Thor: God of Thunder in Norse Mythology
Explore Thor, Norse god of thunder and storms, his hammer Mjolnir, his chariot, his enemies the giants, and his foretold role at Ragnarok.
Thor is the most popular and best-attested of the Norse gods in the surviving archaeological record. He is the god of thunder, storms, oak trees, the sky, the protection of humanity, and the wielder of the hammer Mjölnir, the most famous weapon in Norse mythology. He is the son of Odin and the earth-goddess Jörð (Old Norse for “Earth”), and his worship was especially strong among the common people of Scandinavia, who wore small amulets in his shape, carved his hammer on runestones, and named their children after him. In the Eddas and the sagas he is depicted as a large, red-bearded man of immense strength, slow of speech but unsurpassed in battle, and the perpetual enemy of the Jötnar, whom he fights in repeated journeys through the wilderness.
The Worship of Thor in the Viking Age
Thor was the most popular god of the Vikings, and the archaeological record of his cult is vastly more extensive than that of any other Norse deity. Hundreds of small bronze or lead amulets shaped like Mjölnir have been found across Scandinavia, especially in graves of the 10th and 11th centuries. Many of these amulets were worn as personal protection, often alongside Christian crosses in the conversion period, indicating the persistence of pagan practice well after the formal adoption of Christianity.
Runestones across Sweden, Norway, and Denmark invoke Thor by name or use his hammer as a symbol of protection, particularly in connection with the funeral rite. The Södermanland Rök runestone (c. 9th century) and many similar monuments contain formulae in which the hammer of Thor is used to mark a tomb as sacrosanct. Place-names, too, preserve the cult: Torsby, Torshälla, Torup, Thorsø, and many other Scandinavian toponyms encode the god’s name and the geographical spread of his worship.
In the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum of Adam of Bremen (c. 1075), the great temple at Uppsala is described as containing an idol of Thor in the central position, with statues of Odin and Freyr on either side. Adam’s account, although hostile, matches the Icelandic and Norwegian sources: Thor is the god of the common people, the defender of the home, the bringer of rain and fertility, the patron of farmers and sailors.
The Hammer Mjölnir
Mjölnir is the most famous weapon in Norse mythology, and the symbol of Thor par excellence. It is described in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson as forged by the dwarves Sindri (or Brokkr in some versions) at the instigation of Loki, who had earlier cut off the golden hair of the goddess Sif, wife of Thor, and needed to make good the loss.
The forging is recorded in the Þrymskviða, with its vivid image of the dwarves working the bellows while Loki, in the form of a fly, bites the dwarves’ eyes to spoil their work. Mjölnir emerges from the forge with a flaw in the handle (the result of Loki’s bite), and the gods compensate by giving it a short handle. From that day the hammer is short-handled, but it is the most powerful weapon in the world.
Mjölnir has three principal functions in the mythology. First, it is a weapon that destroys the enemies of the gods: with it Thor slays the giant Hrungnir, slays the giantess Hyrrokkin who came to Baldr’s funeral, slays the troll-wives of the mountains, and at Ragnarok slays the world-serpent Jörmungandr. Second, it is a tool of consecration: with it Thor hallows the wedding-feast of a couple, hallows a funeral pyre, and (in Christianized late tradition) blesses the assembly. Third, it is a symbol of protection: it is hung over the cradle of a child, laid on the breast of a corpse, and carried by the warrior going into battle.
The hammer returns to Thor’s hand when thrown, never misses its mark, and can be made small enough to wear as a pendant. The Þrymskviða describes Thor using it to slay the giant Thrym and the entire race of giants who had stolen it. The Gylfaginning describes its powers in detail.
The Chariot and the Goats
Thor drives a chariot drawn by two goats: Tanngrisnir (“teeth-barer”) and Tanngnjóstr (“teeth-grinder”). The thunder is the sound of the goats’ hooves on the sky-roof, and the lightning is the flash of Thor’s eyes or the heat of the hammer as he hurls it. The chariot is described in the Hymiskviða and the Gylfaginning, and the image of the thunder-god riding the storm-clouds was widely reproduced in the medieval art of the Viking Age.
