Viking Mjolnir Thor’s Hammer Rune Ring

Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer)

Thor’s Hammer or Mjolnir is undoubtedly one of the most famous objects in popular culture. It has become so popular mainly due to the huge success of the Avengers series. However, as it is often the case with pop-cut films, the image shown there differs significantly from the one presented in the source materials.

Thor’s Hammer’s story is depicted in Norse mythology, and the stories of his miraculous feats go back thousands of years. The name Mjolnir comes from the proto-Germanic *meldunjaz and can now be interpreted as “grinder” or “crusher”.

In Norse mythology, Mjolnir is mentioned as one of Thor’s three valuable possessions, next to the belt that doubles his power and iron gloves. There is also information that after Thor’s death (who will die in Ragnarok), his hammer will inherit his sons: Modi and Magni.

How did Thor’s Hammer come into being? Loki put on his head with Sindri and his brother Brokkr that they will not be able to create more beautiful objects than Ivaldi’s sons (dwarfs that created valuable things for the gods: Odin’s Gungnir spear and Freya’s Skíðblaðnir’s boat). Although Loki tries to interfere with them, the dwarfs create Gullinbursti, a wild boar for Freya, Draupnir, a golden ring for Odin, which reproduces nine times a day, and Mjolnir for Thor. Loki manages to avoid payment by claiming that the dwarfs would have to cut his neck to pick up his head, which was not the subject of the bet. Thor’s Hammer is described as the weapon that Thor could hit as hard as he wanted, which, when thrown, always returned to his hand and which he could easily hide in his pocket if necessary.