Angrboda (2024)

Angrboda (Old Norse: Angrboða, Nordic: ᚨᚾᚷᚱᛒᛟᛞᚨ) is a Jötunn, the best friend and love interest of Loki, and the current owner of Fenrir. She is also one of the last remaining giants of Jötunheim.

Norse Mythology[]

Not much is known of about Angrboða in Norse mythology except that she mainly lives in Ironwood and takes care of the wolves as her children. Angrboða appearance is obscure since all the women of Ironwood are described to be a combination of either Jötnar, witches and/or trolls.

One day, Angrboða met Loki and together they had three monster children: The giant wolf, Fenrir, the world serpent, Jörmungandr, and the half-dead/half-living goddess, Hel.

While Angrboða is never mentioned again, some scholars indicate that Angrboða, Fenrir and Jörmungandr could respectively be the same deities as Sigyn, Váli and Narfi. Since Váli was transformed into a wolf, and Narfi was transformed into a venomous serpent from his entrails.

In theGod of WarSeries[]

God of War (2018)[]

While she'snever directly seen in the game, Angrboda is seen in the first triptych of Jörmungandr's Shrine where she is seen breastfeeding a young Jörmungandr, alongside the Iron-Wolves in Ironwood. Angrboda is also part of Loki's Shrine but the last triptych was destroyed.

God of War Ragnarök[]

Angrboda first appears as a voice that calls out to Atreus as he dreams of Ironwood. Having been transported to the outskirts of the sanctuary by the Utgard, Atreus makes his way through the forest, followed closely by a pack of tamed wolves. Atreus makes his way to a clearing, where he finds a painting of himself, knife unsheathed while facing off against a kneeling girl with a paintbrush in her hand. Shortly after, the girl in the painting introduces herself, startling Atreus, who pulls his knife on her, fulfilling the painted events. The girl, a Jötunn, is about the same age as Atreus. She introduces herself as Angrboda, and their first meeting is sweetly awkward as Angrboda marvels at how Atreus appears weirder than she imagined him to be. But she quickly stops her monologuing and promptly takes Atreus through Ironwood.

Guiding him through Jötunheim, Angrboda takes Atreus through the locales of the forest. She tells him that she has waited all her life to meet him and that her destiny, in the grand scheme of the Ragnarök prophesy, is to tell him his destiny. She's lived nearly alone for a majority of her adolescence, painting visions and portraits, foraging for food, preserving what she could and taking care of the native animals of Jötunheim.

The two make their way to Angrboda's treehouse. Inside, three large stones are draped in blankets. Lifting the blankets, Angrboda shows Atreus a complete and fully rendered picture of his and Kratos' journey, including its inevitable end: the death of Kratos, Atreus' allegiance to Odin and the inevitability of Ragnarök. Frightened and overwhelmed, Atreus' loses control of his emotions and shapeshifting abilities, transforming into a golden wolf to attack the painting, but Angrboda is able to calm him down, letting Atreus transform back.

Seeing how emotionally shaken he is, Angrboda decides to teach Atreus about his heritage and newfound Jötnar powers, in hopes of taking his mind off the prophecy. She introduces him to her pet yak, Jalla, her faithful companion since childhood. The two travel through the waterways of Jötunheim, collecting roots and greenbulbs, as well as battling monsters that have made their way into Jötunheim.

Having reached their destination in a large rock formation, Angrboda reaches into a hole within the rock and pulls out a small bag filled with marble-like stones that Atreus finds familiar. Each marble is inscribed with different names, and Angrboda reveals that when the Jötunns first retreated into Jötunheim after Thor and Odin's systematic slaughter of the Midgard Giants, they waited in fear for days, believing that Odin, Thor and the rest of the Aesir would find a way into Jötunheim to finish what they had started. In an attempt to quell their growing fear, the decision was made by Angrboda's father (and likely with the help of her mother and Grýla) to whisper the souls of the remaining Jötunheim Giants into their personally crafted soul marbles, in the hopes of bringing them peace as they waited for their champion, Atreus, to put an end to Odin's tyranny. In the event that Odin and Thor did manage to find their way into Jötunheim, the empty bodies of much larger Giants were laid out near The Giants' Fingers in the hopes that Odin would believe that the giants had died in their realm.

Angrboda informs Atreus that, in addition to being The Champion of the Jötnar, it was also his destiny to be the keeper of their souls. Angrboda hands him the bag. Shocked by the realization, Atreus tries to convince Angrboda to come back with him to Midgard. However, due to her upbringing, Angrboda refuses this request, citing her disappearance in his rest of his prophesy as an excuse not to follow him back home.