The goats have the further property that they may be killed and eaten, and brought back to life by Thor as long as their bones are not broken. In the Gylfaginning, Thor shares a feast with a peasant family and instructs them to throw the bones onto the hides, but the family’s son Þjálfi breaks one of the bones to suck out the marrow. When Thor strikes the goat with Mjölnir to bring it back to life, one of the goat’s hind legs is injured. In his anger, Thor takes Þjálfi and his sister Röskva as his servants, and they become the constant companions of his journeys.
The Family of Thor
Thor is the son of Odin and the earth-goddess Jörð. He is married to Sif, a goddess of the harvest whose golden hair is one of the most famous attributes in the Norse mythic world (after Loki cuts it off, the dwarves forge a new head of hair of pure gold for her, which grows like natural hair). Thor’s son is Móði (“Courage”) and his daughter is Þrúðr (“Strength”), both mentioned briefly in the Prose Edda but otherwise underdeveloped in the surviving sources.
The relationship between Thor and his step-son Ullr is also recorded. Ullr is described in the Gylfaginning as the son of Sif by a previous marriage, and he is a god of skiing, archery, and the hunt. Ullr.s connection to Thor matches Thor.s role as protector of the home: when Thor is away, Ullr guards the household.
Thor is also closely associated with the human servants Þjálfi and Röskva, taken from the peasant family as compensation for the broken bone of the goat. Þjálfi is described as the swiftest of runners and Röskva as the most beautiful of women. They accompany Thor on his journeys to Útgarða-Loki, to the giant Hymir’s hall, and to other adventures in the land of the giants.
The Journey to Útgarða-Loki
One of the most famous stories of Thor is the journey to Útgarða-Loki, preserved in the Gylfaginning. Thor, accompanied by Loki and the two servants, sets out from Asgard in Thor’s chariot drawn by the goats, and travels north into Jötunheim. There he encounters a series of confrontations with the giants, who use shape-shifting and illusion to embarrass the gods.
The most famous of these confrontations is the drinking contest, in which Thor is given a horn connected to the sea, and is told that whoever drinks it in three draughts has won. Thor drinks deeply three times, and the horn lowers visibly, but the sea only retreats slightly. The episode is later revealed to be an illusion: the horn’s other end was in the sea, and Thor had actually drunk the ocean down to a level where the bottom was visible. In a similar vein, Thor fails to lift a cat (revealed to be the world-serpent Jörmungandr), fails to wrestle an old woman (revealed to be Old Age itself), and is awed by the fact that he has been eating at a table whose real host is a giant of such power that he had to surround Asgard with illusion to keep the gods out.
The journey is the most extensive treatment of Thor in the Prose Edda, and it is a defining myth: it shows Thor as the strongest of the gods, but also shows the limits of his strength against the deeper forces of the world. It also establishes the structure of the Norse heroic journey: the champion of the gods enters the realm of the giants, contests them, and either wins, loses, or is shown a higher truth.
The Fishing Trip with Hymir
The second great journey of Thor is the fishing trip with the giant Hymir, recorded in the Hymiskviða. Thor visits Hymir’s hall to obtain a cauldron large enough to brew ale for the gods, and Hymir challenges him to prove his strength by fishing for a meal. They go out to sea, and Thor hooks the world-serpent Jörmungandr on his line. The serpent is so enormous that Thor has to brace his feet against the bottom of the boat to pull it up, and when the serpent breaks the surface the two stare at each other. Hymir, terrified, cuts the line, and the serpent sinks back into the sea.
The fishing trip is one of the most frequently illustrated scenes in the Viking Age, appearing on picture stones from Gotland, in the Thorsdrapa of Eilífr Goðrúnarson, and in the Húsdrápa of Úlfr Uggason. The confrontation between the thunder-god and the world-serpent is the mythic image of the confrontation that will be repeated at Ragnarok, when the two will meet for the last time.
