Tyr and Fenrir

Tyr and Fenrir

Written by Gothi Alan Panicucci

Tyr

Tyr, the one-handed god is of the Aesir clan. He is known for his righteous or justifiable sacrifice, war, and more. The purpose of this is to explain who he is, but to do that, I must tell you that the gods and goddesses of the Norse are as human as a god can be. They make mistakes, have great achievements and failures. They live and die as we do. They just have long lives and supernatural abilities. 

Tyr has a moral compass that aligns with the good of nature and the community. He will sacrifice for the good of the community to maintain peace. An example of this is the Binding of Fenrir in the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson. He sacrificed his right arm and friendship with Fenrir for the good of holding off Ragnarök. 

He also aligns with integrity. An oath and the truth, as well as staying true to your word is an important characteristic of Tyr. In the same story, he stayed true to his word and allowed Fenrir to bite off his arm, even though he had the opportunity to remove it. He is not thought to be a peace maker, even though he did this. 

Now, in Hymiskvitha, Tyr assisted Thor in retrieving a cauldron from his own father. He did this because Thor was asked to get the cauldron for another. He even suggested trickery to attain it. You see, for the Aesir, he would sacrifice if it’s justifiable. His father had plenty of cauldrons and was not kind to others. He would also avoid lending out his items to others. Tyr hold value in being able to say you held true to your word and this is a great lesson in of itself. As an individual of the Norse faith, regardless of where you are on your path, having the integrity to hold true to your word is one of the most important things we should be in this realm. 

Now that you have some information on Tyr from the Poetic Edda by Jackson Crawford and the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, I suggest you go and find more. Do not just take the words here as the only proof you need. Go find other sources and compare and contrast them to see if you can find the same or differences to learn more about Tyr.

Fenrir

Fenrir is a force of chaos, raw power, and destruction. He is a force of nature. Fenrir, the mighty wolf that will kill Odin in Ragnarök, is a child of Loki and the giantess, Angrboda. He had two siblings with him and his mother in Jotunheim. They were Jormungandr and Hel. They were taken by the gods from their mother, separated from one another. Jormungandr was thrown into the sea, Hel cast to Helheim and Fenrir was sentenced to live with the gods. Why did these children have to face this hardship? Prophecy spoke of the end of the gods that included these children of Loki

Could it have been changed though? As for Fenrir, no one would go near him out of fear, except one individual who would approach him, Tyr. Over time as Fenrir grew, Tyr remained as the only individual who would go near him, so it can be assumed that they had at least a mutual respect for one another. This could have been a friendship because as we learn from the Binding of Fenrir in the Prose Edda, Fenrir is an intelligent being. Even with the knowledge that Fenrir is the one who will kill Odin in the end, Tyr still proceeded to take care of the wolf pup.

Fenrir’s binding was a plan of trickery, that lead to the binding. The great wolf showed his strength by breaking through two bindings before the third, Gleipnir, was able to hold him. He would not allow them to bind him without making a deal that if they would not release him, then he was to bite of a god’s hand. This is how Tyr lost his hand, for even though he knew it was a trick, he kept his word to Fenrir to allow him to bite his hand. A final gift to the pup he raised.

Gleipnir was created out of six items that are no longer in this world because they were used in the creation. Those items are listed in The Prose Edda. Now, it is stated that in the Voluspa of the Poetic Edda, Fenrir will break free at Ragnarok to kill Odin and die by Vither’s sword. 

Fenrir, is a mighty beast of raw power. Rage and anger, destruction that was contained, but eventually broke free and ran until defeated. That is a lesson for us all to avoid bottling ourselves up until it becomes over matched and runs free, causing damage to anything in it’s path.

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