The proving is on, Dante, old chum :) Your post was ripe with errors in your attempt to correct me, I'm sorry to say.

Please source your claims about Mjolnir as a symbol of the struggling proletariat and Thor as their protector.

No problem. Look here ⚠️ ↗, to the home page of the Socialist Labor Party, which is perhaps the largest Marxist political party in the United States. There you will see, emblazoned on its front page, the hammer of Thor, which is a symbol often used by some Marxists to symbolize the inherent power of the working class.

If further proof be needed, let me quote to you a passage from the book Northen Mysteries & Magick by Freya Aswynn, who is largely considered one of the most respected and foremost experts on Norse mythology and religion in the world today. On pages 192-193 in her book, she says:

There is a class difference between Odin and Thor. Odin was regarded in the Viking Age as the god of the ruling classes. Thor is the patron of the working classes, the yeomen as well as the thralls. His hammer has been taken by the Socialists as a symbol of the workers.

It is to Thor that the thralls go after death. Thor is protector of the hard working ordinary fellow. His function is to protect the underdog. Even the slaves came under Thor's protection. No wonder that Thor was the most popular of the Northern gods and was far more widely worshipped than Odin. Thor cares for the land and the people. Conservationists would do well to invoke his aid in their struggle against the exploitation and pollution of the Earth.

It should be noted that Freya Aswynn is not a socialist herself, so she had no reason to "force" the idea of Thor as the god of the working class. In fact, Thor is not even her favorite of the deities, as she has tended to favor the goddesses in her writings and has even taken the name of one of the goddesses as part of her pen/ritual name.

And if that's not enough for you, please note this quote by H.A. Guerber on pages 59-60 of his classic book Myths of the Norsemen From the Eddas and Sagas: "[Thor's palace Bliskirnir] contained five hundred and forty halls for the accomodation of the thralls, who after death were welcomed to his home, where they received equal treatment with their masters in Valhalla, for Thor was the patron god of the peasants and lower classes" [emphasis mine].



Far from it, Mjolnir was forged by trickery, deceit and the exploitation of workers Sindri and Brokkr.

You're overthinking things here in an attempt to refute my post. Brokk and Sindri (Eitri, in some texts) forged Mjolnir, along with two other treasures for the gods (the ever-reproducing golden ring Drapnir and the bronze boar of great speed Gullinbursti), as a result of a wager with Loki that they could surpass the treasures already created for Odin by the sons of Ivaldi. Loki attempted to sabotage the creation of Mjolnir, but only succeeded in causing the dwarf smith forging it to make the hammer too short. Loki lost the bet, attempted to renege, and got his lips sewn together by Brokk for his troubles. I do not agree that this tale suggests that Mjolnir was a symbol of trickery and deception, because Thor soon wielded it in protection of the common man, or as we call them today, the working class. Hence, Mjolnir as a symbol of the working class is valid.

Its popularity extended throughout a culture famous for pioneering property ownership laws. According to the Danelaw most disputes can be settled through a fixed fee. Even murder is pardonable through Weregild. The differing values of landowners, servants and slaves tells you about the Viking class consciousness.

Wait a minute, I never said that the Vikings didn't have a class-divided society. Of course they did. But the ruling class most often worshipped Odin, not Thor. Thor remained popular with the peasant classes because he was considered their protector. This fact is attested in all the literature on Norse mythology. Note my two quotes taken from Aswynn and Guerber's books up above.

Mjolnir was a symbol frequently used as an invocation of power by the defacto ruling classes at a Thing. The Thing was a meeting available to all free men; but which didn't support the proposition that all men were free. Slaves and outcasts were ineligible to be present or represented at a Thing.

Mjolnir was frequently used as a symbol by all people in Norse society, much as we use the symbol of the cross in Christian-dominated societies of today. Please note this quote by Guerber on pages 61-62 of his aforementioned book: "Thor's hammer was considered so very sacred by the ancient Northern people, that they were wont to make the sign of the hammer, as the Christians later taught them to make the sign of the cross, to ward off all evil influences, and to secure blessings. The same sign was also made over the newly born infant when water was poured over its head and a name given. The hammer was used to drive in boundary stakes...to hallow the threshold of a new house, to solemnise a marriage..." In other words, the hammer of Thor was a popular symbol in ancient Norse society to call upon for just about anything that was important or sacred to the person doing the invoking.

The U.S. was also slow to consider all men "free," and to this day people under 18 still do not have the right to represent themselves. Nothing that I said in my post suggested that the Vikings were pro-working class. Rather, Thor was considered the protector of the peasant (i.e., working) classes as Thor was the protector of Midgard and a symbol of the common man (and woman).

The taxation and exploitation of farmers by landowners and the monopoly of land ownership by early settlers to a region fueled the Viking explorations. Why pay taxes in Scandinavia when you can levy them and exploit latecomers if you're a pioneer?

And this refutes Thor as a symbol of the working class...how?? Thor was widely worshipped by the common man in Norse society because he was seen as their protector. The ruling classes did NOT consider Thor to be the protector of their class privilege but rather most often supported Odin for that purpose, since his position in the hierarchy of Asgard most closely mirrored their own position on Midgard.

While the root words are similar between Mjolnir, Mallet, Mill and the Russian "Molot," I can find no link whatsoever between the Thor cult and those Religion suppressing Leninists who adopted the Hammer & Sickle as their symbol. The Hammer symbolizes the industry where the Sickle symbolizes agriculture.

Since genuine Marxism has effectively nothing whatsoever to do with the former Soviet Union, including the religion-suppressing Leninists, this point is not relevant.

Of course one of the ironies of creating a revolutionary society built upon the technology of the moment is the way that future revolutionaries hoping to model themselves after the Russian Revolution would attempt to reduce their cultures to the level of sophistication available in 1914; and one which seriously lagged behind Western Europe where serfdom didn't cripple innovation. In SE Asia improvement was linked almost solely to agrarian land reform. This led to ruinous attempts to destroy infrastructure and "return" urban workers and "intellectual capital" to the land in the name of Communism.

Which also has nothing to do with genuine Marxism. Constantly comparing the system that Marx and Engels held up as the future of human society as being the same as the state capitalism of the Leninists/Stalinists is intellectually dishonest, because the two systems have effectively nothing in common with each other. I suggest that you read the website of the SLP clearly and concisely, where you will see this point made more than once. In fact, if you should ever bother to learn what the SLP stands for you will have a far better idea of what I support than you seem to possess right now. I do not support the Leninist system of the former Soviet Union, China, Cuba, etc., and I never have.

While it may seem cool to link all ones heroes together, it isn't always historically sound to take them out of context. I'm sure that one could even force an argument that King Arthur was a Laissez-Faire Capitalist hero and supporter of Free-Market Economies. But that wouldn't make it so.

As I pointed out up above, I am NOT taking Thor's position in Norse society out of context. The hammer of Thor is indeed used as a symbol of the working class by some socialists (including those in the SLP; other socialists use the symbol of the globe, which I also have as a siggie) and I don't know why you think I was indulging in a flight of fancy by saying this. I am not trying to "force" an argument. Please pick up a copy of the two books I mentioned above and read the passages I quoted. Also, note this passage from Freya Aswynn on page 191 of her aforementioned book: "...Thor is the son of the Earth goddess, Jord, and Thor's title is 'Son of Earth.' For this reason Thor has much to do with the growth of vegetation and Thor is the special patron of those who work the land, the farmers and peasants. Thor's planet, therefore, is the Earth."

I don't think I misread anything about Thor in considering his hammer to be the symbol of the working classes, and I certainly didn't "push" him into that role simply because he is one of my heroes and I want to believe it.