with hammerFASOLT

Real Name: Fasolt

Identity/ClassExtradimensional (Jotunheim; associated with the Asgardian cosmology) Storm Giant

Occupation: Warrior, architect/builder

Group Membership: Jotuns (Giants of Jotunheim)

Affiliations:Formerly Fafnir the Jotun, Idunn (he loved her, though she would consider him an enemy)

Enemies: Fafnir the Jotun, Frey, Idunn (see affiliations), Loki, Odin, Thor

Known Relatives: Fafnir (brother)

Aliases: None;
    Fafnir called him "fool" and "whimperer"

Base of Operations: Presumably Hel (within the Asgardian cosmology);
    formerly a cave in Jotunheim (within the Asgardian cosmology)

First Appearance: (Wagner's Fasolt Das Rhinegold (The Rhinegold), the first of four parts in the opera "Der Ring Des Nibelung" (The Ring of the Nibelung) opera (September 22, 1869);
    (Marvel's Fasolt)
Thor I#294 (April, 1980)

Powers/Abilities/Traits: Fasolt was immensely strong (perhaps Class 50) and durable, as well as immune to aging and perhaps resistant to conventional disease. 

    He was a skilled architect and builder, and an experienced warrior. He carries a dagger and sometimes wields a wooden hammer in battle. 

    Fasolt was lonely and wanted a female companion, even if she was far too small for any physical relations.

Height: Approximately 25'
Weight: Unrevealed; based on the above height, if normal human density, he would be approximately 14,500 lbs. (7.25 tons); if 2-3x human density as has been reported, he would be 29,000 - 43, 500 lbs. (14.5 - 21.75 tons)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

History

building Valhalla(Thor I#294 (fb) - BTS) - Odin recreated the Asgardian gods shortly after -- in one of the many cycles of death and rebirth of the Asgardian gods -- Odin was reborn via the merging of previous incarnations of Magni, Modi, Vili, and Ve.

(Thor I#294 (fb) - BTS) - The giants Fafnir and Fasolt battled Thor, Frey, and other gods.

(Thor I#294 (fb) - BTS) - Fasolt often complained about how their cave-dwelling needed a woman's touch. 

(Thor I#294 (fb) - BTS) - Manipulated by Loki, Odin enlisted Fafnir and Fasolt to build the great hall Valhalla in a short time span with the goddess Idunn to be their payment; Loki promised Odin that this price need never be paid. 

(Thor I#294 (fb) - BTS) - While Fasolt wanted Idunn to be his lover, Fafnir wanted Idunn because she was the goddess of immortality and possessed the golden apples that granted the gods their immortality.

(Thor I#294 (fb)) - As Odin looked on with pleasure as Fafnir and Fasolt worked upon Valhalla, noting that -- while he hated all Storm Giants -- they did good work, Frigga noted her disgust at the terms of the agreement. Odin assured her he never would have agreed to those terms had not Loki promised him Idunn would not be actually given up, though he remained uneasy with not knowing how Loki would bring this about.

    Just them, Loki arrived with Idunn, who he had taken against her will, and Fafnir reached down and grabbed Idunn, telling Fasolt how their cave would now have the warm touch of a goddess of Asgard. Admitting he wanted her for her beauty, Fasolt begged Fafnir not to harm her. face

    While Odin stood by helplessly, bound by his agreement, and ordered Loki to begin his promised plotting, Idunn's screams summoned Thor and Frey. Fasolt noted they had no quarrel with Thor, and Fafnir agreed that this day they only want what they had earned and been promised: Idunn. Thor struck Fafnir's hand with his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, causing him to painfully drop Idunn into Thor's arm, after which Thor and Fafnir battled. 

    However, Odin then ordered Thor and Frey to sheathe their weapons or he would strike them down. The giants were willing to continue fighting, and Fasolt added that not even Thor could stand against them both.

(Thor I#295 (fb)) - When Fasolt's strikes led Thor to warn him that his "puny smitings" but served to rouse his wrath, Fasolt warned that he would strike him again and again until he was forever fallen. Fafnir told Fasolt to slay Thor, noting he would have done it himself, but Thor had felled him before his was prepared. Thor struck back, knocking the wind out of Fasolt with a punch in the gut, then battered Fafnir into submission after which he picked up Fafnir and threw him into Fasolt, smashing both against a tree.

