Thor
"Attention has already been called in the general introduction to the fact that Thor was the Norseman's real chief divinity from a very ancient time, and that his name 'the…
From: Unknown To: 1913 C.E.
Location: Scandinavia
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“Thor,” from A Handbook of Norse Mythology by Karl Mortensen, 1913.
Worship of Odin and Thor
Attention has already been called in the general introduction to the fact that Thor was the Norseman's real chief divinity from a very ancient time, and that his name "the Thunderer" designates only a single side of the God of Heaven; but he was later understood to be an independent, personal being. Odin worship is far younger and made its way north from a Germanic people dwelling farther south. In the consciousness of the common people, conceptions of Thor as the supreme god were never superseded; but Odin faith received full and pleasing development in Norse-Icelandic poetry.
Thor as Chief God. Thor was at one time the chief divinity with all the Gothic-Germanic peoples. Not only does the general occurrence of the symbol of the hammer bear witness to this, but also the fact that he is placed by the side of Jupiter, since Jupiter's day is rendered by Thor's day. An old Low-German baptismal formula begins as follows:
"Do you renounce the devil and all offerings to the devil and all the works of the devil!" "I renounce all the devil's works and words, Thunar and Woden and Saxnot and all the Trolls which are worshiped here."
Thor, Odin, and "Saxnot" (the one armed with the sword) are precisely the three chief gods who are most often named in Norse sources, provided we can identify Saxnot with Frey. It is at the same time not solely the significance of the name and the hammer-symbol, or the testimony of rune stones, which tell us about the extent of the worship of Thor. The same testimony recurs in names of persons and places, in which we find Thor in overwhelming abundance, compared with Odin and Frey. Where heathen temples are mentioned, statues of the chief gods in them are sometimes named, and in that case Thor's name ordinarily comes first, as in the baptismal formula above. Most often a temple of Thor only is mentioned, or a representation of Thor alone.
The Yule-offering, the chief offering of our heathen forefathers, was consecrated to Thor, and Thor's day appears as the most important week-day in all legal questions; the court was opened on a Thursday, and Thursday is the most common court day even now. Norwegian-Icelandic poetry itself gives here and there unmistakable evidence of Thor's prominent position.
Mithgarth's Keeper
The Volva's Prophecy in its description of Ragnarok in the verse cited on page 70 calls Thor, as Mithgarth's Keeper, "Veurr." Veurr, related to the Danish word vie, 'to consecrate,' and to Ve, 'sanctuary,' signifies protector and consecrator, and Mithgarth is certainly the land of human beings. Other poets call him Friend of Human Kind or Defender of the Race, and he occupies a similar position even among the gods, who constantly seek protection through his strength even if Odin or Frey is present.
Therefore he is called Asa-bragr, the most prominent of Aesir. Thor is consecrator and protector of all human life; he thereby becomes the protecting divinity not merely of the individual man, but also of the home and the state. He is the great god of civilization, with the strongest and mightiest powers at his command, the lightning the hammer, i.e. the thunderbolt which crushes and splinters whatever offers resistance (desolate nature in giant forms) but which also brings with it fruit-producing rain.
Characteristics of Thor
People most often picture Thor to themselves as a strong middle-aged man, rarely a young man, but in both cases he has a flowing red beard. He is tremendously strong; his flaming glance is enough to terrify any one, and he is dreadful in his wrath, but under ordinary circumstances he is gracious and mild. When he, in his wagon drawn by he-goats, drives over the sky, this is in flames and the mountains tremble or burst in the thunder's crash. The modern Danish Torden, 'thunder,' means 'Thor-rumbling,' like the older Danish form; the Swedes say aska, the word being a contraction of as-eka, 'driving of As.'
To Thor's name there are attached a number of myths or divine traditions, and of these we shall now recount the most important.
The God's Treasures
Of the origin of the god's treasures, Snorri relates the following: Loki had once from malice cut off the hair of Thor's wife Sif. When Thor became aware of it, he wanted to crush every bone in Loki's body; but the latter promised to get golden hair from the dark elves for Sif in compensation.
