The Rîsi

By: Steve Anthonijsz

 

OHG:          ëzan; ëzzan; rîsi; muspilli; durri; hüne[1]

MHG:          Hiune; türse

MoHG:          riesige; riese

ON:            iötunn; rísi; þurs; hrímþurs

OE:             eoten; etin; ettin; hrisi; þyrs; ent

OS:             etan; itan

Goth:           ïtan; þaúrs

Nor:            jötul, jutul

Sw:              troll; jätte

Ang:            ettin; jötun; thurs; ogre; goblin

 

 

In the surviving documents left by our altmagâ[2] two main classifications of wiht seem to be grouped together under the term ‘giant’[3]: great, primordial beings from the underworld; and the powerful guardians of certain localities here on Mittigart.

 

The first category is considered more frequently. Eddiac accounts reveal a direct connection between our gods and the giants. In fact they are shown to be very closely related. Wodan is the son of Paru and Bezzia; Frô marries Garta; u.s.w.

Some of these giants, or rîsi, are depicted as being indescribably wise (e.g.; Mîmi who wards Mimesbrunno, the Well of Memory), whilst others are generally stupid (e.g.; Hrungnir, the giant who attempts to steal away Donar’s daughter). Some giants are described as ugly, although others are quite beautiful.

The apparent antagonism between the gods and the giants (e.g., stories about Donar habitually killing those that are revealed to be his kinfolk) is a distortion of the tales of our altmagâ propagated mainly by Snorri Sturluson[4]. The giants are the old wihts—one might say ‘gods,’ depending on one’s definition--who pre-existed the arrival of our forefathers’ tribal gods and who, in fact, gave birth to them.

 

The second category of giant, the spirits of locality, the guardians of the landscape, is to be found depicted primarily in German folklore and the Icelandic sagas. These are known as trolls, thurses, goblins, and by other names. These giants are usually portrayed as being hostile toward mankind. There are many stories of men being devoured by trolls, for example. However, they are also occasionally depicted as being friendly to humans, and tales are told of them coming to help people in trouble.

 

The giants are ancient spirits of the land and sea, and represent the life-force (OHG âtum) of various localities. The idea that some of these may be antagonistic towards humans and the gods of our race is easily acknowledged when we consider the plunder of the natural environment committed by human beings, as all relationships are reciprocal.

The Rîsi in general are invested with a much more pronounced individuality than the Alpâ: they usually appear singly, less frequently in groups or large collective bodies. Habitually giants and elves inhabit, though in a different manner, the same realms of nature. Nor are they always kept entirely distinct. According to Icelandic sources, for example, Regin and Fafnir are brothers, but the former is represented by the Old Norse term svartálfr (OHG suarzalpâ), the latter as a giant.

 

It is important to recognize that all the giants, whether described as wise or oafish, celestial or tied to a mountain location, beautiful or ugly, are not differentiated in our surviving lore. It is only scholars from the nineteenth century to the present who have attempted to portray the giants in neat categories. There is one major failure in these attempts: myths do not categorize anyone or anything in neat, tidy packages.

One of the most commonly accepted means of categorization today is as follows:

 

“…the very wise, powerful, magical ones are called etins (jötnar,

single jötunn – ‘the Eaters’?), the huge mountain-dwellers are

giants or rises (rísar - ‘giants’), the uncontrollable, hardly

conscious natural forces are thurses, and  ‘troll’ is (as it was in the

old days) used as a catch-all phrase for obnoxious supernatural

wights. The whole lot of them are referred to collectively as ‘etin-

kind’ or ‘Ymir's children’, as they were all born from the body of

the hermaphroditic ur-etin Ymir before Wodan and his brothers

slew him and made the world from his corpse.[5]”

 

Although such catagorization provides a convienent convention for modern people studying our mythos, this is not really an accurate depiction of the surviving lore.

 

“The ON. Þurs seems not essentially different from iötunn; in

Sn. 6 Ymir is called ancestor of all the hrîmþurses, in Sæm. 118a

all the iötnar are traced up to him. In particular songs or

connexions the preference is given to one or the other

appellative: thus in the enumeration of dialects in the Alvîsmâl

the giants are always iötnar, never þursar, and there is no

Thursaheimr in use for Iötunheimer, Iötnaheimr; but Thrymr,

though dwelling in Iötunheimr, is nevertheless called þursa

drôttinn (Sæm. 70. 71) and not iötna drôttinn, but he summons

both the iötnar (73a) and is a iötun himself  (74a).[6]”

 

Shouldn’t we think of a giant living at the base of the Irminsûl as different from a troll that lives beneath a bridge? No, we should not!

