Seiðr Loom

creature

Fenrir

The giant wolf fathered by Loki on Angrboða, raised by the gods, bound with the fetter Gleipnir at the cost of Týr's hand, and fated to swallow Odin at Ragnarök.

Tyr and Fenrir-John Bauer
Tyr and Fenrir-John Bauer, John Bauer (1911). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Fenrir is the great wolf of Norse myth, the first-named of the three monstrous children that Loki fathered on the giantess Angrboða Gylfaginning 34. Hyndluljóð confirms the parentage in one line: "The wolf did Loki with Angrbotha win" Hyndluljóð 42. His fate is tied to Odin's: the gods know he will kill the father of the gods, and the whole story of Fenrir is the story of their attempt to delay that.

The binding

Snorri tells the story most fully (see The binding of Fenrir). The gods kept the wolf at home, and only Týr dared to feed him. Because he grew so fast and every prophecy said he would destroy them, they decided to bind him. He broke the fetter Lædingr and then the twice-stronger Drómi, which gave rise to sayings for getting out of a tight spot Gylfaginning 34.

Odin then sent Skírnir to have dwarves make Gleipnir, a ribbon "soft and smooth as a silken ribbon" made of impossible things. The wolf, suspicious of a band that looked so weak, agreed only if one of the gods would put a hand in his mouth as a pledge. Týr did. The more the wolf struggled, the tighter the band became: "Then all laughed except Týr: he lost his hand." The gods anchored him to the rocks, propped his jaws open with a sword, and left him there; the slaver from his mouth forms the river Ván. They did not kill him, Snorri says, because they would not defile their sanctuary with his blood Gylfaginning 34.

The poems know the story but do not tell it. The prose introduction of Lokasenna notes that Fenrir bit off Týr's hand Lokasenna, prose 1. In the poem Loki taunts Týr with it, and Týr replies that Loki has lost something too: the wolf, now waiting "In fetters the fall of the gods" Lokasenna 39. Freyr adds that the wolf lies "By the mouth of the river" Lokasenna 41.

At Ragnarök

Völuspá's refrain, "The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free," marks each stage of the end Völuspá 44. In Snorri, Fenrir advances with his lower jaw on the earth and his upper jaw against the sky, fire blazing from his eyes Gylfaginning 51. He swallows Odin Vafþrúðnismál 53, and Odin's son Víðarr avenges him at once.

Then comes Sigfather's mighty son,Vithar, to fight with the foaming wolf;In the giant's son does he thrust his swordFull to the heart: his father is avenged.Völuspá 54

Vafþrúðnismál instead has Víðarr tear the wolf's jaws apart Vafþrúðnismál 53, and Snorri combines the two: a foot on the lower jaw, a hand on the upper Gylfaginning 51.

The wolf and the sun

Fenrir's name also attaches to the wolves that hunt the sun and moon. Vafþrúðnismál says Fenrir himself will snatch the sun Vafþrúðnismál 46-47; Snorri gives that task to the wolf Sköll, and calls the Ironwood brood that produces such wolves "Fenrir's brethren" Gylfaginning 12. Grímnismál calls the moon-chasing Hati "the son of Hrothvitnir" Grímnismál 39, a name Týr uses for Fenrir in Lokasenna Lokasenna 39. See Sköll and Hati.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

The Wolf the Æsir brought up at home, and Týr alone dared go to him to give him meat.
Gylfaginning 34 Snorri tells how the gods raised the wolf, failed twice to bind him, and finally bound him with Gleipnir.
Ill fares the wolf who shall ever await In fetters the fall of the gods.
Lokasenna 39 Týr answers Loki's taunt: he lost a hand, but Loki lost his son to the fetter.
The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free
Völuspá 44 The refrain of Völuspá's prophecy of the end.
The wolf shall fell the father of men, And this shall Vithar avenge
Vafþrúðnismál 53 Odin's death in the wolf's jaws, and Víðarr's revenge.
Fenris-Wolf shall advance with gaping mouth, and his lower jaw shall be against the earth, but the upper against heaven
Gylfaginning 51 Snorri's image of the loose wolf at Ragnarök.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Whether Hati, called 'the son of Hrothvitnir' (Grímnismál 39), is Fenrir's son depends on taking Hróðvitnir as Fenrir's by-name, which Lokasenna 39 suggests but no source states outright.
  • Völuspá says Víðarr killed the wolf with a sword to the heart (Völuspá 54); Vafþrúðnismál says he tore its jaws apart (Vafþrúðnismál 53).

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

Fenrir is a common figure in fantasy and games, and the name of J. K. Rowling's werewolf Fenrir Greyback in the Harry Potter books.

Myths with Fenrir

Loki's flyting at Ægir's feast Thrown out of the sea-giant Ægir's feast for killing a servant, Loki walks back in and insults every god and goddess in turn, until Thor comes home and threatens him with the hammer. Odin's contest of wisdom with Vafþrúðnir Against Frigg's advice, Odin goes in disguise to the wisest of the giants and stakes his head on a contest of questions about the creation, the gods and the end of the world. He wins with a question only he can answer. Ragnarök: the doom of the gods The end of the Norse world as told in Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál and Snorri's Gylfaginning: winter and war, the wolf and the serpent loose, the gods killed one by one, and Surtr's fire over the earth. Sun, Moon, Night and Day How the Norse sources explain the sky's clock: Night and Day ride round the world on two horses, the children of Mundilfari drive the sun and moon, and two wolves chase them until the end of the world. The binding of Fenrir The gods raise Loki's wolf-son Fenrir at home until they fear him, then trick him into a magic fetter made of impossible things. Týr puts his hand in the wolf's mouth as a pledge, and loses it. The binding of Loki After Baldr's death Loki hides as a salmon in a waterfall. The gods catch him in a net, bind him on three stones with his own son's entrails, and hang a serpent over his face. Sigyn catches the venom in a bowl until Ragnarök.

Related

Loki The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök. Angrboða The giantess in Jötunheim with whom Loki fathered Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel; the sources name her and say almost nothing else. Týr The one-handed god of battle and courage, who put his hand in the wolf Fenrir's mouth as a pledge so that the gods could bind it, and lost the hand. Gleipnir The silk-soft fetter the dwarves made from six impossible things to bind the wolf Fenrir; it held where two iron chains had failed, and cost Týr his hand. Odin Óðinn Chief of the Æsir: a one-eyed god of wisdom, poetry, magic, war and the dead, who gave an eye and hanged himself on a tree for knowledge, and who dies at Ragnarök. Víðarr The silent son of Odin and the giantess Gríðr, nearly as strong as Thor. At Ragnarök he avenges his father by tearing apart the wolf Fenrir, and he survives into the new world. Sköll and Hati Sköll ok Hati The two wolves that chase the sun and the moon across the sky; at Ragnarök they catch them, and the heavens go dark. Garmr The greatest of hounds, bound before the cave Gnipahellir; his howling marks the coming of Ragnarök, where Snorri says he and Týr kill each other. Ragnarök The foretold end of the gods' world: wolves swallow sun and moon, Loki and the monsters break loose, the gods fall in battle, Surtr burns the earth, and a new world rises.