Myth and Folklore Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Thor (1832) from Die Helden und Götter des Nordens, oder Das Buch der sagen

The goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr pull the god Þórr's chariot in an illustration from 1832.

Tanngrisnir (Old Norse "teeth-barer, snarler") and Tanngnjóstr (Old Norse "teeth grinder") are the goats who pull the god Þórr's chariot in Norse mythology. They are attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.

The Prose Edda relates that when Þórr cooks the goats, their flesh provides sustenance for the god, and, after Þórr resurrects them with his hammer, Mjöllnir, they are brought back to life the next day. According to the same source, Thor once stayed a night at the home of peasant farmers and shared with them his goat meal, yet one of their children, Þjálfi, broke one of the bones to suck out the marrow, resulting in the lameness of one of the goats upon resurrection. As a result, Þórr maintains Þjálfi and his sister Röskva as his servants. Scholars have linked the ever-replenishing goats to the nightly-consumed beast Sæhrímnir in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folk beliefs involving herring bones and witchcraft.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr (view authors). As with Myth and Folklore Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).
Advertisement