angrboda - October 10, 2021

Angrboda: The Giant of Ice & Loki's Wife

In Norse mythology, Angrboda or Angerboda, "the one who announces misfortune", is a giantess who lived in Jotunheim.

According to the Gylfaginning, she and Loki produced two monsters:

the gigantic wolf Fenrir
the serpent of Midgard, Jormungand

and a daughter, the goddess of the world of the dead, Hel, who was no less monstrous because half of her body had the color of decomposed flesh.

As soon as the gods heard of the existence of this dangerous offspring, they all agreed to prevent her from doing any harm. One night, the gods entered his palace and took away his children because they had learned from a prophecy the terrible threat they represented for themselves and for the whole world. However they did not want to kill them.

Odin sent Hel as far away as possible into the "world beneath the worlds". He entrusted him with the task of welcoming the dead of disease or old age into Niflheim in the middle of a deadly, swirling mist.

After breaking the ice, Thor threw the serpent, Jormungand into the unfathomable depths in the middle of the ocean that surrounds the world.

Fenrir was first kept in Asgard and then tied with a special chain when the gods began to see him grow dramatically and alarmingly, especially since a prediction of the Norns predicted that the gigantic wolf would cause Odin's death.

Later Odin went once to consult Angrboda in the Niflhel, one of the parts of the realm of the dead, to know the meaning of Balder's premonitory dreams that announced his imminent death.