Thor (Norse)

Thor

The son of Odin and a member of the Aesir, he was the god of thunder and the main enemy of the giants. He would smash their heads with his mighty hammer Mjollnir. To wield this awesome weapon he needed iron gloves and a belt of strength. Mjollnir would return to Thor's hand after being thrown and was symbolic of lightning. Thor would ride around middle-earth in his wagon drawn by two goats, His abode was Thruthheim [Land of Strength] and his hall, Bilskinir. His wife was Sif.

He was foremost of the gods to the common man, who would call on him to ensure fertility, and widely worshiped. Hammer shaped amulets, a symbol of Thor because it was his weapon, were worn about the neck well into the christianization of Scandinavia. There are molds from that time which contain both cross and hammer shapes, side by side. His name occurs in numerous place names, and it was his statue which was central in the great temple at Uppsala.

Thursday is named for him and he was associated by the Romans with Jupiter, therefore also parallel to Zeus. They were all the wielder of ligtning bolts. Some claim that Odin is the Norse equivalent to Jupiter / Zeus, however, one needs look not much further than the name given to the fourth day of the week by the Romans and then to its English equivalent to see that the ancients equated Odin with Mercury / Hermes.

Donar was an early version of Thor among the Germans and the anglo-saxons worshiped a thunder god named Thunor.