Fenrir
Fenrir (Old Norse 'fen-dweller')[3] or Fenrisúlfr (Old Norse "Fenrir's wolf", often translated "Fenris-wolf"),[4] also referred to as Hróðvitnir (Old Norse "fame-wolf")[5] and Vánagandr (Old Norse 'monster of the [River] Ván'),[6] is a monstrous wolf in Norse mythology. In Old Norse texts, Fenrir plays a key role during the events of Ragnarök, where he is foretold to assist in setting the world aflame, resulting in the collapse of humanity and society, and kill the god Odin.
Fenrir, along with
In the Prose Edda, additional information is given about Fenrir, including that, due to the gods' knowledge of prophecies foretelling great trouble from Fenrir and his rapid growth, the gods bound him and as a result Fenrir bit off the right hand of the god Týr. Depictions of Fenrir have been identified on various objects and scholarly theories have been proposed regarding Fenrir's relation to other canine beings in Norse mythology. Fenrir has been the subject of artistic depictions and he appears in literature.
Attestations
Poetic Edda
Fenrir is mentioned in three stanzas of the poem Further into the poem the völva foretells that Odin will be consumed by Fenrir at Ragnarök:
In the stanza that follows the völva describes that Odin's "tall child of Triumph's Sire" (Odin's son Víðarr) will then come to "strike at the beast of slaughter" and with his hands he will drive a sword into the heart of "Hveðrungr's son", avenging the death of his father.[8]
In the first of two stanzas mentioning Fenrir in Vafþrúðnismál Odin poses a question to the wise jötunn Vafþrúðnir:
Much I have travelled, much have I tried out,
much have I tested the Powers;
from where will a sun come into the smooth heaven
when Fenrir has assailed this one?
In the stanza that follows Vafþrúðnir responds that Sól (here referred to as Álfröðull) will bear a daughter before Fenrir attacks her, and that this daughter shall continue the paths of her deceased mother through the heavens.[9]
Prose Edda
In the Prose Edda, Fenrir is mentioned in three books: Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal.
Gylfaginning chapters 13 and 25
In chapter 13 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Fenrir is first mentioned in a stanza quoted from Völuspá.
Gylfaginning chapter 34
In chapter 34, High describes Loki, and says that Loki had three children with a woman named
High says that Odin sent the gods to gather the children and bring them to him. Upon their arrival, Odin threw Jörmungandr into "that deep sea that lies round all lands", and then threw Hel into
When the Æsir exclaimed that they were ready, Fenrir shook himself, knocked the fetter to the ground, strained hard, and kicking with his feet, snapped the fetter – breaking it into pieces that flew far into the distance. High says that, as a result, to "loose from Leyding" or to "strike out of Dromi" have become sayings for when something is achieved with great effort. The Æsir started to fear that they would not be able to bind Fenrir, and so Odin sent
The Æsir went out on to the lake Amsvartnir sent for Fenrir to accompany them, and continued to the island Lyngvi (Old Norse "a place overgrown with heather").[15] The gods showed Fenrir the silken fetter Gleipnir, told him to tear it, stated that it was much stronger than it appeared, passed it among themselves, used their hands to pull it, and yet it did not tear. However, they said that Fenrir would be able to tear it, to which Fenrir replied:
It looks to me that with this ribbon as though I will gain no fame from it if I do tear apart such a slender band, but if it is made with art and trickery, then even if it does look thin, this band is not going on my legs.[14]
The Æsir said Fenrir would quickly tear apart a thin silken strip, noting that Fenrir earlier broke great iron binds, and added that if Fenrir wasn't able to break slender Gleipnir then Fenrir is nothing for the gods to fear, and as a result would be freed. Fenrir responded:
If you bind me so that I am unable to release myself, then you will be standing by in such a way that I should have to wait a long time before I got any help from you. I am reluctant to have this band put on me. But rather than that you question my courage, let someone put his hand in my mouth as a pledge that this is done in good faith.[16]
