In Yore Time... : November 2016

All Hail!

Thanks be to the gods!

That there are great lands fit for men to live in is only for that the gods have won them from the ettins and such like unwights (=monsters) who were their earlier holders. And this either by the gods themselves, albeit with the help of a flood (see Snorri Sturluson, Edda, Gylfaginning 7 and Bēowulf, lines 1687 to 1698, and belike also 112 to 114), or by haleths like Bēowulf in the gods' name. Thus Bēowulf yelpeth lines 420-1:

‘þær ic fife geband/ yðde eotena cyn:’
‘where I five bound/ drowned giant kin.’

And Siȝmund and Fitela killed many too, thus lines 883/4:

‘hæfdon ealfela eotena cynnes/sweordum gesæged…:’
‘had all many ettins' kinds with swords slain…’.

Heldenbuch:

“Darnach beschûff got die starcken held ... Und ist zû wissen das die helden gar vil iar getrüw und byderbe warent. Und darumb soltent sie den zwergen zû hilff kumen wyder die ungetrüwen risen, und wider die wilden tier und wûrm.”

“Then God shaped the haleths ... And it should be known that the haleths were worthy and true for many years, and that they were to come to the help of the dwarves against the untrue ettins, and against the wild deer and worms.”

From the Edda we know there was a long standing unfrith (=war) between the gods and the ettins. Thus Snorri writeth of the “ófriði jötna” “unfrith of the ettins”. The god our fathers called Thunor "Thunder", or Thur for short, and the Northerners' Þórr “Thor”, is first and foremostly set as a ward against the ettins. Thus among the Suiones there was, and maybe still is, a saying:

vore ej thordön till, lade troll verlden öde

were (it) not for thunder, troll (would) make the world empty.

thordön “Thor-din” being their word for thunder, and troll being yet another name for ettins, thurses and so on in the North.

Father Arndtz vicar of Askevold in Norway wrote in 1750 to Bishop Pontoppidan:

“The peasants … old idea is that thunder strikes the trolls who would otherwise destroy the world...”.

And we find something of this in Hárbarðsljóð 23 where Þórr kvað:

“Ek var austr| ok jötna barðak

brúðir bölvísar,| er til bjargs gengu;

mikil myndi ætt jötna,| ef allir lifði

vætr myndi manna| undir Miðgarði.”

“I was east and I beat ettins

brides bale-wise, that to the hills went

much would be the kin of the ettin, if all lived

naught would be of men in Middle Earth.”

And in Þrymskviða 18 where Thor doth not wish to don woman's clothes lest he be thought argur, our arough.

“ Þá kvað þat Loki| Laufeyjar sonr:

"Þegi þú, Þórr,| þeira orða.

Þegar munu jötnar| Ásgarð búa,

nema þú þinn hamar| þér of heimtir."

“Then quoth Loki, Laufey's son:

Shut up thou, Thor, with those words

already shall the ettins in Ásgarður live,

unless thou thine hammer bring home to thee.

Skáldskaparmál 11. Þórskenningar. “verjandi Ásgarðs, Miðgarðs”.

Thunor's even-making with the archangel Michæl of the new belief will have to bide another time and stow but it is worthwhile to mark here. At the Michælion at Chalcedon and in the dream of Gregory the Great of the archangel sheathing his sword over what is now Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome to mark the end of a great illness, Michæl is linked to the warding off of sickness. And belike the ettins that the thunder god fought were also further linked to illness. Thus in the Descriptio insularum aquilonis (etched to Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum) chapitle 27 at Old Uppsala the Suiones “Si pestis et famis imminet, Thorydolo lybatur,... ” “if sickness and dearth neighledgeth (=approaches) they yeat drink-offerings to Thor”. And an Old English gloss, often overlooked, our Thunder-god is straightly evened with Apollo:

“Latona: Þūres modor.”

Latona being the name for the mother of Apollo in Latin. And we should bear in mind that Apollo was widely understood in the West as a warder off of illness, thus Cæsar wrote of the Gauls that they had the same beliefs as other men, among which was “Apollinem morbos depellere,” “Apollo ofwendeth sicknesses”.

