Gripla - 2019, Síða 89

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setting and roster of characters. In Breta sögur, a translation of Geoffrey of
Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae, risar are said to inhabit Cornwall.
The foremost of these risar is a gigantic figure, Goemagog, who is well-
known in Welsh and later English tradition.35 In Þiðreks saga, a transla-
tion of a now-lost German text concerning Dietrich von Bern, a risi ap-
pears with the name Etgeirr. In Karlamagnúss saga, a risi bears the name
Gondoleas. In all of these texts, Icelandic translators selected the term risi
to denote giantlike figures of non-Scandinavian European tradition.
As will be discussed in greater detail below, risar appear in a significant
number of Icelandic works that are not translations or reworkings of other
texts. Risar feature in several indigenous romances, namely Flóress saga
konungs ok sona hans, Ála flekks saga; Kirjalax saga; Ectors saga, and Sigurðar
saga þögla. They also appear in a number of fornaldarsögur, Íslendingasögur
and konungasögur, some of which have already been mentioned. These
texts are Oddr Snorrason’s Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, the prologue to Heims-
kringla; Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks; Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar; Þorvalds þáttr
tasalda; Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar saga berserkjabana; Yngvars saga;
Örvar-Odds saga; Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss; Hjálmþés saga ok Ölvis; Þorsteins
þáttr bœjarmagns; Þorsteins þáttr Víkingssonar and Sörla saga sterka. The
important point to take away from the above evidence is that, although
risar feature in works of Scandinavian provenance like jötnar, they have
a far more prominent role as non-Scandinavian beings in the Old Norse-
Icelandic corpus.
To sum up the findings thus far, when jötnar appear in translated
material and indigenous romances, their identities are tied to the fact that
they both played an antagonistic role in Old Norse mythology and, from
the perspective of Christian authors, were vestiges of pagan times. They
appear, therefore, as exclusively negative figures: Satan, Typheus or deni-
zens of Hell. The term risi, in contrast, was more neutral to the Christian
authors who employed it. It could be applied unproblematically to giantlike
creatures from classical tradition; from biblical literature; from saints’ lives;
and from national histories; and could be used to describe a wide range of
35 Interestingly, Goemagog has his basis in the biblical figures Gog and Magog, who first
appear in the books of Genesis and Revelation. See Victor Scherb, “Assimilating Giants:
The Appropriation of Gog and Magog in Medieval and Early Modern England,” Journal
of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 32 (2002): 59–65.
A PROBLEM OF GIANT PROPORTIONS