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530 GIANTS.
b
a>
iotunn/ Sa3m. 35 ; Fenja and Menja are framvisar (Grottas. 1,
13). When the verb ]?reya, usually meaning exspectare, desiderare,
is employed as characteristic of giants (Sasm.
a
8S ),
it
seems to imply a dreamy brooding, a half-drunken complacency
and immobility (see Suppl.).
Such a being, when at rest, is good-humoured and unhandy, 1
but when provoked, gets wild, spiteful and violent. Norse legend
names this rage of giants iotunmodr, which pits itself in defiance
against asmoSr, the rage of the gods : vera i iotunmoSi/ Sn.
150 b . When their wrath is kindled, the giants hurl rocks, rub
stones till they catch fire (Roth. 1048), squeeze water out of
stones (Kinderm. no. 20. Asbiornsen s Moe, no. 6), root up
trees (Kinderm. no. 90), twist fir-trees together like willows (no.
166), and stamp on the ground till their leg is buried up to the
knee (Roth. 9-13. Yilk. saga, cap. 60) : in this plight they are
chained up by the heroes in whose service they are to be, and
only let loose against the enemy in war, e.g.
Witolt or Witolf
(Roth. 760. Yilk. saga, cap. 50). One Norse giant, whose story
we know but imperfectly, was named Beli (the bellower) ; him
struck dead with his fist for want of his sword, and thence
Freyr
bore the name of bani Belja/ Sn. 41. 74.
Their relation to gods and men is by turns friendly and hostile.
Idtunheimr lies far from Asaheimr, yet visits are paid on both
sides. It is in this connexion that they sometimes leave on us
the impression of older nature-gods, who had to give way to a
younger and superior race ; it is only natural therefore, that in
certain giants, like Ecke and Fasolt, we should recognise a pre
cipitate of deity.
At other times a rebellious spirit breaks forth,
they make war upon the gods, like the heaven- scaling Titans,
and the gods hurl them down like devils into hell. Yet there
are some gods married to giantesses : NiorSr to SkaSi the
daughter of Thiassi, Th6rr to larnsaxa, Freyr to the beautiful
Ger3r, daughter of Gymir. GunnloS a giantess is OSin s be
loved. The asin Gefiun bears sons to a giant; Borr weds the
giant Botyorn s daughter Bestla. Loki, who lives among the
ases, is son to a giant Farbauti, and a giantess AngrboSa is his
Tw LF^nT 6
kua
kuabe/p 518n
?;^ 110011011111118 ; MHG
ungevilege, applied to giants, Nib. 45G, 1.
^geviiege knabe, Er. 5552; knabe, as in der rnichel