As the two are making their way back to Angrboda's treehouse, a wolf is caught in a trap. Atreus tries to help the creature, but is stopped by Angrboda. The two keep cover as a large creature captures the wolf and drags it away. Angrboda soon explains that the creature that captured the wolf is her paternal grandmother, Grýla, a large Giant who lives in Ironwood with Angrboda. Angrboda explains that when her mother and father died, Grýla changed due to her grief. Although not directly explained, it's hinted that due to Angrboda's role in the prophesy of Ragnarök, her family was chosen to stay behind and live on in Ironwood. This meant that Grýla and the rest of Angrboda's family lived in a prison, with no way in or out of Jötunheim. No longer was she kind and caring to Angrboda. Instead, Grýla became callous and cold-hearted. Using her magic and her ability to whisper souls, Grýla began trapping animals and creatures living in Jötunheim to steal their souls, believing that she was sparing them from pain and suffering.

Determined to rescue the wolf, Angrboda and Atreus head to Grýla's home. The two enter and descend down into the basem*nt, where they find more soulless animals. Disheartened, they are about to leave, when Atreus urges Angrboda to help him. Digging into the bag, Atreus pulls out a soul marble, determined to use the soul to revive a soulless snake. Angry, Angrboda tries to stop him, but Atreus' convinces her of his role. Interweaving their hands in the shape of a heart, the two push a Giant's soul into the snake, reviving it. Wordlessly they watch the snake slither into the darkness and Angrboda and Atreus make their way out. They stop as Grýla returns home with the Wolf in hand.

Using herself as a distraction, Angrboda calls out to her Grandmother while Atreus goes to rescue the wolf. However, Atreus is not fast enough as Grýla catches him. Using her magic, Angrboda blinds her grandmother, and the three giants fight. The battle ends when Angrboda and Atreus grab Grýla's cauldron (the source of her magic) and shatters it.

Devastated at the loss of her magic, Grýla angrily disowns Angrboda, telling her that she should have been thrown to the wolves when she was born. Grýla continues to berate Angrboda, yelling that the young Giantess will amount to nothing, just as the prophesy predicted. She would be forgotten by Loki (Atreus) as he would be too busy mourning his father. Grýla then threatens to kill Angrboda if she ever sees her again.

Deeply saddened, Angrboda and Atreus make their way back to her Treehouse. Angrboda gives Atreus Laufey's, his mother's, marble. She remarks that now that Atreus knows of his prophesy and legacy, her role in his story is over. Dejected, Angrboda tells Atreus that he can stay for as long as he wants. Giving her a comforting look, Atreus remarks that her story is as big as she wants it to be and promises her that he'll see her again. Smiling, Angrboda then prompts Atreus to close his eyes and think of home. Clutching his mother's marble, Atreus commands the magic of The Utgard to take him home. When he opens his eyes and askes Angrboda if he had preformed the spell correctly, he finds himself back within his bed within the Midgard cabin, having left Angrboda and the Ironwood forest behind.

After this, Atreus is encountered multiple times throughout the game by Angrboda, as well as hinted at by him as he keeps the secret of Ironwood's existence.

In Muspelheim, as Atreus is exploring the lava regions with Thor looking for a piece of the Mask, Angrboda sneaks up on Atreus near Surtr's shrine. The two banter and Atreus points out that Angrboda searching for marbles wasn't in her prophesy. The two enter Surtr's shrine; they find his marble, and also witness (and awkwardly remark) Surtr and Sinmara's love story.

Angrboda is not directly named, but is hinted at when Thrud remarks that Midgard boys are very weird in relation to Skjöldr's awkward flirting towards her. Atreus says that "weird can be good", calling back to when Angrboda called him weird.

She is also hinted at when Atreus and Kratos are in Helheim. Kratos believes that Atreus learned his newfound abilities with wolf shapeshifting and soul whispering from Odin, but Atreus remarks that he learned it from someone else and that the reason why he's keeping their identity a secret is because of a promise made with the same urgency and love that Kratos felt when he promised that he would carry out Faye's last wishes.

Atreus later asks Mimir on how to gain a girl's affection (secretly referring to Angrboda) as his previous attempt with him giving Angrboda a flower didn't seem to work. However, unbeknownst to Atreus, Angrboda later decided to find and keep a similar flower in her treehouse as a reminder of him. It is also speculated that before officially leaving for his champions' journey, Atreus returned to Jotunheim for one last visit, and secretly left Angrboda the flower on her painting table as a token of his affection for her.

