In
Norse mythologyNorse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
,
Thor (from
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
Þórr) is a hammer-wielding god associated with
thunderThunder is the sound made by lightning. Depending on the nature of the lightning and distance of the listener, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble . The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within...
, lightning, storms,
oakAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also
hallowTo hallow is "to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate". The adjective form hallowed, as used in The Lord's Prayer, means holy, consecrated, sacred, or revered.-Etymology:...
ing, healing, and fertility. The
cognate deityThe article lists gods and goddesses that may be reconstructed for Proto-Germanic or Common Germanic Migration period paganism, or which figure in both West and North Germanic mythology...
in wider
Germanic mythologyGermanic mythology is a comprehensive term for myths associated with historical Germanic paganism, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, Continental Germanic mythology, and other versions of the mythologies of the Germanic peoples...
and
paganismGermanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...
was known in Old English as
Þunor and in
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
as
Donar (runic
þonar ), stemming from a Common Germanic
*Þunraz (meaning "thunder").
Ultimately stemming from
Proto-Indo-European religionProto-Indo-European religion is the hypothesized religion of the Proto-Indo-European peoples based on the existence of similarities among the deities, religious practices and mythologies of the Indo-European peoples. Reconstruction of the hypotheses below is based on linguistic evidence using the...
, Thor is a prominently mentioned god throughout the recorded history of the
Germanic peoplesThe Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
, from the
Roman occupationThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
of regions of
GermaniaGermania was the Greek and Roman geographical term for the geographical regions inhabited by mainly by peoples considered to be Germani. It was most often used to refer especially to the east of the Rhine and north of the Danube...
, to the tribal expansions of the
Migration PeriodThe Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, to his high popularity during the
Viking AgeViking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
, when, in the face of the process of the
Christianization of ScandinaviaThe Christianization of Scandinavia took place between the 8th and the 12th century. The realms of Scandinavia proper, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, established their own Archdioceses, responsible directly to the Pope, in 1104, 1154 and 1164, respectively...
, emblems of his hammer,
Mjölnir, were worn in defiance and
Norse paganNorse paganism is the religious traditions of the Norsemen, a Germanic people living in the Nordic countries. Norse paganism is therefore a subset of Germanic paganism, which was practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe in the Viking Age...
personal nameA personal name is the proper name identifying an individual person, and today usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; except in rare cases, for example feral children growing up in isolation, or infants...
s containing the name of the god bear witness to his popularity. Into the modern period, Thor continued to be acknowledged in rural folklore throughout Germanic regions. Thor is frequently referred to in place names, the day of the week
ThursdayThursday is the fourth day of the week according to the ISO 8601 international standard adopted in most western countries. In countries that use the Sunday-first convention and in the Judeo-Christian calendar it is the fifth day of the week. It falls between Wednesday and Friday...
("Thor's day") bears his name, and names stemming from the pagan period containing his own continue to be used today.
In
Norse mythologyNorse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
, largely recorded in
IcelandIceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
from traditional material stemming from Scandinavia, numerous tales and information about Thor are provided. In these sources, Thor bears at least
fourteen names, is the husband of the golden-haired goddess
SifIn Norse mythology, Sif is a goddess associated with earth. Sif is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds...
, is the lover of the jötunn
JárnsaxaIn Norse mythology, Járnsaxa is a jötunn. According to Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, she was Thor's lover. By him she was the mother of Magni. According to the Poetic Edda poem Hyndluljóð, Járnsaxa is the name of one of the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr.-References:*Orchard, Andy . Dictionary of...
, and is generally described as fierce-eyed,
red-hairedRed hair occurs on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations...
and red-bearded. With Sif, Thor fathered the goddess (and possible
valkyrieIn Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decides who dies in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle , the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin...
) Þrúðr; with Járnsaxa, he fathered
MagniIn Norse mythology, Móði and Magni are the sons of Thor. Their names mean "Angry" and "Strong," respectively. Rudolf Simek states that, along with Thor's daughter Þrúðr , they embody their father's features....
; with a mother whose name is not recorded, he fathered
MóðiIn Norse mythology, Móði and Magni are the sons of Thor. Their names mean "Angry" and "Strong," respectively. Rudolf Simek states that, along with Thor's daughter Þrúðr , they embody their father's features....
, and he is the stepfather of the god
UllrIn early Germanic paganism, *Wulþuz appears to have been a major god, or an epithet of an important god, in prehistoric times....
. The same sources list Thor as the son of the god
OdinOdin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
and the personified earth,
FjörgynIn Norse mythology, the feminine Fjörgyn is described as the mother of the god Thor, son of Odin, and the masculine Fjörgynn is described as the father of the goddess Frigg, wife of Odin. Both names appear in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the...
, and by way of Odin, Thor has
numerous brothersVarious gods and men appear as Sons of Odin or Sons of Wodan/Wotan or Sons of Woden in old Old Norse and Old High German and Old English texts.-Thor, Baldur, and Váli:...
. Thor has two servants,
Þjálfi and RöskvaIn Norse mythology, Þjálfi and Röskva are two siblings, male and female respectively, who are servants of the god Thor. Þjálfi receives a single mention in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, while both Þjálfi and Röskva are attested in the Prose Edda,...
, rides in a cart or chariot pulled by two goats,
Tanngrisnir and TanngnjóstrTanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr are the goats who pull the god Thor's chariot in Norse mythology...
(that he eats and resurrects), and is ascribed three dwellings (
BilskirnirBilskirnir is the hall of the god Thor in Norse mythology. Here he lives with his wife Sif and their children. According to Grímnismál, the hall is the greatest of buildings and contains 540 rooms, located in Asgard, as are all the dwellings of the gods, in the kingdom of Þrúðheimr Bilskirnir (Old...
, Þrúðheimr, and Þrúðvangr). Thor wields the mountain-crushing hammer, Mjöllnir, wears the belt Megingjörð and the iron gloves
JárngreiprIn Norse mythology, Járngreipr or Járnglófi are the iron gloves of the god Thor. According to the Prose Edda, along with the hammer Mjölnir and the belt Megingjörð, Járngreipr is one of Thor's three crucial possessions. According to chapter 20 of the book Gylfaginning, Thor uses the gloves to...
, and owns the staff Gríðarvölr. Thor's exploits, including his relentless slaughter of his foes and fierce battles with the monstrous serpent
JörmungandrIn Norse mythology, Jörmungandr , mostly known as Jormungand, orJörmungand , or Midgard Serpent , or World Serpent, is a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki...
—and their foretold mutual deaths during the events of
RagnarökIn Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures , the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water...
—are recorded throughout sources for Norse mythology.
Name
Old Norse
Þórr, Old English
Þunor and
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
Donar are cognates within Germanic, descending from a Common Germanic
*þonaroz or
*þunraz, meaning "thunder". The name of the Gaulish god of thunder,
Toran or TaranIn Celtic mythology Taranis was the god of thunder worshipped essentially in Gaul, the British Isles, but also in the Rhineland and Danube regions amongst others, and mentioned, along with Esus and Toutatis as part of a sacred triad, by the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem Pharsalia as a Celtic...
and the Irish god
TuireannIn Irish mythology, Tuireann was the father of Creidhne, Luchtaine and Giobhniu by Brigid.His other sons, by his daughter Danand, included Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba, who killed Lugh's father Cian...
are also related.
