A Confrontation between Thor and Odin

In the modern times, one may find it strange to hear of an account where two gods are pitted against one another, but this was fairly normal for the Norse. Being henotheistic, the Norse people acknowledged the existence of, and believed in the powers of, multiple gods, but preferentially worshipped one. A myth that famously depicts this type of a confrontation is one between Odin and Thor, father and son.

Thor and Odin

In Norse mythology, Thor, as an approachable, likeable god, is seen as one who is extra vulnerable to being drawn into conflicts. His followers consisted of a larger, but less poetically prolific, section of the common people. On the other hand, Odin’s followers largely comprised elite warlords and their poets.

Most stories about Thor involve him either traveling east of the enclosure of the gods to fight their enemies, or preparing to do so.

And so, on one such occasion, when Thor is returning from his battles in the east, he comes to a fjord where a ferryman waits to take travelers across in his boat. Thor calls out and introduces himself, and tells the man that he will give him good food in exchange for ferrying him over.

Thor Insulted by a Ferryman

But when Thor finishes telling the ferryman about the good breakfast he could promise him, the man retorts that he is just bragging about breakfast, and tells him that his mother is dead at home. Thor seems as taken aback at hearing this out of the blue from a stranger as anyone would be, but the man continues to berate him.

He says that Thor, standing before him, looks far from mighty—he looks like a poor man who doesn’t even own a pair of pants.

Thor is flustered. He tells the man to bring his boat in, and asks who really owns it, a subtler accusation of poverty than the one being made at Thor.

But the ferryman says that the owner of the boat told him only to take men onto the ferryboat who he knows are of good character and who are known to him. That means not carrying a likely ‘horse thief’ like the one standing before him.

This infuriates Thor, who tells him:

I am Odin’s son, Meili’s brother, and Magni’s father, warrior of the gods. You’re talking to Thor here!

Thor expects him to be impressed and probably to grovel in apology.

This article comes directly from content in the video series Norse Mythology. Watch it now, on Wondrium.

Graybeard

However, when Thor asks him for his name in turn, the man replies simply, “Graybeard is my name”.

Graybeard is explicitly one of the names that Odin claims as his own in another poem in the poetic Edda called Grimnismal.

So the audience, at least those with a passing familiarity with the old poems, can identify the ferryman at this point as Odin, even if his own son Thor cannot.

This is a very common situation with Odin as he seems to have a superpower that deflects recognition when he does not wish his identity to be known. But it is certainly surprising that his own son is affected by it.

Anyway, what Odin says in full is:

Graybeard is my name, I rarely lie about that.

Now this might be the greatest lie that Odin ever tells, as he goes by dozens of names just in our surviving sources.

Thor’s Threat

But Thor is a simpler and more innocent character who does not catch on to the hint in his father’s answer. Thor simply asks in befuddlement:

Why would you lie about your name unless you were guilty of some crime?

To which his barely disguised dad replies:

Even if I were guilty of crimes, I’d still defend my life against people like you, unless I were doomed.

Thor threatens Graybeard now with the harm that he would do to him with his hammer if he were to be able to get his hands on him without getting his pants wet.

Hrungnir

His father mocks him still, saying that if Thor could even catch him, he would find him the hardest opponent since he fought the stone-headed anti-god Hrungnir.

Thor replies:

You want to talk about

when I killed Hrungnir,

that arrogant giant

with a stone head?

I knocked him down,

I laid him out flat.

What were you doing meanwhile, Graybeard?

This last question sets off the rest of Hávamál, as Thor and Odin take turns telling some brief characteristic anecdote of what each was doing and then each asks the other what he was doing meanwhile.

Thor’s Honorable Conduct

Odin tends to emphasize all the women he’s seduced or forced into sleeping with him, while Thor dwells on his successful combats with enemies. Thor’s characteristic acts of protection and honorable conduct contrast markedly—and for most of the Norse audience, probably favorably—with his father Odin’s penchant for womanizing, theft, and stirring up conflict.

Reversing the expectations many have based on their respective ages, it is his impulsive father Odin who boasts of romancing and seducing women, stealing, and threatening the harmony of the Norse mythological cosmos.

Final Insult

Near the end of their exchange, Odin tells Thor that Thor’s wife, Sif, is sleeping with another man at home—reflecting the dire fear of Norse men that their wives were unfaithful, reflected also in the insults of Lokasenna.

Finally, a thoroughly insulted Thor simply accepts directions around the fjord from Odin, with each grimacing insults at the other as they part in anger.

Thor no doubt goes back to killing anti-gods and pursuing all the honorable work one often sees him engage in. As to Odin, we can assume he goes back to his business of starting wars and bringing death.

Common Questions about the Confrontation between Thor and Odin

Most stories about Thor involve him either traveling east of the enclosure of the gods to fight their enemies, or preparing to do so.

Odin seems to have a superpower that deflects recognition when he does not wish his identity to be known.

Odin tends to emphasize all the women he’s seduced or forced into sleeping with him, while Thor dwells on his successful combats with enemies.

Keep Reading
Norse Mythology: Exploring Thor’s Power and Popularity
Loki and the Gods
Norse Afterlife Separated between Civilian and Battle Deaths

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uLvNnamirZ2Zrqq42GeaqKVflnqku82fqaimpJbBqrvNZpmerKeasq9506Gmq2WRo7Fuu8OipWhkXGF5bXiLZQ%3D%3D