Symbol reference · Galdrastafir
Thor
/θɔːr/Old Norse Þórr, masculine noun; from Proto-Germanic *Þunraz, 'thunder'
The thunder god of Norse myth, son of Odin and Jörð, 'Earth', and the strongest of the Æsir. He guards gods and people against the giants with the hammer Mjölnir, and he is the god who appears most often in Viking-Age evidence: on runestones, on amulets and in personal names.
He owns three treasures. The hammer Mjölnir, forged by the dwarves Brokkr and Eitri, never misses and returns to his hand when thrown. The belt of strength, megingjarðar, increases his divine strength by half when he buckles it on. He cannot do without the iron gloves when he grips the hammer's shaft. Most of his myths are fights with giants: he recovers the stolen hammer by going to the giant Þrymr dressed as Freyja, fishes up the World Serpent with an ox head for bait, and at Ragnarök kills the serpent, walks nine steps and falls dead from its venom.
No other Norse god is as well attested outside the manuscripts. Runestones in Denmark and Sweden ask him to hallow them: the Glavendrup stone on Funen, carved around 900 to 950, reads 'May Thor hallow these runes', and the Velanda stone in Västergötland ends with the same prayer. The Kvinneby amulet from Öland, usually dated to the eleventh century, is generally read as asking Thor to protect its owner with his hammer, and hammer pendants are among the commonest Viking-Age amulets. Personal names built on his, such as Þorsteinn, Þórólfr and Þórdís, outnumber those formed from any other god's name, both in Landnámabók and in the runic inscriptions. Around 1075 Adam of Bremen described Thor, 'the mightiest of them', enthroned in the middle of the temple at Uppsala between Wodan and Fricco, ruling the air, thunder and lightning, wind and rain, fair weather and crops. Thursday is still his day.
The sources say little about how he looked. Snorri's Prologue gives Tror, whom it identifies with Thor, hair fairer than gold, while Icelandic sagas of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, among them Eiríks saga rauða, the sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and Flóamanna saga, picture him as a big, red-bearded man. No source gives him a horned helmet, and no Viking-Age battle helmet yet found has horns.
Primary source Verbatim
Þórr er þeira framast, sá er kallaðr er Ása-Þórr eða Öku-Þórr. Hann er sterkastr allra goðanna ok manna. [...] Annan grip á hann beztan, megingjarðar, ok er hann spennir þeim um sik, þá vex honum ásmegin hálfu.
Thor is the foremost of them, the one called Ása-Thor or Öku-Thor. He is the strongest of all gods and men. [...] His second treasure is a most precious one, his belt of strength: when he buckles it round himself, his divine strength grows by half.
GYLFAGINNING, ch. 21 · translation editorial ↗
Etymology
The god's name is the Germanic word for thunder, still the everyday word in Old English þunor. When Germanic speakers adopted the Roman week, they matched Jupiter, lord of the thunderbolt, with their own thunder god, and the equation survives in Thursday.
Common misconceptions
Frequently asked questions
Who is Thor in Norse mythology?
Who are Thor's parents?
Is Thor Loki's brother?
What are Thor's weapons?
Was Thor really worshipped by the Vikings?
Did Thor have red hair?
Bibliography
- 1. Snorri Sturluson, Edda (Prologue; Gylfaginning 9, 21, 36, 51; Skáldskaparmál 4 and 35, the forging of Mjölnir), c. 1220. Trans. Anthony Faulkes, Everyman, 1987. heimskringla.no ↗
- 2. The Poetic Edda (Þrymskviða, Hymiskviða, Grímnismál, Hárbarðsljóð, Lokasenna, Völuspá), Codex Regius, GKS 2365 4to, c. 1270. Trans. Carolyne Larrington, rev. ed., Oxford World's Classics, 2014. handrit.is ↗
- 3. Glavendrup runestone, DR 209 (Fyn 26), Funen, Denmark, c. 900–950: þur : uiki : þasi : runaR, 'May Thor hallow these runes'. Danske Runeindskrifter, University of Copenhagen. runer.ku.dk ↗
- 4. Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum IV.26–27, c. 1075, ed. Bernhard Schmeidler, MGH SS rer. Germ. 2, 1917. dmgh.de ↗
- 5. Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology, trans. Angela Hall, D. S. Brewer, 1993, s.v. 'Thor'.