The name Thor (Old High German Donar, Old Norse þórr, Anglo-Saxon Þunor) comes from the Proto-Germanic reconstructed theonym *Þun(a)raz (‘Thunder’) and for this reason, Thor is sometimes called the Thunderer. It is also shared with other ‘Thunderers’ in the Indo-European pantheons. He is the illegitimate son of the ruler of the gods, Odin, and his mother is Jörd, who represents the earth. Thor’s consort is the golden-haired goddess Sif, with whom he has a daughter Thrud (Þrúðr,‘Strenght‘), but he has the giantess Járnsaxa as his mistress. His two sons, Modi and Magni (Móði and Magni, ’Wrath” and “Mighty‘), are among the few who survive Ragnarök.
Among the common people, this god enjoyed considerable popularity because he represents a counterpoint to the complicated nature of Odin. Thor is straightforward, loves good food, and can consume enormous quantities of it. The same is with mead. He is often portrayed as a young and strong man with a red beard. No god or man can match him in strength, but he is also renowned for his fierceness. When thunder rumbled in a storm, people thought the Thunderer was angry, riding across the sky in his chariot and hurling lightning bolts. It was also forbidden to throw the whetstone on the ground because a fragment of it was stuck in Thor’s skull, and if someone dropped the whetstone, that piece in Thor’s head would resonate and cause him headache.
We must not forget, however, that Thor is the protector of mankind against the giants (Jötnar) that represent chaotic forces hostile to man and life. With his hammer Mjölnir (perhaps ‘the grinder’) he fights and slays giants. To control the hammer, he wears iron gloves and a belt that multiplies his strength. But this hammer was also used in order to bestow blessings, for example during wedding rituals.
Thor rides in a cart pulled by two goats called Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. The two goats can be killed, eaten, and then revived the next day by using his hammer Mjölnir.
Many humorous stories are told about Thor, such as how the gods disguised him as a bride to gain the magical hammer back. The idea of a strongly masculine god in women’s clothing reliably provided the Northerners with entertainment during the long winter evenings. There is a deeper subtext to the stories in which Thor struggles with the masked old age but cannot defeat it (because no one can defeat old age) or the story of how Thor went fishing and managed to catch his archenemy, the snake Jörmungandr, on the hook. After an exhausting battle, Thor had to let the monster go, because the snake’s body encircles the whole world, and it would be impossible to pull it out. Thor defeats the snake Jörmungandr only during the Ragnarök, but it will spew such a large amount of poison that Thor perishes shortly afterwards. These stories tell us the folk wisdom that there are things, such as the principles of space and time, against which even the superhuman power of the god Thor is powerless. Thor’s day is Thursday, which in German is called Donnerstag, in English Thursday, or Thor’s Day. His attribute is the oak tree, and he is the patron of farmers, craftsmen, soldiers, fishermen and travellers.
___________________________
S. Sedlakova, Brno, CZE