InNorse mythology,Járnviðr (Old Norse "Iron-wood"^[1]) is a forest located east ofMidgard, inhabited bytrollwomen who borejötnar and giantwolves. Járnviðr is attested in thePoetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and theProse Edda, written in the 13th century bySnorri Sturluson.

Járnvid is mentioned inVöluspá(40):

In the east sat an old woman in Iron-wood

and nurtured there offspring of Fenrir

a certain one of them in monstrous form

will be the snatcher of the moon

—Völuspá^[2]

The one that will be "the snatcher of the moon" isMánagarmr (orHati), and the "old woman" may refer toFenrir's motherAngrboða.^[1]

Snorri Sturluson quotes this stanza and expands it in hisGylfaginning(12):

A witch dwells to the east of Midgard, in the forest called Ironwood: in that wood dwell the troll-women, who are known as Ironwood-Women [járnviðjur]. The old witch bears many giants for sons, and all in the shape of wolves; and from this source are these wolves sprung. The saying runs thus: from this race shall come one that shall be mightiest of all, he that is named Moon-Hound [Mánagarmr]; he shall be filled with the flesh of all those men that die, and he shall swallow the moon

—Gylfaginning^[3]

The form"Járnviðjur" ("Ironwoodite"^[1]) is nowhere else to be found, but in singular, Járnviðja is listed in theþulur as a troll-wife, and in 10th centuryskaldEyvindr Skáldaspillir'sHáleygjatal(2), referring to the goddessSkaði.

• Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999).The Poetic Edda.Oxford World's Classics.ISBN 0-19-283946-2
• Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (Trans.) (1916).The Prose Edda. New York:The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
• Lindow, John (2001).Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs.Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-515382-0

• Places in Norse mythology
• Mythological forests
• Trolls

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