Yggdrasil · Giants and Dwarves
Þrymheimr
The mountain home of the giant Þjazi, later Skaði’s.
In Thorpe’s translation
11. Thrymheim the sixth is named, where Thiassi dwelt that all-powerful Jötun; but Skadi now inhabits, the bright bride of gods, her father's ancient home.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Grímnismál, stanza 11 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ) Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
What the sources say
Grímnismál says Þrymheimr is where the powerful giant Þjazi lived, and that Skaði, the bright bride of the gods, now lives there in her father’s ancient home. Gylfaginning places it among rocky mountains. When Skaði married Njörðr they agreed to spend nine nights in Þrymheimr and then three at Nóatún, but Njörðr found the mountains wearisome and Skaði returned to them.
- Grímnismál (Poetic Edda), stanza 11 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ)
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), the passage on Njörðr and Skaði
Names and background
Þrymheimr, often written Thrymheim, is translated "crash-home", "Thunder Home" or "noisy-home". Manuscripts of the Prose Edda also spell it Þrumheimr and Þruþheimr. It is easy to confuse with Þrúðheimr, Thor's home in Grímnismál.
Simek reads the variant Þruþheimr as "power house" and suggests some spellings may be deliberate wordplay, a meaning that suits a giant's home. Wikipedia’s article gives this as interpretation, not settled fact.
- Wikipedia contributors, Þrymheimr (opens in a new tab)