The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2010, Blaðsíða 40

38
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 63 #1
by the sons of Ivaldi. The dwarves take this
bet and make a bore with bristles of gold, a
7 c
gold ring called Draupnir' and iron hammer
called Mjollnir.
While these treasures were being created
Loki disguised as a fly tries to thwart the
dwarves so he may win the bet, yet fails in his
attempt and all that is done by his thwarting is
the hammer came out with a short handle.
Loki ends up keeping his head that he lost in
the bet by further trickery in saying he hadn’t
bet his neck so there was no way they could
cut it off. Mjollnir is thought to be of the
utmost importance to the AEsir gods because it
is what ‘holds Asgard secure against the
giants’ (Davidson, Gods and Myths 80) and is
the all that can keep Loki at bay, as we see in
vs. 55 of Loki’s Quarrel (Larrington 94):
‘All the mountains shake; I think Thor
must be on his way home;
He’ll bring peace to those who quarrel
here, all the gods and men’
As the Aisir greatly value Mjollnir, Thor
too prizes it above all else. In Thrym’s poem
Thor awakens to find his hammer stolen and
sends Loki to find its whereabouts. Loki
returns to tell that the giant Thrym has hidden
it eight leagues below the earth and will not
return it unless Freyja is brought as his wife.
Thor commands Freyja to go to Thrym so that
he may have his hammer back, yet she refus-
es with the other AEsir on her side. Then
Heimdall suggests that Thor should dress up
as Freyja to retrieve his hammer himself and
although Thor is less than pleased with this
idea he agrees to do it, ‘because he knew that
the moment was bound to come when the
hammer would be brought out and laid upon
his lap, and he would thus get it back into his
own hands’ (Davidson, Gods and Myths 80).
The poem ends with Thor being brought the
hammer whilst in disguise and then killing
Thrym for his treachery.
Early Icelanders thought of Thor in the
highest degree and showed their loyalty to
him by wearing pendants in the shape of
Thor’s hammer around their necks. These
pendants were also believed to be good luck
charms. The Christians tried to convert the
Icelanders to their religion, but many stayed
true to their Pegan beliefs and continued to
worship Thor. In early 1200 a new Thor’s
hammer was designed that resembled an
upside down Christian cross (see figure 2).
Perhaps this was simply a sign of Christianity
merging into Iceland or maybe it was the
Pegan’s way of holding on to what they
believed in while still having the respect of
those around them that believed in only one
God.
Though Mjollnir helps Thor defeat
giants, defend Asgard and restrain Loki, let us
not forget it is Thor himself who accomplish-
es these tasks. Thor is extremely audacious
and although hot tempered at times he is well
loved and appreciated by all the AEsir. In
chapter 3: The Giant Hrungnir of skaldska-
parmal in Snorri’s Edda we see just how
dependable Thor is when the AEsir grow tired
of the giant Hrungnir’s boasting that he is
going to ‘lift up Valhalla and take it to Giant
Land, bury Asgard, and kill all the gods
except Freyja and Sif, whom he wanted to
take home with him’ (Sturluson 87). Thor
enters Valhalla with his hammer quickly after
the AEsir call upon him and asks who allowed
the giant to drink there and why Freyja is
serving him. The giant replies that it was
Odinn who invited him there. Thor then tells
Hrungnir that he would be sorry that he
accepted that invitation and although the giant
is very cunning and tries to trick Thor into
defeat by allowing him to return to Giant
Land and retrieve weapons and a giant man
made of clay, Thor still whole heartedly
defeats the giant for the AEsir.
Amongst Thor’s ability to stand up for
the AEsir, he is also known to be able to eat
and drink an impressive amount. As Snorri
shows us in chapters 46 and 47 of
Gylfaginning, Thor takes part in a contest to
prove to Utgarda-Loki ^ how much he can
drink. He is brought a horn from which he is
to drink as much as he can from, and although
with each drink he takes, Thor only slightly
lowers the level of liquid in the horn, we later
learn that Utgarda-Loki has tricked Thor and
the horn he has been drinking out of is in fact
the ocean so the fact that Thor even lowered
the amount of liquid at all is a very impressive
7 The bore with Bristles of Gold becomes Freyja’s and The ring called Draupnir becomes Odinn’s. It is said that Draupnir
has the ability to multiply itself. 8 Utgarda-Loki is the King of Utgard which is a fortress in Giant Land