Hyrrokkin (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ) is a female

jötunn A (also jotun; plural ; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; or, in Old English, , plural ) is a type of being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, are often contrasted with gods (the Æsir and Vanir) and with other no ...

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

. According to 13th-century poet

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

, she launched the largest of all ships at

Baldr Baldr (Old Norse also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, he is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was known in ...

's funeral after the

Æsir Æsir (Old Norse; singular: ) or ēse (Old English; singular: ) are deities, gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and Nordic mythology, mythology, the precise meaning of the term "" is debated, as it can refer either to the gods i ...

gods were unable to budge the vessel. Hyrrokkin was a relatively important figure in the last decades of

paganism Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

in Iceland. She appears to be depicted on one of the DR 284 stones from the

Hunnestad Monument The Hunnestad Monument (), listed as DR 282 through 286 in the Rundata catalog, was once located at Hunnestad at Marsvinsholm Castle, Marsvinsholm north-west of Ystad, Sweden. It was the largest and most famous of the Viking Age monuments in Scan ...

near Marsvinsholm,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Name

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

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

's ''

Gylfaginning ''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first main part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'', after the initial Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' takes the form of ...

'' that at

's funeral his wife

Nanna Nanna may refer to: *Grandmother Mythology * Sin (mythology), god of the moon in Sumerian mythology, also called Nanna * Nanna (Norse deity), goddess associated with the god Baldr in Norse mythology People * Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir (born ...

died of grief and was placed alongside him on his

pyre A pyre (; ), 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 pyre, which is then set on fire. In discussi ...

, 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 considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

then enlisted the help of Hyrrokkin, who came from

Jötunheimr The terms Jötunheimr (in Old Norse orthography: Jǫtunheimr ; often Old Norse orthography#Anglicized spelling, anglicised as Jotunheim) or Jötunheimar refer to either a land or multiple lands respectively in Nordic mythology inhabited by the j ...

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

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

summoned four

berserkers In the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers () were Scandinavian warriors who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English adjective '' berserk'' . Berserkers are attested to in num ...

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 ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

. 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 a Set (mathematics), set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of t ...

of troll women by an anonymous

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

: Gjölp, Hyrrokkin, Hengikepta, Gneip ok Gnepja, Geysa, Hála, Hörn ok Hrúga, Harðgreip, Forað, Hryðja, Hveðra ok Hölgabrúðr.

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 implie ...

, in two preserved fragments of the ''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'Poetic Diction' or 'The Language of Poetry'; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda'', compiled by Snorri Sturluson. It consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bra ...

'' (4) 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 Úlfr Uggason (Modern Icelandic: ) was an Icelandic skald who lived in the last part of the tenth century. The ''Laxdæla saga'' tells how he composed his ''Húsdrápa'' for a wedding. Geirmundr married Þuríðr, whose father, Óláfr pái ("p ...

around 985 AD in western

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and partially preserved in the

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

, also appears to refer to Hyrrokkin at Baldr's funeral: "The very powerful Hild of the mountains iantesscaused the sea-Sleipnir

hip In vertebrate anatomy, the hip, or coxaLatin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) (: ''coxae'') in medical terminology, refers to either an anatomical region or a joint on t ...

to lumber forward, but the wielders of the helmet flames arriorsof Hropt

din DIN or Din or din may refer to: People and language * Din (name), people with the name * Dīn, an Arabic word with three general senses: judgment, custom, and religion from which the name originates * Dinka language (ISO 639 code: din), spoken ...

felled 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 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 Creed Odyss ...

'', 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 Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods * ''Juno'' (film), the 2007 film Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, a character in the book ''Juno of ...

, who was mentioned in ''

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

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

References

Footnotes

Works cited

* * * *

External links

{{Norse mythology Gýgjar