Category: Norse mythology
Everybody talks about Fenrir, Norse mythβs very own Big Bad Wolf. But no many people seem to speak about the god who lost his hand to him, Tyr, despite him being one of the most important gods of the Old Norse. Letβs correct that, shall we?
Tyr is, as I said previously, the bravest of the Aesir, the most courageous and most valiant of all the gods β which is why he was the only god willing to feed Fenrir as he grew up, and the only one willing to lose his hand to bind the monster. Tyr was also a war god, whose main power was apparently to offer victory in battle to those that invoked his name, as well as a clever deity (enough for clever men to be called βty-wise/tyr-wiseβ, the same way valiant men who did not knew fear and were above other men were called βty-valiant/tyr-valiantβ. Of course, Tyr was also known for being the βone-hand godβ thanks to the Fenrir incident. The flyting of Loki, the great banquet were the god insulted all the other deities, is said to have taken place shortly after the binding of Fenrir, and when it is time to roast Tyr Loki goes: βYou canβt be the right hand of justice becauseβ¦ YOU DONβT HAVE A RIGHT HAND!β. Only for Tyr to answer in an even more savage way: βI maybe lost my hand, but you lost your wolf of a son, who is now trapped until the end of timesβ¦β. Now despite Tyrβs strong relationship with Fenrir, it is said that during RagnarΓΆk it wonβt be the giant wolf that will kill him β but rather Garm/Garmr, the evil dog bound in the realm of Hel and considered to be βthe most evil creatureβ of the world: the two will battle each other, and kill each other. (For more info see my post about Garmr in the βDeadly Fallβ series).
While all of this is pretty consistent, there is one HUGE variation when it comes to Tyr: his parents. The Prose Edda presents Tyr as a son of Odin, which would make him on the same divine generation as Thor, but the Poetic Edda offers a widely different genealogy through a unique story: the story of the cauldron of Hymir (who is NOT the Ymir we saw previously). In this story the gods want to brew ale but donβt have a container big enough, until suddenly Tyr remembers that his father, Hymir (not Odin) owns one that would be big enough. Problemβ¦ He is a jΓΆtunn, apparently not very fond of the god, and to obtain his cauldron (or kettle depending on the translations) Tyr will need to be cunning and trick him. So he sets out with Thor to his fatherβs house while he is away β but in his place they find Tyrβs very own mother, a kind unnamed woman clad in gold, and Hymirβs mother, Tyrβs grandmother, a nine-HUNDRED headed female jΓΆtunn who is said to hate the guts out of his grandson. The mother, knowing her husband will soon return and to protect the gods from his wrath, tells them to hide behind the kettles/cauldrons lined up on a side of the house. When Hymir returns his wife informs him Tyr came to visit and brought Thor with him. When she tells him they are behind a pillar of the house, Hymir looks in that direction and the intensity of his look is so powerful it literally breaks the pillar, and the eight nearby cauldrons/kettles β hopefully the ninth one, in which the gods were hidden, was strong enough to resist the jΓΆtunnβs deadly gaze. When Thor comes out unharmed, Hymir is both very displeased and quite frightened β because thatβs Thor, the jΓΆtunn-killer we talk about. There is a feast prepared for the whole house, three headless oxen boiled in their entirety β but Thor eats two of them all on his own, and so the displeased jΓΆtunn explains that tomorrow they will have to go fishing to be able to feed everyone. Which leads to the famous and iconic scene of βThor fishing JΓΆrmungandrβ, which I wonβt recall here. After this Hymir puts to the test Thorβs strength several times: for example he gives him a cup and dares him to break it, but no matter how much he tries Thor canβt do it β until Hymirβs wife suggests to the god throwing the cup as Hymirβs head, because as it turns out the jΓΆtunnβs skull is so hard it breaks the cup that couldnβt even be broken by stone. Finally Hymir agrees to offer his best cauldron/kettle to the gods, but Tyr proves unable to lift it due to how big and heavy it is β only Thor, the strongest of the gods, is able to do this feat. But it seems that Hymir quickly has regrets, as he then promptly sends a group of jΓΆtnar after them to fetch back his good β only for Thor to kill them all. And everythingβs happy when the gods can finally brew their ale!
