Járnviðr

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In Norse mythology, Járnviðr (often anglicized as Járnvid), which means "Iron-wood", is a forest inhabited by giantesses and giant wolves.

Járnvid is mentioned in Völuspá (40):

“In the east sat an old woman in Iron-wood
and nurtured there offspring of Fenrir
a certain one of them in monstrous form
will be the snatcher of the moon”

—Völuspá, Larrington's translation

The one that will be "the snatcher of the moon" is Mánagarmr (or Hati), and the "old woman" may refer to Fenrir's mother Angrboða^[1].

Snorri Sturluson quotes this stanza and expands it in his Gylfaginning (12):

“A witch dwells to the east of Midgard, in the forest called Ironwood: in that wood dwell the troll-women, who are known as Ironwood-Women [járnviðjur]. The old witch bears many giants for sons, and all in the shape of wolves; and from this source are these wolves sprung. The saying runs thus: from this race shall come one that shall be mightiest of all, he that is named Moon-Hound [Mánagarmr]; he shall be filled with the flesh of all those men that die, and he shall swallow the moon”

—Gylfaginning, Brodeur's translation

The form "Járnviðjur" ("Iron-wood dwellers") is nowhere else to be found, but in singular, Járnviðja is listed in the þulur as a troll-wife, and in Eyvindr Skáldaspillir's Háleygjatal (2), this name refers to Skaði.

[edit] Note

1. ^ Lindow 2002.

[edit] References

• The Poetic Edda. Trans. with an introd. and notes by Carolyne Larrington. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0192839462.
• Snorri Sturluson. The Prose Edda. Trans. from the Icelandic with an introd. by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1916.

• Lindow, John. Norse mythology : a guide to the gods, heroes, rituals, and beliefs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0195153820.

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