Thor in the Prose Edda and the Hymiskviða
The Hymiskviða describes the journey to Hymir’s hall in detail: the cold reception of the gods, the eye-poking of the giant (Thor is so strong that his smile is enough to crack the ceiling and the back of the giantess’s head), the breaking of the cup, the test of the cauldron, the fishing trip. The poem is one of the longer of the Poetic Edda, and the Gylfaginning of the Prose Edda uses it as a source for its own treatment of the same events.
The two versions of the story differ in emphasis: the Hymiskviða is a heroic poem in the style of the heroic Eddas, while the Gylfaginning is a more theological and encyclopedic account. Both agree on the basic narrative and on the meaning: Thor is the defender of the world, and the giants are his perpetual adversaries.
The Marriage of Thor
A second great adventure of Thor, recorded in the Þrymskviða, is the recovery of his hammer. The giant Thrym has stolen Mjölnir and hidden it deep underground, and he will return it only in exchange for the hand of Freya. When Freya refuses, Heimdall proposes that Thor himself go to Jötunheim disguised as a bride, and Loki as the bridesmaid. Thor reluctantly agrees, and the two arrive at Thrym’s hall in bridal dress. The giant, delighted, places the hammer in the bride’s lap during the wedding-feast, and Thor immediately seizes it and slays the giant and all his family.
The poem is one of the most often cited of the Poetic Edda: it is a comic masterpiece in the Eddic corpus, and it shows Thor as a figure of redoubtable strength but also as a god who can be tricked (Loki must persuade him to wear the bridal veil), who can be embarrassed (Thor eats a whole ox and eight salmon at the wedding-feast), and who is yet capable of slaughter on a heroic scale.
The Death of Thor at Ragnarok
In the Völuspá and the Gylfaginning, Thor is prophesied to fight the world-serpent Jörmungandr at Ragnarok. The two will slay each other: Thor will kill the serpent with Mjölnir, but will walk only nine paces from the body before falling dead of the serpent’s venom. The death of Thor is the second great tragedy of the Norse end of the world (the first being the death of Baldr, the third being the death of Odin).
Thor is one of the gods who will be reborn into the new world after Ragnarok, according to the Völuspá. He and the other surviving gods will dwell in the new Asgard, and the fragments of his hammer will be recovered from the field. In some sources Móði and Magni, the sons of Thor, will inherit the hammer.
Thor and the Continental Germanic Thunar
The cult of Thor can be traced outside the Norse world. The continental Germanic tribes knew him as Þunar or Donar (in Old High German), and the Latin writers identified him with Hercules. The Old English name is Þunor, and the English word Thursday is the day of Thor.
In the Old English Nine Herbs Charm, Þunor is invoked as a healer of wounds, and in the Hildebrandslied the name of a divine weapon of similar type is mentioned. In continental Germanic folklore the figure of the thunder-god survives in folk-traditions of the wild hunt, in the cult of oak trees, and in the legend of the Donnerkeil (thunder-stone, a prehistoric stone axe-head).
The wide geographical distribution of Thor’s cult — from Saxony to Iceland, from England to Sweden — is a testimony to the religious importance of the thunder-god in the Germanic world. The thunder-god is the principal defender of the human world against the forces of chaos, and his cult is the most deeply rooted of the Germanic religious traditions.
Thor in Modern Culture
Thor has become one of the most recognizable Norse gods in modern popular culture, in part through the medium of the Marvel cinematic universe and the comic book tradition of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. In the Marvel tradition, Thor is the son of Odin and the goddess Gaea (corresponding to the Norse Jörð), and his hammer Mjölnir is the symbol of his worthiness. The Marvel tradition has introduced a vast new audience to the Norse god, and has had a significant effect on the popular reception of Norse mythology in the twenty-first century.
The medieval and modern reception of Thor is treated more fully on the page devoted to Norse Mythology in Marvel and Pop Culture.
