Seiðr Loom

creature

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.

Garmr is a hound, the greatest of all: Grímnismál ends its list of the best of each kind with "Garm of hounds" Grímnismál 44, and Snorri repeats it Gylfaginning 41. His role is at the end of the world. Völuspá's refrain, sung three times as the prophecy builds, begins with him:

Now Garm howls loud before Gnipahellir,The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free;Much do I know, and more can seeOf the fate of the gods, the mighty in fight.Völuspá 44

Gnipahellir probably means "cliff-cave"; Snorri calls it Gnipa's Cave and says Garmr is bound before it. At Ragnarök he is loosed, "the greatest monster," and fights Týr until each kills the other Gylfaginning 51. The poems do not mention that fight. Völuspá does not say where Gnipahellir is, but a dog bound at a cave mouth is often read as a guard at the entrance to Hel; the hound with a bloody breast that howls at Odin as he rides toward Hel in Baldrs draumar Baldrs draumar 2-3 may be the same beast, though the poem gives it no name.

Because Völuspá's refrain pairs Garmr's howl with "the wolf" running free, and Snorri's Týr, who lost his hand to Fenrir, ends up fighting Garmr instead, some scholars think the hound and the wolf were once one creature. The surviving sources keep them apart.

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.

Now Garm howls loud before Gnipahellir, The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free
Völuspá 44 Völuspá's refrain of the end, sung three times.
Hobrok of hawks, and Garm of hounds.
Grímnismál 44 Grímnismál ranks Garmr first among dogs.
Then shall the dog Garmr be loosed, which is bound before Gnipa's Cave: he is the greatest monster; he shall do battle with Týr, and each become the other's slayer.
Gylfaginning 51 Only Snorri gives Garmr an opponent at Ragnarök.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Many scholars think Garmr and Fenrir may originally be the same beast, since the Völuspá refrain sets Garmr's howling beside 'the wolf' breaking free and Snorri's Týr fights Garmr rather than Fenrir; the sources treat them as two.
  • The bloody hound that meets Odin on the way to Hel in Baldrs draumar (Baldrs draumar 2-3) is often taken to be Garmr, but it is not named.

Myths with Garmr

Baldr's dreams and death Baldr dreams of his own death; Odin rides to Hel to question a dead seeress; and, in Snorri's telling, Loki puts a sprig of mistletoe into blind Höðr's hand. The gods lose their brightest member and the slide toward Ragnarök begins. 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. 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.

Related

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. 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. Hel (the realm) Hel The underworld of the dead, ruled by Loki's daughter Hel: reached by the Hel-way and the Gjöll bridge, set down and to the north, under one root of Yggdrasil. 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. 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.