Thor is the namesake of the
weekdayWeekday may either refer to only a day of the week which is part of the workweek thus not part of the weekend or to any of the days of the week.-Weekday as a day of the workweek:In most countries the days of the workweek are:# Monday# Tuesday# Wednesday...
name
ThursdayThursday is the fourth day of the week according to the ISO 8601 international standard adopted in most western countries. In countries that use the Sunday-first convention and in the Judeo-Christian calendar it is the fifth day of the week. It falls between Wednesday and Friday...
. By employing a practice known as
interpretatio germanica during the Roman Empire period, the Germanic peoples adopted the Roman weekly calendar, and replaced the names of Roman gods with their own. Latin
dies Iovi ("day of Jupiter") was converted into Proto-Germanic *
Þonares dagaz ("Thor's day"), from which stems modern English "Thursday" and all other Germanic weekday cognates.
Beginning in the
Viking AgeViking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
,
personal nameA personal name is the proper name identifying an individual person, and today usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; except in rare cases, for example feral children growing up in isolation, or infants...
s containing the theonym
Thōrr are recorded with great frequency. Prior to the Viking Age, no known examples are recorded.
Thórr-based names may have flourished during the Viking Age as a defiant response to attempts at Christianization, similar to the widescale Viking Age practice of wearing Thor's hammer pendants.
The modern spelling
Thor is an anglicization of the Old Norse name.
The name of the Norse deity is attested already in Old English, as
Þór. The modern spelling was introduced with the beginning of antiquarian interest in the Viking Age, in the 17th century.
Roman era
The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans, and in these works Thor is frequently referred to—via a process known as
interpretatio romana (where characteristics perceived to be similar by Romans result in identification of a non-Roman god as a Roman deity)—as either the Roman god
JupiterIn ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
(also known as
Jove) or the
Greco-RomanClassical mythology or Greco-Roman mythology is the cultural reception of myths from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Along with philosophy and political thought, mythology represents one of the major survivals of classical antiquity throughout later Western culture.Classical mythology has provided...
demigodThe term "demigod" , meaning "half-god", is commonly used to describe mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human; as such, demigods are human-god hybrids...
HerculesHercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
. The first clear example of this occurs in the Roman historian
TacitusPublius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
's late first century work
GermaniaThe Germania , written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus around 98, is an ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire.-Contents:...
, where, writing about the religion of the
SuebiThe Suebi or Suevi were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with Ariovistus' campaign, c...
(a confederation of
Germanic peoplesThe Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
), he comments that "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship. They regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind" and adds that a portion of the Suebi also venerate "Isis". In this instance, Tacitus refers to the god
OdinOdin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
as "
MercuryMercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
", Thor as "Hercules", and the god
Týr as "
MarsMars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...
", and the identity of the
"Isis" of the SuebiIn Roman historian Tacitus's first century CE book Germania, Tacitus describes the veneration of what he deems as an "Isis" of the Suebi. Due to Tacitus's usage of interpretatio romana elsewhere in the text, his admitted uncertainty, and his reasoning for referring to the veneration of an Egyptian...
has been debated. In Thor's case, the identification with the god Hercules is likely due to similarities between Thor's hammer and Hercules's club. In his
AnnalsThe Annals by Tacitus is a history of the reigns of the four Roman Emperors succeeding Caesar Augustus. The surviving parts of the Annals extensively cover most of the reigns of Tiberius and Nero. The title Annals was probably not given by Tacitus, but derives from the fact that he treated this...
, Tacitus again refers to the veneration of "Hercules" by the Germanic peoples; he records a wood beyond the river Weser (in what is now northwestern
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) as dedicated to him.
In Germanic areas occupied by the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, coins and votive objects dating from the 2nd and 3rd century AD have been found with Latin inscriptions referring to "Hercules", and so in reality, with varying levels of likelihood, refer to Thor by way of
interpretatio romana.
Migration Period
The first recorded instance of the name of the god appears in the
Migration PeriodThe Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, where a piece of jewelry (a fibula), the
Nordendorf fibulathumb|300px|right|The Nordendorf II fibulaThe Nordendorf fibulae are two mid 6th to early 7th century Alamannic fibulae found in Nordendorf near Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany....
, dating from the 7th century AD and found in
BavariaBavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, bears an
Elder FutharkThe Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
inscription that contains the name "Þonar", i.e. "Donar", the southern Germanic form of the god's name.
According to
Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldo, in 723 the Christian missionary
Saint BonifaceSaint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...
felled an
oak treeOak Tree may refer to:*Oak, the tree*Oak Tree, County Durham, a village in County Durham, England*The Oaktree Foundation, a youth-run aid and development agency*Oak Tree National, golf club in Edmond, Oklahoma...
dedicated to "Jove," the Donar Oak near
FritzlarFritzlar is a small German town in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, north of Frankfurt, with a storied history. It can reasonably be argued that the town is the site where the Christianization of northern Germany began and the birthplace of the German empire as a political entity.The...
,
HesseHesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Around the second half of the 8th century, Old English tales of a figure named "Thunor"—the Old English form of Thor's name—are recorded, a figure who likely refers to an Old English cult of the god. In relation,
Thunor is sometimes used in Old English texts to gloss
Jupiter, the god may be referenced in the poem
Solomon and SaturnSolomon and Saturn is a work in the corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature. The work is cast in the form of a dialogue full of riddles, in which Solomon, the wisest king of the land of Israel, and Saturn, the eldest of the elder gods of Roman mythology, though identified in the poem as a prince of the...
, and the Old English expression
þunnorad ("thunder ride") may refer to the god's thunderous, goat-led chariot. A 9th century AD codex from
MainzMainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, Germany, known as the
Old Saxon Baptismal VowThe Old Saxon Baptismal Vow is a 9th century Old Saxon baptismal vow found in Vatican Codex pal. 577. The vow mentions three Old Saxon gods; Uuôden , Thunear, and Saxnōt, which the reader is to forsake...
records the name of three Old Saxon gods; UUôden (Old Saxon "Wodan"),
SaxnôteIn Germanic mythology, Seaxnēat or Saxnōt is a god connected with the Saxons and, as recorded in Anglo-Saxons sources, their founder and ancestor. Seaxnēat appears in the genealogies of the kings of Essex. His name does not survive in any English placenames, although the element nēat in isolation...
, and Thunaer (Old Saxon "Thor") for use in Christianizing Germanic pagans by way of renouncing their native gods as demons.
