Małgorzata Warzecha, Erasmus student 2011
Old Norse 2
Word count:
Norse pantheon is, as in many heathen religions, widely spread and complicated with all genealogical connections and complex roles and characters of individual deity. One of the gods who were mostly described is Þórr (a może “One of the best described gods”?), which makes his divine role clearer than the roles of other deities, rarely mentioned in remaining sources. His character can be observed in numerous poems and stories from Norse mythology. Some scholars assume that at some point in the past Þórr surpassed Óðinn and became the primarily worshipped Norse god. This change might be a result of many factors, one of which presumably is his divine role which drove this god closer to mankind.
What is divine role of Þórr? In various sources he is seen as either the god of war, who fights forces of chaos, or god of fertility, symbol of well-being. He is either depicted as young, well-build warrior or an old man with red beard. There is debate going on among scholars, which one of these roles is more important. I decided to focus on his role as giant-slayer and defender of mankind and the Æsir, as this image predominate in poems (a może “sagas” zamiast “poems”?) of Poetic Edda. I have chosen two poems from this set of mythological works: Hymiskviða and Þrymskviða. In my paper I want to concentrate on relation between Þórr's creation and his divine role and how his character reflects his functions.
As I mentioned before one of Þórr's main functions, if not the most important one, is the role of defender of the Æsir and giant slayer. It can be seen in many poems of Poetic Edda, not excluding Hymiskviða and Þrymskviða. In both stories the god encounters giants and in both slays the whole tribe of them. The giants are considered as main opponents of Þórr and it is significant how often they try to disturb the Æsir and to interfere in their world. Without Þórr's power to defeat giants Ásgarðr and Miðgarðr would be at serious risk. Quote describing that risk can be found in Þrymskviða:
Þegar munu jötnar Ásgarð búa,
nema þú þinn hamar ér of heimtir.
It is clear then how big threat were giants for Norse gods and their dwelling. Without Þórr's abilities, power, and without his hammer gods are in serious situation.
As I mentioned hammer, I will now proceed to important feature of Þórr's characterisation, his important attribute. The weapon of this mighty god is a primary (“chief”?) element of Þrymskviða. It is because of his missing hammer that Þórr is perplexed and all of the Æsir get anxious. As it was seen in quote above, without the hammer (może sieknij tu nazwę młota?), gods are almost powerless against the giants. But what the hammer means for Þórr? Even though Þrymskviða is an comic poem, underneath the comedy and laughable elements lies also element of hazard and danger. Þórr without his main attribute behaves as if distracted, he sends Loki to find his belonging, instead of going for it himself , he shows all kinds of different feelings, from anger when he discovers that his hammer is missing, to impatience when Loki returns with message about Þórr's belonging , he is stubborn while ordering Freyja to become a wife of giant, and then meek when gods insist on his cross-dressing. All that of course creates a great humorous effect, but apart from that shows how unstable and volatile Þórr becomes when he is devoid of his hammer. This item is not only a symbol of military power of the god of war, but also sexual power symbol of a masculinity god. After coming to Þrymr's land, dressed as a bride, after a great feast when time finally comes to consecrate the marriage, the hammer is placed on the lap of Þórr which is a clear allusion to a fallic symbol. And only after that, the god regains his great powers and immediately slays the whole family of Þrymr.
In Þrymskviða Þórr is shown in comical and laughable light (fashion?). His power is revealed only in two last stanzas and there is not much emphasis on his strength and potency. The opposite happens in Hymiskviða. This poem is distinct from Þrymskviða because it focus directly on Þórr's divine role. It is a compilation of shorter episodes concerning the god of war. The episode of fighting with Jormungandr is just one of them. I believe that Þórr's characterisation in stories included in Hymiskviða reflect greatly his role and activities according the Norse mythology.
Primarily, the stories are concerned with Þórr's unimaginable strength and courage. After showing immense appetite, to which I will come back later in my paper, Þórr left no more food for the following day. Because of that, Hymir decided that they should go for a fishing trip. The giant allowed Þórr to take the bait from his herd, having in mind bull's dung. Þórr however dares to take the head of one of the giant's bulls. When the host sees what happened he is astonished and angry. In my opinion this episode show how little respect did the god have (had?) for the belongings of the giant. He was courageous and strong enough to take the head of the beast. It reveals the hostile role of the giant- even though he is a guest in the dwelling of Hymir, he doesn't obey the host, nor is he respectful.
His carelessness towards the giant's requests can be seen in the next stanzas as well. The following story is the famous myth of Þórr's fishing expedition. In this version of the myth god was not able to kill the serpent Jormungandr. Nevertheless, it highlights enormous strength of Þórr and his bravery. The giant probably didn't realise that his guest will have enough courage to travel further out into the sea than anyone before him. Actually Hymir seems quite fearful in comparison to Þórr, he wants to prevent the god from going any further. Nonetheless the áss (a nie z dużej litery?) does it without any regard for giant's opposition. Hymir's haul is quite impressive in itself- he catches two great whales. But compared to Þórr's it is almost nothing. The god manages to catch the world serpent, probably the greatest being in the seas. That caused immense reaction in the whole world:
Hreingálen hlumðo, enn hölen þuto,
Fór in forna fold öll saman.
Søcþiz síðan sá fiscr í mar.
