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Þökk

jötunn in Norse mythology

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 28, 2025
Entity authorityQ1632368
Source-derived summary

Þökk (also Thökk) (Old Norse / Icelandic "Thanks") is a jötunn in Norse mythology, presumed to be Loki in disguise, who refuses to weep for the slain Baldr, thus forcing Baldr to stay in Hel.

Prose Edda

After Baldr was killed, Hermóðr rode to Hel. Hel, the ruler of the realm of the same name, agreed that Baldr should go back to the living if all things in the world wept for him. So the Æsir sent messengers all over the world, and all wept for him, but:

"Then, when the messengers went home, having well wrought their errand, they found, in a certain cave, where a giantess sat: she called herself Thǫkk. They prayed her to weep Baldr out of Hel; she answered:

Thǫkk will weep

waterless tears

For Baldr's bale-fare;

Living or dead,

I loved not the churl's son;

Let Hel hold to that she hath!

And men deem that she who was there was Loki Laufeyarson, who hath wrought most ill among the Æsir."

—Gylfaginning (49), Brodeur's translation

Notes

References

Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Þökk” is jötunn in Norse mythology. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Þökk, jötunn and Norse, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1997—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Þökk, jötunn and Norse is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “jötunn in Norse mythology” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1632368. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Þökk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.