With this statement, all of the Æsir look to one another, finding themselves in a dilemma. Everyone refused to place their hand in Fenrir's mouth until Týr put out his right hand and placed it into the wolf's jaws. When Fenrir kicked, Gleipnir caught tightly, and the more Fenrir struggled, the stronger the band grew. At this, everyone laughed, except Týr, who there lost his right hand. When the gods knew that Fenrir was fully bound, they took a cord called Gelgja (Old Norse "fetter")[17] hanging from Gleipnir, inserted the cord through a large stone slab called Gjöll (Old Norse "scream"),[18] and the gods fastened the stone slab deep into the ground. After, the gods took a great rock called Thviti (Old Norse "hitter, batterer"),[19] and thrust it even further into the ground as an anchoring peg. Fenrir reacted violently; he opened his jaws very wide, and tried to bite the gods. Then the gods thrust a sword into his mouth. Its hilt touched the lower jaw and its point the upper one; by means of it the jaws of the wolf were spread apart and the wolf gagged. Fenrir "howled horribly", saliva ran from his mouth, and this saliva formed the river Ván (Old Norse "hope").[20] There Fenrir will lie until Ragnarök. Gangleri comments that Loki created a "pretty terrible family" though important, and asks why the Æsir did not just kill Fenrir there since they expected great malice from him. High replies that "so greatly did the gods respect their holy places and places of sanctuary that they did not want to defile them with the wolf's blood even though the prophecies say that he will be the death of Odin."[21]
Gylfaginning chapters 38 and 51
In chapter 38, High says that there are
Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal
In the Epilogue section of the Prose Edda book
Heimskringla
At the end of the , and is there received as one of the Einherjar. Towards the end of the poem, a stanza relates sooner will the bonds of Fenrir snap than as good a king as Haakon shall stand in his place:
Unfettered will fare the Fenris Wolf
and ravaged the realm of men,
ere that cometh a kingly prince
as good, to stand in his stead.[33]
Archaeological record
Thorwald's Cross
Gosforth Cross
The mid-11th century
Ledberg stone
The 11th century
Other
If the images on the Tullstorp Runestone are correctly identified as depicting Ragnarök, then Fenrir is shown above the ship Naglfar.[40]
Meyer Schapiro theorizes a connection between the "Hell Mouth" that appears in medieval Christian iconography and Fenrir. According to Schapiro, "the Anglo-Saxon taste for the Hell Mouth was perhaps influenced by the northern pagan myth of the Crack of Doom and the battle with the wolf, who devoured Odin."[41]
Scholars propose that a variety of objects from the archaeological record depict Týr. For example, a Migration Period gold bracteate from Trollhättan, Sweden, features a person receiving a bite on the hand from a beast, which may depict Týr and Fenrir.[42] A Viking Age hogback in Sockburn, County Durham, North East England may depict Týr and Fenrir.[43]
Theories
In reference to Fenrir's presentation in the Prose Edda, Andy Orchard theorizes that "the hound (or wolf)" Garmr, Sköll, and Hati Hróðvitnisson were originally simply all Fenrir, stating that "Snorri, characteristically, is careful to make distinctions, naming the wolves who devour the sun and moon as Sköll and Hati, and describing an encounter between Garm and Týr (who, one would have thought, might like to get his hand on Fenrir) at Ragnarök."[44]
John Lindow says that it is unclear why the gods decide to raise Fenrir as opposed to his siblings Hel and Jörmungandr in Gylfaginning chapter 35, theorizing that it may be "because Odin had a connection with wolves? Because Loki was Odin's blood brother?" Referring to the same chapter, Lindow comments that neither of the phrases that Fenrir's binding result in have left any other traces. Lindow compares Fenrir's role to his father Loki and Fenrir's sibling Jörmungandr, in that they all spend time with the gods, are bound or cast out by them, return "at the end of the current mythic order to destroy them, only to be destroyed himself as a younger generation of gods, one of them his slayer, survives into the new world order."[45] He also points to Fenrir's binding as part of a recurring theme of the bound monster, where an enemy of the gods is bound, but destined to break free at Ragnarok.[46]
Ethologist Valerius Geist wrote that Fenrir's maiming and ultimate killing of Odin, who had previously nurtured him, was likely based on true experiences of wolf-behaviour, seeing as wolves are genetically encoded to rise up in the pack hierarchy and have, on occasion, been recorded to rebel against, and kill, their parents. Geist states that "apparently, even the ancients knew that wolves may turn on their parents and siblings and kill them."[48]
Modern influence
Fenrir appears in modern literature in the poem "Om Fenrisulven og Tyr" (1819) by
Fenrir has been depicted in the artwork Odin and Fenris (1909) and The Binding of Fenris (around 1900) by Dorothy Hardy, Odin und Fenriswolf and Fesselung des Fenriswolfe (1901) by Emil Doepler, and is the subject of the metal sculpture Fenrir by Arne Vinje Gunnerud located on the island of Askøy, Norway.[4]
Fenrir is a highly durable mech option in Pixonic's game War Robots (released as "Walking War Robots" in 2014).[49]
Fenrir appears as an antagonist in the 2020 videogame Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with a story adapted from the events found in Prose Edda.[50]
Fenrir appears in the 2022 game God of War Ragnarök.[51]
See also
Citations
- ^ När Fenrir fick färg Archived 30 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine, by Magnus Källström, chief runologist at Swedish National Heritage Board.