It may well be that the Northmen, misunderstanding thise earlier ownership of the earth by the ettins, will have the world shaped out of some great ettin. And the Northmen I think have not been as careful as they should have been to keep the gods and the ettins asunder, for they are wholly witherward to each other and the bitterest of foes. For our old belief, when rightly understood, must needs be "dualistic" (on the need for "dualism" see Plutarch Of Isis and Osiris (Περὶ Ἴσιδος καὶ Ὀσίριδος) §§45 to 46 [here]). And it is worth thinking about that our own belief stemmeth from the selfsame well-spring that the Parsees get their often spoken of "dualistic" beliefs. The true "dualistic" outlook of our old beliefs being shown forth in that of the Āryāḥ (आर्याः) in India as summed up in Alberuni's India chapitle 8 (lf.90):

“In another place the same author [“In the book Gîtâ, Vâsudeva...” the book is, the Bhagavad-Gītā, and he has chap. 16 in mind here] says: “Belief and virtue are in the Deva among the spiritual beings. Therefore that man who resembles them believes in God, clings to him, and longs for him. Unbelief and vice are in the demons called Asura and Râkshasa. That man who resembles them does not believe in God nor attend to his commandments. He tries to make the world godless, and is occupied with things which are harmful in the world and in the world beyond, and are of no use.”

Asurāḥ (असुराः) is a word only belatedly brooked for ettins in Sanskrit. The older word is rakṣāḥ (रक्षाः). The ettins are also the daityāḥ (दैतेया:), sons of Diti, whilst the gods are the Adityāḥ (अदिते:), sons of Aditi. Rāmāyaṇa 7.11.14 (awend. Manmatha Nath Dutt)

aditir janayām āsa devāṃs tribhuvaṇeśvarān

ditis tv ajanayad daityān kaśyapasyātmasaṃbhavān

And Aditi brought forth the gods,—who are the lords of the three worlds.

And Diti gave birth to the Daityas,—offspring of Kaçyapa.

And 7.11.15 to 16 bringeth out the earlier ownership of the ettins and the winning of the "three worlds" from their sway by the gods:

daityānāṃ kila dharmajña pureyaṃ savanārṇavā

saparvatā mahī vīra te 'bhavan prabhaviṣṇavaḥ

nihatya tāṃs tu samare viṣṇunā prabhaviṣṇunā

devānāṃ vaśam ānītaṃ trailokyam idam avyayam

“O thou cognizant of righteousness, formerly this earth, O hero,

having the ocean for her garment, and furnished with

mountains, belonged to the Daityas; and (gradually) they

grew very powerful. And then this undeteriorating triune

world was brought under the dominion of the celestials [devānāṃ gen. pl. of devāḥ “gods”].”

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣat) 1.3.1 (Awend. Shankara Bhashya) found in the Shatapatha Brahmana:

“dvayā ha prājāpatyā devāś cāsurāś ca tataḥ kānīyasā eva devā jyāyasā asurāḥ |

ta eṣu lokeṣv aspardhanta | …”

“There were two classes of Prajāpati's sons, the gods and the Asuras. Naturally, the gods were fewer, and the Asuras more in number. They vied with each other for (the mastery of) these worlds.”

Britain was a home of ettins before men settled there

From the Hystoria Brutonum (British Museum handwrit Cotton Caligula A.IX) of Laȝamon Leouenaðes sone we learn that the first settlers of Britain had to overcome the ettins that already lived in the island.

Heo ferden ut of hauene; þa heleðes weren bliðe.      891
wind stod on willen; ploȝede þe wil((d))e fisc.      892
þet water wes swiðe god; gumen weoren bliðe.      893
Lið[d]en þa leoden; þat heo on londe comen.      894
æt Dertemuðe i Totenes; wel wes Brutus þes.      895
Þa scipen biten on þat sond; & al þat folc eode an lond.      896
Þa hefde Brutus þa ȝeue; þat Diana him bi-heihte.      897
i Logice þan eit-londe; þer heo weoren at-stonden.      898
Muchel wes þa murðe; þe þat folc makode.      899
& heo Godd þonkeden; mid þeu-fulle worden.      900
þat heo heora wil-daȝes; wælden weoren.      901
Heo funden i þon londe; twenti eotandes stronge.      902
Heora nomen ne herdi neuer tellen a leoda ne a spella.      903
boten þes anes name; þa heore alre lauerd wes.      904
Geomagog ihaten; þat was þe heihste.      905
Godes wiðer-saka; þe Wrse hine luuede.      906
Brutus & his gode folc; under-ȝeten þeos feondes.      907
& heora stelane flon; fusden to þon feonden.      908
Þa flan heom weoren laðe; & heo liðden to þon munten.      909
& i þon wilderne; an hudlese wuneden.      910