Viking Age
In the 11th century, chronicler
Adam of BremenAdam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
records in his
Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae PontificumGesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum is a historical treatise written between 1075 and 1080 by Adam of Bremen. It covers the period from 788 to the time it was written. The treatise consist of:*Liber I...
that a statue of Thor, who Adam describes as "mightiest", sits in the
Temple at UppsalaThe Temple at Uppsala was a religious center in Norse paganism once located at what is now Gamla Uppsala , Sweden attested in Adam of Bremen's 11th century work Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum and in Heimskringla, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century...
in the center of a triple throne (flanked by
WodenWoden or Wodan is a major deity of Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic polytheism. Together with his Norse counterpart Odin, Woden represents a development of the Proto-Germanic god *Wōdanaz....
and "Fricco") located in
Gamla UppsalaGamla Uppsala is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 16,231 inhabitants in 1991.As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political centre...
,
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Adam details that "Thor, they reckon, rules the sky; he governs thunder and lightning, winds and storms, fine weather and fertility" and that "Thor, with his mace, looks like Jupiter". Adam details that the people of Uppsala had appointed
priestsA goði or gothi is the Old Norse term for a priest and chieftain. Gyðja signifies a priestess.The name appears in Wulfila's Gothic language translation of the bible as gudja for "priest", but in Old Norse it is only the feminine form gyðja that perfectly corresponds to the Gothic form...
to each of the gods, and that the priests were to offer up
sacrificesThe blót was Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and the spirits of the land. The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast. Related religious practices were performed by other Germanic peoples, such as the pagan Anglo-Saxons...
. In Thor's case, he continues, these sacrifices were done when plague or famine threatened. Earlier in the same work, Adam relays that in 1030 an English preacher by the name of Wulfred was
lynchedLynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
by assembled Germanic pagans for "profaning" a representation of Thor.
Two objects with
runicThe runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
inscriptions invoking Thor date from the 11th century, one from
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and one from Sweden. The first, the
Canterbury CharmThe Canterbury Charm is an Old English runic charm discovered inserted in the margin of an Anglo-Saxon manuscript from the year 1073.The charm is translated as:...
from
CanterburyCanterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, calls upon Thor to heal a wound by banishing a
thursThurs may refer to:*Thurs, also Thurse, a mythological race with superhuman strength in Norse mythology. See Jötunn.*a name of Thor*Thurisaz ᚦ, the rune expressing the thorn phoneme*Thursday, as an abbreviation...
. The second, the
Kvinneby amuletThe Kvinneby amulet is an 11th century runic amulet which was found in the mid-1950s in the soil of the village Södra Kvinneby in Öland, Sweden. The amulet is a square copper object measuring approximately 5 cm on each side...
, invokes protection by both Thor and his hammer.
Post-Viking Age
In the 12th century, centuries after Norway was "officially" Christianized, Thor was still being invoked by the population, as evidenced by a stick bearing a runic message found among the
Bryggen inscriptionsThe Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 670 medieval runic inscriptions on wood and bone found from 1955 and forth at Bryggen in Bergen, Norway. It has been called the most important runic find in the twentieth century...
in
BergenBergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. On the stick, both Thor and Odin are called upon for help; Thor is asked to "receive" the reader, and Odin to "own" them. Also around the 12th century, iconography of the Christianizing 11th century king
Olaf II of NorwayOlaf II Haraldsson was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised in Nidaros by Bishop Grimkell, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. Enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral...
absorbed elements of the native Thor; Olaf II had become a familiarly red-bearded, hammer-wielding figure.
Poetic Edda
In the
Poetic EddaThe Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...
, compiled in the 13th century from traditional source material reaching into the pagan period, Thor appears (or is mentioned) in the poems
VöluspáVöluspá is the first and best known poem of the Poetic Edda. It tells the story of the creation of the world and its coming end related by a völva addressing Odin...
,
GrímnismálGrímnismál is one of the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript and the AM 748 I 4to fragment. It is spoken through the voice of Grímnir, one of the many guises of the god Odin, who is tortured by King Geirröth...
,
SkírnismálSkírnismál is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in the 13th century manuscripts Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to but may have been originally composed in heathen times...
,
HárbarðsljóðHárbarðsljóð is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda, found in the Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to manuscripts. It is a flyting poem with figures from Norse mythology-Synopsis:...
,
HymiskviðaHymiskviða is a poem collected in the Poetic Edda. Its contents are somewhat confusing but can be summarized more or less as follows....
,
LokasennaLokasenna is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. The poem presents flyting between the gods and Loki....
,
ÞrymskviðaÞrymskviða is one of the best known poems from the Poetic Edda...
,
AlvíssmálAlvíssmál is poem collected in the Poetic Edda, probably dating to the 11th century, that relates a conversation between Thor and a Dvergr called Alvíss .-Plot:...
, and
HyndluljóðHyndluljóð or Lay of Hyndla is an Old Norse poem often considered a part of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in its entirety only in Flateyjarbók but some stanzas are also quoted in the Prose Edda where they are said to come from Völuspá hin skamma.In the poem, the goddess Freyja meets the völva...
.
In the poem
Völuspá, a dead
völvaA vǫlva or völva is a shamanic seeress in Norse paganism, and a recurring motif in Norse mythology....
recounts the history of the universe and foretells the future to the disguised god Odin, including the death of Thor. Thor, she foretells, will do battle with the
great serpentIn Norse mythology, Jörmungandr , mostly known as Jormungand, orJörmungand , or Midgard Serpent , or World Serpent, is a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki...
during the immense mythical war waged at
RagnarökIn Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures , the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water...
, and there he will slay the monstrous snake, yet after he will only be able to take nine steps before succumbing to the venom of the beast:
Benjamin ThorpeBenjamin Thorpe was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon.-Biography:After studying for four years at Copenhagen University, under the Danish philologist Rasmus Christian Rask, he returned to England in 1830, and in 1832 published an English version of Caedmon's metrical paraphrase of portions of the...
translation:
- Then comes the mighty son of Hlôdyn:;
- Midgârd
Midgard is one of the Nine Worlds and is an old Germanic name for our world and is the home of Humans, with the literal meaning "middle enclosure".-Etymology:...
's Veor in his rage will slay the worm.
- Nine feet will go Fiörgyn's
In Norse mythology, the feminine Fjörgyn is described as the mother of the god Thor, son of Odin, and the masculine Fjörgynn is described as the father of the goddess Frigg, wife of Odin. Both names appear in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the...
son,
- bowed by the serpent, who feared no foe.
- All men will their homes forsake.
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Henry Adams BellowsHenry Adams Bellows was a lawyer, state legislator, and jurist born in Rockingham, Vermont. He was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives from Littleton, New Hampshire in 1839. He was subsequently elected again to the House from Concord, New Hampshire in 1856–1857, and served as...
translation:
- Hither there comes the son of Hlothyn,
- The bright snake gapes to heaven above;
- . . . . . . . .
- Against the serpent goes Othin's son.
- In anger smites the warder of earth,—
- Forth from their homes must all men flee;—
- Nine paces fares the son of Fjorgyn,
- And, slain by the serpent, fearless he sinks.
