Jotun

Some with disdain his reasons heard, / While others wisht the cause deferr'd. / Then Ormur spake, in speech of scorn, / Ormur, the friend of Asbiorn, / Who, daring singly to engage, / A jotun, proved his fatal rage.

When Christianity became the religion of the people the trolls gradually assumed something of the role formerly played by the more powerful Jotuns.

When Odin was still young – before he had hanged himself on Yggdrasil and drunk from the Well of Wisdom – his eyes had fallen on a jotun named Loki.

The world in which the æsir and jötnar play out their struggle has its own set of place-names but is essentially recognizable as Scandinavia. There are rivers, mountains, forests, oceans, storms, cold weather, fierce winters, eagles, ravens, salmon, and snakes.