by Graeme Davis
THOR
VIKING GOD OF THUNDER
BY GRAEME DAVIS
ILLUSTRATED BY MIGUEL COIMBRA
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THOR THE LEGEND
HOW THOR GOT HIS HAMMER
THOR AND UTGARDALOKI
AEGIR’S FEAST
THOR AND THE GIANTS
THOR AND HARBARD
RAGNAROK
OTHER LEGENDS
THOR THE GOD
THOR’S LEGACY
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
Thor is the best known of the Norse gods. From archeological evidence, he also seems to have been the god favored most by the Vikings themselves. The Vikings identified with Thor in a way they did not with the unpredictable Odin, the unyielding Tyr, and the dangerous Loki.
Thor’s popularity can be explained in several ways. As a god of storms and thunder, he would naturally have been important to a society of seafarers, fishermen, and farmers. Literary sources depict Thor as a Viking writ large – strong, bluff, hearty, and fearless – so he may have been something of a role model. He is also fallible: this may be because his adventures were first written down at a time when paganism had given way to Christianity in most of Scandinavia, and contemporary retellings of Norse myths were purged of religious content. This turned them into wild adventure tales and reduced the gods to something like modern superheroes.
Perhaps this is one reason why Thor still makes regular appearances in contemporary culture. Since 1962 he has been one of Marvel Comics’ more popular superheroes, appearing in films and television shows as well as in comics. Thor remains a popular boys’ name in Scandinavia, and has also been attached to Norwegian and German warships, an American ballistic missile and booster rocket, a British ramjet, and more than one heavy metal act, among other things.
Thor’s most popular symbol, the hammer Mjolnir, has been adopted in recent decades by a variety of groups ranging from neopagans to rockers and bikers. In recent years its use has been reported among white supremacists. The swastika, infamously co-opted by the Nazi Party in 1920 and used by racist groups ever since, was also originally associated with Thor. It has been variously interpreted as a stylized thunderbolt or a symbol for Thor’s hammer.
This book examines Thor’s journey from god to prototypical superhero, and recounts some of the most popular tales told about the Viking god of thunder.
A NOTE ABOUT SPELLINGS
The primary sources for these tales are not consistent about the spelling of many names. In addition, the Old Norse language features a few letters that are not part of our Roman alphabet, and uses accents above many vowels. The result can be confusing and hard for a modern English-speaker to read. Therefore, character names and poem titles have been simplified in this book for the sake of consistency and readability.
Thor’s Fight with the Giants (1872) by Marten Eskil Winge is a typical 19th-century image of the Thunder God. (© National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden / The Bridgeman Art Library)
The World of Norse Myth
There are a great many names in this book that may be unfamiliar to the casual reader. In order to avoid confusion, the following pages give a brief summary of the major Norse gods and mythological realms.
The Aesir
The Aesir were one of two tribes of Norse gods. The other, the Vanir, were more obscure and are rarely mentioned in the myths.
Odin was the leader of the Aesir. According to some myths he was the father of Thor and many of the other gods, but this may be a later addition intended to bring Norse mythology into line with the classical Greek and Roman model, where Zeus/Jupiter was the father of the gods as well as their chief. Odin was unpredictable and a cunning magician. While hanging on the world-tree Yggdrasil in what sounds like a shamanic ordeal, he sacrificed an eye in exchange for mystical knowledge. In Norse myths, he often travels among mortals as an old one-eyed man in a broad-brimmed hat, bringing good luck and bad.
Frigga was Odin’s wife and the queen of Asgard. She is said to have had the power of prophecy, but little else is said of her.
Loki is a malicious trickster who constantly tries to attack and undermine the Aesir. He is also the father of the goddess Hel, the Midgard Serpent Jormungand, and the great wolf Fenrir, and the mother (through shape-changing) of Odin’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir.
Balder, the most beautiful of the Norse gods, is the son of Odin and Frigga. He was killed through Loki’s malevolence.
