100 Fun Facts About Thor

In Norse myth Thor's mother is not Odin's wife Frigg but which goddess, whose name means 'earth'?

Jörð is simply the Old Norse word for 'earth'; she shared Odin with his wife, which is why a skald could call Frigg 'rival of Jörð'.

In 1963 Marvel's Thor became a founding member of which superhero team?

The Avengers formed when one of Loki's schemes drew Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp together; Captain America only joined in issue 4, after the Hulk had walked out.

Which dwarf brothers forged Mjölnir, according to the Prose Edda?

Eitri and Brokkr made it to win a bet: Loki had staked his head that they couldn't outdo three rival treasures, and the gods judged the hammer best of all. Some manuscripts call Eitri Sindri.

A fly bit the dwarf at the bellows as Mjölnir was forged, leaving the hammer with what flaw?

Its handle was short because the fly, often taken to be Loki, stung the dwarf's eyelid and he let go of the bellows for a moment to wipe away the blood; the gods still judged it the finest treasure.

How was Mjölnir most commonly worn during the Viking Age?

As a pendant: about a thousand small hammer amulets survive from across the Viking world, many from women's graves, and one found in Denmark even carries runes that read 'This is a hammer'.

Who is Thor's golden-haired wife?

Sif lost her hair to Loki's shears, and a furious Thor made him have the dwarfs spin her a new head of it from real gold that would grow like her own.

What are the names of the two goats that pull Thor's chariot?

Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr mean roughly 'teeth-barer' and 'teeth-grinder'; the scholar Rudolf Simek thinks the names were new when Snorri wrote them down and may even be his own invention.

In the Prose Edda, why does one of Thor's goats go lame?

A boy split a bone for the marrow after Thor had cooked both goats for a farmer's family and told them to throw every bone onto the hides; raised to life next morning, one goat limped.

In the poem Þrymskviða, how is Thor disguised when he goes to reclaim his stolen hammer?

As a bride: veiled and hung with Freyja's necklace, Thor nearly gives the game away by eating an ox and eight salmon at the wedding feast, and Loki, playing the maid, has to talk fast.

How deep did the giant Þrymr claim to have hidden Mjölnir?

Eight leagues beneath the earth is how translators usually render the poem's eight rasts, an Old Norse measure of distance; Loki learns it by flying to Jötunheimr in a borrowed feather cloak.

On a fishing trip with the giant Hymir, what does Thor use as bait to hook the world serpent?

The head of an ox, twisted off the biggest beast in Hymir's own herd; in Snorri's telling the serpent took it, and the terrified giant cut the line just as Thor raised his hammer.

What is the name of the giant serpent Thor is fated to fight at Ragnarök?

Jörmungandr was flung into the sea by the gods and grew until it circled the whole world and bit its own tail, which is why it is also called the Midgard Serpent.

What becomes of Thor after he kills the world serpent?

Nine steps, then death: the Völuspá gives him just that many before he falls, and Snorri blames the venom the serpent had blown over him.

Which day of the week is named after Thor?

Thursday began as Old English 'Thunor's day', a loan-translation of the Latin 'day of Jupiter', which is why the same day is jeudi in French and Donnerstag in German.

Later writers matched Thor with Jupiter, but under which other Roman name does Tacitus's Germania seem to mention him?

Hercules is how most scholars read it: Tacitus gives the Germans a Mercury, a Hercules and a Mars, and the club-swinging strongman is taken for the hammer god, probably because the weapons looked alike.

Which 8th-century missionary felled an oak dedicated to Thor (as 'Jove') in Hesse?

Saint Boniface had barely notched the trunk, his biographer claims, when a blast of wind toppled the oak and split it in four; he built a chapel to Saint Peter from the timber.

Adam of Bremen says Swedes at Uppsala sacrificed to Thor on which occasion?

Plague or famine brought offerings to Thor, whose statue sat in the middle as the mightiest of three; Adam says war was Wodan's business and weddings were Fricco's.

