Seiðr Loom

giant

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.

Gjálp and Greip are the daughters of the giant Geirröðr and appear in Snorri's account of Thor's visit to him Skáldskaparmál 18.

Gjálp is Thor's first obstacle. As he wades the river Vimur, the water rises to his shoulders, and he sees her upstream "standing in certain ravines, one leg in each, spanning the river", causing the flood. He throws a stone at her with the words "At its source should a river be stemmed", and does not miss. Snorri does not say whether she dies.

At the hall both sisters wait under the only chair in the goat-shed. When Thor sits, they lift the chair to crush him against the rafters. He pushes back with Gríðr's staff and breaks their backs Skáldskaparmál 18. The skaldic verses Snorri quotes describe this too and praise Thor as one who "crushed those raging women" Skáldskaparmál 18.

The same two names appear in Hyndluljóð, among the nine giantesses "at the world's edge" who bore a mighty god Hyndluljóð 37-38. The coincidence is striking. Nothing in either source connects the two pairs.

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.

Then Thor saw Gjálp, daughter of Geirrödr, standing in certain ravines, one leg in each, spanning the river, and she was causing the spate.
Skáldskaparmál 18 Gjálp floods the river Vimur as Thor wades it.
Under the chair had been Geirrödr's daughters, Gjálp and Greip; and he had broken both their backs.
Skáldskaparmál 18 The sisters die trying to crush Thor against the roof.
Gjolp there bore him, Greip there bore him
Hyndluljóð 38 The same two names appear among the nine giantesses who bore a god in Hyndluljóð.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Whether the Gjolp and Greip among the nine mothers in Hyndluljóð (Hyndluljóð 37-38) are the same as Geirröðr's daughters is unknown. The god they bore is usually taken to be Heimdall, though the poem does not name him there.

Myths with Gjálp and Greip

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

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. 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. 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. Heimdall Heimdallr The watchman of the gods, born of nine mothers, who guards Bifröst from his hall Himinbjörg and will blow the Gjallarhorn when Ragnarök begins. 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.