The Vikings believed that the inhabited world was an island under
constant threat from outside dangers. They called this part of the world
Midgard, which means the kingdom in the middle. Within Midgard lay Asgard,
the domain of the gods.
Outside Midgard was the kingdom of Utgard, the domain of the
treacherous giants, who resorted to all kinds of cunning tricks to try and
destroy the world. Evil monsters like these are often referred to as the “forces
of chaos.” Not only in Norse mythology but in almost all other cultures, people
found that there was a precarious balance between the forces of good and
evil.
One of the ways in which the giants could destroy Midgard was by
abducting Freyja, the goddess of fertility. If they could do this, nothing would
grow in the fields and the women would no longer have children. So it was
vital to hold these giants in check.
Thor was a central figure in this battle with the giants. His hammer could
do more than make rain; it was a key weapon in the struggle against the
dangerous forces of chaos. It gave him almost unlimited power. For example,
he could hurl it at the giants and slay them. And he never had to worry about
losing it because it always came back to him, just like a boomerang.
This was the mythological explanation for how the balance of nature was
maintained and why there was a constant struggle between good and evil.
And this was precisely the kind of explanation that the philosophers rejected.
But it was not a question of explanations alone.
Mortals could not just sit idly by and wait for the gods to intervene while
catastrophes such as drought or plague loomed. They had to act for
themselves in the struggle against evil. This they did by performing various
religious ceremonies, or rites.
The most significant religious ceremony in Norse times was the offering.
Making an offering to a god had the effect of increasing that god’s power. For
example, mortals had to make offerings to the gods to give them the strength
to conquer the forces of chaos. They could do this by sacrificing an animal to
the god. The offering to Thor was usually a goat. Offerings to Odin sometimes
took the form of human sacrifices.
The myth that is best known in the Nordic countries comes from the
Eddie poem “The Lay of Thrym.” It tells how Thor, rising from sleep, finds that
his hammer is gone. This makes him so angry that his hands tremble and his
beard shakes. Accompanied by his henchman Loki he goes to Freyja to ask if
Loki may borrow her wings so that he can fly to Jotunheim, the land of the
giants, and find out if they are the ones who have stolen Thor’s hammer.
At Jotunheim Loki meets Thrym, the king of the giants, who sure enough
begins to boast that he has hidden the hammer seven leagues under the
earth. And he adds that the gods will not get the hammer back until Thrym is
given Freyja as his bride.
Can you picture it, Sophie? Suddenly the good gods find themselves in
the midst of a full-blown hostage incident. The giants have seized the gods’
most vital defensive weapon. This is an utterly unacceptable situation. As long
as the giants have Thor’s hammer, they have total control over the world of
gods and mortals. In exchange for the hammer they are demanding Freyja.
But this is equally unacceptable. If the gods have to give up their goddess of
fertility—she who protects all life—the grass will disappear from the fields and