Thor (Old Norse: Þórr) is the Norse god of thunder, the sky, and agriculture. He is the son of Odin, chief of the gods, and Odin's consort Jord (Earth) and husband of the fertility goddess Sif, who is the mother of his son Modi and daughter Thrud; his other son, Magni, may be the offspring of a union with the giantess Jarnsaxa. Thor was the defender of Asgard, realm of the gods, and Midgard, the human realm, and is primarily associated with protection through great feats of arms in slaying giants.
The majority of the tales featuring Thor, in fact, put him in conflict with a giant or with his nemesis the Midgard Serpent (Jörmungandr, the “huge monster”), a monstrous snake who coils and twists itself around the world. Like almost all of the Norse gods, Thor is doomed to die at Ragnarök, the end of the world and twilight of the gods, but falls only after killing the great serpent with his powerful hammer Mjollnir, dying to its poison; his sons Magni and Modi survive Ragnarök along with a small number of other gods and inherit his hammer which they use to restore order.
Thor’s popularity reached its height during the Viking Age (c. 790-1100 CE) at which time he was considered the greatest rival to Christ when, roughly from the 10th century CE onwards, Christianity was introduced to Scandinavia. More amulets and charms of Thor’s hammer date from the period when Christianity and the Norse religion were in contention than from any other. Continue reading from Ancient History Encyclopedia
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