When Thor Hurled His Hammer

It is said that Jehovah spoke in thunder and sent forth lightning to show His wrath. When he was overthrown "Satan fell as lightning from heaven." The Greeks gave control of lightning to their chief god, Zeus, and their legends tell how he used the thunderbolt to punish erring or presumptuous mortals. Jupiter, the Roman counterpart of Zeus, also ruled the lightning. The Latin peoples considered the oak tree sacred to their chief god because it was the one most often struck by lightning. The Druids of Germany and Britain carried their reverence of lightning farther. To them the mistletoe plant was sacred because it grew on oak trees and was thought to have been created by lightning. Scandinavian peoples gave thunder and lightning to their god Thor, who was not supreme, but who ranked high in the realm of the gods. The lightning flash, they believed, resulted when Thor hurled his hammer at his enemies, while thunder was the sound of his brazen chariot wheels.

In India the god India, who ranked next to the top triad, had control of the heavens, and of thunder, lightning, storm and rain. The New World peoples also respected thunder and lightning and considered them to be controlled by various gods. The Incas of Peru had a special rain-and-thunder god, while other Indian peoples paid homage to the thunderbird, the lightning-serpent and other supernatural beings. The Aztecs connected lightning with their rain god, Tlaloc, and set aside a special heaven for people who were drowned, or killed by lightning. This particular afterworld was a land of peace and plenty, not quite as high as the realm of the sun where warriors went but much nicer than the common afterworld reserved for ordinary souls.

Throughout the Middle Ages lightning continued to be a thing of mystery, to be feared and avoided by charms and incantations whenever possible. As a heritage from the Druids, mistletoe was considered to be a charm against lightning, as were the ashes and charred sticks saved from the Yule fire, Easter fire, Midsummer Eve bonfire and others kindled at various times during the year. Somehow, during the centuries, people got confused as to whether lightning was controlled by the highest god or the wickedest one. T

hus developed the idea that thunder and lightning were caused by the Devil's servants—a belief that continued into the American colonial period, when harmless old women were burned as witches. Shakespeare made frequent use of his trio of witches to set the tone for Macbeth, opening with the witch's question: "Where shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain?" Whenever the witches appeared, they did so to the accompaniment of offstage thunder and lightning, which probably kept the prop man busy.

By: davidbunch

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