Scandinavian mythology 2. Thor' s fate.

 

"Thor fishes The World Serpent". (A. Fantalov. 2000)

Thor is Scandinavian god of thunder.

Thor is Scandinavian god of thunder. He corresponds to Taranis of Celtic mythology, Tarhunt of Hittite mythology, Perkunas of Balt mythology, Perun of Slav mythology, Indra of Indian mythology. Thursday was titled by his name. In Viking Age Thor was considered as Odin's son. The most popular plot about this character is that he tried to fish the World Serpent. The World Serpent Jormungand caught a lure, but Thor's assistant giant Humir, who was freighted by the monster, cut rope and Jormungand escaped of destruction. This plot belongs to wide spread type battle between the thunder god and dragon (for instance: Indra and Vritra - Indian mythology; the Storm God and Illuyanka - Hittite mythology; Zeus and Tiphon - Greek mythology).

 

 

"The battle between Thor and Hrungnir". (A. Fantalov. 2000).

An important function of Thor is defense of peoples against mountainous giants. The most mighty from them was Hrungnir. He came in Valhalla and challenged the god of thunder for fighting. Hrungnir had got famous stone heart; his weapon was a whetstone. As his assistant, an enormous giant Mekkurkalvi was made of clay. However, Thor's hammer broke Hrungnir's whetstone and head. At the same time, Mekkurkalvi fell to pieces. But Thor was wounded with splinter of giant's weapon and suffered from it during his following life. (The fighting between gods and giants is typically for the Indo-Europeans: devas and asuras (Indian mythology); Olympic gods and titans (Greek mythology) and so on).

 

 

"Ragnarok" ("Doomsday of gods"). (A. Fantalov, 1993)

The evil creatures (on the left): the World Serpent Jormungand, the World Wolf Fenrir (like cloud), the Ship of the corpses, the giants are fighting against the gods (on the right): Thor (with axe), Heimdall (with a horn), Odin (on horse with eight feet). Especially I like the plot of fight between Thor (the god of thunder) and Jormungand. We can see like plots in the Indian mythology, Greek mythology, Hittite mythology.

Scandinavian mythology 3

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