Hello dear friends, how’s it going? I’m Arith Härger and today I’m going
to give you a very brief take on Thor’s hammer as an element of Religious syncretism. This is a subject I would like to develop
in more depth on a future video, but for now I’ll give you some basic notions and, hopefully,
food for thought, but in the future I shall give proper sources and a more thorough investigation
concerning this religious phenomenon of the Scandinavian Late Iron Age. Anyway, let’s do this in one take – or try to – and go
straight to the point. Let’s start with a quick view, shall we? Please.
Depictions of Thor's hammer in material culture
date back to the late Viking Age, usually in pendants and runestones depicting figurations
of the hammer, iconography. The meanings can be quite broad, but in particular
they were related to transitional rituals and magical symbolism. Its use as a personal adornment was an identity
response to the expansion of Christianity, not as a provocation or to engage in conflict,
but the appreciation of the habit Christians had of wearing crosses started the habit of
using Thor's hammer as pendants (and in/as other personal adornments) to express the
identity of the deity and show that Thor also had a representation. This is when we start to see Thor's hammers
with elaborated decorations. Most Thor’s hammer pendants were worn during
the 10th and 11th centuries, CE obviously, therefore directly related to the Christianization of Scandinavia,
leading to molds to cast both Thor's hammers and Christian crosses, as seen in this fine
example I will show you here on the screen. But the new religion also adopted the pagan
symbol (that's right), with representations of the hammer being found in Scandinavian baptismal fonts from the 11th and 12th centuries, in order to scare away demons.
The symbol (Thor's hammer) denoted power, for both pagans
and Christians. However, it's important to say that there
are representations of hammers before Christianization and before elaborate Thor's hammer as pendants
or to be worn as a personal adornment. Just as this image shows (from Birka, Sweden),
the so-called Thor’s hammer rings, which already emerged in the 9th century and differ
considerably from the usual Thor’s hammer pendants. Instead of a single pendant, they have many
small miniature hammers and rings attached to a large iron ring. Possibly axes as well. In the 9th century in England there are also
findings of Thor's hammers. Further south, in the Old Saxon and Frisian
contexts, it seems there was also the custom of wearing "Thor’s hammers", or just hammers. The fabrication of hammers (not as pendants)
seems to come from a much earlier period, perhaps as early as the 7th century in Continental
contexts.
Although those examples don't give us many
indications that they were ever related to a deity or specifically to Thor (or Donar
or Þunor) and they are only labelled "Thor's hammers" by modern archaeologists and historians
for a better understanding in archaeological studies, their shape has certainly influenced
the creation, later on, of Thor's hammers in Scandinavia in the 10th and 11th centuries as jewellery
for personal adornment. Amulets such as Thor's hammer are found in
archaeological excavations throughout the north, although not in large numbers as we
might have expected since Thor was the most popular deity in Northern Europe at least from the end of the Scandinavian Iron Age, and the early Nordic Middle Ages.
As stated previously, this is a late phenomenon,
which arises in response to the Christian cross (actually, as many academics, many scholars have argued, the physical representation of these Hammers of Thor as amulets or as pendants depart from the inversion
of the Christian cross); some of these hammers are indistinguishable from Christian crosses
and can play both roles in the religious-syncretism phase that preceded Christianization; again, a mold
was found in Norway that could be used to forge a cross and a hammer at the same time,
indicating that the two symbols coexisted peacefully at a time when Christianity was
on the rise (depictions of Thor's hammer really only appear during the ascension of Christianization). This religious syncretism isn’t solely found
in material culture, although material culture does give us more and better and concrete
evidences of this syncretic religious and cultural phenomenon between the Scandinavian
Heathenism and Christianity. But, I would like to give an example from
the literature, from the literary sources as well; an example which I find pretty interesting that shows a closer
and more human behaviour as a response to this religious syncretism, something more
animated, more dynamic, if you take my meaning, instead of just being material culture which
is often static and doesn’t really give us that living-description and action from
the part of a human being, a real human person: Well, in Landnámabók, a medieval Icelandic
written work which describes in detail the settlement and colonization of Iceland by the Norse in the
9th and 10th centuries CE, we find a character in it (real life person, actually) named Helgi, of whom
it is said to be a Christian, except for matters such as sea voyages, for which he prefers
to invoke/pray to/rely on/trust in Thor, although (in this, as in many other cases) it is unclear
how one "trusted" a god (pagan or Christian).
However, this source shows religious syncretism,
and as Thor was still very popular, he would still be a Deity whom some Icelanders still
"trusted" for certain matters and moments of life, although in Iceland, during this
period of this account, Christianity was already well-rooted and many Icelanders were Christians
or, like Helgi, would have a flexibility in religious belief between pagan and Christian,
and would, of course, turn to Christ and the Christian god for certain matters and for
other matters turn to the older gods.
An attitude we see, precisely in the previously
shown mold for making silver pendants, both Crucifixes and Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer); the
mold could be used for making either depending on the customer. Producing both a Christian crucifix and the
hammers of Thor for customers who either still believed in the Norse gods and Norse Mythology, in those belief systems, or had this same religious flexibility just like Helgi and were Heathen and Christian both at once. Alright my dear friends, I hope this brief
introduction to Thor’s hammer as a symbol of religious syncretism was useful. Later on, only the gods know when, I shall
produce a video about this subject with more details and other sources. Thank you so much for watching, see you on
the next video, and as always, tack för idag! Thanks for today! Obrigado por hoje! Farewell!.