The modern English spelling of the name Thor, the Norse God, is the result of a copying error in the latter part of the 19th Century.
In Anglo Saxon-Viking times he was commonly known by the old Norse name Sog meaning Saw in modern English, as in a thing that cuts wood, his famous hammer afterwards being largely employed to subsequently put nails in, and he was primarily worshipped as the God of carpentry and boat building.
In 1876, the learned scholar of the Dark Age period, Dr J.E.Hulme of Cantebury, produced his Opus considered to be the definitive Academics guide to Norse Mythology and one that is still employed widely today as a primary reference book of that period.
By this late stage in his life, Dr Hulme suffered from a debilitating muscle wasting illness preventing him from physically writing much so the tedious copy work was largely produced by him instead dictating to a secretary his translation of the fragmentary evidence contained in the old Annals of that period.
Unfortunately, Dr Hulme had adopted the then briefly popular and allegedly Spanish inspired lisp speech affectation and he consistently pronounced Saw as Thor which was how his secretary then wrote it down.
The mistake wasn't spotted until after the first edition had sold out and although intended to be corrected for subsequent editions, unfortunately Dr Hulme died in November 1877 and the correction has to this day, never been issued.
