Hrímgerðr

Hrímgerðr (also Hrimgerd or Hrimgerdr; Old Norse "frost-Gerðr") is a jötunn in Norse mythology.

Name

The Old Norse name Hrímgerðr has been translated as 'frost-Gerðr'.[1]

Attestation

In Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, Hrímgerðr announces herself as the daughter of the jötunn Hati.[2]

My name is Hrimgerd, my father’s name Hati, whom I knew as the most mighty of giants, many a bride he had snatched from their homes, till Helgi hewed him down.

Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, 17, transl. A. Orchard, 1997.

After the hero Helgi Hundingsbane kills her father, Hrímgerðr harasses him, and Atli Idmundsson engages her in a contest of flyting until she turns into stone in the sunrise.[3]

[Hrimgerd said:]
‘You would neigh, if you weren’t a gelding:
Hrimgerd tosses her tail;
I think your heart is in your arse, Atli,
though you have a stallion’s voice.’

[Atli said:]
‘You’d soon leam what a stallion I was
in strength, if I stepped on shore:
you’d take a great pasting, if I so wished,
and lower your tail, Hrimgerd.’

Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, transl. A. Orchard, 1997.

Notes

  1. Orchard 1997, p. 90.
  2. Orchard 1997, p. 74.
  3. Orchard 1997, p. 11.

References

  • Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-34520-5.


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