THOR (ON, Þórr) was presumably the most popular god of the ancient Scandinavian peoples, who conferred upon him such epithets as ástvinr ("dear friend") and fulltrúi ("trusted friend"). The distribution of his cult is abundantly documented by onomastic evidence; his name is found all over present-day Scandinavia in place-names designating either cult sites or places dedicated to him—woods, fields, hills, brooks, and lakes (de Vries, 1957, pp. 116–120).

Equally abundant are the personal names with Thor- as first component. About one-fourth of the immigrants to Iceland had such names, according to the Landnámabók. Viking traders and raiders venerated him as their most powerful god and honored him in their new settlements. Local sources report the worship of Þórr by the Norse invaders of Ireland; Þórr's hammer, Mjǫllnir, appeared on the coinage of the Scandinavian rulers of York in the tenth century; there was apparently a...