Gripla - 2019, Qupperneq 80

GRIPLA80
Here, Goðmundr, the gigantic ruler of part of Risaland and conceivably
therefore a risi himself, expresses his displeasure about being ruled by
jötnar from Jötunheimar, the region to which he pays tribute. The words
risi and jötunn are conflated in the translation, such that the meaning of
the original text is confused. This kind of uncritical use of the term “gi-
ant” is endemic. Although it has its basis in translations such as that by
Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, this practice also extends to schol-
arship on Old Norse-Icelandic texts. This is in spite of the fact that, as
Ármann Jakobsson suggests, “the paranormal is created in thought and
in words and thus the vocabulary used to encapsulate it is of paramount
importance.”8 This discussion will demonstrate that Icelandic authors
attached significantly different meanings to the terms risi and jötunn in
saga literature.9 This will be achieved in the first place by contrasting the
origins and functions of these terms in the Old Norse-Icelandic corpus as a
whole, from mythological poetry to early translated prose works and later
saga material. Such a distinction will be argued for in the second place by
investigating more closely how these terms came to be received and used
by Icelandic saga authors. In so doing, it will be contended that the term
“giant” is unsuitable for use in scholarly contexts, since it not only fails to
represent these beings, but actively misrepresents them.
The Evolution of the term jötunn
Before turning to the use and associations of the term jötunn in the Old
Norse-Icelandic corpus, it is worth considering the meaning and etymolo-
gy of the term. Pokorny traces jötunn to the Proto-Germanic *etuna, which
he defines as Vielfresser or Menschenfresser “voracious eater, man-eater.”
This is on account of its derivation from the Proto-Indo-European root
*ed- “eat.”10 The etymological association between jötnar and greedy con-
8 Ármann Jakobsson, “taxonomy,” 207.
9 There is not space here to discuss the complex issue of saga authorship, both in oral and
written terms. For more discussion, see Gísli Sigurðsson, The Medieval Icelandic Saga
and Oral Tradition: A Discourse on Method, trans. by Nicholas Jones (Boston: Harvard
University Press, 2004). In what follows, “saga author” will be taken to refer to those
figures who first committed saga material to vellum, acknowledging that many sagas were
communally generated in oral tradition at some point preceding this.
10 Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols. (Bern and Munich: A.
Francke, 1959–1969), i, 289. The connection espoused above has found broad acceptance