- ^ Analysis supported as convincing in "Bite me" runestones Archived 30 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine by Henrik Williams, professor of North Germanic languages at Uppsala University.
- ^ Orchard (1997:42).
- ^ a b c Simek (2007:81).
- ^ Simek (2007:160).
- ^ Simek (2007:350).
- ^ Dronke (1997:17).
- ^ Dronke (1997:21–22).
- ^ Larrington (1999:47).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:15).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:25).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:26–27).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:27).
- ^ a b Faulkes (1995:28).
- ^ Simek (2007:198).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:28–29).
- ^ Orchard (1997:54).
- ^ Orchard (1997:57).
- ^ Simek (2007:334).
- ^ Simek (2007:350)
- ^ Faulkes (1995:29).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:32).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:53).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:54).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:55–57).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:65–66).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:68).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:76).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:123).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:164).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:136 and 199).
- ^ Faulkes (1995:157).
- ^ Hollander (2007:127).
- ^ a b c d e f Pluskowski (2004:158).
- ^ Entry Br Olsen;185A in Rundata 2.0
- ^ a b c d Jansson (1987:152)
- ^ Richards (1999:200).
- ^ Schapiro (1942:211, note 66).
- ^ MacLeod, Mees (2006:145).
- ^ Merrony (2004:136); Crumlin-Pedersen & Thye (1995:170).
- ^ Schapiro (1942:211).
- ^ See discussion in, for example, Davidson (1993:39–41).
- ^ McKinnell (2005:16).
- ^ Orchard (1997:43).
- ^ Lindow (2001:111–114).
- ^ Lindow (2001:82–83).
- ^ Puhvel (1988:118–119).
- ^ "When do wolves become dangerous to humans?" (PDF). 29 September 2007. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 August 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
- ^ "Fenrir – War Robots". warrobots.com. Archived from the original on 13 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
- ^ "Binding Fate – Assassin's Creed Valhalla Wiki Guide". IGN. 30 April 2020. Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
- ^ LeBlanc, Wesley (6 July 2022). "New God Of War: Ragnarok Trailer Reveals November Release Date". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
General and cited references
- Crumlin-Pedersen, Ole & Thye, Birgitte Munch (eds.) (1995). The Ship as Symbol in Prehistoric and Medieval Scandinavia: Papers from an International Research Seminar at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, 5–7 May 1994. Nationalmuseet. ISBN 87-89384-01-6
- ISBN 9780415049368
- ISBN 0-19-811181-9.
- Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). Edda. ISBN 0-460-87616-3
- ISBN 978-0-292-73061-8
- Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). The Poetic Edda. ISBN 0-19-283946-2.
- ISBN 0-19-515382-0.
- MacLeod, Mindy; Mees, Bernard (2006). Runic Amulets and Magic Objects. ISBN 1-84383-205-4. Archivedfrom the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ISBN 9781843840428
- Merrony, Mark (2004). The Vikings: Conquerors, Traders and Pirates. Periplus. ISBN 1-902699-54-8.
- Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. ISBN 0-304-34520-2.
- Pluskowski, Aleks (2004). "Apocalyptic Monsters: Animal Inspirations for the Iconography of Medieval Northern Devourers". In Bildhauer, Bettina; Mills, Robert (eds.). The Monstrous Middle Ages. ISBN 0-8020-8667-5. Archivedfrom the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- Puhvel, Jaan (1998). Comparative Mythology. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-3413-9.
- ISBN 0-415-13587-7. Archivedfrom the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- Rundata 2.0 for Windows.
- JSTOR 3046829.
- ISBN 978-0-85991-513-7.
External links
- MyNDIR (My Norse Digital Image Repository)Illustrations of Fenrir from manuscripts and early print books.