“Focus on one or more gods in Old Norse literature. Discuss the ways in which the characterisation of the gods as individuals reflects their divine roles. At least one Old Norse text. “ – agreed.

“Disccuss the way in which the characterisation of Thor as individual reflect his divine role”

1. Introduction- citation from some dictionary? Who is Thor? His divine role

2. Thor’s characterisation, quotes from two texts

Looks, items (hammer, goats etc. etc.) -> role

Temper- how he behaves towards other gods, humans, creatures

Mind features- not very bright? How that reflects his role? I guess it causes him sometimes only he can be blamed for his troubles.

Views on life (he don’t want to be dressed as woman etc.)

3. Summary- How far goes the connection between character and his role? Very far, he is what he does.

Hymiskviða and Þrymskviða

Primary Reading:

Hymiskviða- The Lay of Hymir

Thor, Veur, the youth, the son of Ygg, Sif’s mate, word-wielder, Hlorrithi, slaier of giants, wife of Sif, lord of the goats, warder of men, worm’s destroyer, the bold one, father of Mothi,

Thor’s appetite stanza 15 “The husband of Sif, ere sleep he went , alone two oxen of Hymir’s ate. “

Also found in Thrymskvitha 24. When disguised as Freyja he eats ox, 8 salmon and drank three tuns

of mead.

Thor insead of taking ox’s dung for a bait (as Hymir wanted), he takes the whole head of an ox.

his pugnacious, rowdy character? Hymir replies that it was better when Thor was sitting and doing nothing (eating?)

Thor eats a lot, Hymir decides that next meal they will eat whatever they hunt, thor replies he wants

a bait so he can go fishing, takes ox head, Hymir is angry.

Hammer called: Mjollnir, the lover of murder – stanza 37;

In Ragnarok thor and the serpent kill each other.

Thor didn’t kill the serpent; Hymir cuts the rope and so Thor is unable to struck the serpent. Thor is

so enraged that he strikes Hymir out of the boat. <- anger, irritability, Thor hates when someone

ruins his plan,

Prose Edda; Snorri Sturluson by A. Faulkes

Gylfaginning

Pg 13- Thor’s birth,

Pg 18- Thor’s role “Kormt and Ormt and two Kerlaugs, these shall Thor wade, cross every day whenhe is to judge at the ash Yggdrasil, for As-bridge burns all with flame, the holy waters boil.’

Pg 22

Thor has two goats whose names are Tannginiost and Tanngrisnir, and a chariot that he drives in, and the goats draw the chariot. Form this he is known as Odu-Thor. He also has three special possessions. One of them is the hammer Miollnir, well known to frost-giants and mountain-giants when it is raised aloft, and that is not to be wondered at: it has smashed many a skull for their fathers and kinsmen. He has another possession that is very valuable, a girdle of might, and when he buckles it on his As-strength is doubled. He has a third thing that is a most important possession.

This is a pair of iron gloves. He must not be without these when he grips the hammer. But there is no one so wise that can recount all his exploits, though I can tell you so many stories about him that much time will be taken up before all I know is told.

Pg 35-40

Rent the book

From Myth And Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia

Thor the thunderer was considered as one of the noblest and most powerful gods (sometimes even more powerful than Odin). He seems to grow in power, meaning by the end of Heathen Age, times.

Thor lived in Thrúðheim (The World of Might) or Thrúðvangar (Field of Might), where his house Bilskírnir, was as splendind as Vallhǫll. Every day Thor waded rivers to sit in judgement beneath the World Tree Yggdrasill. His role was to maintain the order of the universe, defend our world (Miðgarð) and the world of Gods (Asgarð). His weapon was the hammer Mjǫllnir, with which he hold the forces of giants, dwelling in Jǫtunheimar, in the east.

Stories: Thor and the Serpent- his most formidable opponent, it’s not clear whether Thor managed to kill it. Some versions say yes, some no.

