Þjazi (Old Norse: Þjazi, also Þjázi) is a powerful giant who abducts the goddess Iðunn in eagle form, causing the gods to begin aging, and whose death at the hands of the Æsir precipitates his daughter Skaði’s armed arrival at Ásgarðr. He is one of the better-attested jötunn in the primary sources, appearing in both the Prose Edda (Skáldskaparmál, Gylfaginning) and the skaldic poem Haustlöng by Þjóðólfr of Hvinir.

The myth: Þjazi, in eagle form, forces Loki — whom he has seized — to promise to deliver Iðunn and her apples into his power. Loki lures Iðunn outside Ásgarðr and Þjazi carries her off to his mountain hall Þrymheimr. When Loki retrieves Iðunn, Þjazi pursues in eagle form and is killed when the Æsir light a fire at the walls of Ásgarðr. His eyes are said by Snorri to have been thrown into the sky by Odin, where they became stars.

Þjazi is the son of the giant Ölvaldi and brother of Iði and Gangr, whose division of their father’s gold in mouthfuls is referenced in Skáldskaparmál as the origin of certain gold-kennings.