A Lay for Our Time?

Hammertheft and all the world bereft
Of reason and of right overnight
Left between a tyrant's temper mean
And treason and betrayal, cold and stale
Hue and cry, I can't sit idly by
We're hostages to greed, intercede

Even as viking legends go, the Lay of Thrym (Þrymskviða)is pretty wild. 

Thor's legendary hammer Mjölnir (crusher) goes missing, his half-brother Loki investigates the theft. The giant king Thrym brags that he has buried the hammer 8 leagues deep, and will only relinquish it if the goddess Freyja agrees to be his bride. 

Freyja unsurprisingly (and angrily) refuses this offer, so instead a scheme is devised wherein Thor will dress like Freyja and go to Thrym's hall in her place until the hammer can be recovered. Undercover work is not the thunder-god's forte however, leaving Loki to explain that Freyja's devouring multiple whole animals and three casks of mead is because she hasn't eaten in eight days due to travel and excitement. The fiery eyes Thrym sees when he lifts 'her' veil? Well, she hasn't slept either, has she?

By the time Thrym orders Mjölnir brought to the hall to sanctify the marriage, Thor is beyond ready to reveal himself. Grasping the hammer with both hands as it is placed on his lap by the duped jotun, he slays many of them, including the giant king himself (at least in the Danish version).

All you have is illgotten gain
You stand only for your own
Any man may throw you off the throne
Seat will not be set for thee
At the league of free nations

May this mark the end of your reign
Let the lay of Thrym be heard
Leave no tyrant out there undeterred
Thunderstruck theocracy
This theodicy heathen
In the end the giant was slain

My first encounter with this tale was not through my most common channels for Norse mythology: Dungeons & Dragons or the Walt Simonson run on The Mighty Thor comic. No, my exposure came courtesy of a viking metal band called Týr from the Faroe Islands, as both the title and closing track of their 2011 album.

The album itself is intriguing, being a response to the Arab Spring, as told by here by songwriter Heri Joensen:

I was inspired by the events of the Arab Spring. I am a very positive person...well maybe not totally positive, but definitely optimistic. And I was hoping for a better outcome. I found the story about a Tunisian guy who set himself on fire quite moving and it inspired me to write the song ‘Flames Of The Free’. So it’s mostly taken from those events but I drew parallels between mythology and present day events. You have Thor who tries to get his hammer back from the Giant Thrym, symbolising people from contemporary society trying to get their rights back from dictators who took them away from them.

The song came up on my power metal playlist ("The Riddle of Steel") the other day while walking Canéla. I am always drawn in by the slow intro and transition to one of the best horse-gallop drum rhythms I know of (even if, in truth, I suppose they should be goat-gallops), but this time the lyrics really got me thinking about current events and the rise of autocracy.

I mean, in the end, what is less credible: a giant believing the thunder god in drag is actually a winsome goddess, or watching the U.S. President deploy national guard and police around the deflecting reflecting pool in Washington to distract people from both his multiple mentions in the Epstein files as well as paying $300B in reparations for a needless war in Iran?

Hammer home to any despots dome
That tales of tyranny end with me

And it's not like we are particularly better off here in Alberta, where our increasingly despotic premier and her ditchbilly base cheer on the use of the notwithstanding clause to send teachers back to work and watch a needless and expensive referendum on immigration and separation get promoted, all while her party adds a $14 per solar panel "recycling fee" to help prop up her 'former' oil and gas patrons.

Hue and cry, I can't sit idly by
We're hostages to greed, intercede

Sigh.

It can be disheartening, sure. I am grateful that Canadian democracy has been largely spared the ravages of U.S. decisions like Citizens United in 2010 that equated money with speech and corporate limits from corporate campaign donations, but we are still subjected to waves of misinformation from foreign YouTube channels and bot farms.

Even so, more and more people are expressing concern and even anger at this malfeasance and bad faith governing, and I feel that only is a positive change inevitable (at some point!), I know in my heart that when the pendulum swings back the other way, it could end us taking us all somewhere positive for an even longer term. 

The unthinkable alternative is a lifetime spent under the thumb of increasingly authoritarian regimes, but even then I know that nothing endures forever. We have to have hope!

In the end the giant was slain

[Lay of Thrym lyric video]