Thor was the Vikings’ “archetypal masculine god” – so why did he dress as a bride?

Thor, bearded with hammer in hand, is one of the central and most recognisable characters of Norse mythology.

He was synonymous with strength, virility and thunder; a figure closely associated with physical labour, farming and warfare, all of which were aspects central to life across the Norse diaspora.

In the context of the Viking Age, Thor was widely revered as a dependable presence in a dangerous world.

And that makes the poem Thrymskvitha, one of the earliest surviving Norse myths about him, all the more surprising.

“Thrymskvitha is the oldest complete poem we have about the gods,” says Dr Jackson Crawford, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast. It’s preserved in the Poetic Edda – the compilation of Old Norse poems recorded in the 13th century – and tells of how Thor disguises himself as a bride-to-be and attends a wedding feast in order become the ‘wife’ of a powerful Jotun, a giant from the realm of Jotunheim.

But it’s all a ruse. Planned alongside his adopted half-brother, the trickster god Loki, the disguise is part of a scheme for Thor to recover his precious hammer Mjölnir, which has been stolen by the Jotun.

Thrymskvitha – or Þrymskviða – was likely composed and circulated well before the Norse conversion to Christianity.

Crawford describes it as “a really goofy adventure-comedy story”, yet it also offers a revealing insight into how Viking Age audiences related to their gods.

Thor’s place in the Norse world

Unlike Odin – Thor’s father, ruler of Asgard, who was associated with kingship, poetry and hidden knowledge – Thor was a more accessible god. He was invoked by farmers and travellers and was seen as a direct protector against the natural chaos of the world.

His hammer, Mjölnir, was central to that role. As well as being a weapon, it was also a sacred object used to bless marriages and sanctify oaths and land. Small hammer amulets worn by Vikings attest to its everyday religious importance.

And it’s with the hammer that the story begins.

“Thrymskvitha starts with Thor waking up one morning and finding that his hammer is missing,” recounts Crawford.

Without it, Thor is suddenly vulnerable. Thor summons Loki and demands that Loki uses his cunning and cleverness to help him retrieve the hammer. Loki borrows a feathered cloak belonging to the goddess Freyja, which allows him to fly, and travels to Jötunheim, the realm of the jötnar [giants], to investigate.

There, Loki meets Thrymr, a powerful Jotun.

“Thrymr says, ‘I’ve buried the hammer eight miles beneath the Earth and the only way you’re ever going to get it back is if you bring me Freyja as my bride.”

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Freyja was the famously beautiful goddess associated with love and fertility. Thor’s response is blunt.

“Thor says, “We have to go and get Freyja and dress her up as a bride and send her to the giants because I need my hammer back.” And Freyja does not want to do this. She is not going to be forced to marry one of the jötnar.”

At this point, the Viking gods meet to discuss their options. The solution comes from Heimdall, the god who served as watchman over Asgard, and he suggests something deliberately outrageous: Thor himself should dress as Freyja and go in her place.

“Thor’s very resistant to this,” Crawford says. “Because this is Thor – the archetypal masculine god – being told he has to dress up as a bride.”

As Crawford points out, much of the story’s humour is found in this contradiction: “Obviously, a lot of the comedy is in playing off gender roles.”

Without Mjölnir, Thor is stripped of part of his own power. Despite his reluctance, he has no choice but to take up the plan.

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An unhappy Viking wedding

A disguised and veiled Thor travels with Loki for eight days to reach Jötunheim, riding in Thor’s chariot, which was pulled by his goats. Thrymr greets them eagerly and lays out a lavish wedding feast.

“Thor canonically has an enormous appetite, so he eats all the food and drinks all the mead. And Thrymr is very suspicious, but Loki keeps playing it off that she’s just that hungry, because she’s been travelling so long.”

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Eventually, Thrymr calls for the hammer to be brought out to bless the marriage, a reminder of Mjölnir’s ritual as well as martial role. The instant it is placed in Thor’s lap, he throws off the disguise, seizes the hammer, and takes his revenge.

“He kills all the jötnar,” says Crawford. “That’s the end of the story.”

Gods who could be laughed at

In many later religious traditions, the idea that gods could be mocked would feel jarring – or even criminal. Many cultures’ gods are distant, and unimpeachable in their moral rectitude. Thrymskvitha shows something very different.

“This is a reminder that as seriously as people who believed in these gods no doubt took them, they could also have fun with them,” says Crawford.

This kind of humour would have been familiar in oral storytelling cultures, where gods were vivid characters as much as they were objects of worship.

Modern portrayals of Norse religion often fixate on its violent fatalism and obsession with heroic death. Thrymskvitha adds nuance and texture to that picture. It shows a mythological tradition that valued wit and absurdity, and that trusted its gods were able to withstand being ridiculed.

Dr Jackson Crawford was speaking to James Osborne on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full conversation.