They fared out of the haven [in Frankland]: the haleths were blithe
wind blew as was wished; played the wild fish
that water was swithe good; the grooms were blithe;
sailed the folk; that they to land came.
at Dartmouth in Totnes; well were these Brits.
The ships bided on the sand and all that folk went in land
then had Brutus the gift; that Diana him behight
in Leogecia the eyot-land; where they were one time.
Much was the mirth; that the folk made
and they their happy days were to wield
they found in the land twenty ettins strong
their names never heard tell in leeth nor in spell
but one of these; that lord of them all was
Gogmagog hight; that was the highest (tallest)
God's foeman, the Worse (Devil) him loved.
Brutus and his good folk; put down these fiends
and their steel arrows shot toward the fiends
the arrows were loathsome to them; and they went to the mounts
and into the wilderness in hiding-holes dwelled.

Mark the ettin is “Godes wiðer-saka” “God's foe man” they are “feondes” “fiends” and Brutus' “gode folc” “good folk” put them under with “heora stelane flon” “their steel flones or arrows”. They fly to the fells “munten” the wonesome home of ettins. Thus in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” (handwrit Cotton Nero A.x.) Gawain is said to fight with ettins, there spelt “etaynez”, on the high fells in north Wales or north-western England (fitt 2: stanza 31):

mony klyf he ouerclambe in contrayez straunge

fer floten fro his frendez fremedly he rydez

at vche warþe oþer water þer þe wyȝe passed

he fonde a foo hym byfore bot ferly hit were

and þat so foule and so felle þat feȝt hym byhode

fo mony meruayl bi mount þer þe mon fyndez

hit were to tore for to telle of þe tenþe dole

sumwhyle wyth wormez he werrez and with wolues als

sumwhyle wyth wodwos þat woned in þe knarrez

boþe wyth bullez and berez and borez oþerquyle

and etaynez þat hym anelede of þe heȝe felle

nade he ben duȝty and dryȝe and dryȝtyn had serued

douteles he hade ben ded and dreped ful ofte

many cliff he climbed over in outlandish lands
far flitting from his friends as an unknown man he rideth
at each water's edge or water wherever the man went
he found a foe before him but it were a wonder
and that so foul and so fell that asked him to fight
so many wonderful things by the mounts that the man findeth
that it were to long for to tell of the tenth deal
sometimes with worms he fighteth and with wolves also
somewhile with woodwoses that lived in the tree-clumps
both with bulls and bears and boars at other times
and ettins that set upon him on the high fell
had he not been doughty and dreed and the Drighten had followed
witterly he would have been dead and slain full oft.

The ettins did not always keep to the mounts. In Laȝumon’s Hystoria Bruttonum we have an onslaught made by the ettins upon men from their highland fastnesses:

Hit ilomp on ane daȝe; þat Brutus & his duȝeðe.      911
makeden halinesse; mid wrscipen heȝen.      912
mid mete & mid drinchen; & mid murie gleo-dreme.      913
mid seoluer & mid golde; þe elche bar an honde.      914
mid horsen & mid scruden; blisse wes on hirede.      915
wes al þat folc swa bliðe; swa heo neoren nauer er on liue.      916
Þa comen þære twenti; teon of þan munten.      917
eotendes longe; muchele & stronge.      918
Heo tuȝen alle to-gadere; treon swiðe muchele,      919
heo leopen to Brutus folke; þer heo hurtes duden.     920
In are lutle stunde; heo slowen fif hundred.      921
mid stocken & mid stanen; stal-feht heo makeden.      922
& þa Troynisce men; mid strengðe wenden aȝein.      923
heo letten gliden heora flan; & þa eotendes fluȝen.      924
& heo letten heom to; gæres liðen.      925
Þa heo best wende to fleonne; þa weoren heo faie.     926
Þa niȝentene heo slowen; Geomagog heo nomen.      927
& he quic wes ibroht; bi-foren Brutone.      928

It befell on a day that Brutus and his douth
made holiday with high worship
with meat and with drink and merry glee
with silver and with gold that each bear in hand
with horse and with shrouds; bliss was in the household
was all the folk so blithe as they never were before in life
then came there twenty faring from the mounts
ettins long much and strong
they fared all together with trees swithe much
they ran to Brutus folk where they hurts did
in a little while they slew five hundred
with stocks and stones hard fight they made
and the Troy men with strength went (=turned) again
they let glide their arrows and the ettins flew
and they let to them spears lithe
that they best weened to fly, they were fay,
then nineteen they slew Gogmagog they took
and he quick was brought before Brutus.

