''Þórsdrápa'' (also ''Thorsdrapa'';

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: 'The Lay of

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

') is a

skaldic poem A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

Eilífr Goðrúnarson Eilífr Goðrúnarson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ) was a late 10th-century skald, considered to be the author of the poem ''Þórsdrápa''. He is also credited with ''Hákonar drápa jarls'' and a fragment remains of a poem with Christian al ...

, a poet in the service of Jarl Hákon Sigurðarson. The poem is noted for its creative use of

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (a ...

s and other metaphorical devices, as well as its labyrinthine complexity.

Narrative synopsis

The principal subject of the poem is a narrative relating as to how Thor came by his hammer, Mjolnir (''Mjǫlnir''), and, as is usually the case in stories with Thor, how the giants came off worse. Behind it all, of course, is

Loki Loki is a Æsir, god in Norse mythology. He is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mythology), Laufey (a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to the goddess Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi (son of Lo ...

, who gulls Thor into a confrontation with the giant Geirrod (''Geirrǫðr''). With the aid of some magical gifts from the giantess

Grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Space partitioning * Regular grid, a tessellation of space with translational symmetry, typically formed from parallelograms or higher-dimensional analogs ** Grid graph, a graph structure with nodes connec ...

(''Gríðr''), Thor, accompanied by Þjálfi, defeats Geirrod and kills a number of other giants. The narrative begins with an account of the trickery of Loki in inciting Thor to make war again against the giants; Þjálfi joins up with Thor but Loki is altogether more reluctant to the point of not going. The narrative then details Thor's (highly metaphorical) crossing of the oceans to

Jötunheimr The terms Jötunheimr (in Old Norse orthography: Jǫtunheimr ; often Old Norse orthography#Anglicized spelling, anglicised as Jotunheim) or Jötunheimar refer to either a land or multiple lands respectively in Nordic mythology inhabited by the j ...

, with Þjálfi hanging onto his waist band. Being a drapa (''drápa'') the poem is rich in praise of Thor and Þjálfi's valour in making the difficult crossing. They are immediately set upon by a gang of giants from the cave of Geirrod, but Thor and Thjalfi (Þjálfi) quickly put them to flight (although in Snorri's version of the tale Þjálfi is replaced with Loki). Thor is then brought into Geirrod's house whereupon the seat he is sitting in is raised to the ceiling crushing him, however he strikes the ceiling with the stick given to him by Grid and he descends crushing two giantesses, daughters of Geirrod, beneath him. Geirrod then invites Thor to play a game, and throws a lump of molten iron at him which he (Thor) catches in his iron gloves. Geirrod hides behind a pillar and then Thor throws the iron through the pillar and giant.

Analogues

The myth related in the poem is also preserved in prose form by

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

in the ''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'Poetic Diction' or 'The Language of Poetry'; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda'', compiled by Snorri Sturluson. It consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bra ...

'' and a looser analogue is found in

Saxo Grammaticus Saxo Grammaticus (), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author ...

' ''

Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essentia ...

''. There are a number of discrepancies between Snorri's and Eilífr's versions of the myth; for example Þjálfi is not present in the story in Snorri's ''Edda'' while he has a prominent role in ''Þórsdrápa''.

Other ''Þórsdrápur''

Two (fragments of) poems are sometimes referred to as ''Þórsdrápa'': * three half-stanzas written by Eysteinn Valdason in the 10th century relating Thor's fishing expedition to kill

Jörmungandr In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr (, see Etymology), also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent (, "worm of Midgard"), is an unfathomably large and monstrous sea serpent or worm who dwells in the world sea, encircling the Earth ( Midga ...

; * one stanza and two verses composed by Þorbjörn dísarskáld in the 10th or 11th century, the stanza consisting of a list of giants and giantesses killed by Thor. Both were preserved only in the ''

'' (4).

References

* Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Eilífr Goðrúnarson, ''Þórsdrápa''’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), ''Poetry from Treatises on Poetics''.

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages is a project which is editing the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic skaldic poetry., along with all poetry written down in runes. The project will publish nine volumes and is supported by a website. The c ...

3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 68.
https://skaldic.org/skaldic/m.php?p=text&i=1170
(accessed 3 January 2022)

Old Norse text with English translation and detailed analysis. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorsdrapa Loki Thor Skaldic poems 10th-century poems