Gjálp and Greip
Template:Short description Template:Redirect2 Gjálp (Old Norse: Template:IPA; or Gialp) and Greip (Old Norse: Greip) are two jötnar in Norse mythology and the daughters of the Template:Lang Geirröðr. They are killed by the thunder god Thor for trying to kill him.Template:Sfn
Names
[edit]The Old Norse name Gjálp has been variously translated as 'screamer', 'yelper'.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It is related to the Icelandic gjálp ('roar; sea, wave'), and to the Old Norse gjalpa ('to brag').Template:Sfn
Greip is translated as ('gripper, grasper').Template:Sfn It derives from the Old Norse greip ('hand [with spread thumbs], handle').Template:Sfn
Attestations
[edit]Prose Edda
[edit]
In Skáldskaparmál (The Language of Poetry), Thor meets Gjálp as he is trying to wade across the Vimur River; she is causing the river to swell with what appears to be her urine or menstrual fluids as she is standing "astride the river".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Poem quote
Thor eventually reaches Geirrödargardar, the abode of the Template:Lang Geirröðr. He sits on a chair that is lifted up against the roof by Gjálp and Greip as they are trying to kill him.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Poem quote
Viking Age
[edit]The same myth is told in Þórsdrápa by Eilífr Goðrúnarson (late 10th c. AD), which is cited by Snorri Sturluson in Skáldskaparmál, although the Template:Lang are not named in the poem.Template:Sfn Template:Poem quote
Gesta Danorum
[edit]Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes) relates a similar story as Thorkillus (Thokil) and his companions are visiting the hall of the dead Geruthus (Geirröðr) when they notice the pierced body of an old man and three dead women with their backs broken. Thokil tells them that the god Thor "has driven a burning ingot though the vitals of Geirrœth" and that the "women have been struck by the force of Thor’s thunderbolt and have paid the penalty for attacking his divinity by having their bodies broken".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Template:Poem quote
Other texts
[edit]In Völuspá hin skamma (37), Gjálp and Greip are listed among the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr.Template:Sfn Gjálp is also mentioned in the þulur and in kennings of skaldic poetry.Template:Sfn Greip on her side is not mentioned in Nafnaþulur and found only once in the skaldic kenning.Template:Sfn
In Haustlöng, Þjazi is called "the son of the suitor of Greip". Greip may be used there as a generic Template:Lang name and the kenning may mean simply "Template:Lang".Template:Citation needed
In a lausavísa composed by Vetrliði Sumarliðason and quoted in Skáldskaparmál, Gjálp is mentioned as being killed by Thor.Template:Citation needed
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