Page 83 - Red Feather Book 2

Norse Mythology
Thor
Part Two: The Gods
hough Odin held a higher rank, Thor seems to have been
the best loved and most worshiped of the Norse deities. He belonged to the common people, while Odin appealed to the learned and noble classes. Although he could be fearsome, many myths portray him in a comic and affectionate way. Thor appears throughout Norse mythology as a huge, strongly built, red-bearded fellow with a huge appetite. He is associated with lightning, probably because of the time he spent with the gods Vingnir and Hlora, who represented “wings” and “heat”. His wife was the beautiful goddess Sif, who seldom appears in myths and remains a somewhat mysterious figure. Generally good- natured, Thor had a hot temper, and his anger was dreadful to behold. He was a fierce enemy of the frost giants, the foes of the Norse gods. When people heard thunder and saw lightning in the sky, they knew that Thor was fighting these evil giants. The thunder god’s chief weapon was his mighty hammer Mjollnir, or Crusher, which the dwarfs had forged for him. When he threw Mjollnir, it returned magically to his hand like a boomerang. Among Mjollnir’s other powers was the gift of restoring life to the dead. The connection of Thor’s hammer with life and fertility gave rise to the Old Norse customs of placing a hammer in a bride’s lap at her wedding and of raising it over a newborn child. The Norse considered this hammer a sacred object, not only of battle but of blessing. Just as
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The Red Feather Literature Second Course