He applied therefore to the dwarfs, who are called the sons of Ivaldi, and they upon his demand made hair for Sif, the spear Gungnir which Odin received, and the ship Skithblathnir which could sail over both sea and land hut could also be folded together and carried in a pouch, in case one preferred. This good ship Frey received. After that Loki wagered with a dwarf Brok, staking his head that the latter's brother Sindri could not complete three equally good treasures. Brok plied the bellows and Sindri forged, and although Loki in the form of a gadfly three times stung the one plying the bellows and forced him to stop a moment, Sindri notwithstanding finished the three great pieces of work: the boar Gullinbursti, the ring Draupnir, and the hammer Mjolnir.
Loki with his stings accomplished only this, that the hammer handle remained a little too short. The wager was to be settled in Asgarth. Thor took the hammer, Odin the ring, and Frey the boar, after which these three gods were to pronounce judgment. The hammer decided the matter, and Loki was now to lose his head. He ordered Brok to take it, but the neck must not be touched, since the wager applied only to the head itself. In exasperation, the dwarf then sewed Loki's wily mouth together.
The Hammer is Recovered
One of the oldest Eddie Songs relates how Thor lost his hammer and recovered it. Angry awoke Ving-Thor and missed his hammer; his beard and hair shook; the son of Jorth groped around, but the hammer was lost and could not be found. Loki, to whom the god of thunder describes his loss, borrows Frey's feather garment and flies over to the king of the giants, Thrym. The latter admits having concealed the hammer deep in the earth, and he will not give it back unless Freyja is brought to him as his bride. Loki flew back and the demand of the king of the giants was communicated to the goddess of love, but
Wroth grew Freyja, and she fumed, all the Aesir's hall trembled therefrom, there bursts that great Brisinga chain; Thou knowst me to be most mad for men, if I drive with thee to Jotunheim."
The Aesir and Asynjur, 'goddesses,' assembled for deliberation at the court to consider how the hammer could be regained. Heimdall solves the problem: "Let us bind bridal linen about Thor and give him the great Brisinga ornament to put on; keys shall rattle at his girdle, women's garments fall about his knees, head and breast be decked in woman's fashion." Thor must submit to the hard necessity, for the giants will take possession of Asgarth if he does not regain the hammer. Loki, Laufey's son, also dresses in women's clothes, so as to follow Thor as his maid upon the strange bridal journey.
Soon were the goats driven homeward, hurried to the traces, they must run well; mountains burst, earth burned with fire, Odin's son drove into Jotunheim.
In Jotunheim there is prepared a splendid bridal feast, but Thor is ill adapted to the bride's part. At first his ability to eat and drink awakens amazement, nay, almost terror, in Thrym; and when the bridegroom lifts the veil to kiss his bride, he darts back terror-stricken the length of the hall, for Freyja's eyes are sharp and shine like fire. The artful bridesmaid meantime comforts him with assurance that the goddess's appetite and piercing glances were due only to her yearning for the bridegroom, since she had neither eaten nor slept in eight days.
Then quoth Thrym the giants' chief: Bear in the hammer to bless the bride! Mjolnir placed on the maiden's knees, bless and join us by the hand of Varr. Now comes the hour of reparation and vengeance for Asgarth's mighty god: Laughed Hlorrithi's heart within his breast, when he, hard-hearted, the hammer perceived; Thrym he slew first, the giants' chief, and the giant's race all he crushed.
The wretched sister of the giant had begged for a bridal gift; she received a hammer-blow instead of golden rings. After this the thunder-god returned to Asgarth with his recovered weapon.
The same theme is treated in a jesting manner in the ancient Danish ballad about Tor of Havsgaard. Tor of Havsgaard rides over green meadows and loses his golden hammer. Lokke Lojemand (jester) puts on the feather cloak and seeks out the Tossegreve, 'foolish count,' who has hidden the hammer and will not give it back unless he gets "Jomfru Fredensborg (Miss Peacecastle) with all the goods she has.'
After this, Tor and Lokke, as in the Eddie Song, must put on women's clothes and proceed to the Tossegreve's land. Tor's appetite in the ancient ballad is quite astonishing he ate a whole ox and thirty hams; no wonder that he was thirsty after that! But when the hammer was brought in, it was evident that he could use it, and the Tossegreve with all his tribe were crushed. The ballad ends thus:
Lokke said this, crafty man, he did consider it well: Now we will fare to our own land, as the bride has become a widow.
