Thor's hammer

Titel

Thor's hammer

Beskrivning

The pendant represents Thor’s weapon, the hammer Mjölner. Thor’s hammers are found in Viking Age archaeological contexts. This one is made of silver and was found in a grave at Birka/Björkö, Sweden. In the Old Norse story The Lay of Thrym in the Poetic Edda, Thor’s hammer was once stolen by the giant Thrym, who wanted to exchange it for a marriage with the goddess Freja. Freja got quite upset and instead it was decided that Thor would dress up as a bride to trick Thrym into believing that it was Freja who came to marry him. He was followed by the half-giant/Old Norse god Loke, dressed as his maid. Eating and drinking too much during the dinner after their arrival at the giants’ place, Thor had problems passing as a woman. He was saved by Loke who told Thrym and the others that Freja had such huge appetite since she hadn’t eaten in eight days – that’s how eager she had been to go to the giants. Soon there was time for the wedding ceremony and the hammer was placed on Thor’s lap – the hammer had returned to its owner.

Alternate Description

Dressing up as a bride, Thor put himself in a position which in the original text is referred to as ergi, i.e. unmanly in the meaning of taking the imagined passive female position in a sexual relationship. In this story Thor and Loke are unstraight heroes and the hammer the object that required cross-dressing as the key to a successful deed.

Identifierare

SE_UNSTRAIGHT_124

Typ

Autre

Other

Åtkomsträttigheter

accessible to public

Status

completed

Redigerat datum

2015-08-13T20:03:47+02:00

Skapat datum

2013-01-07T21:15:05+01:00