Frey is a Vanir who lives among the Aesir. He and his sister Freyja came to Asgard (along with the little-known Njord, according to some sources) as hostages to seal the peace that ended the Aesir–Vanir war long ago. Both Frey and Freyja seem to be fertility deities.
Tyr was a god of victory in battle, and may also have been the patron deity of the law. When the Aesir determined to bind Fenrir, Tyr placed his hand in the wolf’s mouth as a surety that they meant no harm. When Fenrir found himself unable to break the Aesir’s bonds, he bit off Tyr’s hand.
Sif was Thor’s wife. Apart from the fact that her golden hair was much admired, little is known of her.
Heimdall was the watchman of Asgard and would sound the horn Gjallarhorn to raise the alarm when the giants crossed the rainbow bridge Bifrost at the start of Ragnarok, the war at the end of the world.
Various lesser Aesir are mentioned in the mythological sources, but these are the main deities who appear in the tales of Thor’s exploits.
An 18th-century Icelandic image of Thor fishing for the Midgard Serpent. (Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark / The Bridgeman Art Library)
The Nine Worlds
The Nine Worlds of Norse cosmology were arranged around the world-tree Yggdrasil in three layers.
At the top were Asgard, Vanaheim, and Alfheim; in the middle were Midgard, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim and Nidavellir; and beneath Yggdrasil’s roots lay Niflheim and Muspellsheim.
Asgard was the realm of the Aesir, the tribe to which most of the Norse gods belonged. Between Asgard and Midgard stretched Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, guarded by Heimdall against the day when the giants would invade and Ragnarok would begin.
Vanaheim was the home of the Vanir, a second tribe of deities. Apart from Frey, Freyja, and Njord, who lived among the Aesir, the Vanir are obscure. Some scholars suggest that they were the folk-memory of an earlier religion based on the land and fertility.
Alfheim was the land of the Elves (alfar). Frey may have had a hall there, or he may have owned a hall called Alfheim, which was situated in Asgard – the myths are unclear.
Midgard was the land of humans. Midgard was encircled by a deep ocean, at the bottom of which lay Jormungand the Midgard Serpent, encircling the world with its tail in its mouth.
Jotunheim was the land of the giants, where many of Thor’s adventures take place. It seems to have been much like Midgard.
Svartalfheim was the land of the Dark Elves. Little is said of them in Norse myth, although some scholars equate them with dwarves and claim that Svartalfheim and Nidavellir were two names for the same place.
Nidavellir was the home of the Dwarves. Little else is said of it.
Niflheim was a land of mist and darkness. Ruled by Loki’s daughter Hel, it was a land of the dead, inhabited by those who died of disease or old age. Some sources call it Hel after its ruler; others imply that Hel was a separate realm within Niflheim.
Muspellsheim was the land of the fire giants. It was said to be a realm of fire, so hot that no one who was not born there could survive it.
Most of the surviving tales of Thor’s adventures are set in Asgard, Midgard, and Jotunheim.
THOR THE LEGEND
Christianity established itself in the Viking homelands of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Icel
and during the 10th to 13th centuries. The Norse religion was slow to die, especially in remote rural areas, but as elsewhere in Europe, Christianity eventually took over and the older religion was reduced to a collection of rural customs and folklore. But this was not to be the end for Thor and the other Norse gods. In the 13th century, two writers, Saemund Sigfusson and Snorri Sturluson, laid the foundation for almost everything we know today about Norse mythology in the Eddas.
Over the centuries that followed, the material in their work has been expanded and adapted for a variety of reasons, until today Thor is a major figure in superhero comics, extremist politics, and revived Norse paganism.
The figure of Thor in the surviving legends is larger than life. He is short-tempered and capable of astounding feats of strength, and his favorite pastime is slaying giants. His approach to any problem is direct and usually violent, except for one story in which he outwits a cunning dwarf to save his daughter. On more than one occasion Loki and other enemies make him look almost foolish, but his strength and fighting prowess see him through every hazard except for his final, fatal battle with the world-encircling Midgard Serpent.
