Gods and Myths of Northern Europe Chapter Three

The Thunder God
 
This chapter deals with Thor, his purview (law, thunder, kicking ass, protection), and his history. He is evidently linked to Donar and Tiwaz as thunder / justice, which is interesting considering Odin's relationship to Tiwaz and his own misbehavior.

Much attention is paid to Thor's hammer which in addition to bashing skulls with regularity was also used to resurrect the goats that pulled his chariot / cart / wagon after a tasty meal of well, goat. There's a section about nails that were evidently used in temples to strike fires that seems to serve to explain the rather strange tale of how Thor ended up with a large hunk of a whetstone embedded in his forehead and nicely links back to thunder/lightning/fire. There is also a portion that discusses the 'sign of the hammer' and its parallel with the sign of the cross.

Like that of the Christian cross, the sign of the hammer was at once a protection and a blessing to those who used it. An early king of Norway, Hakon the Good, who became a Christian, was bullied into attending autumn sacrifices, and he strove to protect himself from the heathen rites by making the sign of the cross over the cup passed round in honour of the gods. When the company objected, one of his friends defended Hakon, saying: The King acts like all those who trust in their strength and might. He made the mark of the hammer over it before he drank.

Davidson, H. (1990-12-13). Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (p. 81). Penguin UK. Kindle Edition.

Time is spent discussing oaks and groves in Heathen times, their treatment by Christian inheritors and how Thor and his followers may have interacted with the groves (much of the grove talk is linked to not-Thor but Thorish deities). 

Again there is some discussion of the proto-IE myths linked to aspects of Thor and some of the problems and benefits of the extant material on Thor.

Thor, was evidently, very much a deity of the commoners and very popular, among them:

Nor did he only fight these battles on behalf of the gods; it is clear that he was also regarded as the Defence of Men (alda bergr). He was struggling for mankind, and for the precarious civilization which men had wrested from a hard and chaotic world. If we see his doings in the myths in this light, then they harmonize with the picture given in the prose literature of a god who supported law, helped men to build and to cultivate, to marry and bring up children, and protected them on their journeyings. He guarded not only the halls of Asgard, but the humbler homesteads of Norway and Iceland, marked out and hallowed by his sacred fire and his hammer-sign; he safeguarded their oaths with one another, and invested them with the sanctity of his temple and holy place. As the sky god, he drove his chariot over the circuit of the heavens, and could at will grant the traveller desirable weather and favourable winds. In Asgard he kept the goddesses of peace and plenty safe, so that they could grant their benefits to mankind; on earth, in the stony and storm-beaten lands of the north, he battled with the monsters of cold and violence that unceasingly threatened men’s security. It is hardly surprising that he attracted the allegiance of men who struggled against the odds which nature and hostile powers raised against them, nor that, even after he had been long supplanted by Christ, he still played a major part in the old myths of the gods which were recounted in the north.

Davidson, H. (1990-12-13). Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (p. 91). Penguin UK. Kindle Edition.

Thoughts

Thor's role as deity of the people is very interesting to me because again coming from a Judeo-Christian culture it's not that I don't expect the son of the father of the gods (I'm being liberal as hell whaddaya want?) to be approachable, but that it's weird / cool to find it in a Norse myth where the Dad is a bit of an unreliable though powerful do as I say not as I do kinda guy.

I like Thor, he takes on the glory sure but he also ends up being made a fool of and doing impossibly difficult things like, a lot. Admittedly there's a very good chance much of the silly myths about him have been tweaked by those that passed them down to render them harmless in Church eyes and lessen the attractiveness of Thor as a rival for Jesus.

Whatever, he's pretty damn rad in my book.