Hrímgerðr
Hrímgerðr (also Hrimgerd or Hrimgerdr; Old Norse "frost-Gerðr") is a jötunn in Norse mythology.
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
- Orchard 1997, p. 90.
- Orchard 1997, p. 74.
- Orchard 1997, p. 11.
References
- Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-34520-5.