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Afterwards, says the völva, the sky will turn black before fire engulfs the world, the stars will disappear, flames will dance before the sky, steam will rise, the world will be covered in water, and then it will be raised again; green and fertile (see
Prose Edda section below for the survival of the sons of Thor, who return after these events with Thor's hammer).
In the poem
GrímnismálGrímnismál is one of the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript and the AM 748 I 4to fragment. It is spoken through the voice of Grímnir, one of the many guises of the god Odin, who is tortured by King Geirröth...
, the god Odin, in disguise as
Grímnir, and tortured, starved and thirsty, imparts in the young
AgnarAgnarr Geirröðsson is the son of King Geirröðr in Norse mythology. Agnarr is solely attested in the poem Grímnismál in the Poetic Edda, the latter compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources. In Grímnismál he is described as aiding Odin, disguised as Grímnir, to escape from...
cosmological lore, including that Thor resides in Þrúðheimr, and that, every day, Thor wades through the rivers
Körmt and ÖrmtIn Norse mythology, Körmt and Örmt are two rivers which Thor wades through every day when he goes to judgment by Yggdrasill. The source for this is a strophe in Grímnismál which is also quoted in the Prose Edda....
, and the two
KerlaugarIn Norse mythology, the Kerlaugar i.e. "bath-tub", are two rivers through which the god Thor wades...
. There, Grímnir says, Thor sits as judge at the immense cosmological world tree,
YggdrasilIn Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology. It was said to be the world tree around which the nine worlds existed...
.
In
SkírnismálSkírnismál is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in the 13th century manuscripts Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to but may have been originally composed in heathen times...
, the god
FreyrFreyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
's messenger,
SkírnirIn Norse mythology, Skírnir is the god Freyr's messenger and vassal. In the Poetic Edda poem Skírnismál, Skírnir is sent as a messenger to Jötunheimr to conduct Freyr's wooing of the fair Gerðr on condition of being given Freyr's sword as a reward. Skírnir also threatens Gerðr with his gambantein,...
, threatens the fair Gerðr, who Freyr is smitten with, with numerous threats and curses, including that Thor, Freyr, and Odin will be angry with her, and that she risks their "potent wrath".
Thor is the main character of
HárbarðsljóðHárbarðsljóð is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda, found in the Codex Regius and AM 748 I 4to manuscripts. It is a flyting poem with figures from Norse mythology-Synopsis:...
, where, after traveling "from the east", Thor encounters a ferryman at an inlet by the name of Hárbarðr (Odin, again in disguise), who he attempts to hail a ride from. The ferryman, shouting from the inlet, is immediately rude and obnoxious to Thor and refuses to ferry him. At first, Thor holds his tongue, but Hárbarðr only becomes more aggressive, and the poem soon becomes a
flytingFlyting or fliting is a contest consisting of the exchange of insults, often conducted in verse, between two parties.-Description:Flyting is a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries. The root is the Old English word flītan meaning quarrel...
match between Thor and Hárbarðr, all the while revealing lore about the two, including Thor's killing of several jötnar in "the east" and berzerk women on Hlesey (now the Danish island of
LæsøLæsø is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Læsø is also the name of the municipality on that island...
). In the end, Thor ends up walking instead.
Thor is again the main character in the poem
HymiskviðaHymiskviða is a poem collected in the Poetic Edda. Its contents are somewhat confusing but can be summarized more or less as follows....
, where, after the gods have been hunting and have eaten their prey, they have an urge to drink. They "sh[ake] the twigs" and interpret what they say. The gods decide that they would find suitable cauldrons at
ÆgirÆgir is a sea giant, god of the ocean and king of the sea creatures in Norse mythology. He is also known for hosting elaborate parties for the gods.Ægir's servants are Fimafeng and Eldir.- Description :...
's home. Thor arrives at Ægir's home and finds him to be cheerful, looks into his eyes, and tells him that he must prepare feasts for the gods. Annoyed, Ægir tells Thor that the gods must first bring to him a suitable cauldron to brew ale in. The gods search but find no such cauldron anywhere. However, Týr tells Thor that he may have a solution; east of
ÉlivágarIn Norse mythology, Élivágar are rivers which existed in Ginnungagap at the beginning of the world. The Prose Edda relates:The eleven rivers traditionally associated with the Élivágar include the Svöl, Gunnthrá, Fjörm, Fimbulthul, Slíd, Hríd, Sylgr, Ylgr, Víd, Leiptr and Gjöll , although many...
lives Hymir, and he owns such a deep kettle.
So, after Thor secures his goats at
Egil-People:*Agilaz, a legendary archer of Germanic mythology and a brother of Völund.*Egil, a character in the poem Hymiskvida.*Egill Örn Egilsson, also known as Eagle Egilsson, Icelandic director and cinematographer....
's home, Thor and
Týr go to Hymir's hall in search of a
cauldronA cauldron or caldron is a large metal pot for cooking and/or boiling over an open fire, with a large mouth and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger.- Etymology :...
large enough to brew
aleAle is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
for them all. They arrive, and Týr sees his nine-hundred-headed grandmother and his gold-clad mother, the latter of which welcomes them with a horn. After Hymir—who is not happy to see Thor—comes in from the cold outdoors, Týr's mother helps them find a properly strong cauldron. Thor eats a big meal of two oxen (all the rest eat but one), and then goes to sleep. In the morning, he awakes and informs Hymir that he wants to go fishing the following evening, and that he will catch plenty of food, but that he needs bait. Hymir tells him to go get some bait from his pasture, which he expects should not be a problem for Thor. Thor goes out, finds Hymir's best ox, and rips its head off.
After a
lacunaA lacunaPlural lacunae. From Latin lacūna , diminutive form of lacus . is a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or a musical work...
in the manuscript of the poem,
Hymiskviða abruptly picks up again with Thor and Hymir in a boat, out at sea. Hymir catches a few
whaleWhale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
s at once, and Thor baits his line with the head of the ox. Thor casts his line and the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr bites. Thor pulls the serpent on board, and violently slams him in the head with his hammer. Jörmungandr shrieks, and a noisy commotion is heard from underwater before another lacuna appears in the manuscript.
After the second lacuna, Hymir is sitting in the boat, unhappy and totally silent, as they row back to shore. On shore, Hymir suggests that Thor should help him carry a whale back to his farm. Thor picks both the boat and the whales up, and carries it all back to Hymir's farm. After Thor successfully smashes a crystal goblet by throwing it at Hymir's head on Týr's mother's suggestion, Thor and Týr are given the cauldron. Týr cannot lift it, but Thor manages to roll it, and so with it they leave. Some distance from Hymir's home, an army of many-headed beings led by Hymir attacks the two, but are killed by the hammer of Thor. Although one of
his goatsTanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr are the goats who pull the god Thor's chariot in Norse mythology...
is lame in the leg, the two manage to bring the cauldron back, have plenty of ale, and so, from then on, return to Ægir's for more every winter.
In the poem
LokasennaLokasenna is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. The poem presents flyting between the gods and Loki....
