Alfaleith.org - Rydberg's Teutonic Mythology

Halfdan's weapon, which he wields successfully in advantageous exploits, is, in fact, the club (Saxo, Hist., 26, 31, 323, 353). That the Teutonic patriarch's favourite weapon is the club, not the sword; that the latter, later, in his hand, sheds the blood of a kinsman; and that he himself finally is slain by the sword forged by Þjazi, and that, too, in conflict with a son (the step-son Svipdag - see below), I regard as worthy of notice from the standpoint of the views cherished during some of the centuries of the Teutonic heathendom in regard to the various age and sacredness of the different kinds of weapons. That the sword also at length was looked upon as sacred is plain from the fact that it was adopted and used by the Asa-gods. In Ragnarök, Viðar is to avenge his father with a hjörr and pierce Fenrir's heart (Völuspá). Hjörr may, it is true, also mean a missile, but still it is probable that it, in Viðar's hand, means a sword. The oldest and most sacred weapons were the spear, the hammer, the club, and the axe. The spear which, in the days of Tacitus, and much later, was the chief weapon both for foot-soldiers and cavalry in the Teutonic armies, is wielded by the Asa-father himself, whose Gungnir was forged for him by Ívaldi's sons before the dreadful enmity between the gods and them had begun.

The hammer is Thor's most sacred weapon. Before Sindri forged one for him of iron (Gylfaginning), he wielded a hammer of stone. This is evident from the very name hamarr, a rock, a stone. The club is, as we have seen, the weapon of the Teutonic patriarch, and is wielded side by side with Thor's hammer in the conflict with the powers of frost. The battle-axe belonged to Njord. This is evident from the metaphors found in the Younger Edda, p. 346, and in Islend. Saga, 9. The mythological kernel in the former metaphor is Njörðr klauf Herjan's hurðir, i.e., "Njord cleaved Odin's gates" (when the Vans conquered Asgard); in the other the battle-axe is called Gaut's meginhurðar galli, i.e., "the destroyer of Odin's great gate". The bow is a weapon employed by the Asa-gods Höðr and Ullr, but Baldur is slain by a shot from the bow, and the chief archer of the myth is, as we shall see, not an Asa-god, but a brother of Þjazi. (Further discussion of the weapon-myth will be found in No. 39.)

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