In the giant Útgarða-Loki's hall, Thor loses a wrestling match to a nurse who is really what in disguise?

Old age, called Elli in the tale: the harder Thor grappled the firmer she stood, until she forced him down on one knee, and the giant later admitted that nobody has ever beaten her.

In which comic did Marvel's Thor first appear in 1962?

Journey into Mystery #83 was scripted by Stan Lee's brother Larry Lieber, who later admitted he simply made up the hammer's 'uru' metal because the word was short and easy on the letterer.

Marvel's Thor began as the alter ego of which limping doctor with a cane?

Donald Blake struck a gnarled cane on a rock in a Norwegian cave and became Thor; the comics later revealed that the limping doctor was himself a disguise, imposed on Thor as a lesson in humility.

Which alien warrior, introduced in 1983, was the first outsider deemed worthy to lift Mjolnir?

Beta Ray Bill was given a horse-like skull on purpose, so that readers would take him for a villain; his creator says letters duly arrived asking why on earth a monster was picking up the hammer.

Which writer's 2014 series made Jane Foster the new Thor?

Jason Aaron was blunt when Marvel announced the series: the woman now holding the hammer was not She-Thor, not Lady Thor and not Thorita, he said, but simply Thor.

Who directed the first Thor film in 2011?

Kenneth Branagh made his name filming Shakespeare's royal family feuds and saw the same story here: a reckless, headstrong young man who has to deal with a complicated relationship with his father.

Which actor screen-tested to play Thor in the 2011 film but ended up in a different role?

Tom Hiddleston, cast as Loki instead, says he was in the running because he was tall, blond and classically trained, which was the mould for the hero; all four men listed here screen-tested for the part.

In the first film, Thor is banished to Earth and lands in which US state?

New Mexico played itself: the film's desert town was the Wild West movie set near Galisteo where Silverado was shot, made over as a modern main street for the Destroyer to tear up.

Which accent did Chris Hemsworth adopt to play Thor?

British, like almost everyone in Asgard, a castmate said on set; for the fight scenes he looked to boxers such as Mike Tyson, low to the ground with big, brutal shoulder swings.

In the 2011 film, how does the powerless Thor prove himself worthy of the hammer again?

He offers up his life: Thor asks Loki's Destroyer to take him and spare the desert town, and the near-fatal blow that follows is what sends Mjölnir flying back to his hand.

Who plays the Dark Elf Malekith in Thor: The Dark World?

Christopher Eccleston, best known at the time as television's Doctor Who, plays the ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, who storms Asgard to take back the Aether.

Which rare alignment of the Nine Realms drives the plot of The Dark World?

The Convergence opens paths between the worlds, which is how the final battle tumbles in and out of Greenwich, London, grinding Christopher Wren's Royal Naval College to dust along the way.

Who directed Thor: Ragnarok?

Taika Waititi also plays the soft-spoken rock gladiator Korg through motion capture, in a voice one New Zealand critic said sounds uncannily like your cousin from the east coast.

Who plays Hela, Thor's previously unknown older sister, in Thor: Ragnarok?

Cate Blanchett said she studied fans' Hela make-up tutorials on YouTube to build the character, Odin's firstborn, whom he locked away and erased from Asgard's history when he tired of conquest.

On which alien planet is Thor forced to fight as a gladiator in Thor: Ragnarok?

Sakaar comes from the comics storyline Planet Hulk, in which it is the Hulk who lands there and fights in the arena; the film loosely adapts it, so the champion Thor has to face is the Hulk himself.

Which body part does Thor lose fighting Hela in Thor: Ragnarok?

His right eye goes in the final battle; Hemsworth said he had got 'a bit bored' of himself in the role, so the film also cut Thor's hair, broke his hammer and changed his clothes.

In which country was Thor: Ragnarok principally filmed?

Australia: its lead actor had pitched shooting in his own country after years of filming in London and America, and the production took over the studios on Queensland's Gold Coast.

Who plays the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok?

Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster is blue-skinned in the comics; the director kept him flesh-toned because Goldblum had already played a blue alien in Earth Girls Are Easy, and he wanted that face left on show.

Which actor plays Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder?

Christian Bale admits he made the mistake of Googling the comics' Gorr, who runs around in a G-string, and decided they had the wrong man; his screen version owes more to Nosferatu.

In Thor: Love and Thunder, Jane Foster wields Mjolnir as the Mighty Thor while being treated for what?

Cancer, at stage four: Jane hopes the broken hammer might heal her, but every transformation into the Mighty Thor leaves her body less able to fight the disease.

What is the name of Gorr the God Butcher's daughter, whom Thor ends up raising?

Love is played by Chris Hemsworth's own daughter India; the girl's death sets her father against the gods, his dying wish brings her back, and the film ends with Thor raising her.

On which soap did Chris Hemsworth get his break, playing Kim Hyde?

Home and Away kept him on screen as Kim Hyde from 2004 to 2007; two years later, when Marvel picked him for Thor, the Hollywood trade press still called him a virtual unknown in the United States.

Chris Hemsworth made his Hollywood film debut in which 2009 film?

Star Trek opens with him as George Kirk, first officer of the doomed USS Kelvin, who stays aboard to ram the enemy ship and dies as his wife gives birth to the future Captain James T. Kirk.

Which Formula One driver did Chris Hemsworth play in the 2013 film Rush?

James Hunt won the 1976 title by a single point after Niki Lauda, back racing weeks after a near-fatal crash, judged the rain-soaked final race in Japan too dangerous and pulled out.

In the 1988 TV movie The Incredible Hulk Returns, Thor is no god but what?

A Viking warrior: a young man found his tomb and hammer on an expedition and can summon him at will, so Eric Allan Kramer's Thor is a reluctant servant, not a hero with a secret identity.

Who, as a small child, freed Thor when a slain giant fell on him and no god could?

Magni, Thor's son by the giantess Járnsaxa, lifted the dead giant's foot off his father's neck, then said it was a pity he had come so late: he would have felled the giant with his fist.

Which brother and sister travel with Thor as his human servants in the Norse myths?

Þjálfi and Röskva: in Snorri's telling Þjálfi helps Thor win a duel by warning the stone giant Hrungnir that the god will strike from underground, so the giant stands on his own shield.

Which Led Zeppelin track plays over two big fight scenes in Thor: Ragnarok?

Immigrant Song was already on the reel the director showed Marvel when he pitched for the job; he says the executives liked the cool song, asked him what it was, and left him worried.

In the poem Hárbarðsljóð, Thor trades insults with a rude ferryman usually identified as which god in disguise?

Odin is the accepted reading, because in another Eddic poem he lists Hárbarðr, 'Grey Beard', among his own names; the ferryman refuses Thor a crossing and sends him the long way round.

How does Thor doom Alvíss, the dwarf who wants to marry his daughter?

Keeps him answering questions until sunrise: Thor asks what the sky, moon and ale are called in every world, then admits it was a trick, because daylight turns a dwarf to stone.

Which Sons of Anarchy actor plays Thor in the 2022 video game God of War Ragnarök?

Ryan Hurst's Thor looks nothing like Marvel's chiselled hero: the game's art director gave him a strongman's bulk and a bare belly, and said the character had to be proud of it.

Which artist co-created Marvel's Thor with Stan Lee in 1962?

Jack Kirby imagined a last battle that would wipe out Thor's pantheon and make way for younger gods; the plan never happened at Marvel, so in 1970 he took it to rival DC, where it became the New Gods.

In a 1986 Marvel Comics storyline, Loki transforms Thor into which animal?

A frog: undaunted, he helps a colony of frogs win their war with the rats, and a frog Thor trapped in a jar turns up decades later in the 2021 Loki series.

Thor of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Asgardian prince of thunder, is roughly how many years old?

1,500 years is roughly Thor's age in the Marvel films, which date his birth about fifteen centuries back. Even so he is not the eldest child: his sister Hela was Odin's firstborn.