The Prose Edda also offers a fascinating confusion between Tyr and two other gods, Thor and Odin. The kennings for these deities (a kenning being a poetic expression or codified allegory to designate someone or something in Norse poetry) often include the name βTyrβ: Thor is called βChariot-Tyrβ, while Odin is called βVictory-Tyrβ, βHanged-Tyrβ or βCargo-Tyrβ. Or at least thatβs what it SEEMS! Because the truth is that these names are βChariot Godβ, βHanged Godβ, βCargo Godβ. You see, there is a big problem with Tyrβs nameβ¦ βTyrβ is the characterβs name, but βtyrβ is also an old Norse word that in poetry means βa godβ, and whose plural is βtivarβ. In fact, etymologist all agree that Tyrβs name descends from a root and from a family of words that all mean βgodβ, so Tyr is actuallyβ¦ God. The name of Tyr is also eponym to one of the runes of ancient Norse: the βT runeβ, which was also called the βTyr runeβ or the βTiwaz runeβ, the spear-shaped rune. When people βinvoked Tyrβs nameβ so that he could give them victory, it was by engraving the Tyr rune in their weapons. All that, coupled with the fact that a LOT of places in Scandinavia were named after Tyr (you have Tyrseng, Tyrβs meadow, and Tislund, Tyrβs grove, in Denmark ; Tiveden, Tyrβs forest in Sweden ; Tysnes, Tyrβs peninsula, in Norwayβ¦) has convinced people that Tyr, despite having a quite minor role in the Old Norse text that forms the Edda, was actually a pretty big Germanic deity with an important cult and a good place in ancient Germanic societies. A good place that mysteriously hasnβt been kept in Old Norse literature, which retreated him as a secondary godβ¦
The most agreed theory is that somehow Tyr used to be one of the main gods of the Old Norse world/the Old Germanic world, but then Odin rose into prominence and absorbed numerous elements of Tyr, essentially replacing him. People have pointed out that the two were described as cunning and clever war-gods said to grant victory in battle; that the cult of the two deities were often joined into one same sacred place; that as I said the name βTyrβ became even synonymous for Odin ; and that according to the Poetic Edda, Tyr is jΓΆtunn bornβ¦ just like Odin who is also said to be half-jΓΆtunn. In fact the very idea that Tyr went from a jΓΆtunn-born deity in the Poetic Edda to βanother son of Odinβ in the Prose Edda might be another clue at the godβs role slowly being βreducedβ to fit into an Odin-dominated version of the pantheon, but thatβs another debate.
The only other elements we have about Tyr come from the Romans, and their study of Old Norse religion through the eyes of their own syncretized pantheon. The Latin considered Tyr to be the equivalent of Mars, the Roman god of war, and so only called him so (the same way they only referred to Odin as Mercury, and Thor as Hercules). Roman commentators claimed that Tyr/Mars, just like Thor/Hercules, received animal offerings β unlike Mercury/Odin who rather needed human sacrifices. They also wrote that the Goths (eastern Germanic people) saw a βgod of warβ (equated with Mars) as their mythical ancestor, said to have been βbornβ among them β and the Romans to go forth describing a βcruel cultβ of this Goth Mars who was said to demand human blood to appease him: the Goths apparently always gave the first share of any war spoils to him, and suspended the weapons of their defeated foes to trees in his honor. Was this Goth Mars a Germanic form of Tyr? Who knows.
The Romans also gave to Tyr the name of βMars Thingsusβ, βMars of the Assemblyβ, βMars of the Thingβ, which implied he was a god tied to such events. For those who donβt know, the βThingβ was a Germanic governing assembly β basically a community gathered together at set dates and specific places to have legislative talks, debates and decisions, settling law and justice business for the community. So Tyr might have been a βgod of the thingβ too. Finally, we know that the second day of the week in English, Tuesday, was named in honor of Tyr: βTuesdayβ is βTyrβs dayβ, the same way that in Latin-born languages this second day (Mardi, Martes, Martedi) is named after Mars. Interestingly, other Germanic names for βTuesdayβ do not seem to hold βTyrβ, or rather have a very deformed version of it: Dingsdag, Dingesdach, Dingesdagβ¦ But another more logical explanation would be that this βDingβ, βDingsβ, βDingesβ is rather an evolution of the old German/Norse βthingβ, as in the assembly β which would strengthen Tyrβs connection with the βAssembliesβ, so that his day would be the Thing Day or Assembly Day.
