Bergelmir's wife

Bergelmir's wife and her husband are the only two Jotnar to survive the bloodshed when the Gods kill Ymir. Little is know of her from the old sources except for that and that she and her husband restart the Jotnar race which again become numerous.

I've had trouble sculpting female figures because my main reference always have been the mirror. It's finally started to loosen up a little. Main features to make a figure female is big hips and a small jaw. Big hips are emphasized by a extra narrow waist, and a small jaw is empathized by a extra large forehead. Usually my style have been figures with long faces and small foreheads, which I have realized is very hard to make feminine. Other general traits of a female face is that it has small features than a male face. Smaller chin, nose, jaw (especially important), ears, an almost absent brow and narrower eyebrows. Big eyelashes and heart shaped lips are also very feminine, but I was happy I managed to make her look feminine without those as those things takes more time to animate.

Her legs are not really made for walking, but that's OK as she won't use them in the movie. If she were to walk I would have to design her differently.

Bergelmir

Bergelmir is a frost giant, and one of Ymir's grandsons. His name means "Mountain Yeller". He is one of the very few Jotnar to escape the bloodshed and repopulate the Jotnar tribe after the Gods kill Ymir and the blood from Ymir's body creates a massive flood. In one of the old sources it's just Bergelmir and his wife who survives, in another he has his household with him. For the movie though it's more practical production wise that it's just him and his wife I have to sculpt and animate.

While making him I experimented a little bit with giving him texture. The brown plasticine was very sticky so my fingers left marks on the lighter green color which I then smoothed out. The texture gives more realism, but realism reduces the stylistic look so there's a fine balance. In the end I removed the texture from his face, shoulders and chest as those areas get the most light, and left it on his arms and back. His back won't be seen in the movie anyway, so it doesn't matter there.

Bolthorn

Bolthorn (also known as Boelthor) is a frost giant and Bestla's father, which makes him Odin, Vili and Ve's grandfather.

Six-Headed Troll

 

 

 

 

This is one of the first creatures to spawn out of the frost giant Ymir's body. His feet mate together and bear a son with six heads.

This was the most fun character to make, and will probably be the most memorable one from the movie. The plasticine puppet is about 20 cm tall I reckon. I've found that small pupils bring a lot of life to a puppet, and I was extra wary of that with this character. I've also given each head a different face expressions for this photo shoot to show that they each have their own personality.

Long after the Viking homelands were Christianized, people still believed in trolls for centuries. Most Norwegian fairy tales have a troll as the villain, typically with up to three heads. In the Viking sagas, some have many many more.

Troll

A troll is just one of many names creatures from the Jotnar tribe were given by the vikings. There were wolves, serpents and other creatures dangerous to the Vikings that were born from a Jotun woman.

This is not a character mentioned specifically in the myths, but rather one of the many Jotuns that spawned out of the frost giant Ymir's body. He is by far the scariest of all the characters in the movie.

The viking religion was not about good vs. evil, but order vs. chaos, which is a philosophical way of saying human vs. nature. The Aesir (the gods) were very "viking" in their behavior and could do really cruel things. However, as this film is for little kids, good vs. evil is easier to understand, so this troll was designed specifically to send the message that the Jotnar are evil. His long limbs and short torso are to resemble a spider, his skinny body to bring associations with disease, and his zombie-like blank eyeballs radiates death.

Tomorrow I will post the six-headed son parented by Ymir's two feet.

Bestla

Bestla is a Jotun woman (or a frost giantess if you will) and the Mother of Odin, Vili and Ve. Her father is the frost giant Bolthorn. I made her slightly bigger than her husband Borr.

This is the prettiest of all the characters made for the film. She is one of very few women, and her role is primarily to keep the chronology in order.

I thought she had to look pretty since she has children with an Aesir. Unfortunately I have less practice sculpting female heads, therefore I had to resort to making her more "real-life" where I have references I can use, but that's OK since she has so little screen time animating her wont be problematic. Usually my characters don't have eyelids and only a very simple mouth as eyes and mouths are animated a lot, but big eyelashes and big lips are feminine traits I wanted to include to make sure she looked pretty.

Ymir

Ymir (also known as Ymer or Yme) was a frost Giant and the largest creature that has ever existed. He was created from the ice of Niflheim and heat of Muspellsheim. While he slept, smaller frost giants spawned from his body forming the Jotnar race. A male and a female spawned from the sweat of his left armpit, and a six-headed son was conceived by his two feet.

When you look into the sky, what you see is the inside of Ymir's skull which the Gods placed as a dome over their creation. The clouds are pieces of his brain, the mountains are made from his bones, the earth from his flesh, the trees from his hair and the sea from his blood.

I made the surface of his body less smooth than I usually make my characters, as his main function in the story is being building material, therefore I wanted him to look a little bit "unfinished".