October 5, 2008

Month of MARVEL: Day 5

Thor

It's Marvel's Thor! I was wondering, where did they get the name for Thor's hammer, the Mjolnir? That's quite the name...

Hey, remember that little girl in Adventures in Babysitting who was totally into Thor? It'd be cool to get one of those helmets :)

10 comments:

  1. "Mjolnir" was the actual name the Norse used in their legends.

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  2. I don't understand why they can't mass market those helmets around halloween time? Lets hope the movie gets made and we can get one.

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  3. Well, according to Wikipedia...

    Mjöllnir simply means "crusher," referring to its pulverizing effect. It is related to words such as the Icelandic verbs mölva ("to crush") and mala ("to grind"), and Swedish noun mjöl ("flour"), all related to English meal, mill and miller. Similar words, all stemming from the Proto-Indo-European root melə, can be found in almost all European languages, e.g. the Slavic melvo ("grain to be ground") and molotu ("hammer"), the Russian Молот (molot - "hammer"), the Greek μύλος (mylos - "mill") and the Latin malleus ("hammer") as well as the Latin mola ("mill"). It has been suggested that although the name reflects Mjöllnir's awesome powers it might also allude to Thor's agricultural nature, as he was primarily worshipped by farmers.

    An alternative theory suggests that Mjöllnir might be related to the Russian word молния (molniya) and the Welsh word mellt (both words being translated as "lightning"). This second theory parallels with the idea that Thor, being a god of thunder, therefore might have used lightning as his weapon.


    I didnt speak Norse or Russian, so i believe on it. =)

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  4. Most of the Thor (if not all) characters, places, and stories are taken from Norse mythology. So Mjolnir has gotta have something to do with Norse mythology.

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  5. It's been ages since I saw "Adventures in Babysitting", so I don't seem to remember the little girl's obsession with Thor, I will surely watch it again sometime. Here is little bit of trivia I learned recently, that girl played Lorraine's sister in BTTF and of course Elizabeth Shue was in both, Adventures in Babysitting and BTTF 2.

    And I was thinking if there has been any love for Thor in recent times and remembered Tina Fey's character Liz in 30 Rock quoted the line "By the hammer of Thor" couple of times during last season.

    Kenneth Branagh is attached to direct Thor, I hope it's gets mainstream appeal like Iron Man and LOTR.

    There have been official Thor helmet replicas, including the hammer. But they are very expensive.

    http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=3812

    http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=38121

    http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=DMC10273&mode=retail

    Ultimate Thor Hammer
    http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=3811

    But more than the helmet and hammer, I would rather have this awesome piece :D.

    http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=7205

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  6. Hey, you can get a new Thor's Helmet...
    http://www.80stees.com/products/Thor-Helmet.asp

    ...and even the true Mjolnir!!
    http://www.80stees.com/products/Thors-Hammer.asp

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  7. I was about to say the same thing everyone else said about Mjolnir.
    Nice work by the way, love this blog. It's great work, really entertaining. Keep it up.

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  8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mjolnir

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  9. all i know is that here in sweden it's called "mjölner", you'd think they would teach us "asatro" (nordic mythology) in school but they dont so i cant tell you anymore about it xD

    /Erix

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