Ragnarök is the great final battle of Norse mythology, the event in which much of the world and most of the gods are destroyed. Thor has a clearly defined part in it. This post looks at what the key source, the poem Völuspá, says about his fate, how Snorri Sturluson expanded on it, and what ….  Read More

Of all Thor’s adventures, his fishing trip with the giant Hymir was among the most widely known in the Viking age. It is told in the Poetic Edda and retold by Snorri Sturluson, and, unusually, it also appears in carved stone in several places across Scandinavia and the British Isles. That makes it one of ….  Read More

Norse mythology has a large cast of characters, and family relationships are not always consistent between sources. Thor’s family is a good example: the main names are clear, but some details depend on which poem or which part of Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda you read. This guide sets out the relationships that the sources agree ….  Read More

Thor’s hammer is one of the most recognisable symbols to come out of the Viking age. It appears in the myths as a weapon, in archaeology as a small pendant, and in modern culture on everything from tattoos to logos. This post looks at what the old sources say about the hammer itself, how it ….  Read More

Thor is the best known of the Norse gods today, but most people meet him first through films and comics. The older Thor, the one worshipped across Scandinavia and the wider Germanic world for centuries, is a different figure. This primer sets out what the surviving sources actually say about him, where those sources come ….  Read More