7. Thor's lost hammer

Thor has a smashing time at the wedding:
Image from Wikimedia Commons

In Norse mythology, Mjölnir is the name of the hammer used by Thor, the god of thunder. Recently, actor Chris Hemsworth has become synonymous with Thor, but I can assure you, the two are not the same. For a kick-off, Chris Hemsworth has never worn a bridal gown (um, what are you smoking? - Editor). Bear with me....

Mjölnir gave power to Thor, because according to Norse mythology it was the most powerful weapon ever seen on this planet, capable of levelling mountains. It could be used both as an offensive and a defensive weapon. It could send out blasts of mystical energy, control electromagnetic forces, change matter at the molecular level, make fruit smoothies, and even generate powerful shockwaves that captured a planet’s gravitational force. It could also destroy undead creatures such as vampires, zombies, lawyers and politicians (look, just shoot me - Editor). This means that Thor was invincible, as long as he had the hammer in his possession.

As fate would have it, Thor's hammer was stolen. While he slept. Thor couldn't get a replacement on Amazon, and he had no insurance, so he had to retrieve Mjölnir from the thief himself. But this was easier said than done. It's discovered that Thor's hammer has been stolen by the giant Thrym, and is now buried miles under the ground.

Thrym has thrown his toys out of the pram because Thor won't let him marry the beautiful goddess Freya. He's stolen the hammer to teach Thor a lesson and force him to give him Freya as his bride. So Thor hatches a cunning plan to disguise himself as Freya, and wearing a bride's dress, he presents himself to Thrym (er.... where are you going with this? - Editor). He knows that at the marriage ceremony, Thrym will call for the hammer to make the union sacred.

At the wedding feast before the ceremony, Thor, still dressed as a woman, single-handedly eats eight large salmon and an entire ox, drinks several barrels of mead, and polishes off all the desserts for good measure. Thrym, not the sharpest tool in the box, is a little suspicious about this, but is told it's because 'Freya' is so love-sick she hasn't been able to eat for a week. Like a fool, he believes the story and relaxes. Later, during the wedding ceremony, the hammer is laid on Thor's lap, and he then uses it to kill the giant Thrym and all the other wedding guests too, and that probably included the vicar and the organist (wait, what? - Editor).

The moral of the story? If all you use is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Lose the hammer and you have to look around for other tools to use. Like your guile and imagination. And possibly a bridal gown.

Next time: 8. Noah's character ark

Previous posts in this series
1. Pavlov's drooling dog
2. Chekhov's smoking gun
3. Occam's bloody razor
4. Schrödinger’s undead cat
5. Pandora's closed box
6. Frankenstein's well-meaning monster


Thor's lost hammer by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Posted by Steve Wheeler from Learning with e's