“eotendes longe; muchele & stronge” is a lovely line. And mark that the ettins fight “mid stocken & mid stanen”. Although to fight with iron and steel weapons is not unheard of, thus in Bēowulf, lines 1687 to 1698, Hrōðgār looketh upon an “ealdsweord eotonisc” (line 1558) that Bēowulf found in Grendel's lair and readeth the runes written on it which oddly spoke of the flood that killed them. But stocks and stones fit the ettins better for their muchness and that they are weapons of naked might.

They didn't always abide in the mounts however

Wherever we have wild lands that are hard for men to live in then we are in ettin-land. In Bēowulf, line 426, Grendel is himself called a “thurse” “þyrse” and line 761 “ettin” “eoten” (in Bēowulf, Bēowulf himself, together with his fellows being called an “eotonweard” “ettin-ward” in line 668). Where Grendel liveth is araught as “fīfel‐cynnes eard” (line 104) or “æl‐wihta eard” (line 1500), “fīfel” and “æl‐wiht” being other names for an ettin and such like beings. This eard is always beyond the edge of those lands where men live:

Swā þā driht‐guman drēamum lifdon

ēadiglīce, oð þæt ān ongan 100

fyrene fremman, fēond on helle:

wæs se grimma gæst Grendel hāten,

mǣre mearc‐stapa, sē þe mōras hēold,

fen and fæsten; fīfel‐cynnes eard

So the king's men in bliss lived

happily, until that one began

misdeeds to do, a fiend in hell:

the grim ghost was hight Grendel,

well known mark-stepper, he the moors held,

fen and fastness; thurses' dwelling-land

Maxims II:

“… þyrs sceal on fenne ȝewunian

ana innan lande. …”.

“… a thurse must dwell in a fen

alone in the land. …”.

We can see something of this old belief in what Beda wrote in his Historia Ecclesiastica Book 4, chapitle 26 where we learn of the Farne island (“in insula Farne”) :

“Erat autem locus et aquae prorsus et frugis et arboris inops, sed et spirituum malignorum frequentia humanae habitationi minus accommodus; sed ad uotum uiri Dei habitabilis per omnia factus est, siquidem ad aduentum eius spiritus recessere maligni.”

“The place was quite destitute of water, corn, and trees; and being infested by evil spirits, very ill suited for human habitation;but it became in all respects habitable, at the desire of the man of God; for upon his arrival the wicked spirits withdrew.”

[The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, awending Lionel Cecil Jane Temple Classics outlaying by J. M. Dent & Co. (London), 1903]

The “spiritus maligni”   “evil spirits”   “wicked spirits” here is no more than Christian-speak for ettins or “thurses”. Thus Promptorium Parvulorum (London, British Library, Harley 221):

“Thyrce [Cambridge, King's College 8: thirse; Winchester, Chapter Library: Tyrce], wykkyd spyryte: Ducius.”

Medical Miscellany in Stockholm, Royal Library 10.90:

“Rosmarine... kepyth hym fro thresse and fro wykked spritys... for kyndely it is contrarious to deuelis and to wikkyd spritys”.

Ancrene Wisse (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 402):

“Þurh þe strengðe of eadmodnesse he weorp þe þurs of helle.”

Þe Liflade ant te Passiun of Seinte Iuliene (Bodley 34):

“Belzeebub, þe balde þurs of helle.”

And in an English metrical life (see The Life of St. Cuthbert in English Verse ‥, ed. J. T. Fowler, Sur. Soc. 87 London, 1891, (British Library, Egerton 3309), on Lindisfarne, before going to the Farne Island, we read of the same saint:

Þis lyf contemplatyue þan
Cuthbert in a priue place began,
In a place with oute his cell
Now calde þe thrus house, as men tell. 2180

“þe thrus house" would be a cave, but it is markworth that the name of the saint had not pushed out that of the thurse at the time this leeth was written. If this name was its old name before Cuthbert lived there, then the saint's name not having had the might to drive out that of the thurse is markworth. We have after all a "St. Cuthbert's Cave" in the Kyloe Hils on the mainland near Lindisfarne. Or is it that after Cuthbert left it the thurse came back?

