Hyrrokkin

Hyrrokkin at Baldr's funeral

It is told in Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning that at Baldr's funeral his wife Nanna died of grief and was placed alongside him on his pyre, thus joining her husband in Hel. Hringhorni, Baldr's ship, was the largest of all such vessels and was to serve as the god's funeral ship. No one, however, could seem to launch the boat out to sea.

The gods then enlisted the help of Hyrrokkin, who came from Jötunheimr, arriving on a giant wolf with vipers as reins. When she dismounted, Odin summoned four berserks to look after the animal but they were unable to control it without first rendering it unconscious. With her seismic strength, the giantess rolled the boat into the water. This caused the earth to quake and the rollers to set on fire, which angered Thor. He was about to kill Hyrrokkin with his hammer Mjöllnir, but the other gods insisted that he spare her.

Hyrrokkin's death

While Thor was stopped from killing her at Baldur's funeral, Hyrrokkin is mentioned in a list of giants and giantesses killed by him, as told by Þorbjörn dísarskáld in Skáldskaparmál.

Attestations

The poem Húsdrápa, composed by Úlfr Uggason in Iceland in the late 10th century and partially preserved in the Prose Edda, refers to Hyrrokkin at Baldr's funeral:

"The very powerful Hild of the mountains [giantess] caused the sea-Sleipnir [ship] to lumber forward, but the wielders of the helmet flames [warriors] of Hropt [Odin] felled her mount."

She is also mentioned in a list of troll women by an anonymous skald:

Gjölp, Hyrrokkin, Hengikepta, Gneip ok Gnepja, Geysa, Hála, Hörn ok Hrúga, Harðgreip, Forað, Hryðja, Hveðra ok Hölgabrúðr.[1]