What's New?

  

Forced out of hibernation, these next few weeks are going to be busy ones for me, as I help my son arrange a Banzai- con convention taking place here in Larvik during April.What is Banzai-con? I will get into the details at a later date, but basically it is a convention for those interested in Anime/Japanese Culture. The 500 tickets are sold out and there is a lot of work to be done. For me that means planing and feeding 120 volunteers, as well as several guest bands for an entire week-end. You should expect to hear a lot about that in my blog during March. Then as probably most of you know, there are many bloggers involved in the A-Z challenge for the month of April, myself included. 

Because of this busy schedule I will be re-posting some Norwegian Culture and Mythology starting off with our friend Thor. If you are a fan of the movie, then you should be excited to know that a sequel will be coming out soon. Also I plan on taking you on a small trip to TV land and "Lillyhammer," a new series starring ex-"Soprano" cast member and "E-Street Band" member Steve van Zandt. You can find this series on Netflix and I recommend  you to check it out if you can. 

So now that I have told you what is new in my world, tell me what is new in yours. For those of you that would like to get acquainted with a different side of Thor than the movie depicted, I hope you enjoy these next few posts of mine. In the mean time, have a great week-end!

Thor-God of Thunder

Son of Odin and Jord, he's the famous Scandinavian God with Hammer, the burly red-bearded Lord of Thunderstorms. He rides through the storm clouds in a chariot pulled by goats and throws his hammer Mjollnir all over the place to create lightning.As perhaps you might expect, he's not terribly bright and Loki was always leading him astray. But they were  friends and was always ready to bash Lokis enemies with the  end of his hammer. Thor seems to have been the best loved and most worshiped of the Norse deities. He belonged to the common people, while Odin appealed to the learned and noble classes. A patron of farmers, Thor was associated with weather and crops. Although he could be fearsome, many myths portray him in a comic and affectionate way.


Thor appears throughout Norse Mythology as a huge, strongly built, red-bearded fellow with a huge appetite.  His wife was the beautiful goddess Sif, who seldom appears in myths and remains a somewhat mysterious figure. Generally good-natured, Thor had a hot temper, and his anger was dreadful to behold. He was a fierce enemy of the frost giants, the foes of the Norse gods. When people heard thunder and saw lightning in the sky, they knew that Thor was fighting evil giants.


The thunder god's chief weapon was his mighty hammer Mjollnir, or Crusher, which the dwarfs had forged for him. When he threw Mjollnir, it returned magically to his hand like a boomerang. Among Mjollnir's other powers was the gift of restoring life to the dead. The connection of Thor's hammer with life and fertility gave rise to the old Norse customs of placing a hammer in a bride's lap at her wedding and of raising it over a newborn child.

Thor's treasures also included a magical belt that doubled his strength whenever he wore it and a pair of goats, Tanngniost and Tanngrisni (both "Toothgnashers"), that pulled his chariot across the sky. Whenever he was overcome with hunger, Thor would devour his goats, only to return them to life with Mjollnir.


According to one well-known myth about Thor, Thrym, king of the giants, came into possession of Mjollnir and declared that he would give it back to Thor only if the beautiful goddess Freyja agreed to marry him. She angrily refused, and the trickster god Loki came up with a clever plan to recover Mjollnir. Using women's clothing and a bridal veil to disguise Thor as Freyja, Loki escorted "Freyja" to Jotunheim, the home of the giants. Thrym greeted his bride, though he was surprised at her appetite at the wedding feast. "Freyja" consumed an entire ox, three barrels of wine, and much more. Loki explained that she had been unable to eat for a week because of her excitement at marrying Thrym. The giant accepted this explanation, and the wedding proceeded. When the time came for a hammer to be placed in the bride's lap according to custom, Thor grabbed Mjollnir and threw off his disguise. Then he used the hammer to smash the giants and their hall.


More stories about Thor next week.