“Þegi þú, Þórr!”: Gender, Class, and Discourse in Þrymskviða

In the first stanza of Þrymskviða Þórr wakes up and discovers that his hammer has been stolen. Consequently, his native district of Ásgarðr is placed in a state of emergency, vulnerable to an invasion by the rival inhabitants of Jötunheimr. One of these rivals, the giant Þrymr, has obtained the hammer and refuses to return the weapon to Ásgarðr unless the goddess Freyja accepts his proposal of marriage. But just as surely as the plot of this Eddic lay is prompted by theft and extortion, it is safely terminated by recovery and revenge. In the last stanzas, Þórr reclaims the hammer and employs it to kill the clan of giants. Lack is removed, threat is driven away, order is restored. ¹ Or so it seems. Contradicting its conclusion, the lay leaves us with strong impressions of social disintegration: traditional boundaries of class and gender have been vioiated, language has been usurped by a new authority.