Thor in the Völsunga Saga and the Heroic Tradition
Thor appears in several of the heroic sagas, often as a divine helper of mortal champions. In the Völsunga saga, the hero Sigurðr Fáfnisbani is described as having a great sword, a fine horse, and the favor of the gods; the saga records that “the sword that Sigurðr had was called Gram, and it was the sword that had belonged to Sigmund, the son of Volsung, and before that it had been broken by Odin; but it was mended by Regin, the son of Hreidmar.” Although Odin, not Thor, is the divine patron of Sigurðr in the saga, the smithing arts that produce the great weapons are associated with the Aesir in general and with Thor’s dwarven forger-indebtedness in particular.
In the Hrólf saga kraka (the saga of the Danish king Hrolf Kraki), Thor is invoked by several heroes before battle, and the cult of the god is depicted as the central religious practice of the Danish court. In the Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, the hero Egill Skallagrímsson is described as having a great aversion to the cult of Thor (which he associates with the paganism of his youth), and the saga uses Thor as a symbol of the old religion in conflict with the new.
Thor and the Cult of the Thunder-Stone
The cult of Thor is also reflected in the folk-tradition of the Donnerkeil (thunder-stone, in German) or thunder-axe (in Scandinavian folklore). Prehistoric stone axes, found in the soil of Scandinavia and the North German Plain, were popularly believed to be the weapon of the thunder-god, and they were used in folk-magic to protect the home from lightning and storm. The tradition persisted well into the modern period, and the thunder-stone was hung over the threshold of the house, or above the bed, to ward off the storm.
The folk-tradition of the thunder-stone is a survival of the older cult of Thor, and it is a vivid testimony to the persistence of the cult in the popular imagination. The thunder-stone is also associated with the cult of the church bell in the Christianized tradition, and the bell was sometimes said to be the Christian equivalent of the Mjölnir. The two objects — the thunder-stone and the church bell — were understood as the instruments of the god’s protection of the human world.
Thor in English Royal Legend
The cult of Thor is also attested in the English royal genealogies. The Historia Brittonum of Nennius (c. 828) lists Sæfugel, a king of the East Angles, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lists Hengest and Horsa, the legendary founders of the English settlement in Britain, as descendants of Woden, not of Thor. The cult of Thor in England is, however, attested in a number of place-names — Thundersley, Thornbury, Thurstable — and in a small corpus of inscriptions in which the god is invoked for protection.
The English cult of Thor is also reflected in the Nine Herbs Charm, an Old English magical text that invokes “Thunor” (Thor) for the healing of wounds. The charm is a remarkable survival of the pagan cult in a Christianized English context, and it is a vivid testimony to the persistence of the cult of the god in the English-speaking world.
Thor and the Mjölnir in Modern Practice
The cult of Thor has been revived in the modern neopagan movement of Ásatrú, and the Mjölnir pendant is one of the most popular symbols of the movement. The pendant is worn as a sign of religious identity, in much the same way that the Christian cross is worn, and the Mjölnir is invoked in the rituals of many modern Ásatrú groups as a symbol of the protection of the god. The image is also used in popular culture, in fantasy fiction, and in the visual culture of the modern reception of the Norse gods.
The Mjölnir pendant is also a popular subject in modern metalwork, and a number of contemporary jewellers and craftspeople produce Mjölnir pendants in silver, bronze, and iron. The pendants are often inscribed with runes, with the names of the gods, or with personal mottoes, and they are a vivid testimony to the persistence of the cult of Thor in the modern world.
Conclusion
Thor is the most popular of the Norse gods, the defender of the world, the bringer of rain, the slayer of giants, the husband of Sif, the father of Magni and Móði and Þrúðr, the son of Odin and Jörð. His mythology is preserved in the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda, the Heimskringla, and the skaldic verse of the Viking Age. His worship was the most widespread of any Norse god, and his name is preserved in the day of the week in every Germanic language. To read the Þrymskviða is to read the comic genius of Norse mythology; to read the Völuspá is to read the heroic tragedy of the god who will die at the end of the world, nine paces from the body of the world-serpent.