Angrboda is seen again in near Kratos and Atreus' old cabin home, sneaking up on Atreus. The two talk and Angrboda shows Atreus his marble which is how she is able to sneak up on him in Muspelheim and Midgard. Atreus tells her of his time within Asgard and his deception of Odin. Angrboda warns him to be careful. Before he leaves, Atreus asks Angrboda to take care of Fenrir for him. Angrboda agrees.

Briefly, she is seen riding on Fenrir during the battle of Ragnarök. Fenrirars open a portal and Angrboda and the giant wolf are pursued by a Valkyrie. She is also seen again during the final moments of Ragnarök, as Freyr holds back Ragnarök's sword, Fenrir opens a portal, allowing the rest of Kratos and Atreus' army to escape.

When Atreus awakens and makes his way through the survivors he meets Skjöldr that informs him that Angrboda's wolves have helped the Midgardians with hunting, having plenty to feed everyone as Fimbulwinter ends.

Angrboda is seen later again and the two talk about the "Giant Vision", in which Atreus' must leave to find the rest of the Giant soul marbles, as well as investigate whether or not other Giants had migrated to other lands beyond the Nine Realms. Smiling, Angrboda announces that she has something to show to him, as well as Kratos, who had been waiting silently as to not ruin the moment. She takes them up a mountain, in which she shows them a secret shrine. The Shrine reveals that Faye turned against her own people to protect her family, hence why she argued with the giants and destroyed the last triptych of Loki's shrine in Jötunheim so her husband and son could forge their own path.

Near the end, when Atreus is about leave for his journey, Angrboda gifts him a marble --her marble-- so that in the future, he will be able to find her and visit her during his journey. The two embrace, and she and Kratos watches as Atreus, now having fully accepted his identity as Loki, leaves.

As Loki is out of sight, Angrboda sadly returns home to Jötunheim with Fenrir. As Kratos closes Laufey's Shrine, he sees there is another shrine, Fárbauti's Shrine, his own shrine. To Kratos surprise, on the last triptych, Angrboda have painted a new prophecy over the old one. As Kratos opened his heart, he would no longer die by the hands of Thor but instead survive and become a beloved god, worshipped by mortals as Fárbauti.

In the post-game, Angrboda is visited in Jötunheim by Kratos, Mimir and Freya who becomes more acquainted with her and her history.

When Kratos and Mimir enter Atreus' room back in Sindri's house, Kratos starts a private conversation with Mimir. Confiding with the disemboided head, Kratos askes Mimir if he had done enough to preprare Atreus for the world. Mimir responds that Atreus has managed to survive Ragnarök, and that he's as ready as any god could be. However, while Kratos agrees that Atreus knows how to survive, he askes if Atreus knows how to love. Mimir appears confused by this, prompting Kratos to mention Atreus' growing relationship with Angrboda. Mimir catches on, and tells Kratos that he had spoken to Atreus on the subject of puberty and romantic relationships as best he could. Kratos then askes: "Then you...taught the boy to...woo?" Mimir reassures Kratos that he indeed taught Atreus how to woo, and that he had taught him how Mimir himself wished he had woo'd.

While in Jotunheim, Mimir jokingly teases Angrboda about how she left an impression on Atreus' young heart. Kratos scolds Mimir, but the disembodied head remarks that Kratos was also thinking the same thing. Freya soon scolds the both of them, and says that Angrboda is a cherished ally, and that the three hope to see her again soon in the future.

In another conversation, Kratos takes note of Angrboda's paintings. Mimir compliments her on her use of color, while Kratos highlights Atreus' love of drawing. When Angrboda suggests that Atreus could experience some discipline when it comes to his artistic talent, Kratos chuckles and says "I like you," to Angrboda. This is seen as a highly significant compliment, as it is often very difficult to gain Kratos' fondness for most things.

In one final conversation, Kratos askes Angrboda if she is the last of her kind. Angrboda tells him that she isnt. She tells Kratos that she lives within the Ironwood with her Grandmother, who is currently helping forage for food. Mimir remarks that Gryla should be proud to have Angrboda as a granddaughter. Dejected, Angrboda says that one day Gryla might be proud of her. But as of right now, it's a start.

During a boat ride conversation with Freya and Kratos, Mimir comments that when he had first meet Angrboda back in Jotunheim, he had wanted to ask the young Giantess what her intentions were regarding her and Atreus relationship. However, after meeting her and seeing her in her natural home, all of the preconceived doubts about her motives were dismissed. Freya chuckles and remarks that such is a question is normal for every parent to ask when it comes to their children's relationships. Kratos ends the conversation by saying that since he had trusted Angrboda with his life during Ragnarok, he trusts her with Atreus.