As I mentioned before, this shows how amazingly strong was Þórr. His stoutness moved the whole earth right from the foundation. And if the god succeeded in taking his haul out of the water and killing it, the world would never be the same again. But unfortunately for Þórr Jormungandr sinks back to the depths of the sea.
Þórr manifests his strength in next passage of Hymiskviða as well. When the god and the giant come back from the sea, Hymir intends to divide the amount of things to carry in between them two. Þórr, however, takes both whales (Hymir's haul) and the boat on his shoulders and carries it back to giant's dwelling. That impressed but also annoyed the host, and because of this he gave another challenge to the god- if he manages to break Hymir's cup, he will obtain the item of his desire- kettle for the merriment of the Æsir. Firstly Þórr tries to break the cup by hitting it against the pillar but it doesn't work. Then, with all his might and god's power he strikes the head of Hymir and manages to break the glass. The giant is forced to give up and handles the kettle to Þórr.
This story is in my opinion significant for relation between Þórr's creation and his divine role. He is considered as the god of masculinity, god of bravery. Those episodes are concerned with his power and strength. It is emphasised how outstanding his courage were and it was compared to the giant's deeds, which were in themselves very remarkable, but after putting them together with Þórr's exploits they seem rather bleak. I briefly mentioned before that the god is always in opposition to giant's will and this is also a significant marker of his role. After all, he is the enemy of giants, and even though he sometimes need to co-operate with that race, he shows no respect for them. In Hymiskviða he doesn't have to kill the giants, and he wouldn't do that if they didn't follow him in pursuit.
I mentioned Þórr's immense appetite before. I would like to come back to it now. It appears in both poems that I am concerned with. In Þrymskviða it is present in stanza 24, when Þórr disguised as the bride eats huge amount of food. That astonishes Þrymr, but not in negative way. It is perhaps a good feature for giantesses to eat a lot, and because of that Þrymr finds it attractive. It has a great comical aspect, but apart from this effect it shows Þórr's appetite. The same characteristic of Þórr can be found in Hymiskviða, stanza 15. Hymir is angry because of his unexpected guests, but he is obliged to be a host for them. He orders the dinner to be served, and to his great amazement Þórr himself eats two whole oxen. As we can see god's good apetite causes surprise but also admiration. It is a symbol of masculinity and vigour of the god. Perhaps for his enemies the fact that Þórr is able to eat this amount of food is also a sign of his power and strengths. If his appetite is this great, his strength must be adequate.
My final insight about Þórr's creation (depiction?) in two poems from the Poetic Edda concerns the names and adjectives used to described the god. I believe they are significant and add much to characterisation of Þórr. Those short descriptions can tell us much about role of the god. In Hymiskviða we could divide the kennings used to describe Þórr into two groups. First of them would be connected to his genealogy, the second describe his activities and attributes. Examples of those connected to genealogy would be the son of Ygg, Sif's mate, Son of Óðinn. Such kennings help to situate Þórr in the genealogy of the mythological deities. There is also description which draw my attention, namely: `Faðir Móða'- the father of Móði. Móði means 'Angry', Þórr has another son called Magni- `Strong', and a daughter Þrúðr which means `Power'. The last two names don't appear in either of poems I am concerned with, but they appear in other poems (może jakieś inne słowo bo poems powtarza się w zdaniu). I want to use names of Þórr's children as an important factor in his characterisation. Anger, strength and power are adjectives best describing Þórr, and the fact that his children are called by those particular names emphasises it and points directly to his divine role as a giant- slayer and god of war.
Examples of the group of kennings used to described him are as follows: slayer of giants, lord of the goats, warder of men, worm's destroyer, the bold one. All those variant of a single name complete the image of Þórr and add a stronger impression of status and significance.
There is plenty of other relations between individual characterisation of Þórr and his divine role. I believe that the bountifulness of sources about the god make studies much more comprehensive and allows scholars and students to go deep into meaning without ambiguity and without too much supposition, which could be the case with other gods.
Professor John McKinnell `Old Norse Mythology' Durham University, lecture given on … November 2011
Georges Dumezil, Gods of the ancient Northmen, Edited by Einar Haugen (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1973)
John Lindow, Norse mythology : a guide to the gods, heroes, rituals, and beliefs (Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002). Pp.287-291
`Immidiately will giants live in Ásgarð / unless you recover your hammer for yourself'
John McKinnell, `Myth as therapy: the usefulness of Þrymskviða', Medium Ævum, 69/1 (2000).
`Þrymskviða' in Anthony Faulkes (ed.), A New Introduction to Old Norse; Part II- Reader, 5th edn., (London : Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London, 2011) page 138, lines 16-18
`Þrymskviða' page 138, line 1
`Þrymskviða' page 139, lines 35-39
`Þrymskviða' page 139 lines 46-47
`Þrymskviða' page 140 line 72
Footnote in prose edda in Bellows
`Hymiskviða' in Hans Kuhn and Gustav Neckel (ed.), Edda : Die Lieder des Codex regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern (Heidelberg : C. Winter, 1962) page 92, stanza 24; translation:
Enemy of reindeer howled, and rocks resounded
And the old earth was shaken
Then sunk the fish into the sea
Appear in `Hymiskviða'
Appear in `Þrymskviða'
`Hymiskviða' in Hanz Kuhn, stanza 34
Pulsiano, Philip (ed.), Medieval Scandinavia: an encyclopedia (New York; London: Garland, 1993). 672-673.
Appear in `Hymiskviđa'