ABSTRACT
Þórr is portrayed throughout mythology hurling an array of objects from molten substances to Mjǫllnir, the god’s most recognisable weapon. While Old Norse texts do not appear to endorse interpreting this motif as a representation of lightning, the images do repeatedly emphasise the god’s strength. The mnemonic qualities of a recurrent characterisation of Þórr related to throwing, from Snorri Sturluson’s Edda, may demonstrate why such imagery has become so widespread in Old Norse literature, and why the god-concept Þórr is itself stable within an Old Norse oral tradition.