Appearance[]

Angrboda is a pretty short and slender girl, who has brown skin, brown eyes, and long black dreadlocks being held together in a complicated pattern using a hand-carved, reindeer antler hairpiece. She also has a golden threaded hair wrap in a specific dreadlock. Along her neck, forehead and chin, she has subtle shades of golden tattoo pigment.

In terms of dress, Angrboda wears a blue and gray tattered hangerok over a white tunic, adorned with a homemade necklace using natural colored rocks and a few snake ornaments from her homeland, Jötunheim. The tunic itself is clipped together using an intricate golden clasp, a symbol of unity for the Jötnar. The brown leather corset around her lower stomach was made using traditional Jötnar design work and craftsmanship. Along her belt she has rings hanging so she can collect harvested resources. She also wears a leather bracer on her right arm made from animal hide with a bronze arm band on the end, to finish her arm piece, she wears an intricate metal design over it. On her hip she holds an indigo dyed leather back with orange dust sprinkled onto it, likely her paints. In terms of her shoes she wears brown, open-front boots with a vertical rib design, Keeping her boots lightweight and flexible, but durable, followed by a burnished copper boot guard.

Powers & Abilities[]

• Jötunn Physiology: As a giant, Angrboda possesses all of the standard attributes of one such as increased strength, stamina, and agility, as well as exceptional longevity.
• Precognition: Angrboda, like any giant, can see future events. This is shown in her paintings and portraits, as well as the small moments where Angrboda is able to notice Atreus coming to greet her.
• Giant Magic: As a giant, Angrboda knows the ancient magic of the giants. Dubbed "Giant stuff" by Angrboda herself, it's strongly noted that giant magic is in the same vein as Vanir magic, as Angrboda remarks that it was the Vanir who learned to wield magic from the Jötnar. Her magic comes in the form of her paints, in which she throws around the battlefield in a wonderful array of colors violet, blue, red or yellow.
• Spell Casting: Despite her young age, Angrboda has shown great skill with spells, being able to cast several quickly with just a word or hand gestures.
• Animal Handling: Like most of her Giant brethren, Angrboda has the profound ability to handle animals with ease. Her main animal companions are her pet yak, Jalla, as well as her fenic fox, Eisa. Angrboda also takes care of the animals that have lost their souls due to Gryla's magic. She also takes care of the pack of wolves that call Ironwood home, and notes that they are "good friends." It is also mentioned that she developed a relationship with Jormungandr when he was growing in Jotunhiem after his resurrection. Near the end of the game, Angrboda is seen taking care of Fenrir at the behest of Atreus.
• Expert Rider: Angrboda is shown to be an expert rider. She is often seen riding Jalla through the waters of Ironwood and Eisa through the widing canyons. During Ragnarok, Angrboda is seen riding Fenrir through the carnage.

Gallery[]

Concept Arts[]

Cosplay Guide[]

Angrboda's Treehouse[]

Trivia[]

• Angrboda was also known as the woman of grief as her name means "sorrow".
• When Angrboda races Atreus on Iði's medallion, both are depicted on the medallion with their three monster children, with Loki as the golden wolf, Angrboda as the golden fox, Fenrir as the silver wolf, Jörmungandr as the silver serpent and Hel as the silver humanoid.
• Eric Williams has hinted that Loki and Angrboda are most likely going to be "a thing" in later installments of the God of War games.
• Like most of her Giant brethren, Angrboda has the ability to connect and care for animals with ease. Other giants include Laufey, who's animal companion was Jöphie, a gyrfalcon; Skadi, who's triptych has her surrounded by wolves and boars, as well as showcases her riding on a great stag; And Atreus, who's innate connection to the wolves, Speki, Svanna, Sköll, Hati, Garm and Fenrir is shown heavily through the story.
• Angrboda's spirit animal is depicted as a fox. Other spirit animals include Kratos, who is depicted as a bear; Atreus, who is depicted as a wolf; Laufey, who is depicted as a falcon.
• The lyrics of her OST "Giantess of Ironwood", Angrboda is given the title: "The Mother of Wolves."
• In the game, Angrboda preforms a Kulning - An ancient Scandinavian singing technique that is used to heard cows and bovine. Angrboda frequently preforms this in order to call Jalla to multiple areas within the game.
• According to Brok, he has seen Angrboda near the old Jötnar shrines.
  • This is revealed in the cosplay guide.