RPG SHEET Viking profile Title : Ironside Age : 28 y/o Place of birth : Kattegat
Subject: 2.3 The Giants Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:35 pm
The Giants
This part is free to read, not mandatory
The giants are a tribe of spiritual beings whose power equals that of the two tribes of gods, the Aesir and the Vanir. Their character, however, is very different from that of the gods – and, in fact, the giants and the gods correspond to opposing, but intertwined, cosmological principles.
“Giants” is a misleading of the name of these beings. In modern English, of course, a “giant” is first and foremost something of enormous size. The Norse giants are actually evil gods who are referred to as giants because their godlike powers.
One of the fundamental concepts that underlies the distinction between the giants and the gods is the innangard and the utangard. “Innangard” means “within the enclosure” and refers to that which is orderly, law-abiding, and civilized. “Utangard” means “beyond the enclosure” and refers to that which is chaotic and anarchic.
Asgard, literally “the enclosure of the Aesir gods,” is the divine model of the innangard. Midgard, the world of human civilization, is patterned on Asgard and allied with it. The world of the giants is Jotunheim, which is also called Utgard. “Utgard” means the exact same thing as “utangard” (once again, “beyond the enclosure”).
Subject: 2.3 The Giants 