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GIANTS, 531
wife. The gods associate with Oegir the iotunn, and by him
are bidden to a banquet. Giants again sue for asms, as Thrymr
for Freyja, while Thiassi carries off ISunn. Hrungnir asks for
Freyja or Sif, Sn. 107. Starka^Sr is henchman to Norse kings;
in Bother s army fight the giants Asperian (Asbiorn, Osbern) and
Witolt. Among the &ses the great foe of giants is Thorr, who
l
his hammer
like Jupiter inflicts on them his thunder-wounds ;
has crushed the heads of : many were it not for Thorr, says a
2
Scandinavian proverb, the giants would get the upper hand ; he
and it is not all
vanquished Hrungnir, Etymir, Thrymr, Geirro^r,
the legends by any means that are set down in the Bdda (see
Suppl.). St. Oiaf too keeps up a hot pursuit of the giant race ;
in this business heathen and Christian heroes are at one. In our
Fasolt succumb to Dietrich s human
heroic legend Sigenot, Ecke,
strength, yet other giants are companions of Dietrich, notably
Wittich and Heime, as Asperian was Rother s. The kings
Niblunc and Schilbunc had twelve strong giants for friends
(Nib. 95), i.e. for vassals, as the Norse kings
often had twelve
berserks. But, like the primal woods and monstrous beasts of
the olden time, the giants do get gradually extirpated off the
face of the earth, and with all heroes giant-fighting alternates
with dragon-fighting. 3
King Frofti had two captive giant-maidens Fenja and Menja as
mill-maids ; the grist they had to grind him out of the quern
Grotti was gold and peace, and he allowed them no longer time
for sleep or rest than while the gowk (cuckoo) held his peace or
they sang a song. We have a startling proof of the former pre
valence of this myth in Germany also, and I find it in the bare
proper names. Managold, Manigold frequently
occurs as a man s
name, and is to be explained from mani, ON. men = monile;
more rarely we find Fanigold, Fenegold, from fani, ON. fen =
palus, meaning the gold that lies hidden in the fen. One Trad,
patav. of the first half of the twelfth cent. (MB. 28b
, pp. 90-1)
1 The skeleton of a giantess struck by lightning, hung up in a sacristy, see Widegren
s Ostergotland 4, 527.
2 Swed. vore ej thordon (Thor-din, thunder) till, lade troll verlden ode.
3 In British legend too (seldomer in Carolingian) the heroes are indefatigable
giant-quellers. If the nursery-tale of Jack the giantkiller did not appear to be of
Welsh origin, that hero s deeds might remind us of Thor s; he is equipped with
a cap of darkness, shoes of swiftness, and a sword that cuts through anything, as
the god is with the resistless hammer.