The Poetic Edda on Giants

The > Volume I > Notes

• attestation: Giants were generally assumed to be stupid in Norse tradition

  "Giants were generally assumed to be stupid"

• attestation: The idea that a giant's skull is harder than stone is characteristic of later Norse folk-stories

  "The idea that a giant's skull is harder than stone or anything else is characteristic of the later Norse folk-stories, and in one of the so-called "mythical sagas" we find a giant actually named Hard-Skull"

• attestation: Giants sometimes had two or more heads, though they were rarely described as a race in this way

  "The many-headed: The giants, although rarely designated as a race in this way, sometimes had two or more heads"

The > Volume Ii > Notes

• attestation: Giantesses customarily had wolves for steeds, so 'horse of the giantess' means wolf

  "i.e., the wolf (because giantesses customarily had wolves for their steeds)"