| Thor |
|
| Thor |
|
Then and now, Thor was one of the most popular Gods of the Norse pantheon. Though called he son of Odin, there are other accounts that claimed he was older then the All Father.
This may have been because of his popularity. Of all the Norse Gods and Goddesses his followers numbered the most, while there were few, if any members of the cult of Odin, perhaps he was considered ether too powerful, to remote or too dangerous? There were thousands of followers and priests of the God of Thunder.
His people were strong in their faith too. There is the story of how in the 800's a large group of the priests of Thor showed up at a monastery of Christian monks. It seems that they did not like the way the monks and their God were transgressing on their God's territory.
The priests of Thor said they had considered just wiping them out, but they knew that others would follow, so they made a proposal. Let there be a battle for who was to be the God of the land. Deity a Deity, with winner take all.
Thor's priests were sure that their God would show, all the monks had to do was produce Jesus and the last God standing would have it all. The monks demurred. Was it that they were just too pious? Or that they just did not have as much faith in their champion ether showing up or winning?
Thor it seems was a god of the people, much as Hercules was to the Greeks, Quetzalcoatl was to the Aztec, Jesus is to the Christian mythos or Kal-El is to the American mythos.
There are many tales and myths that involve Thor, far to many to relate here, I refer you to a number of links below and to dozens of good books on the subject.
Today of course, many people know of Thor mainly through comic books. He first appeared as his more proper red-headed self in the pages of Batman Comics (see next page) where the dynamic duo enjoyed him as a one shot Bat-Villain until it turned out that he was just a little guy who turned into Thor by holding his hammer which was made from a meteor.
The most famous comic representation of Thor is the one developed by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee for Marvel comics in the early 60's. Lee has said that after the creation of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and others he felt that all that was left to do was `Super-God' so they did Thor.
Thor has appeared in more resent times in a few other media. There was a horrid made for TV movie where he co-stared with the Hulk, A Thor that was more a God of dunder then thunder appeared on two episodes of the syndicated Hercules series. In addition, for the last two years of more there has been talk of a mythos based (more or less) cartoon in the works with Thor based on and voiced by Fabio!
Lastly, there is the possibility that Thor might still be around in another form. There are those who say that Santa Claus is in part based on Thor. To be sure, he is also mixed in with an old Gnostic saint, & Father Winter.
Nevertheless, whether Norse God of Thunder, American superhero, or gift giving Coca Cola spokes model the red-haired thunderer refuses to be put down.
The Thor Links Strike! | ||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am including this for personal reasons.
I am 50 years old, and this comic came out in 1959, so I was 4 at the time.
And yet I vividly recall it! It has been years (45 if your slow in math) since I saw it. And yet I recalled the snapped off light pole, and the stone headed hammer. Why this comic and none of the others I must have seen at that time stuck in my mind is beyond me.
Memory can be funky can it not?
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
