Thor
Thor is the thunder god, the son of Odin, and father to Módi, Magni, and Thrúd. Though attested throughout the pre-Christian period in Scandinavia, Thor rose in popularity when the missionaries arrived, becoming a symbol of resistance to the conversion (see final item on this list). His popularity rivalled, and even surpassed, that of Odin, leading some scholars to posit that Thor and Odin were the heads of separate pagan pantheons that were eventually amalgamated, with Thor being originally the god of craftsmen and farmers, Odin the god of chieftains and politicians. ‘Thursday’ is a derivation of ‘Thor’s Day’.
Thor is rarely seen without his great hammer, Mjölnir (‘crusher’), with which he chiefly slays giants. Indeed, Thor’s role as a god seems to be, chiefly, the destruction of the jötnar: skaldic poems dedicated to him from a few years before Iceland was Christianised simply list the names of giants he has killed. Mjölnir was made for Thor by Eitri the dwarf:
Then he gave the hammer to Thor, and said that with it Thor would be able to strike whatever came before him with as mighty a blow as he wished, because the hammer would never break. (Skáldskaparmál, 5).
From its inception, Mjölnir was designed for one thing in particular: ‘it provided the best protection against the frost giants’ (Skáldskaparmál, 5). The boastful giant Hrungnir (‘brawler’) is challenged to a duel by Thor, who cleaves the vainglorious jötunn’s skull in two, but Thor is also capable of killing giants without Mjölnir, the theft and recovery of which forms the plot of many tales. In one story the giant king Geirrod steals Mjölnir, and so Thor instead kills him with a red-hot iron, and then slays his three daughters (one with a rock, the others by accidentally sitting on them).
Thor is the god most associated with people. The Hymiskvida of the Poetic Edda calls him ‘the protector of humans’ (22), whilst he is often attended by the human bondsman Thjálfi. The closeness of Thor and people is attested by the archaeological record, in which the only talismans associated with the Norse gods are images of Mjölnir, usually worn as necklaces. Thor’s principal means of travel is by a chariot pulled by two billy-goats, Tanngniost (‘tooth-gnasher’) and Tanngrisnir (‘snarl-tooth’). His other chief possessions are iron gloves and a belt of strength, first used in his slaying of Geirrod (Gylfaginning, 21).