jǫtunn

See also: jotunn, Jotunn, jötunn, and Jötunn

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *etunaz (“giant”). Cognate with Old English eoten.

Pronunciation

• (12th Century Icelandic) IPA^(key): /ˈjɒ.tʊ̃nː/
• (Textbook Old Norse) IPA^(key): /ˈjɔ.tunː/

Noun

jǫtunn m (genitive jǫtuns, plural jǫtnar)

1. (Norse mythology) a jotun, ettin, giant
   • Vǫluspá, verse 2, lines 1-2, in 1860, T. Möbius, Edda Sæmundar hins fróða: mit einem Anhang zum Theil bisher ungedruckter Gedichte. Leipzig, page 1:

     Ek man jötna / ár um borna, […]

     I remember giants / born long ago, […]

Declension

Declension of jǫtunn (strong a-stem)

masculine	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	jǫtunn	jǫtunninn	jǫtnar	jǫtnarnir
accusative	jǫtun	jǫtuninn	jǫtna	jǫtnana
dative	jǫtni	jǫtninum	jǫtnum	jǫtnunum
genitive	jǫtuns	jǫtunsins	jǫtna	jǫtnanna

Derived terms

• jǫtunbygðr (“peopled by ettins”)
• Jǫtunheimr (“Jotunheim”)
• jǫtunmóðr (“ettins's fury”)
• jǫtunuxi (“a kind of a beetle”, literally “ettin-ox”)

Descendants

• Icelandic: jötunn m
• Faroese: jøtun m
• Norwegian Nynorsk: jotun, jøtul m
• Norwegian Bokmål: jotun, jutul m
• Old Danish: iætæn m
  • Danish: jætte c
• Old Swedish: iætun, iætti m
  • Swedish: jätte c or m
• → English: jotun (learned)

Further reading

• Richard Cleasby; Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1874), “jǫtunn”, in An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, page 328
• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), “jötunn”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 234; also available at the Internet Archive