 

The Alpâ are described as living in Alpâheim, yet are also depicted as living in burial mounds. The Tuercâ are said to live in Suarzalpâheim, but are also reported to reside in boulders and caves. Glyphs mapping out the worlds often leave us with the impression that many of the  are far away from Mittigart, but this is not really so. The worlds overlap greatly, and crossing from one world to the next is not as rare as many people might think.

One should also consider that the stories of the gods and other  generally mirror events here on Mittigart; cf. the war between the Ensi vs. the Wanâ/Alpâ alliance mirroring the war between the sons of Halfdan against the coalition of Groa and Alveig[7].

 

If this is all so, than why are the giants so often seen as representing the forces of darkness? One must not delude oneself into believing that all are benevolent any more than we might think that any random critter one might run across in the woods is friendly. In both cases we are talking about the wild, unpredictable things from the ûtangard; things that are not bound by our laws, customs, mores and values.

 

This conception was elevated in the early part of the Period of Mixed Faith during which the giants came to be syncretized with the devils of Christendom. Grimm[8] informs us:

 

   “…nowhere does the Devil savour so much of heathenism as where

he has stept into the place of the old giant (pp. 999. 1005. 1023-4).

Both of them the thunder-god pursues with his hammer; as the

sleeping giant is struck by Thôr's miölnir, so is the devil by the

blacksmith's hammer (p. 1011); (53) the devil with three golden hairs

(KM. no. 29) has already been likened to the ON. Ugarthilocus

(p. 244). And more especially is he giant-like, where the people

credit him with stupendous feats of building and stone-throwing:

here he puts on completely the burly, wrathful, spiteful and loutish

nature of the iötunn (pp. 534. 543-54); stupid devil is used like stupid

giant (p. 528). The building of christian churches is hateful to him,

and he tries to reduce them to ruins; but his schemes are sure to be

foiled by some higher power or by the superior craft of man. Like

the giant, he often shews himself a skilful architect, and undertakes

to build a castle, bridge or church, only bargaining for the soul of

him who shall first set foot in the new building.

   What was once told of the giant is now told of the devil, but a harsher crueler motive usually takes the place of milder ones. The giant in building has commonly some sociable neighbourly purpose (pp. 535-54), the devil wishes merely to do mischief and entrap souls.

 

 

The Circle of Ostara, an Odinist organization, offers an interesting thought [9] with regards to the giants:

 

   “We have identified the divine forces who shape the life-forms

of Earth as the gods of those life-forms. Let your mind dwell for a

moment on the idea that the races of dinosaurs were shaped by

great beings, spirits who made them in their own image. Expand

the concept to realise that the whole population of these great

beasts was wiped out by some past cataclysm.  Yet the spirits of

their gods may exist still. Perhaps they walk the Earth and mourn

their lost people. If a human with "sight" chanced to meet such a

being, even if it was not hostile him, his reaction is not hard to

imagine.[10]”

 

These spirits of the woods and mountains appear to have been driven from their homes by the advance of mankind. This may be part of the cycle of the Great Year, and thus, a function of rita[11]. While currently they reside in apparent exile, it only requires an appropriate series of events for them to return and to rebuild their old homes. We are warned of this in the prophecy of Godotuom, when the giants are said to represent destructive forces that fight the Ensi in an epic battle. The Ensi, by this time, will have built up enormous armies of dead people (Einheri) and made alliances with the other divine races in order to help battle the giants; but will still all die in the end. Völuspá describes incredible destruction: fire, the earth quaking, and so forth. This makes sense. The spirits of wild localities are sure to be involved in any reshaping of the Earth. In fact much of our folklore and legend depicts what may be Urminna[12] relating to such a ancient catastrophe when giants are said to have raised mountains, created rivers, and hurled about great boulders in times that were ancient even concurrent with the original writing. The old stories describe the Frost Giants from Nebulheim and the Fire Giants of Muspilliheim. These may be anthropomorphic symbols for the runic streams of IS and KA, the same bifidic extremes that came together in Ginêntigrûba in order to create the worlds. Perhaps these forces need to come together again so that the worlds may be re-created after this microcosmic Godotuom.

Rîsi are also famed builders. They do not produce works of art like the Suarzalpâ, but colossal constructions, castles, walls, stone roads, and bridges. We know little of these structures, however, because most of the Märchen[13] that relate the stories focus on travellers coming across them rather than on the formations themselves.

 

No evidence exists to demonstrate that the rîsi ever been worshiped. Some have theorized that they may have been propitiated at certain locales for fear of getting on their ‘bad sides,’ but evidence for even this is unreliable at best. The giants are best respected genuinely--although from a safe distance.