The Theft of Thor's Hammer

About the legend

Being

Jötunn (Thrym, king of the giants)

Cultural meaning

In Norse myth, the jötnar, usually called giants in English, are an ancient kin who live in Jötunheim, beyond the world of gods and people. They are as mighty as the gods and often their rivals, but they are also family: Loki's father was a jötunn, and some of the gods married into jötunn families. Thor is their great opponent, and in this poem Loki warns that without Thor's hammer the jötnar would soon be living in Asgard.

Fun fact

The old poem about Thor's stolen hammer is one of the best-known in the Poetic Edda. Long after the Viking Age, people in Denmark, Sweden and Norway were still singing the story as a ballad, right up until the 1800s.

Cultural notes

The story of Thor's stolen hammer is told in Þrymskviða (The Lay of Thrym), a poem in the Poetic Edda. It survives in only one manuscript, the Codex Regius, and, oddly, Snorri Sturluson did not include it in his Edda. Scholars disagree about its age: some have dated it to around 900, but many now think it was composed in the first half of the 1200s. In his 1923 translation Henry Adams Bellows noted that it had been called 'the finest ballad in the world'. In the poem Thor is also called Vingþórr and Hlórriði, Thrym is 'the giants' leader' (Bellows' words for þursa dróttinn), and the hammer lies 'átta röstum' under the earth, which Bellows translates as eight miles. Thrym has the hammer laid in the bride's lap to hallow the wedding by the hand of Vár, the goddess of vows. The tale lived on in ballads: the Danish 'Tord af Havsgård', the Swedish 'Hammarhämtningen', the Norwegian 'Torekall' and the Icelandic rímur 'Þrymlur'. Folklorists list it as the international tale type 'The Theft of the Thunder-Instrument' (ATU 1148B).

About this retelling

Traditional tale, retold for children A retelling of the Eddic poem Þrymskviða, in which Thor wins his stolen hammer back from the giant Thrym.

The plot follows the poem Þrymskviða: Thor's hammer is stolen, Loki flies to Jötunheim in Freya's feather cloak, and the giant Thrym will give it back only if Freya becomes his bride. Freya refuses so angrily that the hall shakes and her necklace bursts, Heimdall proposes that Thor go as the bride, Loki goes along as his maid, and at the feast Loki explains away the bride's huge appetite and fiery eyes until the hammer is laid in her lap. Some things are changed for children. In the poem Freya's refusal and Thor's objection are worded for adults; here Freya simply says no, and Thor's only worry is being laughed at. Thrym lifts the veil to see the bride's face, not to kiss her. In the poem Thor kills Thrym and his old sister and strikes down all the giants at the feast; here he lifts the hammer, the thunder sends the giants running, and Thrym tumbles off his bench unhurt. The sister is left out. Loki's attempt to argue with Freya and Thor stopping him, Thor's words at the council about finding another way, Freya lending her necklace herself, Thor's words to Thrym in the empty hall and the laughter back in Asgard were created for Nordic Tales.

Sources

• Poetic Edda (Þrymskviða) — Unknown (Codex Regius)
• The Poetic Edda: Thrymskvitha — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923)

Themes

• respect
• cleverness
• teamwork
• humour
• Þrymskviða
• Thrymskvida
• The Lay of Thrym
• Thor
• Mjölnir
• Thrym
• Loki
• Freya
• Heimdall
• Brísingamen
• Asgard
• Jötunheim
• jötunn
• Poetic Edda
• Norse mythology
• disguise
• wedding feast

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