Gripla - 2019, Blaðsíða 93
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Helga is kvenna vænst “most beautiful of women,” and his son Gestr is both
mikill “great” and fríðr “beautiful.” Bárðar saga is by no means unique in
its presentation of the appearance of risar. In Þorsteins þáttr bœjarmagns,
the risi Goðmundr is first seen approaching the protagonist Þorsteinn on
horseback, clothed in scarlet garments and flanked by two similarly well-
dressed attendants. The risar in Örvar-Odds saga are “vænni…en flestir
menn aðrir” [more beautiful than most other people].45 Further, Logi of
Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar is only allra manna fríðastr “most attractive of
all men” because he is of risi heritage, and even Ármann admits that the risi
of Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar is “less ugly than expected.”46 This is not an
exhaustive list. The characterisation of risar as beings of superlative beauty
is one of their most consistent attributes, and that which distinguishes
them most from jötnar. Indeed, I have not found any jötnar described in
this way in Old Icelandic saga material. On the one hand, we have beings
which inspire terror by their very appearance, and on the other, beings who
are so beautiful that it often attracts comment.
Ármann Jakobsson also implies that “giants” are dangerous on account
of their stupidity and general lack of social sophistication. This is also the
opinion of Katja Schulz.47 This is clearly the case with the jötnar of the
fornaldarsögur, whose opposition to the human world is their chief func-
tion in these texts. In almost every instance in which jötnar appear, they
forego social interaction with humans and immediately resort to physical
violence. In Örvar-Odds saga jötnar resolve to kill Oddr and his compan-
ions merely for entering their territory, and the jötunn Geirröðr kills more
of Oddr’s men later in the narrative. In other instances, jötnar assail human
society in a more calculated manner. Numerous jötnar in the sagas have
designs on human women – a situation which is evocative of the desire of
jötnar for ásynjur in mythological contexts, In Egils saga ok Ásmundar two
jötnar named Gautr and Hildir steal the daughters of King Tryggvi, and in
Gautreks saga, the elder Starkaðr abducts the daughter of the human king
Álfr, to name but two examples. Egils saga ok Ásmundar arguably reveals
the most varied kinds of hostility towards humans: one jötunn severs the
protagonist Egill’s arm; the queen of Jötunheimar, Arinnefja, attempts to
45 Guðni Jónsson, Fornaldarsögur, iii, 274.
46 Ármann Jakobsson, “Identifying the ogre,” 186.
47 See Schulz’s section entitled “Primitivität und Obszönität,” Riesen, 4, 161–2.
A PROBLEM OF GIANT PROPORTIONS