Encyclopedia
Thor is the red-haired and bearded god of
thunder in
Norse Mythology and more generally Germanic mythology. He is the son of
Odin and Jord. During
Ragnarök, Thor will kill and be killed by
Jörmungandr.
Characteristics
Thor features strongly in the
Prose Edda of
Snorri Sturluson, in which Thor's many conflicts with the race of giants are a main source of plots. Thor is one of the most powerful Norse gods. He uses his superior power to protect Asgard and Midgard. He is also known as the God of Thunder
Family
Thor is the son of
Odin and the giantess Jörd . His wife is called
Sif, and little is known of her except that she has golden hair, which was made for her by the dwarfs after
Loki had cut off her hair. With his mistress, the giantess Jarnsaxa, Thor had his sons Magni and Modi, and with
Sif he had his daughter Thrud. The prologue of the
Prose Edda also indicates he has a son by Sif named Lóriði, along with an additional 17 generations of descendants but the prologue is apocryphal and was meant to give a plausible explanation on how the Aesir came to be worshipped even though they were not gods in order to appease the church. Thor also has a stepson called
Ull who is a son of
Sif.
Skáldskaparmál mentions a figure named Hlóra who was Thor's foster mother, although no additional information concerning her is provided.
Possessions
Thor travels in a chariot drawn by the
goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr and with his servant and messenger
Thjálfi and his sister Röskva. The skaldic poem
Haustlöng relates that the earth was scorched and the mountains cracked as Thor travelled in his wagon. According to the Prose Edda, when Thor is hungry he can roast the goats for a meal. When he wants to continue his travels, Thor only needs to touch the remains of the goats and they will be instantly restored to full health to resume their duties, assuming that the bones have not been broken.
Thor owns a short-handled
war hammer,
Mjolnir, which, when thrown at a target, returns magically to the owner. To wield Mjolnir, Thor wears the belt Megingjord, which boosts the wearer's strength and a pair of special iron gloves to lift the hammer.
The strike of the hammer caused thunderclaps, and indeed, the name of this deity has produced the word for thunder in most
Germanic languages. With the hammer, Thor performs his giant-killing duties.
Thor lives in the palace Bilskirnir in the kingdom Thrudheim or Thrúdvangar.
Surviving representations
Stories and myths
Most of the surviving myths centre on Thor's exploits, and from this and inscriptions on monuments we know that Thor was very much the favorite deity of ancient
Scandinavians.
According to one myth in the Prose Edda,
Loki was flying as a
hawk one day and was captured by Geirrod. Geirrod, who hated Thor, demanded that Loki bring his enemy to Geirrod's castle. Loki agreed to lead Thor to the trap. Grid was a giantess at whose home they stopped on the way to Geirrod's. She waited until Loki left the room then told Thor what was happening and gave him her
iron gloves and magical belt and staff. Thor killed Geirrod and all other frost giants he could find .
According to Alvíssmál, Thor's daughter, Thrud, was promised to Alvis, a dwarf. Thor devised a plan to stop Alvis from marrying his daughter. He told Alvis that, because of his small height, he had to prove his wisdom. Alvis agreed and Thor made the tests last until after the sun had risen--all dwarves turned to stone when exposed to sunlight, so Alvis was petrified and Thrud remained unmarried.
Thor was once outwitted by a giant king,
Útgarða-Loki. The king, using his magic, tricked Thor. The king raced Thought itself against Thor's fast servant, Þjálfi. Then, Thor was challenged by
Útgarða-Loki to an eating contest with one of his servants. Thor lost, eventually. The servant even ate up the trough containing the food. The servant was an illusion of "Fire", no living thing being able to equal the consumption rate of Fire. He called Thor weak when he only lifted the paw of a cat, the cat being the illusion of the
Midgard Serpent. Thor was challenged to a drinking contest, and could not empty a horn which was filled not with mead but was connected to the ocean. This action started tidal changes. And here, Thor wrestled an old woman, who was Old Age, something no one could beat, to one knee. It was only later that Thor was told that he had in fact performed impressively doing as well as he did with those challenges.