, the half-god
LokiIn Norse mythology, Loki or Loke is a god or jötunn . Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Nari or Narfi...
angrily flyts with the gods in the sea entity
ÆgirÆgir is a sea giant, god of the ocean and king of the sea creatures in Norse mythology. He is also known for hosting elaborate parties for the gods.Ægir's servants are Fimafeng and Eldir.- Description :...
's hall. Thor does not attend the event, however, as he is away in the east for unspecified purposes. Towards the end of the poem, the flyting turns to Sif, Thor's wife, who Loki then claims to have slept with. The god
FreyrFreyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
's servant
BeylaBeyla is one of Freyr's servants along with her husband, Byggvir, in Norse mythology. Beyla is mentioned in stanzas 55, 66, and the prose introduction to the Poetic Edda poem Lokasenna. Since this is the only mention of Beyla, scholars have turned to the etymology of Beyla's name for additional...
interjects, and says that, since all of the mountains are shaking, she thinks that Thor is on his way home. Beyla adds that Thor will bring peace to the quarrel, to which Loki responds with insults.
Thor arrives and tells Loki to be silent, and threatens to rip Loki's head from his body with his hammer. Loki asks Thor why he is so angry, and comments that Thor will not be so daring to fight "the wolf" (Fenrir) when it eats Odin (a reference to the foretold events of
RagnarökIn Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures , the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water...
). Thor again tells him to be silent, and threatens to throw him into the sky, where he will never be seen again. Loki says that Thor should not brag of his time in the east, as he once crouched in fear in the thumb of a glove (a story involving deception by the magic of
Útgarða-LokiIn Norse mythology, Útgarða-Loki was the ruler of the castle Útgarðr in Jötunheimr. He was one of the Jötnar and his name means literally "Loki of the Outyards," to distinguish him from Loki, the companion of Thor.-Prose Edda:According to the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Thor, Þjálfi and Loki,...
, recounted in the
Prose Edda book
Gylfaginning)—which, he comments, "was hardly like Thor". Thor again tells him to be silent, threatening to break every bone in Loki's body. Loki responds that he intends to live a while yet, and again insults Thor with references to his encounter with Útgarða-Loki. Thor responds with a fourth call to be silent, and threatens to send Loki to Hel. At Thor's final threat, Loki gives in, commenting that only for Thor will he leave the hall, for "I know alone that you do strike", and the poem continues.
In the comedic poem
ÞrymskviðaÞrymskviða is one of the best known poems from the Poetic Edda...
, Thor again plays a central role. In the poem, Thor wakes and finds that his powerful hammer, Mjöllnir, is missing. Thor turns to Loki, and tells him that nobody knows that the hammer has been stolen. The two go to the dwelling of the goddess Freyja, and so that he may attempt to find Mjöllnir, Thor asks her if he may borrow her feather cloak. Freyja agrees, and says she would lend it to Thor even if it were made of silver or gold, and Loki flies off, the feather cloak whistling.
In
JötunheimrJötunheimr is one of the Nine Worlds and the homeland of the Giants of Norse Mythology — Rock Giants and Frost Giants.-Legend:...
, the jötunn Þrymr sits on a
barrowA tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
, plaiting golden collars for his female dogs, and trimming the manes of his horses. Þrymr sees Loki, and asks what could be amiss among the
ÆsirIn Old Norse, áss is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in Norse paganism. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir...
and the elves; why is Loki alone in Jötunheimr? Loki responds that he has bad news for both the elves and the Æsir—that Thor's hammer, Mjöllnir, is gone. Þrymr says that he has hidden Mjöllnir eight leagues beneath the earth, from which it will be retrieved, but only if Freyja is brought to him as his wife. Loki flies off, the feather cloak whistling, away from Jötunheimr and back to the court of the gods.
Thor asks Loki if his efforts were successful, and that Loki should tell him while he is still in the air as "tales often escape a sitting man, and the man lying down often barks out lies." Loki states that it was indeed an effort, and also a success, for he has discovered that Þrymr has the hammer, but that it cannot be retrieved unless Freyja is brought to Þrymr as his wife. The two return to Freyja and tell her to put on a bridal head dress, as they will drive her to Jötunheimr. Freyja, indignant and angry, goes into a rage, causing all of the halls of the Æsir to tremble in her anger, and her necklace, the famed
BrísingamenIn Norse mythology, Brísingamen is the necklace of the goddess Freyja.-Beowulf:...
, falls from her. Freyja pointedly refuses.
As a result, the gods and goddesses meet and hold a
thingA thing was the governing assembly in Germanic and introduced into some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead...
to discuss and debate the matter. At the thing, the god Heimdallr puts forth the suggestion that, in place of Freyja, Thor should be dressed as the bride, complete with jewels, women's clothing down to his knees, a bridal head-dress, and the necklace Brísingamen. Thor rejects the idea, yet Loki interjects that this will be the only way to get back Mjöllnir. Loki points out that, without Mjöllnir, the jötnar will be able to invade and settle in
AsgardIn Norse religion, Asgard is one of the Nine Worlds and is the country or capital city of the Norse Gods surrounded by an incomplete wall attributed to a Hrimthurs riding the stallion Svadilfari, according to Gylfaginning. Valhalla is located within Asgard...
. The gods dress Thor as a bride, and Loki states that he will go with Thor as his maid, and that the two shall drive to Jötunheimr together.
After riding together in Thor's
goat-driven chariotTanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr are the goats who pull the god Thor's chariot in Norse mythology...
, the two, disguised, arrive in Jötunheimr. Þrymr commands the jötnar in his hall to spread straw on the benches, for Freyja has arrived to be his wife. Þrymr recounts his treasured animals and objects, stating that Freyja was all that he was missing in his wealth.
Early in the evening, the disguised Loki and Thor meet with Þrymr and the assembled jötnar. Thor eats and drinks ferociously, consuming entire animals and three casks of
meadMead , also called honey wine, is an alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water. It may also be produced by fermenting a solution of water and honey with grain mash, which is strained immediately after fermentation...
. Þrymr finds the behaviour at odds with his impression of Freyja, and Loki, sitting before Þrymr and appearing as a "very shrewd maid", makes the excuse that "Freyja's" behaviour is due to her having not consumed anything for eight entire days before arriving due to her eagerness to arrive. Þrymr then lifts "Freyja's" veil and wants to kiss "her". Terrifying eyes stare back at him, seemingly burning with fire. Loki says that this is because "Freyja" has not slept for eight nights in her eagerness.
The "wretched sister" of the jötnar appears, asks for a bridal gift from "Freyja", and the jötnar bring out Mjöllnir to "sanctify the bride", to lay it on her lap, and marry the two by "the hand" of the goddess
VárVar, VAR, VAr, VaR or var can mean:VAR* Varna Airport IATA airport code* Vacuum arc remelting, a process for production of steel and special alloys...
. Thor laughs internally when he sees the hammer, takes hold of it, strikes Þrymr, beats all of the jötnar, kills their "older sister", and so gets his hammer back.
In the poem
AlvíssmálAlvíssmál is poem collected in the Poetic Edda, probably dating to the 11th century, that relates a conversation between Thor and a Dvergr called Alvíss .-Plot:...
