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giant

Þjazi

A giant who, in the shape of an eagle, forced Loki to lure Iðunn and her apples out of Asgard. The gods burned his wings at their walls and killed him; his eyes became stars.

Þjazi is the giant behind the theft of Iðunn (see The theft of Iðunn and her apples). Snorri tells the story through the mouth of Bragi Skáldskaparmál 1, and quotes long stretches of an older poem on it, Þjóðólfr of Hvinir's Haustlöng Skáldskaparmál 22.

Odin, Loki and Hœnir are travelling and try to cook an ox, but it will not cook. An eagle in the oak above admits that he is stopping it, and asks for his share. When he takes the best parts, Loki strikes him with a pole; the pole sticks to the eagle and Loki's hands stick to the pole, and the eagle drags him over rocks and trees until he swears to bring Iðunn and her apples out of Asgard. Loki lures her into a wood, and "Thjazi the giant came there in his eagle's plumage and took Idunn and flew away with her" to his home, Þrymheimr Skáldskaparmál 1.

The gods start to grow old and force Loki to fetch her back. He flies to Jötunheim in Freyja's hawk-shape, turns Iðunn into a nut and carries her off while Þjazi is at sea. Þjazi follows as an eagle. The gods light piles of wood-shavings below their wall, his feathers catch fire, and they kill him "within the Gate of the Æsir, and that slaying is exceeding famous" Skáldskaparmál 1. Loki boasts in Lokasenna that he was "first and last at the deadly fight" Lokasenna 50.

His daughter Skaði came to avenge him and was compensated with a husband; Odin threw Þjazi's eyes into the sky as two stars Skáldskaparmál 1. In Hárbarðsljóð Thor claims both the killing and the stars as his own deeds Hárbarðsljóð 19. Snorri says Þjazi's father Ölvaldi (Alvaldi in the poem) was rich in gold, and his sons shared it out by mouthfuls, which is why gold is called the "speech" of giants Skáldskaparmál 1. Hyndluljóð makes him kin to Gerðr's family Hyndluljóð 32.

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 Thjazi the giant came there in his eagle's plumage and took Idunn and flew away with her, off into Thrymheimr to his abode.
Skáldskaparmál 1 The abduction of Iðunn.
the feathers of the eagle caught fire, and straightway his flight ceased. Then the Æsir were near at hand and slew Thjazi the giant within the Gate of the Æsir
Skáldskaparmál 1 His death at the walls of Asgard.
Thjazi I felled, the giant fierce, And I hurled the eyes of Alvaldi's son To the heavens hot above
Hárbarðsljóð 19 Thor's version: he killed Þjazi and made his eyes into stars.
The sixth is Thrymheim, where Thjazi dwelt, The giant of marvelous might
Grímnismál 11 His home, later held by his daughter Skaði.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

Þjazi's eagle chase is one of the most often illustrated Norse scenes, from 19th-century book plates to modern picture-book retellings of Iðunn's story.

Myths with Þjazi

Loki's flyting at Ægir's feast Thrown out of the sea-giant Ægir's feast for killing a servant, Loki walks back in and insults every god and goddess in turn, until Thor comes home and threatens him with the hammer. Skaði chooses a husband Þjazi's daughter Skaði comes armed to Asgard for vengeance and accepts a settlement instead: a husband chosen by his feet, and a laugh. She picks Njörðr, hoping for Baldr, and the marriage of mountain and sea does not last. The theft of Iðunn and her apples Caught by a giant in eagle's shape, Loki buys his freedom by luring Iðunn and her apples out of Asgard. The gods grow old, and Loki must steal her back as a falcon, with Þjazi beating after him.

Related

Iðunn The goddess who keeps the apples that keep the gods young. When the giant Þjazi carried her off, the gods began to age, and Loki had to steal her back. Iðunn's apples epli Iðunnar The fruit Iðunn keeps in an ash-wood box, which the gods eat when they grow old to become young again. When Þjazi stole Iðunn, the gods aged. 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. Skaði A giantess who came to Asgard armed to avenge her father Þjazi, accepted a husband instead, and went back to the mountains to hunt on skis when the marriage to Njörðr failed. Þrymheimr The mountain home of the giant Þjazi, and later of his daughter Skaði, who returned there to ski and hunt after leaving Njörðr. Odin Óðinn Chief of the Æsir: a one-eyed god of wisdom, poetry, magic, war and the dead, who gave an eye and hanged himself on a tree for knowledge, and who dies at Ragnarök. Hœnir A shadowy god, Odin's travelling companion, who gave sense to the first humans, went to the Vanir as a hostage after their war, and survives Ragnarök to take up the prophetic wand.