Jane Foster was a nurse in the original Thor comics, but what is her profession in the 2011 film?

Astrophysicist Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman, is the scientist who finds the banished Thor in the desert. Marvel changed her job from the comics after consulting real scientists.

Which veteran actor plays Odin, king of Asgard, in the first three Thor films?

Anthony Hopkins plays Odin and said he found a personal resonance in the stern father. In Thor: Ragnarok his character dies on a clifftop in Norway, which sets his firstborn free.

Which actor plays Heimdall, the all-seeing Asgardian gatekeeper, in the Thor films?

Idris Elba plays Heimdall, the sentry who sees and hears everything across the realms. Thanos fatally wounds the character in the 2018 film Infinity War, yet Elba returned for an afterlife cameo in Thor: Love and Thunder.

In Thor: Ragnarok, which Hollywood star makes a cameo as the Asgardian stage actor playing Loki?

Matt Damon flew to Atlanta to shoot the cameo on a lark after his friend Chris Hemsworth suggested him. Luke Hemsworth plays the stage Thor beside him.

In the 2018 film Infinity War, the handle of Thor's new axe Stormbreaker is made from the arm of which hero?

Groot gives his own arm to finish the axe, and the director of a later Thor film said the weapon inherited the adolescent tree's moodiness. Stormbreaker even acts jealous of Thor's old hammer.

Before leaving Earth at the end of the 2019 film Endgame, Thor names which warrior the new king of New Asgard?

Valkyrie takes the throne of New Asgard, the refugee settlement the surviving Asgardians built in Norway. Thor hands it over so that he can fly off with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Which Game of Thrones star plays the weaponsmith king who forges Thor's axe in the 2018 film Infinity War?

Peter Dinklage plays the weaponsmith king of the dwarves of Nidavellir. Thor travels to his forge with Rocket to have the battle-axe Stormbreaker made.

Which Gladiator star plays Zeus, the god Thor asks for an army, in Thor: Love and Thunder?

Russell Crowe was first set to play Satan before the part was rewritten as Zeus. He filmed his takes in two different accents, and the Greek one he had argued for made the final cut.

In the 2011 film Thor, what is the name of the bridge Thor destroys to stop Loki's attack on Jotunheim?

Bifrost is the bridge Thor smashes to save his enemies' world, stranding himself in Asgard, far from Jane Foster. The film's science advisers had it described as an Einstein-Rosen bridge.

Which director was hired for Thor: The Dark World in 2011 but left over creative differences?

Patty Jenkins, later the director of Wonder Woman, left in December 2011, saying she was not right for the story Marvel wanted. Her own pitch was a Romeo and Juliet tale with Jane Foster stuck on Earth.

In Thor: The Dark World, which ancient weapon, later revealed as an Infinity Stone, enters Jane Foster's body?

The Aether ends the film in the hands of the Collector. Asgard already held the Tesseract, and its warriors feared keeping two Infinity Stones so close together.

Thor: The Dark World ends with a battle against the Dark Elves in which European capital city?

London hosts the showdown, which was filmed at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Jane Foster has moved to the city by the time the sequel begins.

Which actress plays Thor's mother, the queen of Asgard, in the first two Thor films?

Rene Russo plays the queen of Asgard and said her part was cut down in the first film. The sequel expanded the role before her character is killed protecting Jane Foster.

In Thor: The Dark World, Loki teases Thor by briefly shape-shifting into which fellow Marvel hero?

Captain America appears for a few seconds, with Chris Evans making an uncredited cameo as Loki in disguise. The same film gives Thor's comic-book co-creator a cameo as a patient in a mental ward.

Which future Avenger makes his first screen appearance in a cameo in the 2011 film Thor?

Hawkeye's brief scene was written with help from Joss Whedon and filmed in a parking lot behind a grocery store.

Which S.H.I.E.L.D. agent commandeers Thor's fallen hammer in the 2011 film?

