The Norse Thundergod Thor was celebrated for his prodigious powers of fertility. In parts of Norway and Sweden, Thor himself was invoked at weddings as it was custom for the bridegroom to bear an axe long after Thor was forgotten. Interesting to note Thor’s thunderbolt was here conceptualized as an axe rather than a hammer.
Comparative mythologist Ev Cochrane describes the mythological roles of Horus, Morning Star, Parjanya, Perkūnas, and Thor—whose thunderbolt was seen a fertilizing force in the Mother Goddess’s belly—mythemes that encode the extraordinary conjunction of Mars and Venus, the sacred marriage that sparked Creation.
Subscribe to Thunderbolts eNewsletter.
