regndoft | A Little Something About Hammers.

Do any of you remember the good old days when I used to post stories and other tidbits of trivia related to the folklore of my beloved Scandinavia?

I'm asking because it's seven in the morning, I've stayed up all night and I feel like killing some time.

So earlier... Yesterday, following exchange was had on MSN:

taiyou_to_tsuki: But I was reminded of this (... by the Thor fandom), and now I've wanted to find material and write something about it on LJ for a long time.

nevermore_1106: About what?

taiyou_to_tsuki: Eventual connections between hammers and fertility rites in Norse religion and Scandinavian folklore. >3>

nevermore_1106: Haha! That was a very nice way of saying "I HAVE MJOLNIR IN MY PANTS".

&. As late as by the end of the 19th century in Sweden, there was a tradition in rural societies to place a hammer under the bride and groom's bed on the wedding night. The action is always explained as being vital when it comes to the gender of the child: in southern Sweden, a hammer would protect from evil and ensure that the firstborn was a boy.

In other regions, a hammer or a drill were the magical items to be placed in bed for a boy; if the couple desired a girl, a wicker of juniper was the way to go.

(It's fully possible this tradition existed in Norway/Denmark/Iceland/Faroe Islands as well, but I don't have any information on that.

And while we're talking about info I don't have any sources on: hammer pendants were worn by both men and women during the Iron Age, but I "read somewhere" that they've more often than not been found in the graves of women. It's nothing to put too much weight on, but interesting if you consider the possibility of Mjöllnir not only as a protective symbol, but an amulet for fertility).

&. We don't actually know anything about the Norse wedding ceremonies, except that weddings obviously existed since adultery could be committed. And of course there was...

&. ... The infamous Þrymskviða. I am not even going make any kind of summary, because if you don't know that myth I will... Disown you, or something. Anyway, it's kind of funny because in several recountings of this myth for a modern audience I've heard, the explanation for Thrym carrying the hammer out to his bride before the ceremony is that the hammer is his dowry, which is not implied anywhere in the original poem. Observe:

Then loud spake Thrym, | the giants' leader:
"Bring in the hammer | to hallow the bride;
On the maiden's knees | let Mjollnir lie,
That us both the band | of Vor may bless.

If anything, it seems like the hammer was to be used in the ceremony (Vor was the goddess of oaths).

... I've often seen people who are a bit more well-acquainted with Norse mythology state that Thor was not only a thunder god and slayer of giants, but a fertility god as well and a sort of "patron" of peasants. However, I have never once seen anyone elaborate on what that fertility aspect means. Above is a possible explanation.

Þrymskviða is btw indubitably one of the most popular myths in Northern Europe, and has been for about a millennium. Several medieval ballads based on it from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland survived to the 19th century, resulting in some edits and changes. Some day, I might compile and translate them if anyone is interested.

Another fun trivia about hammers: they were, as stated above, mainly protective symbols against evil. While not as prevalent as crosses (obviously), they still sometimes appeared in everyday rituals. The by far most recent example was recounted by an informant whose 92-year-old grandmother still carved hammers into the dough before baking bread in the early 1990s (!!!).

(Bread in itself was considered protection against evil, so the process of baking it was very delicate and required safety measures. Bread = Srs business in rural Scandinavia).