, Thor tricks a
dwarfIn Germanic mythology, a dwarf is a being that dwells in mountains and in the earth, and is associated with wisdom, smithing, mining, and crafting...
,
AlvíssAlvíss was a dwarf in Norse mythology.Thor's daughter, Þrúðr, was promised to Alvíss. However, Thor did not want Alviss married to his daughter, so he devised a plan to stop Alvíss from doing so. He told Alvíss that, because of his small height, he had to prove his wisdom. Alvíss agreed. Thor made...
, to his doom upon finding that he seeks to wed his daughter (unnamed, possibly Þrúðr). As the poem starts, Thor meets a dwarf who talks about getting married. Thor finds the dwarf repulsive and, apparently, realizes that the bride is his daughter. Thor comments that the wedding agreement was made among the gods while Thor was gone, and that the dwarf must seek his consent. To do so, Thor says, Alvíss must tell him what he wants to know about
all of the worldsThe cosmology of Norse mythology has 'nine homeworlds', unified by the world tree Yggdrasill. Mapping the nine worlds escapes precision because the Poetic Edda often alludes vaguely, and the Prose Edda may be influenced by medieval Christian cosmology...
that the dwarf has visited. In a long question and answer session, Alvíss does exactly that; he describes natural features as they are known in the languages of various races of beings in the world, and gives an amount of cosmological lore.
However, the question and answer session turns out to be a ploy by Thor, as, although Thor comments that he has truly never seen anyone with more wisdom in their breast, Thor has managed to delay the dwarf enough for the Sun to turn him to stone; "day dawns on you now, dwarf, now sun shines on the hall".
In the poem
HyndluljóðHyndluljóð or Lay of Hyndla is an Old Norse poem often considered a part of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in its entirety only in Flateyjarbók but some stanzas are also quoted in the Prose Edda where they are said to come from Völuspá hin skamma.In the poem, the goddess Freyja meets the völva...
, Freyja offers to the jötunn woman Hyndla to
blótThe blót was Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and the spirits of the land. The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast. Related religious practices were performed by other Germanic peoples, such as the pagan Anglo-Saxons...
(sacrifice) to Thor so that she may be protected, and comments that Thor does not care much for jötunn women.
Prose Edda, Heimskringla, and sagas
In the prologue to his
Prose EddaThe Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Nordic mythology...
,
Snorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
euhemerises Thor as a prince of
TroyTroy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
, and the son of king
MemnonIn Greek mythology, Memnon was an Ethiopian king and son of Tithonus and Eos. As a warrior he was considered to be almost Achilles' equal in skill. During the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troy's defense. The death of Memnon echoes that of Hector, another defender of Troy whom Achilles also...
by Troana, a daughter of
PriamPriam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous".- Marriage and issue :...
. Thor, also known as
Tror, is said to have married the prophetess
SibylThe word Sibyl comes from the Greek word σίβυλλα sibylla, meaning prophetess. The earliest oracular seeresses known as the sibyls of antiquity, "who admittedly are known only through legend" prophesied at certain holy sites, under the divine influence of a deity, originally— at Delphi and...
(identified with
SifIn Norse mythology, Sif is a goddess associated with earth. Sif is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds...
). Thor is further said here to have been raised in
ThraceThrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
by a chieftain named Lorikus, whom he later slew to assume the title of 'king of Thrace', to have had hair "fairer than gold", and to have been strong enough to lift ten bearskins.
The name of the
aesir is explained as "men from
AsiaAsia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
",
Asgard being the "Asian city", i.e. Troy. Alternatively, Troy is in
Tyrkland (Turkey, i.e. Asia Minor), and
Asialand is the name of
ScythiaIn antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
, where Thor founded a new city named Asgard. Odin is a remote descendant of Thor, removed by twelve generations, who led an expedition across Germany, Denmark and Sweden to Norway.
In the
Prose Edda, Thor is mentioned in all four books;
PrologueThe Prologue is the first section of four books of the Prose Edda, and consists of a euhemerized Christian account of the origins of Norse mythology: the Norse gods are described as human Trojan warriors who left Troy after the fall of that city and settled in northern Europe, where they were...
,
GylfaginningGylfaginning, or the Tricking of Gylfi , is the first part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda after Prologue. The Gylfaginning deals with the creation and destruction of the world of the Norse gods, and many other aspects of Norse mythology...
,
SkáldskaparmálThe second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál or "language of poetry" is effectively a dialogue between the Norse god of the sea, Ægir and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined...
, and
HáttatalThe Háttatal is the last section of the Prose Edda composed by the Icelandic poet, politician, and historian Snorri Sturluson. Using, for the most part, his own compositions, it exemplifies the types of verse forms used in Old Norse poetry...
.
In
HeimskringlaHeimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
, composed in the 13th century by
Snorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
, Thor or statues of Thor are mentioned in
Ynglinga sagaYnglinga saga is a legendary saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It was first translated into English and published in 1844....
,
Hákonar saga Góða,
Ólafs saga Tryggvason, and
Óláfs saga helgaÓláfs saga helga or the Saga of St. Olaf can refer to several different kings' sagas.*Oldest Saga of St. Olaf, ca. 1190, mostly lost.*Legendary Saga of St. Olaf, ca. 1210.*Óláfs saga helga by Styrmir Kárason, ca. 1220, mostly lost....
. In
Ynglinga saga chapter 5, a heavily
EuhemerizedEuhemerus was a Greek mythographer at the court of Cassander, the king of Macedon. Euhemerus' birthplace is disputed, with Messina in Sicily as the most probable location, while others champion Chios, or Tegea.-Life:...
account of the gods is provided, where Thor is described as having been a
gothiA goði or gothi is the Old Norse term for a priest and chieftain. Gyðja signifies a priestess.The name appears in Wulfila's Gothic language translation of the bible as gudja for "priest", but in Old Norse it is only the feminine form gyðja that perfectly corresponds to the Gothic form...
—a pagan priest—who was given by Odin (who himself is explained away as having been an exceedingly powerful magic-wielding chieftain from the east) a dwelling in the mythical location of Þrúðvangr, in what is now Sweden. The saga narrative adds that numerous names—at the time of the narrative, popularly in use—were derived from
Thor.
Modern folklore
Tales about Thor, or influenced by native traditions regarding Thor, continued into the modern period, particularly in Scandinavia. Writing in the 19th century, scholar
Jacob GrimmJacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...
records various phrases surviving into Germanic languages that refer to the god, such as Norwegian
Thorsvarme ("Thor's warmth") for lightning, and the Swedish
godgubben åfar ("The good old (fellow) is taking a ride") when it thunders. Grimm comments that, at times, Scandinavians often "no longer liked to utter the god's real name, or they wished to extol his fatherly goodness [...]."
Thor remained pictured as a red-bearded figure, as evidenced by the Danish rhyme that yet referred to him as
Thor med sit lange skæg ("Thor with the long beard") and the
FrisiaFrisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...
n curse
diis ruadhiiret donner regiir! ("let red-haired thunder see to that!").
