What martial arts does Thor use?

Thor is perhaps the most popular Norse god of all time and his legendary status also propelled him to be written into the Marvel comic books. From there, he even had his own movies and was played by actor Chris Hemsworth who further elevated the name of Thor. With this in mind, we shall be looking at both aspects of Thor’s reputation; the Norse god as well as the comic book superhero.

It should also be noted that even though he is a god with superpowers, Thor does sometimes have to rely on very human martial arts to survive during combat. In fact, there’s even one stint where he temporarily loses his powers. As a result, he has to rely on various disciplines to survive. The good news is that in the Marvel universe at least, Thor is meant to be over 2000 years old. With this said, you can understand why he’d be so good at martial arts considering this is a lot of time to spend training. Here’s a list of the martial arts that Thor uses whilst fighting.

Thor knows the War hammer

Although technically not a martial art by its definition, Thor is obviously very skilled at handling his war hammer. This was a nordic hammer that was used during battle and the point of this hammer was to smash it over the head of your enemies. If hit with enough force, this could easily kill someone.

Of course, Thor has superhuman abilities which means he can easily hold such a heavy weapon which is to be expected. Nonetheless, the Vikings did genuinely use the war hammer whilst in battle so it makes sense that this is Thor’s go-to weapon. Whilst using it to create tornadoes and lightning storms may not be too realistic, the point is that Thor still uses something that is from his culture.

It should be noted that whilst Norse culture doesn’t have many standalone martial arts, the use of the war hammer was probably trained in a formal setting during the Viking era. So, it may not technically be a martial art but is still basically one anyway.

Thor knows Boxing

In the Marvel films, Thor has a momentary spell where his powers are made useless. During this scene, he fights off several guards who are said to be ‘the best at what they do’. In other words, these are not regular people and are well trained in the art of fighting. Nonetheless, Thor makes light work of them despite being heavily outnumbered. As you would imagine, if someone has lived for over 2000 years though, they’re going to be very skilled at boxing.

Not only this but due to his supreme strength, it makes sense for Thor to use boxing as his punches would be incredibly powerful. It’s well known that boxing is also a great martial art to learn for defending yourself against multiple attackers. In short, this is a great discipline to learn for Thor when his hammer is not present. Although he doesn’t really need to learn much with his hammer around, boxing is the perfect martial art as back-up.

Thor knows Glima

Ever heard of Glima? Don’t worry, most people haven’t heard of it either. Glima is a Nordic martial art that is basically a form of folkstyle wrestling. Often, this relies on grips on the waist to begin with, where you then have to throw your opponent down to the floor. This was probably the most popular Nordic martial art going and has survived through to today’s society although it’s mostly known for nostalgic and cultural reasons these days. Regardless, this is something that Thor would have definitely practiced during his time.

In fact, Thor’s Glima skills are even written into Nordic myths and legends. Apparently, he fought an old woman named Elli in a Glima match and actually lost against her. The name Elli stood for ‘old age’ during this time, so it could be insinuated that he lost to old age and that it catches up with everyone. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty cool example of a god practicing a martial art. Even though he lost, there’s no shame in this and everyone loses sometimes. Sadly, Glima wasn’t shown in the Marvel take on Thor – which is a shame because it’s pretty clear that Thor genuinely practiced this in real life.

Conclusion

As mentioned, these disciplines are taken from various takes on Thor’s character. For instance, in Norse mythology, there are no real examples of him boxing, whereas in the Marvel versions he does box. Overall though, if we take into all accounts of Thor and his martial arts background, then it’s fair to say that he’s pretty well rounded and is good at both striking and grappling, as well as using weapons.

Because of this, even without his super powers, Thor is a very strong opponent who knows how to fight in different settings. The fact that he’s had thousands of years to train is also on his side as it also means he’s incredibly experienced. Having said this, when it comes to gods and superheroes, many people still don’t really think of Thor as being a martial artist. However, after reading this hopefully people will have a different view in the future.