The Crafting of Mjollnir

We all know about Thor, the Norse God of Thunder. Big guy. Very strong.  Ruggedly handsome.  More than a little vain.  Not always the sharpest knife in the drawer.  But good hearted. We also know that he wields a powerful hammer called Mjollnir. But few know how he acquired Mjollnir nor what Loki, God of Mischief, had to do with its coming into his hands.

I thought the story deserved telling, but it needed its own voice.  Fortunately I was able to track down Bragi Varrenson, skald (poet and minstrel) for a short time at the court of Harald Hardrada, High King of Norway. He agreed to tell the story his way. So, fill your horn with mead, grab a steaming chunk of beef from the firepit, sit back on the bench, and let Bragi tell you how Loki’s mischief brought Thor his hammer.

(Bragi’s tale assumes you are part of his culture and are familiar with all the characters he mentions.  If your Norse mythology is a little rusty–or, perhaps, nonexistent–click here for a synopsis before you click on his picture to hear his tale.)

After retiring from a long career as a Librarian, Al Carlson happily discovered OLLI.   So far, he’s taken courses in geopolitics, religious fundamentalism, Greek mythology, genomics, and bio-inspired design.  Plus a handful of technology courses.

This is his second time around as an editor, although the first time was so long ago that an IBM Selectric typewriter was considered cutting edge technology.  Al now lives in North Carolina, near Durham, but Zoom and other Web tools make that distance irrelevant.