    Odin then commanded Thor to halt, and as Thor argued, Fafnir and Fasolt recovered, and Fafnir told Odin to tell Thor the truth, upon which Fasolt explained how the loss of Idunn was caused by Odin's own greed and folly. Fasolt also shared how they had done what Odin had thought they couldn't and that they demanded their lovely wage.

    When Odin told Loki to make good on his vow to release Odin from thie bargain, Loki told of the Rhinegold horde -- stolen from the Rhinemaidens by the gnome Alberich -- and remarked how Alberich had it fashioned it into a ring that would grant its owner supreme power over Earth and the gods alike. After some brief, secretive discussion, Fasolt told Odin they were moved by his plight and would accept a lesser gift than Idunn, which Fafnir named as the Ring of the Nibelung. When Odin told them he didn't have the ring and that the giants should seek it themselves if they wanted, Fafnir noted that that required cunning when they only had might, after which he led Fasolt to snatch Idunn and flee. Odin stopped Thor's pursuit. death

(Thor I#295 (fb) - BTS) - Knowing the gods would perish bereft of Idunn's golden apples, which maintained their immortality, Odin led Thor and Loki to the domain of the Nibelung to steal Alberich's ring. 

(Thor I#295 (fb) - BTS) - Sensing Odin's triumph, and thus their own, Fafnir and Fasolt returned to Asgard. 

(Thor I#295 (fb)) - Alongside Thor and Loki, Odin returned to Asgard bearing the Ring of Power (which Alberich had cursed: "No man or god shall rejoice in possessing this ring -- though all in Heaven or Earth shall lust for it"), an immense gold horde Alberich had created via the Ring, and the Tarnhelm, a magic helmet granting invisibility powers. Odin offered the giants the golden horde and the Tarnhelm in exchange for Idunn, and while Fasolt marveled at how the pile of gold was nearly as tall as Idunn, Fafnir instead demanded Odin give them the ring as well of they wanted Idunn back. Though Odin was under the ring's influence, he was convinced by the prophetess Erda to give up the ring or risk a mournful day for Valhalla long before its time. 

    Odin tossed the ring atop the gold horde, and while Fasolt returned Idunn to Thor, noting how he would miss her when icy winds sliced through Jotunheim, Fafnir claimed the ring, the larger circle of which, whether by magic or design, fit his finger perfectly. When Fasolt asked what of him, Fafnir told him they would split the rest of the gold, though he would take both the larger portion and the Tarnhelm himself as well. 

    Fasolt argued not while he lived, and Fafnir replied, "Then live no longer, whimperer!" and grabbed him by the neck and threatened him with his dagger. Drawing his own dagger, Fasolt shouted that he would have the ring at least, but Fafnir grabbed Fasolt's dagger-hand and knocked him to the ground, telling his brother, "You were never my equal in strength, the best day you did breathe --" and, while fatally stabbing Fasolt in the neck added "-- and in death, you are only equal to the worms!"

    Screaming in pain, Fasolt perished. 


Comments: Adapted by Roy Thomas, Keith Pollard, Chic Stone.

    In the original myths, Fafnir was actually a dwarf rather than a giant. In Wagner's Das Rheingold, Fafner was a giant and the brother of Fasolt, and it is this story on which this version of Fafnir was based.

    Fafnir and Fasolt were based on the giants from Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), the first of four parts in the opera "Der Ring Des Nibelung" (The Ring of the Nibelung) opera. More to follow on that, but you can Google it for more information.

    These stories were among those told to Thor by the Eye of Odin, and the events therein, particularly the origins of the current Odin incarnation, have been called into question. 

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Fasolt
should be distinguished from:


images: (without ads)
Thor I#294, pg. 14, panel 4 (with Fafnir, building Valhalla);
        last panel (with war hammer)
    #295, pg. 16, panel 3 (death)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#3: Giants of Jotunheim (face)


Appearances:
Thor I#294-295 (April-May, 1980) - Roy Thomas (writer/editor), Keith Pollard (penciler), Chic Stone (inker), Jim Shooter (consulting editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#3: Giants of Jotunheim (September, 1989) - Peter Sanderson (writer/researcher), Javier Salter (art), Sara Tuchinsky (asssistant editor), Gregory Wright (editor), Mark Gruenwald (executive editor)


First Posted: 05/28/2016
Last updated: 05/28/2016

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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