THOR'S HAMMER...

Thor’s Hammer

An amulet, small and bronze,

A hammer, the symbol of Thor:

A treasure of beauty and of wonder,

Yet a weapon in a mythical war,

Used to defeat foes of chaos, like Thunder…

An amulet, crafted with skill,

‘Mjöllnir’, the hammer of war:

To protect the Norse deities at Asgard

With a calamitous celestial roar,

In the grip of Thor, its powerful guard…

An amulet, a pendant, a charm:

A hammer once clutched in the hand of Thor,

Used also to bless both marriage or birth,

Yet defend legendary Aesir from evil forces at war

But then becoming a votive image on earth… 

Pete Ray

August 2017

The hammer of Thor was known as ‘Mjöllnir, old Norse for ‘lightning’ and the god was expected to guard the main Viking deities, known collectively as ‘Aesir’ and based at a celestial stronghold called ‘Asgard’. 

The thunder heard by humans was Thor’s hammer crashing down on those giant enemies to crush them.  

In one Swedish Thor temple, large hammers were once kept and thumped on drums to scare evil spirits away and yet the hammer was also used as a blessing for both marriage and birth.

A story goes that Thor once killed and ate his goats, then brought them back to life by ‘hallowing’ their bones with his hammer…

The bronze amulet above was found in north Yorkshire and I was lucky to enough to acquire it in Warwick this week…