Phil Coulson had already reported the hammer's discovery in a post-credits scene of Iron Man 2. In Thor he also seizes Jane Foster's research on the wormhole that delivered the god.

In the 2011 film Thor, what is the name of the armoured automaton Loki sends to Earth to kill his brother?

The Destroyer is a seemingly indestructible automaton that overpowers Thor's Asgardian friends when they come to find him. Thor defeats it only once his hammer returns to him.

In the 2011 film Thor, Loki discovers he is the biological son of Laufey, king of which race?

Frost Giants rule the frozen realm of Jotunheim, and Odin adopted their king's son once a war between the two peoples ended. In Norse myth Laufey was actually Loki's mother.

Which sorcerer points Thor and Loki towards the missing Odin in a Thor: Ragnarok cameo?

Doctor Strange's scene was filmed on the sets of his own 2016 film just before they were demolished. It also runs during that film's credits.

In Thor: Ragnarok, which fire demon is reborn in the Eternal Flame and destroys Asgard at Thor's bidding?

Surtur opens the film as Thor's captor and ends it as his weapon. Thor has Loki revive the demon so that the prophesied destruction of Asgard takes Hela with it.

In Thor: Ragnarok, Hela resurrects Fenris, a giant example of which animal, to fight beside her undead army?

A wolf of enormous size, Fenris is among the ancient dead Hela raises after she slays the Warriors Three. The Hulk is the one who finally defeats the beast.

Which soft-spoken gladiator made of rocks befriends Thor in the arena pits of Thor: Ragnarok?

Korg's gentle voice was based on Polynesian bouncers, a deliberate twist for a fighter built of stone. The film's director played the Kronan himself through motion capture.

Which actor plays Skurge, Hela's reluctant executioner, in Thor: Ragnarok?

Karl Urban's Skurge takes over as Asgard's gatekeeper, then joins Hela simply to survive. He redeems himself by sacrificing his life to save the fleeing citizens.

In Thor: Love and Thunder, what is the name of the god-killing blade that calls to Gorr and corrupts him?

The Necrosword offers itself to Gorr, who uses it to kill his own god, Rapu, before vowing to kill all the rest. Destroying the blade at the end frees him from its influence.

Which Bridesmaids star cameos in Thor: Love and Thunder as an Asgardian stage actress playing Hela?

Melissa McCarthy joined the Asgardian theatre troupe for a sequence re-enacting the previous film. Her real-life husband, Ben Falcone, appears beside her as the stage manager.

Which hard rock band, a favourite of the director, is heard in Thor: Love and Thunder and its marketing?

Guns N' Roses supply Sweet Child o' Mine, picked because the band's sound suited the crazy adventure on screen. The song was used to sell the film as well.

Which 2 Broke Girls star plays Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster's intern, in the 2011 film Thor?

Kat Dennings plays a political science major rather than a scientist, and said the part was expanded during rehearsals. She sat out Thor: Ragnarok but came back for the fourth film.

Which actor took over the role of the swashbuckling Fandral in Thor: The Dark World?

Zachary Levi had been cast in the first film until a scheduling conflict forced him out. Josh Dallas ended up playing the part, then had to drop the sequel for the TV series Once Upon a Time.

Which director pitched a Thor film to 20th Century Fox with Stan Lee in the early 1990s?

Sam Raimi, later the director of Spider-Man, had the idea after making Darkman, but the studio did not understand it. The project then sat in development hell for years.

Which X-Men member is among the heroes who have held the title of Thor in Marvel comics?

Storm, who already commands the weather, is one of several stand-in Thors. Others to take the title include Jane Foster and Volstagg of the Warriors Three.

Before Marvel's 1962 hero, one of Thor's creators had drawn versions of the thunder god for which rival publisher?

DC Comics printed three earlier takes on Thor by the same artist, starting in Adventure Comics in 1942. His later plan to replace Thor's cast with new deities became DC's New Gods.

In Marvel comics, a Thor newly returned from the afterlife creates a new Asgard floating over which US state?

