Hyrrokkin (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

: ) is a female

jötunn A (also jotun; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; ; plural / ) or, in Old English, (plural ) is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, they are often contrasted with gods ( Æsir and Vani ...

in Norse mythology. According to 13th-century poet Snorri Sturluson, she launched the largest of all ships at Baldr's funeral after the

Æsir The Æsir (Old Norse: ) are the gods of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. They include Odin, Frigg, Höðr, Thor, and Baldr. The second Norse pantheon is the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two pantheons wage war against each other, ...

gods were unable to budge the vessel. Hyrrokkin was a relatively important figure in the last decades of paganism in Iceland. She appears to be depicted o
one of the DR 284 stone
from the Hunnestad Monument near Marsvinsholm, Sweden.

Name

The Old Norse name Hyrrokkin has been translated as 'fire-withered' or 'fire-steamer'. According to linguist Jan de Vries, it is

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...

formed with the root ''hyr-'' ('fire') attached to ''hrokkinn'' ('curly; wrinkle'). Scholar

John Lindow John Frederick Lindow (born July 23, 1946) is an American philologist who is Professor Emeritus of Old Norse and Folklore at University of California, Berkeley. He is a well known authority on Old Norse religion and literature. Biography John Lin ...

has proposed the translation 'fire-smoked', perhaps referring to a dark, shrivelled appearance.

Attestations

''Prose Edda''

It is told in Snorri Sturluson's ''

Gylfaginning ''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; c. 20,000 words; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'' after the Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' deals with t ...

'' that at Baldr's funeral his wife Nanna died of grief and was placed alongside him on his

pyre A pyre ( grc, πυρά; ''pyrá'', from , ''pyr'', "fire"), also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the ...

, thus joining her husband in Hel.

Hringhorni In Norse mythology, ''Hringhorni'' (Old Norse "ship with a circle on the stem"Simek (2007:159).) is the name of the ship of the god Baldr, described as the "greatest of all ships". Mythology According to ''Gylfaginning'', following the murder ...

, Baldr's ship, was the largest of all such vessels and was to serve as the god's funeral ship. No one, however, could seem to launch the boat out to sea. The

gods A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

then enlisted the help of Hyrrokkin, who came from

Jötunheimr The terms Jötunheimr (in Old Norse orthography: Jǫtunheimr ; often anglicised as Jotunheim) or Jötunheimar refer to either a land or multiple lands in Nordic mythology inhabited by the jötnar. are typically, but not exclusively, presente ...

, arriving on a giant wolf with vipers as reins. When she dismounted, Odin summoned four

berserkers In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...

to look after the animal but they were unable to control it without first rendering it unconscious. With her seismic strength, the giantess rolled the boat into the water. This caused the earth to quake and the rollers to set on fire, which angered

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...

. He was about to kill Hyrrokkin with his hammer Mjöllnir, but the other gods insisted that he spare her.
She is also mentioned in a

list A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...

of troll women by an anonymous skald: :Gjölp, Hyrrokkin, :Hengikepta, :Gneip ok Gnepja, :Geysa, Hála, :Hörn ok Hrúga, :Harðgreip, Forað, :Hryðja, Hveðra :ok Hölgabrúð

Skaldic poetry

The late 10th-century skald

Þorbjörn dísarskáld Þorbjörn dísarskáld is a late-10th century Icelandic skald (poet). Only one and a half stanzas of his poetry have been preserved in ''Skáldskaparmál'' (The Language of Poetry). Name ''Dísarskáld'' means "poet of the dísir", which impli ...

, in two preserved fragments addressed directly to

, mentions Hyrrokkin among the jötnar killed by the thunder-god at Baldur's funeral: The poem ''

Húsdrápa ''Húsdrápa'' (Old Norse: 'House-Lay') is a skaldic poem partially preserved in the Prose Edda where disjoint stanzas of it are quoted. It is attributed to the skald Úlfr Uggason. The poem describes mythological scenes carved on kitchen panels. ...

'' (House-Lay), composed by Úlfr Uggason around 985 AD in western

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

and partially preserved in the

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...

, also appears to refer to Hyrrokkin at Baldr's funeral: :"The very powerful Hild of the mountains iantessref>Hild or

Hildr In Norse mythology, Hildr (Old Norse "battle"Orchard (1997:192).) is a valkyrie. Hildr is attested in the ''Prose Edda'' as Högni's daughter and Hedin's wife in the ''Hjaðningavíg''. She had the power to revive the dead in battlefields and ...

in this context is simply a

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...

for "giantess" generally and Hyrrokkin specifically. caused the sea-Sleipnir hipto lumber forward, but the wielders of the helmet flames arriorsof Hropt dinfelled her mount."

In popular culture

Hyrokkin is featured in the 2020 video game, ''

Assassin's Creed Valhalla ''Assassin's Creed Valhalla'' is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the successor to 2018's ''Assassin's Cre ...

'', during the missions taking place in Jötunheimr. The missions being merely vision interpretations of the fictional precursor race, the Isu's history, an equivalence is made to Juno, who was mentioned in ''

Assassin's Creed II ''Assassin's Creed II'' is a 2009 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montréal and published by Ubisoft. It is the second major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the sequel to 2007's '' Assassin's Creed''. The g ...

'' but made her first appearance in '' Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood''.

References

* * * *

External links

{{Norse mythology Gýgjar

Name

Attestations

''Prose Edda''

Skaldic poetry

In popular culture

See also

References

References

External links