself. This cow licks a block of salt and her licking shaped another being, named Búri. Búri's son, Bórr (whose mother is not given), marries the jötunn woman Bestla and they have three sons, Óðinn, Vili, and Vé, who then slay Ymir and construct the world from his body. Alongside other details, God of War replicates this collected myth of Ymir, excepting they remove the shaping role of Auðumbla. The game's version of Mimir, a source of endless wisdom and information about the worlds (like his medieval counterpart), tells that all living beings, including the Æsir (and thus, Odin) originated from Ymir's flesh. This was perhaps changed to bring the myth more in line with the game's presentation of Norse mythology, where the Æsir are cruel tyrants who seize power across the nine realms, as well as to create another instance of the series's theme of patricide (or parricide more generally).

Æsir vs. jötnar; precognition/cosmogonic lore, secret wisdom; Odin's knowledge-seeking;