Citation: Þórr

Tags: Incomplete entry

Description:

Þórr (anglicized as Thor) is a deity and a major figure in Norse mythology and Old Norse literature. He belongs to the group of divine beings known as the Æsir (LINK). He appears frequently in the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, usually showing up to kill jötnar ("giants," although this is a mistranslation) with his famous hammer, Mjöllnir (LINK). For this reason he is characterized as the guardian of Ásgarðr (LINK), the home of the Æsir, and one of the strongest gods in terms of raw might and destructive power. 

Þórr is symbolically linked to his hammer, Mjöllnir, which is the most recognizable aspect his various depictions throughout history. Hammer pendants thought to represent Mjöllnir were worn as pendants in the Iron Age and Viking age, and have been found throughout northern and eastern Europe, particularly Scandinavia, Iceland, England, the Baltic countries, and Russia. This practice has been taken up today, where historical recreations and creative reinterpretations of 'Thor's Hammer' are worn around the neck by Norse neopagans or others interested in Old Norse myth and culture, and they are present in many a museum shop and tourism store in the Nordic countries. See Mjöllnir entry for more details.

Origin and Relations

Þórr is the son of Óðinn and Jörð, ("earth") a personification of the earth. Due to Óðinn's many mistresses, Þórr has at least three brothers (Baldr, Váli, and Viðarr), but possibly many more, as many male deities, some only appearing once or twice, are called Óðinn's son. Snorri, in the Skáldskaparmál section of the Prose Edda, provides the following stanza in a section on lists of names of different beings: Óðinn's sons are Baldr and Meili, Viðarr and Nepr, Váli, Áli, Þórr and Hildólfr, Hermóðr, Sigi, Skjöldr, Yngvi-Freyr and Ítreksjóð, Heimdallr, Sæmingr. It has become a kind of protocol, however, to take whatever Snorri has written with a grain of salt, rather than taking the Prose Edda as a direct window to the worldview of pre-Christian Scandinavia, as some past scholars (and many contemporary appreciators of Norse myth) did.

Þórr's wife is Frigg (LINK), with whom he is the father of the goddess Þrúðr ("strength"); and he fathered a child with the jötunn woman Járnsaxa ("iron-knife"), his son Magni ("mighty"), and by an unknown mother his other son is Móði ("wrath") (LINKS). Þórr has two servants, the brother and sister Þjálfi and Röskva (LINK), who are mostly attested in the Gylfaginning section of the Prose Edda. 

Attributes

Þórr is the strongest of all gods and humans, and is also called the foremost of the gods (after Óðinn) in Gylfaginning chapter 21.

Worship

Items and Properties

Þórr's possessions are given together in chapter 21 of Gylfaginning, in the Prose Edda. He has three magical objects: the dwarf-made hammer, Mjöllnir; a pare of iron gauntlets (járngreipr or járnglófar) that he must wear to wield the hammer (either because the handle is too short—see Mjöllnir entry for the story—or so that Þórr is not harmed when he uses the mighty weapon); and a special belt, the megingjörð, "power-belt," which doubles his godly strength when he wears it.

He owns two male goats, named Tanngnjóstr ("tooth gnasher") and Tanngrisnir ("snarl tooth"), which he slaughters for his nightly meal and then resurrects them with the power of Mjöllnir (see Mjöllnir entry for description of this power); this story is embedded in Gylfaginning and is known as the story of Þórr and Utgarða-Loki (LINK). They pull his chariot, which is why Þórr has the nickname Ökuþórr ("driving-Þórr").

Þórr rules a place called Þrúðvangar, "Fields of Strength," where he dwells in a hall named Bilskirnir, which has 540 rooms.