Jotunheimar
Homes of the giants in Norse cosmology, identified with northern Finnmark in the Hervarar Saga.
Jotunheimar, the homes of the jötnar or giants, is a place name occurring frequently in Norse tradition (Hervarar Saga ok Heiðreks, Stories And Ballads > Part Ii > Saga Of HervöR And Heithrek). The Hervarar Saga identifies Jotunheimar specifically with the northern part of Finnmark, noting that "in the days of old the northern part of Finnmark was called Jötunheimar," with a country called Ymisland lying to the south between it and Halogaland (Hervarar Saga ok Heiðreks, Stories And Ballads > part likewise seems to be a story of the Viking Age. Towards the end, > The Saga Of HervöR And Heithrek).
The Hervarar Saga provides two distinct framings of Jotunheimar. One passage treats the name as a general cosmological term — the dwelling-place of giants, familiar from across the Norse literary tradition. The other passage anchors Jotunheimar in concrete geography, equating it with northern Finnmark and placing it in relation to known regions like Halogaland. This tension between the mythic and the geographic is characteristic of the saga's euhemerizing tendency, where cosmological names are mapped onto real Scandinavian landscapes.
Appears in: Places, Entities in Hervarar Saga ok Heiðreks, Norse Tradition