Hymir's Kettle
Thor one time, relates the Lay of Hymir, had to go to the giant Hymir for a great kettle which was to be used at a feast for the gods at the home of the sea-god Aegir. He sets out together with Tyr, and they reach the giant's dwelling. The hitter does not conic home until towards night, and is much offended both at his guests and at Thor's appetite. The following morning Thor goes out with the giant to fish. The god demands bait of the ferocious giant, who asks him to look out for it himself. Thor then wrenches the head from one of the giant's black oxen, after which they begin to row. Hymir is frightened at Thor's violent strokes and objects to keeping on for fear of coming upon the Mithgarth serpent.
This, however, is exactly Thor's purpose, and while the giant is attending to his affairs, Thor makes the "Earth-Encircler" swallow the hook and draws his head up to the surface of the sea. At the same moment when he wishes to crush his skull the terror-stricken giant cuts the line and the monster sinks back safe upon the bottom of the sea. This adventure has again and again inspired our forefathers. One of the very oldest Scalds gives a graphic picture of how the "Earth-Encircler," like a wildly floundering eel, gazes defiantly from the depths below up at the "Cleaver of the Giant's Skull," who is only waiting to give him the fatal blow.
In Snorri, Thor in his godlike strength breaks through the planks of the boat until he gets a footing on the bottom of the sea. As the giant has hindered him in his purpose, Thor hurls his hammer after the serpent and chastises the giant with a frightful box on the ear, after which he himself wades ashore. The poem on the other hand has them both turn back together, just as they went out. Thor, however, may not now obtain the kettle until he can further prove his strength by crushing the giant's beaker. That does not break until the god hurls it against the owner's own skull, after which he snatches the kettle and carries it from the court, pursued by the giant's hosts, which he crushes with his hammer.
Hrungnir
The myth of Thor and Hrungnir has been very widespread and popular, and the Scalds often alluded to it; but in connected form it is preserved only in Snorri. Once when Thor was in the East in order to crush the trolls, Odin seated himself upon Sleipnir and rode to Jotunheim. Here he met the giant Hrungnir, who boasted that his steed Gullfaxi was far better than Odin's. Odin rode back to Asgarth, but the giant followed him even into the dwelling of the gods. Now drink was borne before him, but when his boasting become too arrogant, the gods called upon Thor, who quickly appeared and was on the point of crushing the giant. The latter intimated that it was only a slight honor to slay a defenseless foe; he must rather meet him in a duel at the frontier, where Hrungnir would then appear with shield and grindstone.
Such a challenge Thor did not allow to be offered twice, and the giant went away satisfied. As help for him the other giants built now a champion of clay, nine rasts high, and three rasts broad between the shoulders. He was called Mokkrkalfi, and he had a mare's heart in his breast; Hrungnir's heart was a three-cornered stone. At the appointed time Thor made his appearance, attended by Thialfi. The giant stood with the shield before him and the grindstone in his hand. At the same time Thialfi went forward and called to him that Thor was coming from below, after which Hrung-nir stepped upon his shield and grasped the grindstone with both hands.
Thor meanwhile went forward through the air amidst lightning and crash of thunder. The grindstone and hammer were hurled at the same time and met midway; Mjolnir holds its course and crushes the giant, but half of the stone strikes Thor in the forehead so that he falls to the ground in such a way that the giant's foot lies across his neck. Thialfi strove with the clay giant, who trembled with fear and fell with little glory. Meanwhile no one could lift the giant's leg away, until Thor's three-year-old son Magni came up; he then received Gullfaxi as a reward for his strength, although Odin himself had meant to have that good steed.
When Thor came back to Thruthvang, the healing woman, Groa, was brought, who recited magic songs over him until the stone began to sway in his forehead. Snorri adds that it did not, however, get completely loose, for Thor told Groa that her husband, Orvandil, was coming home presently. Thor had borne him on his back in a basket over the poisonous streams on the return journey from Jotunheim. One of his toes, however, was frozen off, and Thor had cast it up to heaven and made it into a star. But Groa became so joyful at this information that she forgot her witchcraft.
