Giants in Gesta Danorum: Overview.

In Gesta Danorum, the giants are defined primarily by their physique. It is especially their size that Saxo emphasizes again and again. In the first mythical excursus, it is the magnitudo of the giants that characterizes them, and likewise it is magnitudo that characterizes the giantess Harthgrepa. The giant whom Fridleuus mutilates almost reaches the sky, Starkatherus' giant heritage showed itself in the size of his body, the giantess whom Syritha and Otharus meet is likewise immanis, and the two fire-guarding giants whom Thorkillus meets are also described as unusually large. The size of the giants is also reflected in Saxo's terminology. There is much confusion between the categories jǫtnar, trǫll, risar and þursar etc. in the legendary sagas. Possibly one can read mutually divergent meanings into the terms to a lesser extent, but in the legendary sagas they are more or less synonymous. The situation is somewhat more straightforward in Gesta Danorum: Saxo predominantly uses gigas and gigans, "giant".

Apart from their size, the giants' appearances rarely differs from that of humans: The giant whom Fridleuus slays is described as tricorpor, three-bodied, and Saxo also uses the word belua "beast" to refer to him. Starcatherus originally had six arms until Thor tore off the extra ones, and giants are twice referred to as aquili/aquilos, a term that Saxo derives from Martianus Capella's De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, and which according to John Scotus's Annotationes in Marcianum denotes "monstra diabolica qui in forma avium apparent curvo rostro", demons that appear in bird form with curved beaks. In Saxo's description they also have corneis naribus, horned beaks. Related to the bodies of the giants is their ability to both change shape and vanish, an ability that appears several times in the Gesta Danorum.

The names of the giants are broadly consistent with how giants are otherwise characterised. Thus, the majority of giant names fall into categories such as making noise, powerful movement, forces of nature, strength, animal names, and external characteristics. The relatively few giant names in Gesta Danorum fit this picture. Names like Geruthus and Ugarthilocus are Latinized versions of Old Norse Geirrøðr and Útgarða-Loki, as are Uagnhophtus, Haphlio, Harthgrepa, and Ofoti, all of whose Old Norse versions can be found in Icelandic þulur. Jan de Vries attributes the first element of Uagnhophtus to Norse vǫgn, "killer whale", and interprets it with reference to Otto Höfler as a reference to animal cult masks. However, there is no need to seek an explanation in notions of cultic masks - especially when the reference is to Höfler, who for ideological reasons always found evidence of secret cultic societies - when the name can be translated as "killer whale head, whale head", thereby describing the monstrous appearance of the giant. Lindow dubiously translates Ofoti (Old Norse Ófóti) as Un-foot, which is not a particularly satisfactory translation. According to Jónsson, the epithet fótr always denotes a person with a limp, or who is in some other way impeded in his gait. If the second part of the name really comes from fótr, it must be translated as "The Un-limp", i.e. "The Swift", which fits in with the group of giant names describing powerful movement. However, the name is possibly derived from the Norse name for the Norwegian Ofotfjord. Ófóti is mentioned in Þulur as both a giant name and a fjord name. Haphlio and Harthgrepa both denote the giant's grip strength. Clunies Ross associates this attribute with aggression towards the male hero, something that cannot be said to hold true in Gesta Danorum, where Harthgrepa's grip comes into play only once, and to the benefit of the hero. Though Saxo knew of them, we meet no Latin Typhoeus, Cacus or Geryon in his portrayal of the Northern giants.

The social organization of the giants is not very different from that of gods or men. In the Norse sources one finds social hierarchies, where some giants live as rich rulers on large manors, others live in more modest circumstances as, for example, shepherds, and still others lead a wild and primitive existence in mountains and caves. In Gesta Danorum, only Uagnhophtus, Haphlio and Harthgrepa are part of a family group, and they even engage in social relations with humans. There is only one remnant of the social hierarchy of the giants, that of Geruthus' ruined court. Twice Saxo mentions the keeping of livestock by the giants, but otherwise the giants live in caves in the mountains or out in the woods. Only when giants in Saxo's adaptation become humans are they allowed a place within the Danish kingdom. The predominantly primitive existence of the giants is further emphasized by their clothing: when King Gram dresses up as a giant in skins and animal hides at the beginning of Gesta Danorum's first book, he dons a costume often worn by giants in the legendary sagas, symbolizing the primitive savagery, behavior, and inferiority of the giants. The fur-clad monster-killer armed with a club is also a clear parallel to Hercules, and Saxo also explicitly refers to Hercules in his account of Gram. The only other time Saxo explicitly refers to Hercules in connection with giants is towards the end of book eight, during a partially unsuccessful mission to giant-land. If the heroes had not surrendered to libido, they would have "equalled Hercules in fame, overcome the power of the giants by their strength of will, and forever been honoured for their glorious deeds for the fatherland".

I see this as an agenda on Saxo's part, as key to understanding the place of the giants in Gesta Danorum. King Gram in book one is the first to meet the giants, and the heroes of book eight, the last book concerning the pagan period, are some of the last. The two passages stand at opposite ends of Saxo's legendary material, and therefore encapsulate Denmark's pagan period as one marked by Herculean battles against giants. This, I believe, is the primary interpretive framework of the giants in Gesta Danorum, an interpretation that is inextricably linked to Saxo's imitatio et aemulatio imperii Romani.