We can also see this same lore giving rise to what we read in the Edda that the ettins hold, or are allowed to hold, lands at the edge of those where mankind dwell “með þeiri sjávarströndu” “by the sea strand” and beyond the brows of Ymir which are as the walls of a “borg” (see Gylfaginning 8). Still Ymir's brows were seemingly not much of a hardship for an ettin and could be gotten over. So then there is the thunder god as we have already marked, but even he was still not thought to be always enough. Thus the need for fire in Bifröst, the so-called “rainbow bridge" (see Gylfaginning 15):

“Þá mælti Gangleri: "Brenn eldr yfir Bifröst?"
Hárr segir: "Þat, er þú sér rautt í boganum, er eldr brennandi. Upp á himin mundu ganga hrímþursar ok bergrisar, ef öllum væri fært á Bifröst, þeim er fara vilja. ...”.

“Then said Gangleri: "Does fire burn over Bifröst?" Hárr replied: "That which thou seest to be red in the bow is burning fire; the Hill-Giants might go up to heaven, if passage on Bifröst were open to all those who would cross.” (Brodeur).

And walls for the gods' borough, Ásgarður, at the end of it (see Gylfaginning 42):

“... þá kom þar smiðr nökkurr ok bauð at gera þeim borg á þrim misserum svá góða, at trú ok örugg væri fyrir bergrisum ok hrímþursum, þótt þeir kæmi inn um Miðgarð, ...”.

“... there came at that time a certain wright and offered to build them a citadel in three seasons, so good that it should be staunch and proof against the Hill-Giants and the Rime-Giants, though they should come in over Midgard.” (awend. Brodeur).

For the Northerners, living as they do near the northern edge of Middle-Earth the ettins mainly lived by the sea to the far north. Thus Gylfaginning 1 Gefjun taketh four oxen from the ettins' home in the north (Hon tók fjóra öxn norðan ór Jötunheimum ), and th'ilk 37 where Freyur looketh northward to the ettins to see Gerður (En er hann leit í norðrætt, ...). Skáldskaparmál 3 (flýgr hann norðr í Jötunheima ) about Þjazi and 25 about Aurvandill (at hann hafði vaðit norðan yfir Élivága ok hafði borit í meis á baki sér Aurvandil norðan ór Jötunheimum ). But, bearing in mind the sea goeth all about Middle Earth, and the ettins live by the sea strand, there is nothing to stop them being found in the eastern, southern and western ends of the world also. Thus Ironwood is to the east of Middle-Earth (Gýgr ein býr fyrir austan Miðgarð í þeim skógi, er Járnviðr heitir) in Gylfaginning 12 and is the home of a “gýgr” an ettin-wife and “tröllkonur” (here troll-wives are meant I think, rather than its other meaning of witches) who beget ettins in wolves' shapes; and Gylfaginning 42 at the time of the building of the walls of Ásgarður, the Thunder-god is in the east fighting ettins (“en þá var hann farinn í austrveg at berja tröll ” “But Thor had then gone away into the eastern region to fight trolls.”). And this is edledged (=repeated) in Skáldskaparmál 24 with Hrungnir “at Þórr var farinn í austrvega at berja troll ” and th'ilk 41 with Ægir's guesting (“Þórr var eigi þar. Hann var farinn í austrveg at drepa troll.” “Þór was not there. He was faring on the east way to slay troll.”) and Gylfaginning 45 on his faring to Útgarður (“ok byrjaði ferðina austr í Jötunheima ok allt til hafsins ” “and began his journey eastward toward Jötunheim and clear to the sea”). But Surtur (see Gylfaginning 4) who liveth in the south is also an ettin, thus his name is found in the list of ettins' names in the name lists (Nafnaþulur) in some outlayings of Skáldskaparmál. Only in the west do the Northerners not seem to have put ettins, but this is made up for by our own forefathers who did. Thus Laȝamon's Hystoria Brutonum we find “þe eotend” (line 12849) slain by King Arthur on “Munt Seint Michel” had come “of westward Spaine”:

Nes he þere buten ane niht; þa com him to an hende cniht. 12803

he talde tidinge Arðure þan kinge. 12804

he seide þat þer wes icumen; a scaðe liðe. 12805

of westward Spaine; wel [d]reori feond 12806

and inne Brutaine. bisi wes to harme; 12807

bi þere sæ-side. þet lond he weste wide; 12808

nu hit hatte Munt Seint Michel; þat lond ewelde. Iwidel. 12809

He was not there but one night then came to him a hendy knight
he told tidings to King Arthur
he said there was come a scathe swiftly
from the west of Spain a well dreary fiend
and into [Little] Britain busy was to harm
by the sea-shore that land he wasted widely
now it hight Mont St.Michel, that land wielded every-deal

And Francis Beaumont The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1613) Act 1, scene 3:

“... for they say the King of Portugal cannot sit at his meat, but the giants and the ettins will come and snatch it from him. ”

A sting in the tale...

