Question

Mythology-What does the element of humor reveal about the nature of the people who created "The Theft of Thor's Hammer?

Answer 1

Ans:-

The theft of thor's hammer:

   The thought of Thor, that big ‘manly’ man’s god appearing in a dress is frankly one of the most hilarious yet disturbing images. In my experience this iconic image which has remained popular among artists and comic book enthusiasts.

The idea of dressing like a woman is not unique to Thor. In the Lokasenna story involving a woman named Rindr, Odin is said to ‘dress’ as a woman or witch, depending on the version.: “Eight winters you were under the earth, a milk cow and a woman, and didst there bear children.Unmanly thy soul must seem,They say that with spells, in Samsey once, Like witches with charms didst thou work; And in witch’s guise, among men didst thou go; Unmanly thy soul must seem.” Lokasenna (Loki’s Quarrel) in the Poetic Edda It’s unclear if he was just disguised or completely transformed. But, either way…Loki was not the first to come up with the idea . I find it facinating that they have to dress like ‘women’ in order to use magick, although this is likely because of the association of women with these arts, so perhaps men have to appear ‘feminine’ to use this level of magic. Just a theory, but I think it’s valid. Donning the ‘robes’ of a gender is in effect ‘becoming’ that gender and this is perhaps ‘essential’ at times. Why? Because if this was a male god doing crazy magic stuff, they would lose face as it is considered a woman’s art. Based on societal norms they cannot go outside typical gender roles or their perceived rules. Donning a woman’s clothing allows them to ‘become’ female and perform in that role without breaching cultural norms.It might make a lot of sense when you consider the story of Loki being Slepnir’s mother; he had to be a horse, to create a horse…makes sense…otherwise Slepnir would have been more of a Centaur (human/horse hybrid) rather than a regular horse (with eight legs). Either way, this story features some almost comedic moments throughout, as this whole journey is fraught with peril after peril, with Thor, the whole time, in a dress. Below is the full story with personal reflections by yours truly.