Hyrrokkin was a mighty Norse giantess of tremendous strength — the jötunn whom the gods summoned to launch Baldr's great funeral ship, when not even the gods themselves could move it. Riding a wolf and bridled with serpents, she pushed the enormous ship into the sea with a single shove so powerful it shook the whole world, in one of the most vivid scenes of the Baldr myth.
The Fire-Withered Giantess
Hyrrokkin (Old Norse Hyrrokkin, perhaps “fire-smoked” or “withered by fire”) was a giantess renowned for her colossal strength — among the strongest of all the jötnar. She makes her great appearance in the aftermath of the death of Baldr, the shining god, when the grieving gods sought to give him a worthy funeral upon his enormous ship, Hringhorni, the greatest of all ships, by setting it alight and pushing it out to sea as his pyre.
The Launching of Baldr's Ship
The trouble was that Baldr's ship was so vast that the gods could not move it — for all their divine strength, they could not push the great vessel down into the water to launch the funeral. And so they sent to the land of the giants for help, summoning the giantess Hyrrokkin, the one being mighty enough for the task. She came in fearsome style: riding upon an enormous wolf as her steed, with venomous serpents for reins and bridle — a terrifying sight even to the gods. So wild was her wolf-mount that four berserkers had to hold it down (and could only do so by knocking it senseless) when she dismounted.
The World-Shaking Shove
Hyrrokkin strode to the great ship, set her hands to it, and gave it a single mighty push. The ship shot forward into the sea with such tremendous force that fire flew from the rollers beneath it and the whole earth shook — a shove so powerful it was felt across the world. The gods, and especially the watching Thor, were so taken aback (and Thor, in his pride, so affronted that a giantess had done what the gods could not) that Thor raised his hammer and would have killed her on the spot, had the other gods not intervened and asked mercy for her. Hyrrokkin had accomplished, with one shove, what all the assembled gods together could not.
The Strength Beyond the Gods
Hyrrokkin endures as one of the most memorable of the Norse giantesses — the fire-withered giant of immense strength who rode a wolf bridled with serpents and launched Baldr's funeral ship with a single world-shaking shove. She embodies the recurring Norse theme that the giants possessed powers that could match or exceed even the gods', and she gives the tragic funeral of Baldr one of its most striking images: the terrifying giantess on her serpent-reined wolf, pushing the burning ship of the dead god out into the sea with a force that shook the earth.
When all the gods together could not move Baldr's funeral ship, they sent for a giantess on a wolf bridled with serpents — and she launched it with one shove that set the rollers afire and shook the whole world.