Danish Mythtic Mystery with goats

Olivier mouse-ducks at wanadoo.fr
Fri Aug 10 14:18:13 CEST 2001


Hi everyone!

Thanks for the information & scan, Daniel & Timo!
Let's see what we can find about Thor, especially pictures...
(no particular order; just as I find them)



The Encyclopaedia of Norse Mythology
http://www.todd.reimer.com/norse/myth.html#Tanngniost
says that
"Thor rides in a chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngniost (Toothgnasher)
and Tanngrisnir (Toothgrinder). The rolling of the wheels of this chariot is
said to create the thunder that rolls across the heavens."
"Thor's goats could be killed, eaten and revived the next day."


Bulfinch's Mythology ( http://www.bulfinch.org/ )
has an image of Thor and his goats:
http://www.bulfinch.org/fables/bull38.html
(middle of  the page)
Not a painting, just a nice drawing.


Art Magick has a painting of  Thor
( http://www.artmagick.com/artists/fuseli1.asp#pics )
(bottom of  the page), but no goats:
"Thor in the Boat of  Hymir"


Thundrune ( http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/rune/399/main.html  )
has "Thor Art" and "Classic Thor Pictures" pages; unfortunately,
the latter is a dead link; but on the former has a painting of
"Thor leading the Wild Host" ("A wild aerial procession of spirits
of the dead and Valkyries"); an enlarged detail shows-- er--
well, I can see at least the head of  one of  the goats.


Thor Minirace ( http://home.12fuel.dk/~thor/  ) : logo.
no great art, just funny.


The Thorshof Thor Page ( http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~skegga/thor.htm )
has a modern painting of  Thor
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~skegga/thorpic.htm
with some explanation of  the symbolic objects (hammer, the thunder flowers, ...).


You will Encarta's first article on Scandinavian Mythology at
http://encarta.msn.com/index/conciseindex/43/0431C000.htm?z=1&pg=2&br=1


http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/thor.html
has a picture of  Odin & Thor-- but no chariot:
http://www.pantheon.org/areas/gallery/mythology/europe/norse/thor.html
They have nice engravings of  the Thor and Odin (especially Odin),
but Thor is pictured standing.


A page full of  information on the Norse Gods (well, there surely are others,
but here's one):
The Pre-Ragnarok Viking Gods
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~skegga/thorpic.htm


http://library.thinkquest.org/13803/stories/thor.html
has a small (that's SMALL) picture of  a painting on which you can see
the goats (it's more like a "thumbnail"; but it doesn't link to a larger pix).


http://www.werner-forman-archive.com/Vikings.htm
has pictures of  artefacts. Too bad there aren't larger pix.


http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/english/vikingstudies/davidsen/topic1.html
links to
http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/english/vikingstudies/davidsen/researchdocument.html#topic1
which seems to be a rather thorough study of  the Marvel's super hero:
"Norse Mythology on Comic Books"-- a very long text.


At the middle of  the essay linked to above is a chapter entitled
"The Nine Realms: Interpretations of  the Universe".
http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~darmou/asatru_tree.html
displays a diagram of  "The Asatru Nine Worlds"
(another site explains Asatru means "treu/loyal to the gods") (?)


... and
http://www.akasha.demon.co.uk/norse.htm
has a very nice diagram of  "The Realms of  Norse Mythology"


http://www.christmas-day.com/history.html
tells about the relationship between Santa, Odin and Thor.


http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~aburnham/eng/thorstone.htm
large picture of
"An impressive seven-foot tall standing stone, told in local folklore
to have been a thunderbolt cast down from the skies by Thor, God of storms,
according to Corbett (1962), and first recorded in the late thirteenth century
in the survey of the Chadlington hundred."



I'll stop here. That's enough pages surfed through.


Howcome Barks drew horses instead of  goats? There must have been no
mention of  them in his sources. Strange: it seems to be a fixed attribute that
should be mentioned everywhere, like his hammer.


The Duck tales by such authors as Barks and Don Rosa are truly wonderful
springboards to learn about history, geography, and mythology. I've wanted
for a while to do a Junior Woodchucks Guidebook on my site with (at least)
links to sites so that when you read "Mythtic Mystery" you can find about the
Norse Gods, or about the Panama Canal when you read "The Sharpie [...]".
Problem: it's a lot of  work. But I think I will do a page of  links such as this
list.


Have a nice and instructive trip through these pages!



Olivier




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