Norse PantheonRealm
Jotunheim
The land of the frost giants and other jotnar, a harsh wilderness of mountains and forests bordering Asgard.
About Jotunheim
Giant country east of the wall
Jotunheim is where the jotnar live: Utgard, Thrymheim, the halls Thor raids in the Poetic Edda and in Snorri's Skaldskaparmal. It lies beyond Midgard's wall, often to the east, in mountains and waste. The gods marry from there and fight there. It is not a mapped kingdom. No cult addresses Jotunheim as a holy site. The poems need a hostile outside so that Thor has somewhere to drive the goats.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
Keep exploring
One myth a week, with its sources in a short email. The sign-up form is just below.