Given these qualities, it is perhaps no surprise that Thor’s most visible presence in popular culture is in the guise of a comic-book superhero. In some ways, it could be argued that the Christianized legends of the Eddas were the precursors of today’s superhero comics.
THORSDRAPA
Thorsdrapa (The Lay of Thor) is one of the few sources for Norse myth that predate the Eddas. It was composed by 10th-century skaldic poet Eilifr Godrunarson, who served at the court of Norwegian Jarl Haakon Sigurdsson (also called Haakon the Powerful). Although never crowned king, Haakon was the de facto ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995.
The poem is hard to read because of its extensive use of kennings and other complex language. The main part of the poem tells of Thor’s exploits against the giant Geirrod, starting with one of Loki’s typical pranks and ending, predictably, with Thor slaughtering giants right and left. The Thorsdrapa seems to have been the main source for the poet Snorri Sturluson’s retelling.
The Eddas
Most of our information on Norse mythology comes from two books, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. Both were written in Iceland during the 13th century, drawing on earlier sources.
Iceland had adopted Christianity in the year 1000, so the myths were retold without any religious content. Reading between the lines, it is possible to see Thor as a role model for the pagan Vikings who worshiped him: the stories emphasize his strength and fighting prowess, which are put to good use in protecting Asgard from encroaching giants.
Thor (1844), a marble statue by B. E. Fogelberg. (Ivy Close Images / Alamy)
The Poetic Edda
Attributed to Saemund Sigfusson, the Poetic Edda (also known as the Verse Edda) comes mainly from a 13th-century manuscript named the Codex Regius or Konungsbok (“book of kings”), which was rediscovered in 1662. It consists of 32 sections, of which nine contain references to Thor.
Voluspa (“The Prophecy of the Seeress”) is an account of the world’s beginning and end, as told to Odin by a volva or seeress. It includes a detailed account of Ragnarok, the war at the end of the world in which Thor and the other gods are destined to be killed.
Grimnismal (“The Sayings of Grimnir”) is mainly a story about Odin, but includes an account of the gods and the worlds of Norse myth.
Skirnismal (“The Sayings of Skirnir”) mentions Thor fleetingly as one of the gods who will be angered with a giantess who rejects the advances of a lovesick Frey.
Harbardsljod (“The Lay of Harbard”) features Thor as a main character. While returning to Asgard from Jotunheim, the land of the giants, Thor encounters an uncooperative ferryman (who may be Odin in disguise, according to some scholars) and the two engage in a flyting match, an exchange of poetic insults. Several of Thor’s exploits are mentioned in the course of the argument.
Hymiskvida (“Hymir’s Poem”) sees Thor visiting the giant Hymir to borrow a cauldron large enough to heat mead for all the gods at once. Along the way Thor performs several feats of strength, kills a number of giants, and almost catches the world-encircling Midgard Serpent while fishing.
Lokasenna (“Loki’s Quarrel”) tells of a feast at which the trickster god Loki insults all of the gods, and only agrees to leave after Thor threatens to knock his head off with his great hammer Mjolnir.
A 19th century woodcut image of Snorri Sturluson by Christian Krohg. (PD-US)
Thrymskvida (“The Tale of Thrym”) tells how the giant Thrym steals Thor’s hammer and refuses to return it unless he is allowed to marry the goddess Freyja. Thor and Loki go to Thrym’s hall disguised as a bride and bridesmaid; when the hammer is laid in the bride’s lap as part of the wedding ceremony, Thor kills the giants with it.
Alvissmal (“The Talk of Alvis”) is a dialogue between Thor and a dwarf named Alvis (“all-wise”) who comes to claim Thor’s daughter as his bride. Thor refuses since he was not consulted about the match, and the rest of the poem is a contest of questions and answers between the two, mainly concerning the different names by which men, Aesir, elves, dwarves, giants, and others call various things.