Now there is some old lore about Ettins, most needful for men to know, that is all but forgotten in the West, and seemingly lost sight of in the East. Yet can still be found out from their old books. Vishnu purana book 4, chapitle 15 (awend. H. H. Wilson):

“Those powerful Daityas who were killed in the conflicts between them and the gods were born again upon earth as men, as tyrants and oppressors; and, in order to check their violence, the gods also descended to the world of mortals,...”.

From which the sharp reader may well see that our earthly wyrd, whether we speak of sundry men and women only, or of a folk as a whole, is needfully linked to the everlasting unfrith between the gods and the ettins. As above, so below. And as we run through our own folk's wyrd in the coming posts we shall mark out the ettins in man-shape as also the gods. But it is worth marking here that among men on earth the down-coming of a god or ettin as an avatāraḥ ‎(अवतारः) is seldom likely to be a full one, but rather it is what is called an aṃśa-avatāraḥ ‎(अंशावतार:) a part avatāraḥ. Kings moreover were often thought of as these. Thus a prashasti ("praise") by the scop Trivikrama, wrought in the year 753 of the mean reckoning, and written on the Kasakadi (Kasakudi) plates, about the Pallava kings hath:

“From [them] descended the powerful, spotless Pallava dynasty [vaṁśāvatāra], which resembled a partial incarnation [aṃśāvatāra] of Visnu, as it displayed unbroken courage in conquering the circle of the world...and which resembled the descent of the Ganges [gaṅgāvatāra] as it purified the whole world.”

[Michael D. Rabe, "The Māmallapuram Praśasti: A Panegyric in Figures". Artibus Asiae. Vol. 57, No. 3/4 (1997): lf. 222]

But we must take care to tell asunder what are truly down-comings of the gods, however slight they may be, from the fawning words of a scop. By their deeds we will indeed know them.

Some More Ettin-lore

Many limbs.

The tale of their limbs was not settled:

“...the taiyl of the reyde eyttyn vitht the thre heydis, ...”.

Man-eaters

And they loved to eat man’s flesh, thus John Wyclif in his Sermones:

“…for no man is an etene to fede him þus bodili of Crist.”

[Select English Works of John Wyclif Edited From Original Mss. by Thomas Arnold, Oxford, 1871, Deal II, lf. 111]

Workers in Earth and Stone

They were linked to old man-made earth-works or stones, and stones which, although kindly (=natural), look man-made. Among these are the old ditches (‘to ænta dic’ now Andyke near Andover in Hamp’shire, see charter S962 [here] ) and long barrows (‘on enta hlew’ at Poolhampton in Overton, Hants., see charter S970 [here]) now often marked on maps as “Giant’s Graves”. In eastern Cornwall there is an old ditch called the “Giant’s Hedge,” running from Lerryn to Looe. In Bēowulf the drake’s barrow, the stanbeorh, stone-barrow, of line 2213, also called the eorðhuse, earth-house, line 2232, with its stanboȝan, stone bow or arch (line 2718), is enta ȝeweorc or giants’ work (line 2717) and eald enta ȝeweorc or old giants’ work (line 2774). In Sir Tristram from Auchinleck handwrit we find its like:

In on erþe house þai layn,
Þer hadde þai ioie ynouȝ.
Etenes bi old dayn                       2480
Had wrouȝt it, wiþouten wouȝ.
Ich niȝt, soþ to sain,
Þertil þai boþe drouȝ
Wiþ miȝt.

In an earth-house they lay,
Where they had happiness enough.
Ettins in olden days
Had wrought it, without wrong.
Each night, sooth to say,
Towards it they both drew
With might.

