Laid his right hand in a wolf's jaws as a pledge, and lost it at the wrist
The only god brave enough to guarantee the gods' good faith while Fenrir was bound with Gleipnir.
Myth · Norse
Týr
Norse mythology — god of war, law and oaths
Týr is the one-handed god of war, law and the sworn oath — the bravest of the Æsir, and the only one willing to put his hand in a monster's jaws as a pledge while the gods bound it with a fetter they had no intention of loosing. His name is the oldest in the Norse pantheon, a direct cousin of Zeus and Jupiter, and it survives in English every Tuesday.
How to spot them
- ▸One-handed: he lost the right hand at the wrist, the 'wolf-joint'
- ▸God of the thing, the assembly, and of oaths sworn on weapons
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Tuesday', 'interpreted as Mars', 'the bravest of the Æsir', 'the rune ᛏ'
- ▸His name descends from the same root as Zeus and Jupiter, the Indo-European sky-father
Stories & episodes
Went with Thor to his giant father's hall to fetch a cauldron a mile deep
Hymiskviða: the brewing kettle the gods needed for Ægir's ale-feast.
Kills and is killed by the hound of the underworld at the end of the world
He and Garmr, loose from the cave Gnipahellir, destroy each other at Ragnarök.
Loki taunts him at Ægir's feast as a god who can never settle a quarrel
In Lokasenna, because he cannot hold the balance even-handed with one hand gone.
A rune is named after him, and Sigrdrífumál tells warriors to carve it twice for victory
The ᛏ rune, cut on the sword-hilt and named aloud.
Quick-fire facts
- •Tuesday is his day — Old English Tīwesdæg, from Tīw, translating Latin dies Martis, so the Romans matched him to Mars
- •A Roman-era altar at Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall is dedicated to Mars Thingsus, 'Mars of the assembly', usually read as Týr
- •His father is the giant Hymir in Hymiskviða, but Snorri makes him a son of Odin
- •His name is cognate with Greek Zeus and Latin Iuppiter, from Proto-Indo-European *Dyēus
- •The plural form tívar is simply a poetic word for 'the gods', and Odin takes by-names such as Hangatýr
- •The fetter that cost him his hand, Gleipnir, held where the iron chains Leyding and Drómi had failed
- •Denmark's Tisvilde and Norway's Tysnes preserve his name in place names
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Sacred Texts Archive — The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation) Hymiskviða, Lokasenna and Sigrdrífumál
- Snorri Sturluson — The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) Gylfaginning for the binding of Fenrir
- World History Encyclopedia — Tyr