Hyndluljod (“The Lay of Hyndla”) concerns the quest of the goddess Freyja and the seeress Hyndla to establish the pedigree of Freyja’s protégé Ottar the Simple, so he can come into his inheritance. Thor is mentioned only in passing.
Snorri Sturluson and the Prose Edda
Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) was an Icelandic poet and politician. Although he reached the highest office in the land, that of logsogumadur (lawspeaker) of Iceland’s Althing parliament, he is best known today for having written the Prose Edda and the Heimskringla.
The Heimskringla is a history of the kings of Norway, and its only mythological content is found in the Ynglinga Saga, which covers the period from the dawn of time until the rule of Halfdan the Black in the 9th century. The Prose Edda, on the other hand, is a collection of Norse legend and history that constitutes one of the two major extant sources for Norse mythology.
The Prose Edda (also known as the Younger Edda) consists of a prologue and three chapters: Gylfaginning, Skaldskaparmal and Hattatal.
SOURCES FOR THE EDDAS
The Codex Regius (“king’s manuscript”) the main source for the Verse Edda was discovered in the 17th century, when the bishop of Skalholt in Iceland sent it as a gift to King Frederick III of Denmark: it was at this time that it acquired its name. It remained in the Royal Library in Copenhagen until 1971, when it was returned to Iceland. It is written on vellum, and 45 leaves survive; eight went missing at some point in its history.
Confusingly, one of the main sources for the Prose Edda, sent to Frederick as part of the same gift, is also called the Codex Regius. It consists of 55 vellum leaves, and was returned to Iceland in 1985.
Not all of the Eddas’ content is found in the Codex Regius, and scholars have worked to reassemble what they can from many other manuscripts.
The cover of an 18th-century edition of the Prose Edda, now in the Icelandic National Library. (PD-US)
Prologue
The Prologue is an attempt to tie the origins of Norse myth into the classical world of Greece and Rome. This was a common exercise among the historians of northern and western Europe at a time when the classical world was regarded as the fount of all civilization and culture. The English historian Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100-1155), for example, claims in his Historia Regum Britanniae (“History of the Kings of Britain”) that Britain’s first king was a Roman named Brutus, whose descent he traces back to Troy and the Greek gods.
For his part, Snorri claims that Thor was a grandson of Priam, the last Trojan king from Homer’s Iliad. He goes on to make Odin Thor’s grandson. Thor’s descendants make their way to Scandinavia and are welcomed as “men of Asia,” which is how Snorri explains the origin of the Norse term Aesir.
Gylfaginning
Gylfaginning (�
��The Tricking of Gylfi”) is a story of about 20,000 words, and deals with the beginning and the end of the world according to Norse myth.
The chapter takes its name from Gylfi, a king of Sweden who welcomes the Aesir to Scandinavia in the Prologue. The story begins when Gylfi is tricked by an Aesir goddess, and wonders whether all Aesir use magic and trickery.
HIGH, JUST-AS-HIGH, AND THIRD
The nature of these three figures is never made clear in the Gylfaginning. Since Gylfi is traveling to Asgard, though, they may be gods in disguise. Many Norse temples seem to have had three idols – Odin, Thor, and Frey – sitting together. Perhaps High, Just-as-High, and Third are these gods under false names. Most Norse gods had multiple names, and Odin in particular was fond of using aliases.
Gylfi questions the three strangers in Gylfaginning. From an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript in the Arni Magnusson Institute in Iceland. (PD-US)
KENNINGS
Kennings are a poetic device popular in Norse literature. They are basically metaphors that use the form “X of the Y” (or the simpler “Y-X”) in place of a single noun. Thus, a kenning for a ship might be “wave-serpent,” referring to a dragon stem-post and to the vessel’s deadliness in battle.
The most admired kennings were derived from Norse myth and literature. For example, a kenning for gold was “Sif’s hair,” referring to a myth in which Loki cut off Sif’s hair as a cruel joke, and the dwarves made her new hair out of gold. The more obscure and original a kenning was, the more the speaker or writer would be admired.
