was poured over
its head and a name given. The hammer was used to drive in boundary
stakes, which it was considered sacrilegious to remove, to hallow
the threshold of a new house, to solemnise a marriage, and, lastly,
it played a part in the consecration of the funeral pyre upon which
the bodies of heroes, together with their weapons and steeds, and,
in some cases, with their wives and dependents, were burned.

In Sweden, Thor, like Odin, was supposed to wear a broad-brimmed hat,
and hence the storm-clouds in that country are known as Thor's hat, a
name also given to one of the principal mountains in Norway. The rumble
and roar of the thunder were said to be the roll of his chariot, for
he alone among the gods never rode on horseback, but walked, or drove
in a brazen chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngniostr (tooth-cracker),
and Tanngrisnr (tooth-gnasher), from whose teeth and hoofs the sparks
constantly flew.

"Thou camest near the next, O warrior Thor!
Shouldering thy hammer, in thy chariot drawn,
Swaying the long-hair'd goats with silver'd rein."

Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).

When the god thus drove from place to place, he was called Aku-thor,
or Thor the charioteer, and in Southern Germany the people, fancying
a brazen chariot alone inadequate to furnish all the noise they heard,
declared it was loaded with copper kettles, which rattled and clashed,
and therefore often called him, with disrespectful familiarity,
the kettle-vendor.

Thor's Family

Thor was twice married; first to the giantess Iarnsaxa (iron stone),
who bore him two sons, Magni (strength) and Modi (courage), both
destined to survive their father and the twilight of the gods,
and rule over the new world which was to rise like a phoenix from
the ashes of the first. His second wife was Sif, the golden-haired,
who also bore him two children, Lorride, and a daughter named Thrud,
a young giantess renowned for her size and strength. True to the
well-known affinity of contrast, Thrud was wooed by the dwarf Alvis,
whom she rather favoured; and one evening, when this suitor, who,
being a dwarf, could not face the light of day, presented himself in
Asgard to sue for her hand, the assembled gods did not refuse their
consent. They had scarcely signified their approbation, however, when
Thor, who had been absent, suddenly appeared, and casting a glance of
contempt upon the puny lover, declared he would have to prove that his