A Scandinavian folk belief that lightning frightens away
trollA troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
s and
ettinEttin, an obsolete English cognate to the Old Norse Jötunn from the Old English Eoten, meaning "giant", may refer to:*Bogle , a survival of the term in Northumbrian folklore*Ettin , a two-headed giant...
s appears in numerous Scandinavian folktales, and may be a late reflection of Thor's role in fighting such beings. In connection, the lack of trolls and ettins in modern Scandinavia is explained as a result of the "accuracy and efficiency of the lightning strokes".
Runestone invocations and image stones
On four (or possibly five) runestones, an invocation to Thor appears that reads "May Thor hallow (these
runesThe runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
/this monument)!". The invocation appears thrice in Denmark (DR 110,
DR 209The Glavendrup stone, designated as DR 209 by Rundata, is a runestone on the island of Funen in Denmark and dates from the early 10th century. It contains Denmark's longest runic inscription and ends in a curse.-Description:...
, and
DR 220The Sønder Kirkeby Runestone, listed as runic inscription DR 220 in the Rundata catalog, is a Viking Age memorial runestone that was discovered in Sønder Kirkeby, which is located about 5 kilometers east of Nykøbing Falster, Denmark.-Description:...
), and a single time in
Västergötland', English exonym: West Gothland, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated in the southwest of Sweden. In older English literature one may also encounter the Latinized version Westrogothia....
(
Vg 150The Velanda Runestone, designated as Vg 150 in the Rundata catalog, is a runestone that is dated from the late tenth century or the early eleventh century and which is located in the village of Velanda, which is about 8 kilometers southeast of Trollhättan, Västergötland, Sweden.-Description:The...
), Sweden. A fifth appearance may possibly occur on a runestone found in
Södermanland', sometimes referred to under its Latin form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a historical province or landskap on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västmanland and Uppland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea.In Swedish, the province name is...
, Sweden (Sö 140), but the reading is contested. Pictorial representations of Thor's hammer also appear on a total of five runestones found in Denmark, Västergötland, and Södermanland.
Three stones depict Thor fishing for the serpent
JörmungandrIn Norse mythology, Jörmungandr , mostly known as Jormungand, orJörmungand , or Midgard Serpent , or World Serpent, is a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki...
; the
Hørdum stoneThe Hørdum stone is a Viking Age picture stone discovered in Hørdum, Thisted Municipality, North Denmark Region, Denmark, that depicts a legend from Norse mythology involving the god Thor and Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent.-Description:...
in Thy, Denmark, the
Altuna RunestoneThe Altuna Runestone , listed as U 1161 in the Rundata catalog, is a Viking Age memorial runestone with images from Norse mythology that is located in Altuna, Uppland, Sweden.- Description :...
in Altuna, Sweden, one of the Ardre image stones (stone VII) from
GotlandGotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
, Sweden, and the
Gosforth Crossupright|thumb|Gosforth Cross outside St Mary's church in Gosforth.The Gosforth Cross is a large stone Anglo-Saxon high cross in the churchyard at Gosforth in the English county of Cumbria. Formerly part of the kingdom of Northumbria, the area was settled by Scandinavians some time in either the 9th...
in
GosforthGosforth is a village and civil parish in the Lake District, in the Borough of Copeland in Cumbria, England. It is situated on the A595 road between Whitehaven and Barrow-in-Furness. It has a population of 1,230....
, England.
Hammer pendants and Eyrarland Statue
Pendants in a distinctive shape representing the hammer of Thor (known in Norse sources as Mjöllnir) have frequently been unearthed in
Viking AgeViking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
Scandinavian burials. The hammers were worn as a symbol of Norse pagan faith and as a symbol of opposition to Christianization; a response to crosses worn by Christians.
Casting mouldsMolding or moulding is the process of manufacturing by shaping pliable raw material using a rigid frame or model called a pattern....
have been found for the production of both Thor's hammers and Christian crucifixes, and at least one example of a combined crucifix and hammer has been discovered. The
Eyrarland StatueThe Eyrarland Statue is a seated bronze statue of a figure from about AD 1000 that was recovered at a farm in the area of Akureyri, Iceland. The object is a featured item at the National Museum of Iceland...
, a copper alloy figure found near
AkureyriAkureyri is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's second largest urban area and fourth largest municipality ....
, Iceland dating from around the 11th century, may depict Thor seated and gripping his hammer.
Swastikas
The
swastikaThe swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
symbol has been identified as representing the hammer or lightning of Thor. Scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson (1965) comments on the usage of the swastika as a symbol of Thor:
- The protective sign of the hammer was worn by women, as we know from the fact that it has been found in women's graves. it seems to have been used by the warrior also, in the form of the swastika. [...] Primarily it appears to have had connections with light and fire, and to have been linked with the sun-wheel. It may have been on account of Thor's association with lightning that this sign was used as an alternative to the hammer, for it is found on memorial stones in Scandinavia besides inscriptions to Thor. When we find it on the pommel of a warrior's sword and on his sword-belt, the assumption is that the warrior was placing himself under the Thunder God's protection.
Swastikas appear on various Germanic objects stretching from the Migration Period to the Viking Age, such as the 3rd century Værløse Fibula (DR EM85;123) from
Zealand, Denmark; the
GothicThe Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
spearhead from Brest-Litovsk, Belarus; numerous Migration Period
bracteateA bracteate is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age...
s; cremation urns from early Anglo-Saxon England; the 8th century
Sæbø swordThe Sæbø sword is an early 9th-century Viking sword, found in a barrow at Sæbø, Vik, Sogn, Norway in 1825. It is now held at the Bergen Museum in Bergen, Norway. The sword has an enigmatic inscription on its blade, which has been identified as a runic inscription incorporating a swastika symbol...
from
SognSogn is a traditional district in Western Norway . It is located in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, surrounding the Sognefjord. Sogn consists of the municipalities of Aurland, Balestrand, Hyllestad, Høyanger, Gulen, Leikanger, Luster, Lærdal, Sogndal, Solund, Vik, and Årdal. The district covers ...
, Norway; and the 9th century
Snoldelev StoneThe Snoldelev Stone, listed as DR 248 in the Rundata catalog, is a 9th century runestone that was originally located at Snoldelev, Ramsø, Denmark.-Description:...
(DR 248) from
RamsøUntil January 1, 2007 Ramsø was a municipality in the former Roskilde County on the island of Zealand in east Denmark. The municipality covered an area of 76 km², and had a total population of 9,320 . Its last mayor was Poul Lindor Nielsen, a member of the Social Democrats political party...
, Denmark.
Eponymy and toponymy
Numerous place names in
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
contain the Old Norse name
Thorr. The identification of these place names as pointing to religious significance is complicated by the aforementioned common usage of
Thorr as a personal name element. Cultic significance may only be assured in place names containing the elements -
vé (signifying the location of a
véVE, Ve or ve may refer to:* Vili and Vé, gods in Norse mythology* Vé , a shrine in Germanic paganism and modern place name element* Ve , a character from the Cyrillic alphabet* Ve , a character of the Arabic alphabet...
