Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer)
The hammer of Thor, the Norse thunder god, and his weapon against the giants. In the Viking Age small hammer pendants were worn as amulets; followers of modern Ásatrú wear them today as a sign of their faith.
Meaning
In Norse myth, Store norske leksikon says, dwarfs forged Mjölnir, and it has special powers: Thor can make it as small or as large as he wishes, and when he throws it, it always hits its mark and comes back to his hand. The gods depend on the protection that Thor and his hammer give them. The National Museum of Denmark describes Thor as the god who “protected Midgard – the world of humans – using his hammer”, and as the god most Vikings worshipped: “the god of the people”. The name is of disputed origin; the Danish encyclopedia Lex suggests it may come from the root of the verb for grinding, “to crush into small pieces”. In English, Dictionary.com gives the name as Mjolnir, said myawl-nir.
Origin and history
Small pendants shaped like Mjölnir were worn by women and men in the Viking Age, and for followers of the Norse religion they were protectors and amulets, Store norske leksikon says; as Christianity spread in the Norse lands, a hammer also marked what its wearer believed. The National Museum of Denmark counts Thor’s hammers among the few objects that tell us directly about Viking belief. Finds include a silver pendant from Kaupang in Vestfold, which the drawing here follows.
The hammer that hallows
Mjölnir blesses as well as kills. In the Eddic poem Thrymskvitha the giant Thrym calls for the hammer “to hallow the bride” and has it laid on the knees of the bride, who is Thor in disguise. Snorri’s Edda tells how Thor “hallowed the pile with Mjolner” at Balder’s funeral. Henry Adams Bellows, translating the poem in 1923, quotes the Icelandic scholar Gudbrand Vigfusson: “the hammer was the holy sign with the heathens, answering to the cross of the Christians.” Lex adds that in cult the hammer, like the axe, seems to have been a fertility symbol with the particular power of thunder and lightning.
How the dwarfs made it short
Snorri’s Edda tells the story of its making. Loki wagered his head that the dwarf Sindri could not match the treasures made by Ivaldi’s sons. While Sindri’s brother Brokk worked the bellows, Loki, as a fly, stung him on the eyelids, and Brokk let go for a moment. Store norske leksikon notes the result: Mjölnir came out with a shorter handle than most hammers.
The hammer today
Store norske leksikon says that Thor’s hammers are worn today by people who belong to modern Ásatrú, “both as an amulet and as a sign of religious belonging”, and also by people interested in Norse culture and history who give the pendant no religious meaning of their own.
See also
Gungnir, Gungnir, Sleipnir, Huginn and Muninn, Yggdrasil, Valknut.
Sources
- Mjølner (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon
- Mjølner (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- The old religion, National Museum of Denmark
- The Viking gods, National Museum of Denmark
- The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation), Henry Adams Bellows (trans.), 1923, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Project Gutenberg), Thrymskvitha, stanza 30 and note
- The Younger Edda (Anderson translation), Snorri Sturluson, trans. Rasmus B. Anderson, 1880, Project Gutenberg, Gylfaginning 49; Skáldskaparmál
- Mjolnir (Dictionary.com), Dictionary.com
Last reviewed September 26, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research