Hello I’m Nord the Norwegian and today on “All Things Norse” I’m going to tell you about the Viking god Thor. If you are experiencing a thunderstorm you might hear a rumbling in the distance. That noise is the sound of Thor charging to battle across the sky. Thor is the god of Thunderstorms. He rides in a chariot pulled by two goats whose names are Tanngniost and Tanngrisnir. Thor wields a great hammer called Mjollnir which means the crusher. He is married to Sif and his daughter is Thrud.
I’m going to tell you the story of how Thor lost his hammer and how he regained it. One night Thor was sleeping restlessly. He was dreaming that his hammer, Mjolnir, had been stolen by the giant king, Thrym. Thor suddenly awoke. He instinctively reached for his hammer; it wasn’t there so he called for his follower Loki, also known as the sly one. They decided to send Loki to Thyrm’s palace to learn whether the giant had the hammer. Loki disguised himself in a feathered dress and flew to Jotunheim where Thrym lived. When he arrived the giant told him that he had the hammer but would not return it unless he had Freyja as his bride. Freyja is the beautiful goddess of love. Freyja refused. So instead Thor dressed up as Freyja and went to Jotunheim in disguise. Many funny things happened. Thor ate more than any lady could, and Thrym the giant was surprised by Thor’s fiery eyes. Last Thor couldn’t receive the ring. If he took off his gloves then they would know it was him, because of his hairy hands. So when he couldn’t take the ring the giant’s gave Thor his stolen hammer as a marriage token. When he had it in his hands he struck them all and they all fell dead. And that is how the story ends.
Before we end I’m going to tell you how Thor dies. It was during the battle of Ragnarok. He was engaged in battle with a giant snake. He struck it a fatal blow but only took nine steps more before he died of its venom. That’s all for now folks! This is Nord the Norwegian signing out.