Oklahoma gets a city of gods hovering in its sky, and Thor fills it by gathering Asgardians who had been reincarnated as mortals.

Which writer-artist took over Marvel's Thor comic in 1983 and produced a celebrated four-year run?

Walt Simonson began both writing and drawing the book with issue 337, and the run is highly acclaimed. He also wrote a spin-off miniseries starring the god Balder the Brave.

Stan Lee handed the scripting of Marvel's first Thor stories to which writer, his own younger brother?

Larry Lieber scripted the earliest stories after Lee drafted the character, then moved on to other projects shortly after Thor premiered.

Mount Thor, whose cliff face has Earth's greatest vertical drop, stands on which Canadian island?

Baffin Island holds the peak inside Auyuittuq National Park. The cliff falls 1,250 metres and actually overhangs, leaning past vertical at an average angle of 105 degrees.

The US Air Force's Thor ballistic missile became the first member of which family of space launch rockets?

Delta rockets grew out of the Thor missile, and its descendants kept launching satellites and space probes until the family was retired in 2024.

Tórshavn, whose name means Thor's harbour, is the capital of which North Atlantic archipelago?

Faroe Islands locals shorten the name of their capital and largest city to Havn, dropping the thunder god altogether.

In the post-credits kiss of Thor: The Dark World, which actress, Chris Hemsworth's wife, stood in for Natalie Portman?

Elsa Pataky doubled as Jane Foster because a scheduling conflict kept Portman away. She and Hemsworth had begun dating in early 2010, the year before the first Thor film came out.

After Thor's duel with the giant Hrungnir, a fragment of which object stayed lodged in the god's head?

A whetstone was the giant's weapon, thrown as Thor hurled his hammer. A poem about the duel alludes to the piece later being removed from the god's head.

In the hall of Útgarða-Loki, Thor cannot drain a drinking horn because its far end is secretly dipped in what?

The sea itself was on the other end, and the tale says Thor's mighty swallows lowered it enough to create the tides.

In Norse myth, Thor's Megingjörð doubles his already prodigious strength when worn; what kind of object is it?

A belt it is: the name joins the Old Norse words for power and belt. The Prose Edda ranks it among Thor's three main possessions.

Speakers of Old High German knew the thunder god Thor by which name?

Donar is the southern Germanic form of the name, just as Old English had Thunor. Every version goes back to a Proto-Germanic word that simply meant thunder.

Marvel first drew Thor as a clean-shaven blond, but later Norse sagas describe the god with a beard of which colour?

Red is the beard the later sagas give him, although nothing in the older Eddas supports it. A North Frisian curse even called on the red-haired thunder.

In Norse mythology, which daughter of Thor has a name that means strength in Old Norse?

Thrud may be the unnamed daughter that a dwarf claims as his betrothed in one Eddic poem, where Thor outwits the suitor to keep her.

In a Norse tale, Thor and his companions shelter overnight in an immense building that turns out to be what?

A giant's glove was their lodging, and the earthquakes that shook it all night were the snores of its owner, Skrýmir.

In the 1987 comedy Adventures in Babysitting, a young Thor fan mistakes a mechanic played by which actor for her hero?

Vincent D'Onofrio's garage boss has the blond hair and the sledgehammer, which is enough for eight-year-old Sara. She wins him over by offering him her own Thor helmet.

While Jane Foster held the title of Thor in Marvel comics, the original hero went by which name?

The Odinson is what the hero was called while Jane Foster carried the hammer. He kept a comic of his own all the same, a separate series titled The Unworthy Thor.

Which Swedish actor plays Erik Selvig, Jane Foster's scientist mentor, in the Thor films?

Stellan Skarsgård's scientist is the man Nick Fury asks to study a mysterious cube in the first film's post-credits scene. An invisible Loki prompts him to agree.

In the 2012 film in which Thor's team defends New York, which alien race makes up Loki's invading army?

The Chitauri pour through a portal that Loki opens above Stark Tower, using the Tesseract and a generator built by Erik Selvig.