Geirroth
Loki had once been caught by the giant Geirroth, to whose court he had from curiosity betaken himself in Frigg's falcon cloak. In order to get free he had to promise to bring Thor to Geirroth without his hammer or his strengthbelt. In this the artful Loki was easily successful, but on the way Thor visited the giantess Grith, Vithar's mother. She instructed him about Geirroth and lent him at parting her strength-belt, her iron gloves, and her staff. Thor came first to a brook in which one of the giant's daughters had occasioned an inundation. He slew her and escaped to land by drawing himself up into a mountain ash. In Geirroth's hall there was only one chair, and it went up quickly as far as the ceiling when Thor seated himself upon it. He then pressed against it with Grith's staff and pushed with all his might, after which there was heard a great roar, for the giant's daughters had been under the chair and lay there now with broken backs.
On the floor there was kindled a great fire, beside which people took their seats. Geirroth then seized a glowing iron wedge and cast it at Thor, who caught it with the borrowed gloves, after which the giant hid himself in terror behind a mighty iron pillar. Thor now hurled the wedge with such force that it pierced through the pillar and Geirroth also, and went out through the wall on the opposite side. The main source of this myth is the obscure Scaldic lay Thorsdrapa, which is retold bv Snorri.
Thor's Journey to Utgarth
In Snorri is also found the late adventure of Thor's journey to Utgarth, which probably is the best known. This tale attained great celebrity after Oehlenschlaeger made use of it as the basis for his poem, "Thor's Journey to Jotunheim," the introduction to "Gods of the North." Snorri's long account is a free and fanciful transformation of a whole series of Thor-myths now for the most part lost.
Thor gets Thialfi and Roskva from the peasant (Egil).
The meeting with Skrymir (the gloves, lunch bag, Thor's hammer-thrust.
Utgarthaloki (the eating test and the race. Thor drinks from the sea, lifts the Mithgarth serpent, and wrestles with Elli, i.e. Old Age).
The optical illusion is removed and Thor wishes to take vengeance, but without success.
Alvis
An entirely characteristic but not very transparent myth lies also at the basis of the Eddic Song of Alvis. Alvis is a dwarf who, without its being evident wherefore and from whom, has received the promise of Thor's daughter. He now comes to take her, but is addressed with scornful words by Thor. The dwarf does not know him and asks him to mind his own business; only when he is informed who Thor is does he become humble and tell his errand.
Thor, however, will not give him his daughter unless he can answer all questions in accordance with his name, "The All-wise." Now the interrogation begins, Thor asking the dwarf how different things, e.g. the sun, moon, earth, are named by gods, elves, dwarfs, giants, and other mythical beings. The dwarf is remarkably well informed but does not give heed to the time; he is overtaken by the day and turned to stone before the beams of the rising sun.
Thor-Faith long Prevalent.
When the vigorous priest Tangbrand preached Christianity in Iceland, he once fell into conversation with a heathen woman, who said to him, "Have you heard that Thor challenged Christ to a holm-going (duel fought on a holmr, 'islet'), but Christ dared not contend with Thor?" This tale is significant as to our fathers' first view of the new doctrine, and it really proved that the old ideas were preserved among the people long after the introduction of Christianity.
It was especially difficult to eradicate the faith in the protecting and consecrating virtue of Thor and his hammer. The sign of the hammer and the sign of the cross were confused, indeed were even placed side by side as sacred symbols in Christian churches. In Norway, strange to say, the common people transferred not a few of Thor's qualities to Saint Olaf. From the Norwegian peasant's King Olaf, with flaming red beard and with ax in hand, the sorcerer's bitter foe, to the red-bearded thunder-god with the hammer, who crushes the giants' and mountain giants' skulls, is a leap not nearly so great as one at the first glance might think.
But with the Christian priests, Thor and Odin naturally stood as the worst among all the evil beings of the heathen days; for them Christ and Thor are as incompatible as good and evil. It is this contrast which Oehlenschlaeger brings out in the famous conclusion of the third act of "Hakon Jarl":
OLAF. Heaven will strike thee with its flames! HAKON. Thor shall splinter the cross with his hammer!
Mortensen, Karl. A Handbook of Norse Mythology. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1913.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
