"Drink like a Norse God"

*Walhalla by Max Bruckner, 1896

In honor of Thors Day (Thursday for you and I) we are delving into Norse Mythology and the love they have for beer.  Valhalla was a Viking paradise where chosen heroes fought and feasted from dawn to dusk.  Wounds healed overnight and mead and meat flowed freely.  The hectic round of combat ensured that heroes stayed in fighting form, fit for the final battle at Ragnarok.

The great hall of Einherjar "heroic dead" was built in Asgard by Odin.  The hall had over five hundred doors, each wide enough to allow up to eight hundred men to march through abreast.  These wide doors were designed to allow the chosen warriors to pour forth at the first sign of Ragnarok.  The warriors would fight alongside the gods in a great battle on the Vigrid Plain.

Once inside this great hall there was a magical cauldron, Aegir's Brewing Kettle.  As mythology tells, Thor had asked Aegir to brew some ale for the gods, but Aegir claimed to not have a cauldron big enough for the task.  Upon being declined the brew, Thor acquired a vast cauldron from the frost giant Hymir.  In fact, it was so big that when he hoisted it onto his shoulders, the handles reached his ankles.  Hymir tried to stop Thor from taking his cauldron, but the Thunder god's hammer said otherwise.  As a result, a humiliated Aegir had to accept the cauldron and supply Asgard with Ale.

*Aegir and his daughters brewing in their magical cauldron

The etymology of Thursday refers to the Old English Thunor's Day which is influenced by the Old Norse, ,meaning Thor's Day.  Thor derived from the Proto-Germanic god Thunraz, god of thunder.

*Thunor (Thor) by Marten Eskil Winge, 1872

time to celebrate the way Thor would want us to...Skal!