And those who know Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan, will find in this the beginning of his “La fossure a la gent amant” which was itself made: “vor Corineis jaren, do Risen da Herren waren” “Before Corineus' days, when Giants Lords there were” (lines 16691-16692). Bearing in mind that Tristan or Tristram and Isot or Ysonde of Yrlond (that is, Iseult) are nigh of kin to the Irish Diarmuid and Gráinne, it is worth marking here that many old court cairns, dolmens and wedge-shaped gallery graves are called "Diarmuid and Gráinne's Bed" (Leaba Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne), understood as one of the fleeing lovers' overnight camping steads. And thus the so-called Shilstones, “shelf-stones”, of Devonshire (see the so-called Spinsters' Rock near Drewsteingnton), are, in neighbouring Cornwall thought of as “Giants' Caves” or “Giants’ Quoits”.

Sometimes the name of an ettin is still minned as at Gill’s Grave, a long barrow on the slopes of Mount Caburn, near Lewes in Sussex, and who also gave his name to Gill’s Ridge near Crowborough and Gill’s Lap (A. A. Milne's Galleon's Lap) in Ashdown Forest.

Stonehenge, although seemingly called a stone gallows (henge), was also known as the ‘chorea gigantum’ or “giants’ choir/dance”. Laȝumon’s Hystoria Bruttonum line 8622 “...hit hatte þere Eotinde Ring.” This may well hark back to an earlier myth of ettins being forshaped to stone at sunrise while dancing and is best known from the folklore of the Haltadans stone circle on Fetlar in Shetland. In later folklore this was watered down to become a tale of wedding guests so forshaped for dancing on a Sun-day (as that at Stanton (Drew) in Somerset). And the overmany hurlers and merry/dancing maidens of Cornwall forshaped to stone likewise for doing what their names say they did on the sabbath, that is on a Sun-day.   A whisper of the old otherworldly threat to men from ettins may be minned in the lore about Rollright Stone Circle which are said to be an incoming here forshaped to stone after being outwitted by a witch. The earliest marking of this tale being in William Camden's Britannia (1607), under Oxfordshire §3:

“... quae Rollerich stones vulgus appellitat, homines olim fuisse qui in saxa stupenda metamorphosi riguerint somniat”

“... the common people usually call them Rolle-rich stones, and dreameth that they were sometimes men, by a wonderfull Metamorphosis turned into hard stones”.

Together with the old stones, ditches and long-barrows, the old Roman works (which were often left to moulder and fall down by the incoming Saxons and Angles), were at length understood also as the old works of ettins. The sadly broken leeth known as The Ruin from The Exchester Book, and which is swuttly about the old Roman buildings at Bath, writeth of them as ‘eald enta geweorc,’ work of old ents or ettins. And Maxims II hath:

                                           “…Ceastra beoð feorran gesyne,
                         orðanc enta geweorc, þa þe on þysse eorðan syndon,
                         wrætlic weallstana geweorc.”

                                             “… Chesters are from afar seen,
                           old-cunning work of ents, which on this earth are,
                           twisted wall-stone work.”

William Camden, Britannia (1607), under The ROMANS in BRITAIN:

“ita aedificiis et magnificis operibus instruxerunt, ut eorum reliquae et rudera maximam iam intuentibus admirationem commoveant, et vulgus nostrum opera Romanorum gigantum fuisse dicant, quos sua lingua in septentrionali plaga eatons pro heathens quasi ethnicos (ni fallor) vocitant.”

Which Philemon Holland awendeth:

“56. ...they furnished them also with goodly houses and stately buildings, in such sort that the reliques and rubbish of their ruines doe cause the beholders now exceedingly to admire the same: and the common sort of people doe plainly say, these Romane works were made by Giants, whom in the North parts they use to call in their vulgar tongue Eatons, for heathens (if I be not deceived) or Ethnicks.”

Eatons=Ettins. And here we are not so far from the tale in the Edda, Gylfaginning 42, of an ettin being hired by the gods to make the stone walls of Ásgarðr.

Nor is it far from what the Greeks wrote of the Cyclopes (οἱ Κύκλωπες), thus Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.16.5 :

“λείπεται δὲ ὅμως ἔτι καὶ ἄλλα τοῦ περιβόλου καὶ ἡ πύλη, λέοντες δὲ ἐφεστήκασιν αὐτῇ: Κυκλώπων δὲ καὶ ταῦτα ἔργα εἶναι λέγουσιν, οἳ Προίτῳ τὸ τεῖχος ἐποίησαν ἐν Τίρυνθι.”

“There still remain, however, parts of the city wall [of Mycenae], including the gate, upon which stand lions. These, too, are said to be the work of the Cyclopes, who made for Proetus the wall at Tiryns.”