Natural enemies of Thor- giants and giantesses. They are seen as symbol of death. If he didn’t kill them, there would be no life on earth.

Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heores, Rituals, and Beliefs

Thor also kills dwarfs, although less deliberately. In Alvissmal he keeps the dwarf who is trying to

woo his daughter up until sunrise answering questions about poetic vocabulary (not otherwise a

known interest of Thor’s), and the sun’s first ray kills the dwarf. At Baldr’s funeral he redirects his

anger at the giantess Hyrrokkin to the dwarf Lit, whom he kicks into the fire.

Thor could be outdone through the use of magic, and area into which he never ventures. Thus, when traveling with the giant Skrymir, Thor is unable to kill him, because, as he learns later, the giant magically redirects the blows of his hammer. After Skrymir and Thor part ways, thor and his traveling companions are defeated in various contests at the hall of Utharda-Loki partly through magic, as when Thor think he is lifting a cat but is in fact lifting the Midgard serpent, and partly through linguistic dullness, as when Thor fails to realize that the old lady he wrestles named “Old Age” is in fact old age. A similar lack of linguistic awareness, or perhaps a lack of awareness of poetic forms, makes Thor come out the loser when he egages in a contest of words with a ferryman, Odin in disguise, in Harbardsljod. But Thor is the only god capable of shutting Loki up when he is reviling all the gods in Lokasenna, and Thor is also the one who contributes most to the capture of Loki that leads to his binding.

Thor very often travels in the company of an assistant, most often Thjalfi but also on occasion Loki or Tyr. Thjalfi is a human, and his accompanying Thor increase the close relationship between Thor and humans, a relationship also attested by the metal artifacts known as Thor’s hammers. These objects, miniature hammers that were worn about the neck, are the only indication from the archeological record of talismans associated with specific accouterments of the gods. Thor was probably the most important god of late paganism, as is suggested by the presentation In medieval Scandinavian sources of the conversion as a struggle between Thor and Christ.

Thor was not just a giantslayer but also a giantess-slayer. The forces of chaos had a strong female side.

Thor is presented as crossing rivers. It is mainly because of his often travels to the land of giants, which was in the east. They lived on the other side of boundaries. Also giants were associated with water (as in the abode of the Midgard serpent).

Myths of the Pagan North: The Gods of the Norsemen

“…Thor- who is not usually thought to be the wisest or most intelligent of the gods- unexpectedly finds himself as its protagonist.

Gods of the Ancient Northmen by Georges Dumezil

Thor sometimes compared to Hercules; colossally strong; his quest is to destroy giants, red beard, fabulous appetite; He is the rampart of divine society, he is honoured by Gods; when he is absent from AEsir enclosure great perils threaten. When he is in rage he resembles his opponents, state of anger- modr. He doesn’t recognise the promises and pledges that the other gods, even Odin, have imprudently made in his absence – like when promising disguised giant Freya, moon and sun in exchange for a castle (great wall?). When he’s tricked by Loki he flies into giant rage, disguise falls. Thor is being called and kills the giant.

Mentions poem- fight between Odin and Thor called Hárbarðsljóð ‘Method of verbal fencing, in order to make more evident the natures of two gods and the diverse services, sometimes contradictory which they rendered in various parts of the same stable theological structure.’

Thor in Snorri’s Eddas: warrior, giant-slayer, man in prime of life

Thor in Lapps- old man, red bearded, god of fertility, the old man of grain

Thor:

1. -hammer! Fallic symbol, symbol of masculinity, also power of Thor, without it he is confused (Thrymskvida)

2. -his children as symbol of his power

3. -goat chariot

4. -great appetite

5. -fights chaos- giants, world serpent

6. -his role is most clear of all gods although there are some questions (war or fertility as primary feature)

7. -not very smart, can be tricked easily

8. -not coping with magic

9. -gets angry easily

10. -wide range of names given to him, expressing his power and role

11. -