Þunor gave his name to the
Old English day
Þunresdæg, meaning the day of Þunor, known in
Modern English as Thursday. Þunor is also the source of the modern word
thunder. Many writers identified Thor with
Jupiter. The comparison can be borne: both are gods of the sky that control thunder and lightning, are children of the mother Earth and were at some time considered the most powerful of the gods. The oak tree was sacred to both gods and they had mysterious powers. Thor is to kill the
Midgard Serpent and Jupiter, the dragon
Typhon.
Tacitus identified Thor with the Greco-Roman hero-god
Hercules because of his force, aspect, weapon and his role as protector of the world.
Norse literature
The two biggest works are the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda . Thor is a very common figure, probably more common than Odin.
Thor appears as a central figure in the following works of Norse literature:
- Þórsdrápa
- Hárbarðsljóð which details a contest between Thor and Odin in the guise of Harbarth as to who is the most accomplished.
Thor also appears in:
Archaeological finds
A seated bronze statue of Thor from about AD
1000 was recovered at a farm near
Akureyri, Iceland and is a featured display at the National Museum of Iceland. Thor is holding
Mjolnir, sculptured in the typically Icelandic cross-like shape.
Named after Thor
Locations
- The placename 'Thurso' is derived from the name 'Thor'.
- The placenames 'Þórsberg', 'Þórey', 'Þórsnes', 'Þórshof' and 'Þórsland' are derived from the name 'Thor'.
- The placenames 'Torsaker', 'Torslunda', 'Torsvi', 'Torshof' and 'Torsharg' are derived from the name of Thor.
- The placenames 'Þórshöfn', 'Þórsnes' and 'Þórsmörk' are derived from the name of Thor.
- The placename 'Tórshavn' means Thor's harbour.
- The placename 'Thor's Beach' a sandy beach in the Slocan Valley, in the Kooteney's of British Columbia, Canada.
Misc
- "Thor's Day" is Þórsdagr in Old Norse, Thursday in English, Donnerstag in German , Donderdag in Dutch , Torstai in Finnish, and Torsdag in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian.
- The Galaxy NGC2359 is derived from the name of Thor, known as Thor's Helmet.
- "Thor's Oak" was an ancient tree near Fritzlar in northern Hesse and one of the most sacred of sites of the old Germans. In 723, St. Boniface cut down the tree to demonstrate the superiority of the Christian god over Thor and the other Germanic/Nordic deities, an event that commonly marks the beginning of the Christianization of the non-Frankish Germans.
- Thorium was named after the god Thor by Jöns Jakob Berzelius, the chemist who discovered it.
Other names
- Ása-Þórr, which is Thor of the Æsir, the most important Norse gods
- Öku-Þórr , a reference to the chariot, drawn by the goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr , in which he travels the earth and skies
- Tórur
- Tor
- Thor )
- Þórr
- Þór
- Þunor
- Þunaer
- Donar
- Donner
- Þur
- Wigiþonar
- Atli
- Asabrag
- Ennilang
- Eindridi
- Bjorn
- Hlorridi
- Hardveur
- Vingthor
- Sonnung
- Veud
- Rym
- Gofar
- Thunarr
See also: List of names of Thor.
Homologues
Homologues in related religions
These are homologues that were created in religions of other speakers of
Indo-European languages.
Homologues in other religions
- Tiermes, Tordöm or Torum . Several Finno-Ugric peoples have thunder gods with names similar to Thor. Some, like Estonian Taara even retain the connection with Thursday. One theory is that Thor is a loan from Finno-Ugric mythology, although the Hittite Tarhunt and the Vedic Indra seem to be cognates pointing to a basis in a Proto-Indo-European religion, which suggests the opposite; that the god was borrowed from the Proto-Indo-Europeans by Finno-Ugric groups. It may even be seen as representing some common heritage between the two peoples.
Modern popular culture
Thor, under the German form of his name, "Donner", appears in
Richard Wagner's opera cycle,
Der Ring des Nibelungen, commonly translated into English [i] as The Ring of t ...
. This has led to many portrayals based on Wagner's interpretation, although some are closer to pre-Wagner models. Since Wagner's time, Thor has appeared, either as himself or as the namesake of characters, in comic books, on television, in literature, and in song lyrics.
There is a very popular candy bar in Europe called a Thor bar. It contains peanut butter, caramel, wafers, and chocolate
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