, a type of pagan Germanic shrine), -
hof (a structure used for religious purposes, see
heathen hofsHeathen hofs or Germanic pagan temples were the temple buildings of Germanic paganism; there are also a few built for use in modern Germanic neopaganism...
), and -
lundr (a
holy groveA sacred grove is a grove of trees of special religious importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves were most prominent in the Ancient Near East and prehistoric Europe, but feature in various cultures throughout the world...
). The place name
Thorslundr is recorded with particular frequency in
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
(and has direct cognates in Norse settlements in
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, such as
Coill Tomair), whereas
Thorshof appears particularly often in southern
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
In English placenames, Anglo-Saxon
Thunor (in contrast with the Old Norse form of the name, later introduced to the
DanelawThe Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
) left comparatively few traces. One example is
ThundersleyThundersley is a district in the north west of the Castle Point Borough, in south east Essex, England, about 35 miles east of London.-Toponymy:...
, from a
*Thunores hlæw (directly cognate to the above mentioned Old Norse
Thorslundr). A second example is
Thurstable (Old English "Thunor's pillar").
In what is now
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, locations named after Thor are sparsely recorded, but an amount of locations called
Donnersberg (German "Donner's mountain") may derive their name from the deity
Donner, the southern Germanic form of the god's name.
In as late as the 19th century in
IcelandIceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, a specific breed of fox was known as
holtaþórr ("Thor of the
holt- Natural world :* Holt, an otter den* Holt, an occasional name for a fox den* Holt, an area of woodland, e.g. a grove or copse, especially as a place-name in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Germany...
"), likely due to the red coat of the breed. In Sweden, 19th century folk belief is recorded as having held that smooth, wedge-shaped stones found in the earth (
ThunderstonesThroughout Europe, Asia, Polynesia, in fact in almost all parts of the world where their use had been forgotten, flint arrowheads and axes turned up by the farmer's plow are considered to have fallen from the sky, are often thought to be thunderbolts and are called "Thunderstones".It was not until...
) are called
Thorwiggar ("Thor's wedges"), and whose origins were explained as having been once hurled at a
trollA troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
by the god Thor. Similarly, meteorites may be considered memorials to Thor in folk tradition due to their sheer weight. On the Swedish island of
GotlandGotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
, a species of beetle (
scarabæus stercorarius), was named after the god; the
Thorbagge. When the beetle is found turned upside down and one flips it over, Thor's favor may be gained. In other regions of Sweden the name of the beetle appears to have been demonized with Christianization, where the insect came to be known as
Thordedjefvul or
Thordyfvel (both meaning "Thor-devil").
Origin, theories, and interpretations
Scholars have theorized on Thor's role in Germanic religion and the origins thereof. Scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson summarizes that:
- The cult of Thor was linked up with men's habitation and possessions, and with well-being of the family and community. This included the fruitfulness of the fields, and Thor, although pictured primarily as a storm god in the myths, was also concerned with the fertility and preservation of the seasonal round. In our own times, little stone axes from the distance past have been used as fertility symbols and placed by the farmer in the holes made by the drill to receive the first seed of spring. Thor's marriage with Sif of the golden hair, about which we hear little in the myths, seems to be a memory of the ancient symbol of divine marriage
Hieros gamos or Hierogamy refers to a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. It is the harmonization of opposites...
between sky god and earth goddess, when he comes to earth in the thunderstorm and the storm brings the rain which makes the fields fertile. In this way Thor, as well as Odin, may be seen to continue the cult of the sky god which was known in the Bronze AgeThe Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, c. 1700-500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of...
.
Modern influence
In modern times, Thor continues to be referenced in popular culture. Starting with F. J. Klopstock's 1776 ode to Thor,
Wir und Sie, Thor has been the subject of various poems, including
Adam Gottlob OehlenschlägerAdam Gottlob Oehlenschläger was a Danish poet and playwright. He introduced romanticism into Danish literature.-Biography:He was born in Vesterbro, then a suburb of Copenhagen, on 14 November 1779...
's 1807 epic poem
Thors reise til Jotunheim and, by the same author, three more poems (
Hammeren hentes,
Thors fiskeri, and
Thor besøger Hymir) collected in his 1819
Nordens Guder;
Thors Trunk (1859) by Wilhelm Hertz; the 1820 satirical poem
Mythologierne eller Gudatvisten by J. M. Stiernstolpe;
Nordens Mythologie eller Sinnbilled-Sprog (1832) by N.F.S. Grundtvig; the poem
Harmen by Thor Thorild;
Der Mythus von Thor (1836) by
Ludwig UhlandJohann Ludwig Uhland , was a German poet, philologist and literary historian.-Biography:He was born in Tübingen, then Duchy of Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, but also took an interest in medieval literature, especially old German and French poetry...
;
Der Hammer Thors (1915) by W. Schulte v. Brühl; Hans Friedrich Blunck's
Herr Dunnar und die Bauern (published in
Märchen und Sagen, 1937); and
Die Heimholung des Hammers (1977) by H. C. Artmann. He also features in two works by
Rudyard KiplingJoseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
:
Letters of Travel: 1892-1913 and "Cold Iron" in
Rewards and FairiesRewards and Fairies is a historical fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling published in 1910. The title comes from the poem Farewell, Rewards and Fairies by Richard Corbet. The poem is referred to by the children in the first story of the preceding book Puck of Pook's Hill...
.
Artists have depicted Thor in painting and sculpture, including
Henry FuseliHenry Fuseli was a British painter, draughtsman, and writer on art, of Swiss origin.-Biography:...
's 1780 painting
Thor in Hymirs Boot bekämpft die Midgardschlange; H. E. Fruend's 1821–1822 statue
Thor; B. E. Fogelberg's 1844 marble statue
Thor; M. E. Winge's 1880 charcoal drawing
Thors Kampf mit den Riesen; K. Ehrenberg's 1883 drawing
Odin, Thor und Magni; several illustrations by E. Doepler published in W. Ranisch's 1901
Walhall (
Thor;
Thor und die Midgardschlange;
Thor den Hrungnir bekämpfend;
Thor bei dem Riesen Þrym als Braut verkleidet;
Thor bei Hymir;
Thor bei Skrymir;
Thor den Fluß Wimur durchwatend); J. C. Dollman's 1909 drawings
Thor and the Mountain and
Sif and Thor; G. Poppe's painting
Thor; E. Pottner's 1914 drawing
Thors Schatten; H. Natter's marble statue
Thor; and U. Brember's 1977 illustrations to
Die Heimholung des Hammers by H. C. Artmann.
Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779–1848) discovered a
chemical elementA chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...
that he named after Thor;
ThoriumThorium is a natural radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder....
. In 1962, American comic book writer
Stan LeeStan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
and his brother Larry Leiber, together with
Jack KirbyJack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
, created the
Marvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
superheroA superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
ThorThor is a fictional superhero who appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 and was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby....
, which they based on the god of the same name.