Abstract
From the slim dossier of mythological lore concerning the senior Norse god Týr, which includes Loki’s mockery in Lokasenna, a single myth emerges: his binding of the wolf Fenrir and concurrent loss of his sword and oath-taking hand in the wolf’s maw. A Norse model of the surrender of a body part in return for enhanced psycho-somatic ability in a divine meta-function, as seen in Óðinn’s pawning of an eye for knowledge, is extended to Týr, whose compensatory gain is skill in bold and clever power politics: knowledge of the social and legal systems, and their artful manipulation. The economy of loss and gain is measured against the events of the ultimate battle of Ragnarǫk, in which the loosed Fenrir kills Óðinn and Garmr, dog or wolf, and Týr kill one another.
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Notes
Lindow (2001, pp. 297–299), ventures no such summary definition. These identifications risk dependence on the evidence of the name Mars Thingsus (“of the judicial assembly”) inscribed on on a third-century altar from the Roman fort of Vercovium in Northumberland, which has been ascribed to Frisian mercenaries serving along Hadrian’s Wall.
Dumezil (1973), Magic, War and Justice: Odin and Tyr, pp. 26–48.
‘Odin is called All-Father, for he is the father of all gods. He is also called Val-father [father of the slain], since all those who fall in in battle are his adopted sons. He assigns them places in Val-hall and Vingolf, and they are then known as Einheriar. He is also called Hanga-god [god of the hanged] and Hapta-god [god of prisoners], Farma-god [god of cargoes], and he called himself by various other names on his visit to King Geirrod’ (Faulkes 1987, p. 21).
‘There is an As who is called Týr. He is bravest and smartest, and greatly determines victory in battles. He is good to invoke by bold men. It is said that a man is tý-valiant who surpasses other men and does not hang back. He was also clever so that a man who is very clever is said to be tý-wise. It is a mark of his bravery that when the Æsir were enticing Fenriswolf so as to put the fetter Gleipnir on him, he did not trust them that the Æsir would release him until they placed Týr's hand in his mouth as a pledge. And when the Æsir refused to release him then he bit off the hand at the place that is now called the wolf-joint [wrist] and he is one-handed and he is not called a reconciler of men’ (adapted from Faulkes 1987, pp. 24–25).
Reflected in Sigurðsson (2006, p. 142).
Stanza 41 in Egils saga may illustrate how the Týr/Fenrir nexus can be exploited poetically on general and specific levels. The poet writes “fell… ulfgrennir” (Nordal 1933, pp. 205–206) [the feeder of wolves fell]. All warriors who kill feed the beasts of the battlefield, which include the scavenging wolf. Thus the reference to Egill’s opponent, the fighter Ljótr, seems straightforward (týr = ‘warrior’) and this might seem a cliché, since Egill heightens the status of Ljótr through a poetic device only in order to make him a more worthy opponent. But Ljótr had been challenging farmers to duels in order to appropriate their land holdings, expropriate really, since none was a match for him, so in this near-illegal action Ljótr replicates the action not of Týr but of Fenrir. Egill chops Ljótr’s leg off, like Fenrir did Týr ‘s hand, and, symbolically, the generational link is severed, but soon Ljótr’s life also ends through blood loss. On balance, however, this seems more a stock kenning than a direct reference to myth. Although there is an allusion to the myth in the poem Málháttakvæði (Frank 2004), Týr has only a faint presence in the skaldic world and then only by virtue of the single surviving myth in which he unquestionably figures.
Týr is the name of the ‘victory rune’ and was carved on weapons. There is place name evidence for a cult of Týr, but one more sparsely attested than those of other major gods. To the placename evidence in Lindow (2001) and Simek (1993) may now be added Tissø ‘the lake of Týr, site of a prosperous farm settlement in tenth-century west Zealand (Sawyer 2007, pp. 136–137).
Bragg (2004) judges this thorough-going ascription of disabilities to be a late rationalization and sytematization.
Less readily incorporated in this opening survey is what might be called the god’s “bane”, the identity, symbolism, and relevance of his killer in the final battle of Ragnarǫk; see further below.
These latter instances documented only in Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning (Faulkes 2005).
“[N]’er no heed gavest thou that man meet man halfway” (Hollander 1962, p. 98); “no one could call you the perfect peacemaker” (Terry 1990, p. 78); “you can never deal straight with people” (Larrington 1996, p. 91); “you never had the talent for settling two factions fairly” (Dronke 1997, p. 341); “you never know how to mediate something good between two people” (Lindow 2001, p. 111); “… decide justly between two parties” (McKinnell 2005, p. 16); “bear something well with two hands = establish peace between two people” (La Farge and Tucker 1992, p. 204, s.v. tilr, further interpreting the reading in Jakobsen 1979).
Compare the death of Baldr, in which another supposedly innocuous gaming situation is deceptively exploited to fatal ends.
Hann á þann sal á himni, er Glitnir heitir. En allir, er til hans koma með sakarvandræði, þá fara allir sáttir á braut. Sá er dómstaðr beztr með goðum ok mǫnnum (Faulkes 1982, p. 32) [He has a hall in heaven called Glitnir, and whoever comes to him with difficult legal disputes, they all leave with their differences settled. It is the best place of judgment among gods and men] (Faulkes 1998, p. 26).
It has been proposed that Týr’s earliest status was as god of war on basis of the equation dies Martis = *Teiwes-dagas.
On the implications of kinship, rather than morality or functionality, in the fall of the gods and Óðinn in particular, see Kristensen (2007).
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Sayers, W. ‘ok er hann einhendr’: Tÿr’s Enhanced Functionality. Neophilologus 100, 245–255 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-015-9462-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-015-9462-4