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i8 I. THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.
5 TO 8. THE IRON AGE (500 B.C. 1000 A.D.).
5. FIRST OR PRE-ROMAN PERIOD, 500 B.C. TO JUST
BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA. TlIE AGE OF
THOR AND THE HAMMER.
The Iron Age of Sweden, which was till lately supposed
to have begun about the Christian era, is now found to
have extended for a period of about 500 years before it.
Of this first period comparatively few traces are found in
the country, though sufficient to prove the early introduc
tion of the metal. It is to this period that I should assign
the introduction of the worship of Thor and the myths of
his victory over and association with the nature gods. I
should venture to call it the Age of Thor and the hammer.
The great difference between bronze and iron is this : That
bronze can be cast in moulds, and bronze weapons can be
imported ready made, or easily made from ingots, while
iron requires the smith s craft and the use of the hammer
and other powerful tools. A new god would naturally
come in with such a momentous gift or discovery. It is
interesting to notice that, though Montelius does not draw
this inference, he supposes independently that Thor was
the god of the early Iron Age in Sweden (Civ., p. 121). As
Grimm says: "The hammer, as a divine tool, was con
sidered sacred. Brides and the bodies of the dead were
consecrated with it. Men blessed with the sign of the
hammer as Christians did with the sign of the cross, and
a stroke of lightning was long regarded in the Middle Ages
as a happy initiatory omen to any undertaking
"
(D. M.,
pp. 1 80- 1, E. T.). The worship of Thor is an advance
upon that of the pure nature gods. He represents some
thing spiritual, even though it be rough and turbulent, in
human nature. He is the Northmen s home god while
they still lived apart and before the introduction of any
kind of literature or writing, except a rough kind of native
poetry and jest.
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