Today is Thursday. If the huge question on your mind (as opposed to, say, the woes of the economy) as you got out of bed is: just how have Norse myth and gods influenced our world?
Maybe you also have a smaller question on your mind, something like: I wonder how Thursday got its name?
On both counts, wonder no more! Thursday is named for Thor, perhaps the best-known of all Norse gods. We can all agree that you have to be pretty important to get a day of the week named after you. Heck, Mom and Dad only get one day per year.
To honor the implication of this, I’m hereby establishing Thor’s Day Alerts at STORM OF THE NORTH blog! Be sure to stop by every day-before-Friday to keep up with Thor-related info.
I mentioned my collection of The Mighty Thor comic books in my welcome post. While I’ll likely take those Thor comics with me to the pyre, I’d like to kick off this inaugural Thor’s Day by making some important distinctions between the comic book Thor and the Thor of ancient lore:
True Thor had a bristly red beard, which suggests his hair was red, too (not blond — that’s Marvel Comics Thor). And he was as fiery in temperament as these features hinted. Unlike clean-shaven pop-culture Thor, true Thor possessed no more of a mild alter-ego than did he harbor any shred of self doubt, fear, or moderation.
And he was no deep thinker.
Which is why we love him!
True Thor is a blue-collar god; what you see is what you get. He’s the strongest, fastest guy on the football team who can out-eat and out-drink even the bigger linemen. He’s the guy every guy wants as a friend because in a fight you know he won’t abandon you, and at a feast he’ll attract the prettiest women and later leave them for you to entertain, for, as drunk as he gets, he never forgets he’s married.
Plus, we like Thor because he keeps the giants at bay. Even his father, the all-powerful Odin, can’t be relied on for that never-ending vigil. One never knows when the Allfather might disappear to hang himself on a tree for a week or go looking for poetry or something.
(That’s the problem with intellectuals — they’d rather have their head in the clouds than their boots on the ground.)
So that’s a quick intro to Thor, on this the first SOTN Thor’s Day. Stayed tuned for more next week. Did I mention his kick-ass magical gear?
[...] ‘Thor will slay the Midgard Serpent but stagger back only nine paces before he falls down dead, on account of the poison blown on him by the serpent. The wolf will swallow Odin and that will be his death. Immediately afterwards, however, Vidar will stride forward and place one foot on the lower jaw of the wolf. On this foot he will be wearing the shoe which has been in the making since the beginning of time; it consists of the strips of leather men pare off at the toes and heels of their shoes, and for this reason people who want to help the Aesir must throw away these strips. Vidar will take the wolf’s upper jaw in one hand and tear his throat asunder and that will be the wolf’s death. Loki will battle with Heimdall and each will kill the other. Thereupon Surt will fling fire over the earth and burn up the whole world. [...]
By: Thor’s Day Alert #29: Ragnarok, part one « STORM OF THE NORTH on July 16, 2009
at 4:16 pm