Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817-1896), Doctor of Civil Law, was a British lawyer, translator of folk tales and contributor to
The Times.
He was educated at Westminster School, King’s College London, and Oxford University, where he befriended classmate John Thadeus Delane, future editor of
The Times. After graduating from university in 1840 with a degree in Classical literature, he was appointed secretary to Thomas Cartwright on a diplomatic post in Stockholm, Sweden. There he met Jakob Grimm, at whose recommendation he first became interested in Scandinavian literature and Norse mythology. He published the first result of his studies, an English translation of
The Prose or Younger Edda (1842), followed by a translation of Rasmus Christian Rask’s
Grammar of the Icelandic or Old-Norse Tongue (1843).
The Dasent’s work
Thorr’s hunt for his hammer, which we propose to our readers today, was translated by the British scholar from the
Poetic Edda, and published on the magazine
Once a Week in February 1861.
Thor, or Thorr (from Old Norse: Þórr), son of Odin and Earth, is a prominent God in the religion of the ancient Germanic peoples. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding God associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, and fertility.
Thor wields the hammer Mjölnir, wears the belt Megingjörð and the iron gloves Járngreipr, and owns the staff Gríðarvölr. Thor’s exploits, including his relentless slaughter of his foes and fierce battles with the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr—and their foretold mutual deaths during the events of Ragnarök—are recorded throughout sources for Norse mythology.
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