Thor

Categories: Cleanup from October 2005 | Norse mythology | Thunder gods

For other uses, see Thor (disambiguation).

Thor, Oku-Thor, Þórr (ON), Þunor (OE "Thunor" ), Donar or Donner (German) 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. While Odin is the god of the powerful and aristocratic, Thor is much more the god of the common man. During Ragnarök, Thor will kill and be killed by Jörmungandr. He lived in the hall of Bilskirnir in Thrudheim.

Thor's character

Thor features strongly in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, where Thor's many conflicts with the race of giants are a main source of plots. As Snorri portrays him, Thor is a straightforward god, not necessarily the wisest or most intelligent; for instance, he is thoroughly made a fool of by the mysterious Utgardaloki and his magic spells. However in the Codex Regius, the primary source of the Poetic Edda, Thor outwits the dwarf, Alvíss, in the Alvíssmál.

Thor's family

Thor was the son of Odin and Jord (Earth). His wife was called Sif, and little is known of her except that she had golden hair, which was made for her by the dwarfs after Loki had cut off her hair. With Jarnsaxa, Thor had the son Magni and with Sif he had Thrud and Modi. He also had a stepson called Ullr who was a son of Sif's.

Thor's possessions

Thor travelled in a chariot drawn by goats (Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, Modern Icelandic Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstur) and with his servant and messenger Thjálfi or Thjelvar. Both goats and chariot were magic: the Eddas note that the earth was scorched and the mountains cracked as the goats ran across them, and furthermore, when Thor was hungry, he would roast the goats for a meal. When he wanted to continue his travels, Thor only needed to touch the remains of the goats and they would be instantly restored to full health to resume their duties, assuming that the bones had not been broken.

Thor owned a short-handled war hammer, Mjollnir, which, when thrown at a target, returned magically to the owner. To wield this formidable weapon, even a deity like Thor needed special iron gloves and a belt that doubled the wearer's strength.

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 performed his giant-killing duties.

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.

Loki was flying as a hawk one day and was captured by Geirrod. Geirrod, who hated Thor, demanded that Loki bring his enemy (who did not yet have his magic belt and hammer) 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 (including Geirrod's daughters, Gjalp and Greip).

Thor's daughter, Thrud, was promised to Alvis, a dwarf, and in exchange Alvis made weapons for the gods. 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 used his spells to make one of his giants faster than Thor's fast servant, Þjálfi. 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, where instead of mead, Thor drank sea water, and could not empty a horn. And here, Thor wrestled an old woman, who was Old Age, something no one could beat. 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.

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Thor in Norse literature

Thor appears as a central figure in the following works of Norse literature:

• Þórsdrápa (summarised by Snorri Sturluson in Skáldskaparmál)
• 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:

• Gylfaginning
• Grímnismál
• Hymiskviða
• Þrymskviða
• Alvíssmál

Named after Thor

• "Tor's Day" or "Thor's Day" became Thursday in English, Donnerstag in German (meaning "Thunder's Day"), Donderdag in Dutch (meaning Thunder day), and Torsdag in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian.

• "Thor's Oak" was an ancient tree near Fritzlar in northern Hesse (Germany) 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.

• The placename 'Thurso' (Scottish town in Caithness) is derived from the name 'Thor'.

Other names

• Ása-Þórr, which is Thor of the Æsir, the most important Norse gods
• Öku-Þórr (driver-Thor), a reference to the chariot, drawn by the (magic) goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr (often translated as "Toothgrinder" and "Toothgnasher"), in which he travels the earth and skies
• Tór (Faroese)
• Tor (Swedish, and Norwegian)
• Thor (Danish)
• Þórr (Old Norse)
• Þór (Icelandic)
• Þunor (Anglo-Saxon)
• Donar (Dutch)
• Donner (German)

Homologues

Homologues in related Indo-European religions

• Taranis
• Tharapita
• Indra
• Perkunas
• Perun
• Zeus
• Jupiter

Homologues in other religions

• Tiermes, Tordöm or Torum ("the golden light", Finno-Ugric). Several Finno-Ugric peoples have thunder gods with names similar to Thor. Some, like Estonian Taara have even connection with Thursday. One theory is that Germanic god Thor is loan from Finno-Ugrians, although the Hittite Tarhunt and the Sanskrit Indra seem to be cognates pointing to a pan-Indo-European phenomenon.
• Xolotl, the coyote god of Aztec mythology

Thor in modern popular culture

• Marvel Comics publishes a comic book series called The Mighty Thor, in which modernized versions of the Asgardian gods inhabit the Marvel Universe.
• Thor is the hero, along with Odin and Loki in the Valhalla comic book or graphic novel series published in Denmark by Interpresse. Originally published in Danish, translations were made into Dutch, German, French, Swedish, and Finnish. Several animated movies were also produced from the series.
• Thor makes an appearance in DC Comics' Sandman comic series, written by Neil Gaiman. Thor is portrayed here as an overly muscular, red-bearded man, who eats his fill and hits on goddesses. In keeping with the myths, he is also portrayed as a bit dim-witted, unlike in the Marvel universe.
• Thor is also mentioned briefly in Neil Gaiman's American Gods novel.
• Thor is a recurring character in the Sci-Fi T.V. series Stargate SG-1. He is the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, where his species is portrayed as technologically-advanced little gray beings akin to the purported Roswell Greys. The Asgard are said to have inspired the Norse Mythology and the Futhark alphabet, which can be seen occasionally written on Asgard technology.
• Thor appears in several novels by the late author Douglas Adams; namely, Life, the Universe and Everything, The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, and The Salmon of Doubt.
• Thor has a small but important role in the movie Adventures in Babysitting (inspired by the Marvel Comics version).
• Toothgnip, the title goat of the webcomic Goats, is Thor's third goat.
• The name "Thor" has been used as the name of a BattleMech in the MechWarrior series of games. Other Norse-inspired 'Mech names include "Loki", "Ymir" and "Ragnarok". In the MechAssault series, the "Valkyrie" VTOL and the map "Jotenheim" are homages to Norse mythology.
• A DOS computer game called God of Thunder (later released as freeware) allows the player to play as Thor. [1]
• In the webcomic series Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki, Thor appears as a red haired and bearded young man who, after attacking Yuuki with his hammer, proceeded to train her to become a proper Valkyrie.
• Thor was an ancient and technologically advanced civilization who mastered time travel in the world of Tales of Phantasia.
• Thor was the focus of a practical joke started by a Dilbert comic strip, whereby the prankster builds up static electricity from dragging their feet across a carpet, then greets an unwitting friend with the declaration: "Behold. I am Thor, God of Thunder." (Dogbert is a dog -- God reversed)

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