Fantastically Terrible Character or Creature: Thor’s Hammer, Mjölnir 

The Fantastically Terrible Character or Creature this week is Mjölnir, Thor’s famous hammer!

It wasn’t just Thor’s ultimate weapon, it was also a holy object used to bless, heal and sanctify. The famous hammer was commonly worn as an amulet during the Viking Age.

We’ll try to give a very brief summary of the origins of the hammer, but at some point we’ll dedicate an episode to this story because it’s so much fun.

One day, Loki was feeling particularly mischievous. He snuck up on Thor’s wife, Sif and cut off her golden hair. Thor caught the unsuccessful hair stylist and was just about to kill him when Loki thought of a way to get out of his latest completely preventable situation. He’d go to the land of the dwarves and have them create a new head of hair even more beautiful than Sif’s own. Thor and Sif agreed and let Loki go, but he was warned. It better be amazing or his life will meet the same fate as Sif’s hair. 

The dwarves agreed to Loki’s request and made stunning new hair for Sif. But while there, Loki couldn’t resist causing more trouble. He made two of the most talented dwarves get into a competition over who was the best smith. If they proved they were beyond perfection, Loki would die. As an aside, I’ve never heard of someone risking his life so many times just for a laugh. Anyhow, they created many more amazing treasures including Mjölnir, but Loki would do something to distract them, so it wouldn’t be perfect. That was the case with Mjölnir, which was almost the perfect weapon. Loki transformed into a fly and bit the dwarf’s eyelid so that it swelled up just as he was making the handle. So, Mjölnir is the perfect hammer, but it’s handle is too short. 

When Loki offered the hair to Sif and Mjölnir to Thor, the god of thunder recognized it’s greatness and agreed not to kill Loki.

Not only was Mjölnir the preeminent weapon used by Thor to protect Asgard, it was also used in formal ceremonies to bless marriages, births, and possibly funerals.

Earlier in this episode, we mentioned that Mjölnir was brought out to consecrate the wedding between fake Freya and Thrym.

The Prose Edda complied by Snorri Sturluson, provides another example. Thor had a chariot pulled by two goats. He could kill and eat them whenever he was hungry, so long as he took care to skin the goats first. After the meal, he had to put all of the bones back into to goat skins. The next morning, Thor takes the hammer Mjölnir, raises it, and blesses the goat skins. This resurrects the goats, who must be continuous traumatized at the site of Thor for fear of being killed over and over again. But, it is Norse mythology. In our previous episode, number 31: Golden Apples in Norse Mythology (click here), we learned about the god of bacon! A giant boar that they would kill and cook every day to feed the warriors in Valhalla. Geesh! To be immortal and delicious is more of a curse than a blessing.

Mjölnir also played an integral part in controlling the chaos in the cosmos. This is taken from Norse Mythology.org. 

“When something or someone was consecrated with Thor’s hammer, it (or he or she) was taken from the realm of chaos and absorbed into the cosmos. It was protected from the ill effects of chaos and its denizens, and sanctified and sanctioned by the social order and its divine models. The profane was banished and the sacred was established.

This pattern is borne out both in the use of the hammer as a weapon and in its use as an instrument of blessing, consecration, protection, and healing. When Thor smote giants with the hammer, he was defending the cosmos and banishing the forces of chaos. When he blessed a marriage, a birth, a field, or a dead person with it, his act had the same religious/psychological significance.” 

Links

★ Thor’s Hammer (norse-mythology.org) 

★ The Creation of Thor’s Hammer

★ Mjölnir (wiki)

★ Episode 31: Golden Apples in Norse Mythology