And 2.25.8:

“προϊοῦσι δὲ ἐντεῦθεν καὶ ἐκτραπεῖσιν ἐς δεξιὰν Τίρυνθός ἐστιν ἐρείπια. … τὸ δὲ τεῖχος, ὃ δὴ μόνον τῶν ἐρειπίων λείπεται, Κυκλώπων μέν ἐστιν ἔργον, πεποίηται δὲ ἀργῶν λίθων, μέγεθος ἔχων ἕκαστος λίθος ὡς ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν μηδ᾽ ἂν ἀρχὴν κινηθῆναι τὸν μικρότατον ὑπὸ ζεύγους ἡμιόνων: λιθία δὲ ἐνήρμοσται πάλαι, ὡς μάλιστα αὐτῶν ἕκαστον ἁρμονίαν τοῖς μεγάλοις λίθοις εἶναι.”

“ Going on from here and turning to the right, you come to the ruins of Tiryns. ... The wall, which is the only part of the ruins still remaining, is a work of the Cyclopes made of unwrought stones, each stone being so big that a pair of mules could not move the smallest from its place to the slightest degree. Long ago small stones were so inserted that each of them binds the large blocks firmly together.”

[ Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ]

Strabo, Geography 8.6.11

“τῇ μὲν οὖν Τίρυνθι ὁρμητηρίῳ χρήσασθαι δοκεῖ Προῖτος καὶ τειχίσαι διὰ Κυκλώπων, οὓς ἑπτὰ μὲν εἶναι καλεῖσθαι δὲ γαστερόχειρας τρεφομένους ἐκ τῆς τέχνης, ἥκειν δὲ μεταπέμπτους ἐκ Λυκίας: καὶ ἴσως τὰ σπήλαια τὰ περὶ τὴν Ναυπλίαν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἔργα τούτων ἐπώνυμά ἐστιν.”

“Now it seems that Tiryns was used as a base of operations by Proetus, and was walled by him through the aid of the Cyclopes, who were seven in number, and were called "Bellyhands" because they got their food from their handicraft, and they came by invitation from Lycia. And perhaps the caverns near Nauplia and the works therein are named after them.”

[Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.]

J. R. R. Tolkien moreover, playeth with all this old lore in his well known works. Thus in The Two Towers Book III, Chap. 7:

“Men said that in the far-off days of the glory of Gondor the sea-kings had built here this fastness with the hands of giants. The Hornburg it was called, ...”

And The Return of the King Book V Chap. 1:

“And upon its out-thrust knee was the Guarded City, with its seven walls of stone so strong and old that it seemed to have been, not builded, but carven by giants out of the bones of the earth.”

Will there ever be an end of ettins?

They have arisen from the “ἔμπροσθεν ἕξεως” “earlier being” of things, thus Plato Politicus 273 b to c:

“παρὰ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ συνθέντος πάντα καλὰ κέκτηται: παρὰ δὲ τῆς ἔμπροσθεν [273c] ἕξεως, ὅσα χαλεπὰ καὶ ἄδικα ἐν οὐρανῷ γίγνεται, ταῦτα ἐξ ἐκείνης αὐτός τε ἔχει καὶ τοῖς ζῴοις ἐναπεργάζεται.”

“For from its Composer the universe has received only good things; but from its previous condition it retains in itself and creates in the animals all the elements of harshness and injustice [273c] which have their origin in the heavens.”

[Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.]

See also Timæus 29d to 30a. And it is worth bearing in mind here what the gods truly stand for, thus Phædrus 246 d to e:

“… τὸ δὲ θεῖον[246ε] καλόν, σοφόν, ἀγαθόν, καὶ πᾶν ὅτι τοιοῦτον: …”

“But the divine is beauty, wisdom, goodness, and all such qualities; ...”

[Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.]

And the answer is in Theætetus 176a:

Σωκράτης

“ἀλλ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἀπολέσθαι τὰ κακὰ δυνατόν, ὦ Θεόδωρε— ὑπεναντίον γάρ τι τῷ ἀγαθῷ ἀεὶ εἶναι ἀνάγκη—οὔτ᾽ ἐν θεοῖς αὐτὰ ἱδρῦσθαι, τὴν δὲ θνητὴν φύσιν καὶ τόνδε τὸν τόπον περιπολεῖ ἐξ ἀνάγκης.”

Socrates

“But it is impossible that evils should be done away with, Theodorus, for there must always be something opposed to the good; and they cannot have their place among the gods, but must inevitably hover about mortal nature and this earth”.