Anglo-Saxon Thunor`s Hammer and the Cult of Thunor

The worship of Thunor was very strong in pre-xtian Anglo-Saxon England as evidenced from place-names and archaeological finds of Thunor`s Hammer amulets dating back to the 7th century. Gale R. Owen in his Rites and Religions of the Anglo-Saxons states:

"English place-names, both current and obsolete, testify to a cult of Thunor, mostly in Saxon areas[and apparently not at all in Anglian areas]. Thunor was probably woshipped in sacred groves or meadows, or was perhaps associated with such landscapes, since the majority of of place-names containing his name link him with the Old English word leah. Thundersley and Thunderley Hall[Essex], Thursley[Surrey], two places once referred to as on thunres lea[Hants.] and one as on tunorslege[Sussex] testify to this, together with Thunorleaw, the only Kentish place-name associated with this god. Thunderfield[Surrey] and to thunresfelda[Wilts.] show the same link, and Thundridge[Herts.] again relates Thunor to a`natural feature."

Often one hears the argument that the Mjolnir hammer amulet originated in defiance by the heathen Scandinavians to encroaching xtianisation of the north. However this is not the case. Before the emergence of the `vikings` into history in 793CE the hammer was being worn as an amulet by the heathen Englisc. However I do concede that the increasing popularity of the hammer as an amulet probably stems from a reaction to aggressive xtianisation. A grave in 7th century Gilton, Kent contained several hammer and spear pendants. The female occupant of the grave was no doubt a follower of Woden and Thunor, the spear of course representing Gungnir. As I have written may times before the hammer itself was a natural development from the axe, the original northern European thunder weapon. At one stage the two were absolutely identical in form. The Celtic Gaulish Sucellos was also portrayed as a hammer wielding Thunder God.

"Apparently, Thor`s axe/hammer was originally a long-handled double-peened/bladed weapon similar to the one in the belt of the spearman[Ing?] on Weser bone #4988. It might have originally been a long-handled single-bladed axe, like those wielded by the ancient ithyphallic men in the Bronze Age rock carvings."[The Divine Thunderbolt. Missile of the Gods by J.T. Sibley]

The Anglo-Saxons even after xtianisation still associated the axe with Thunor:

"Se thunor hit thryscedh mid theare fyrenan aecxe".[Dialogue of Solomon and Saturn.]Translated into modern English this read: "Thunor threshes with a fiery axe".

The Thunder Axe goes right back to the Stone Age and even during the Bronze Age stone axes were still carried by Indo-European warriors, kings and priests both as a sign of the primary sky/thunder God and of their very own Aryan racial identity. Over 70 carvings of upturned axes have been discovered on the sarcens of Stonehenge as a sign of consecration by the Indo-European Wessex culture to the Aryan Thunder God.