Seiðr Loom

giant

Geirröðr

A crafty giant who traps Loki and makes him lure Thor to his hall without hammer or belt. Thor, armed with gear borrowed from the giantess Gríðr, breaks his daughters' backs and kills him with a red-hot iron bar.

Geirröðr is the giant at the centre of one of Thor's hardest journeys, told by Snorri in Skáldskaparmál (see Thor in the hall of Geirröðr). Snorri follows it with long extracts from Þórsdrápa, a difficult skaldic poem of about the year 1000 by Eilífr Goðrúnarson Skáldskaparmál 18.

The trap

Loki, flying for fun in Frigg's hawk-feathers, lands at Geirröðr's hall and is caught. Geirröðr sees from his eyes that the bird is a person, shuts him in a chest and starves him for three months. To save his life Loki swears to bring Thor to Geirröðr's house without his hammer or his girdle of might Skáldskaparmál 18.

The journey

On the way, Thor stays the night with the giantess Gríðr. She warns him that Geirröðr is "a crafty giant and ill to deal with" and lends him her own girdle, iron gloves and staff (Gríðarvölr) Skáldskaparmál 18. At the river Vimur the water rises to Thor's shoulders, because Geirröðr's daughter Gjálp stands astride it upstream making the flood. Thor stops her with a stone and climbs out by a rowan bush.

In the hall

Thor is shown to a single chair in the goat-shed, and it rises under him towards the roof. He pushes back with Gríðr's staff and breaks the backs of Geirröðr's daughters Gjálp and Greip, who were lifting it. Then Geirröðr invites him to games in a hall lined with fires and throws a glowing iron bar at him. Thor catches it in the iron gloves and throws it back, through the pillar the giant hides behind, through Geirröðr, through the wall and into the earth Skáldskaparmál 18.

Under the chair had been Geirrödr's daughters, Gjálp and Greip; and he had broken both their backs.Skáldskaparmál 18

Thor's kennings include "Smiter … of Geirrödr" Skáldskaparmál 4, so the story was well known to the skalds.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

At that time he had not the hammer Mjöllnir with him, nor his Girdle of Might, nor the iron gauntlets: and that was the fault of Loki
Skáldskaparmál 18 Snorri introduces the story by saying that Thor went unarmed, thanks to Loki.
Geirrödr took up a glowing bar of iron with the tongs and cast it at Thor
Skáldskaparmál 18 The giant's last trick: a game of catch with molten iron.
it passed through the pillar and through Geirrödr and through the wall, and so on out, even into the earth
Skáldskaparmál 18 Thor throws the bar back and kills him.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Do not confuse him with King Geirröth of Grímnismál, a human king who tortures Odin and dies on his own sword (Grímnismál, prose 3); the two share only a name.
  • The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus tells of a visit to a giant Geruthus whose daughters have broken backs and whose hall has a pierced pillar, which seems to be a version of the same tale.

Myths with Geirröðr

Thor in the hall of Geirröðr To save his own life Loki promises to bring Thor, unarmed, to the giant Geirröðr. A friendly giantess lends Thor a belt, gloves and staff; he survives a flooding river, a rising chair and a red-hot iron bar, and kills Geirröðr and his daughters.

Related

Thor Þórr The thunder god, strongest of the Æsir: son of Odin and Earth, husband of Sif, and with his hammer Mjöllnir the gods' defender against the giants, until he dies killing the World Serpent. Loki The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök. Gjálp and Greip Gjálp ok Greip Geirröðr's two daughters: Gjálp swells a river to drown Thor, and both are crushed when they try to push him into the roof on a rising chair. Gríðr A giantess, mother of Odin's son Víðarr, who helped Thor on his way to the giant Geirröðr by lending him a girdle of might, iron gloves and her staff. Gríðarvölr The staff the giantess Gríðr lends Thor for his journey to Geirröðr: he braces against it in the flooding river Vimur and uses it to break the backs of Geirröðr's daughters. Megingjörð and Járngreipr Megingjörð Thor's belt of strength, which doubles his power when he buckles it on, and the iron gloves he needs to wield his hammer. Þjálfi and Röskva Þjálfi ok Röskva A farmer's son and daughter whom Thor takes as servants after Þjálfi cracks a goat's bone. Þjálfi, swiftest of men, goes with Thor against Útgarða-Loki, Hrungnir and Geirröðr. The giants (jötnar) jötnar The giants of Norse myth: the oldest race in the world, descended from Ymir, wise and often wealthy, enemies of the gods yet their kin, their wives and their mothers.