Thor
Thor EuropeWhen the Anglo-Saxons accepted the Roman calendar about 300 they named the fifth day Thunres-daeg, Thursday, after the Latin Jovis dies, Jupiter's day. For hot-tempered, red-headed Thor was the Germanic version of the Indo-European thunder god: his peers were Jupiter, Zeus, Indra, and the Hittite weather god. Though acknowledged as the archenemy of the frost giants, Thor was in many aspects—his strength, his size, his energy, his huge appetite—more like one of the giants than one of the gods.
Two goats drew his chariot across the sky; their names were Tooth-grinder and Toothgnasher. His three magic weapons were the hammer, really a thunderbolt; iron gauntlets with which he handled the hammer-shaft; and a strength-increasing belt, capable of increasing his size by a half. Writing just before 1200, Adam of Bremen described the three gods worshipped in the great temple at Uppsala thus: ‘Thor, the mightiest of the three,...
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