Grid was a benevolent giantess of Norse myth — the mother, by Odin, of the silent avenger-god Vidar, and the friend who armed Thor with three life-saving gifts when the thunder-god went weaponless into the deadly hall of the giant Geirrod. She is a rare and welcome figure: a giant who was a true friend and helper to the gods.
The Friendly Giantess
Grid (Old Norse Gríðr) was a jötunn — a giantess — yet, unlike most of her kind, she was a friend and ally of the gods rather than an enemy. By Odin, she became the mother of Vidar, the silent god who is fated to avenge his father by slaying the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarök and to survive into the world reborn. As Vidar's mother, Grid stands among the giant-women who bore children to the gods, mingling the two kindreds — and she was clearly counted a friend of Asgard, dwelling in her own hall and ready to aid the gods at need.
The Arming of Thor
Grid's great deed was the saving of Thor. When the treacherous giant Geirrod schemed to kill the thunder-god by luring him to his hall without his hammer Mjölnir, his belt of strength, or his iron gloves, Thor set out into terrible danger stripped of all that made him invincible. On the way, he stopped at the hall of Grid — and the friendly giantess, knowing Geirrod's murderous intent, warned Thor of the trap that awaited him and lent him three precious gifts of her own to take the place of his missing gear: her magical staff (the Gríðarvölr, “Grid's staff”), her own belt of strength, and her own iron gloves.
The Gifts That Saved a God
Each of Grid's three gifts proved essential to Thor's survival. When a flooding river (raised by Geirrod's daughter) threatened to sweep him away, Thor braced himself and hauled himself out using Grid's staff. When the giant's hall held a seat that shot up to crush him against the roof, Thor jammed Grid's staff against the rafters and pushed back, crushing the daughters hiding beneath. And when Geirrod hurled a glowing lump of red-hot iron to kill him, Thor caught it in Grid's iron gloves and hurled it back through the giant, killing him. Without the giantess's gifts, the unarmed thunder-god would surely have died in Geirrod's hall. Grid's timely warning and her three borrowed treasures were what carried Thor through.
The Giant Who Helped the Gods
Grid endures as one of the most sympathetic of the Norse giants — the friendly giantess who bore Odin the avenger Vidar and who saved Thor's life with her warning and her gifts. She embodies the truth, woven throughout Norse myth, that the line between gods and giants was never simple: that the jötnar were not merely enemies but also kin, lovers, mothers and friends of the gods, and that even among the giants there were those who stood with Asgard. Grid is the giant who, twice over — as the mother of an avenger and the arming friend of Thor — was a benefactor of the gods.
When the thunder-god went weaponless into a giant's death-trap, it was a giantess who warned him and lent him staff, belt and iron gloves — and so a giant saved the slayer of giants.