Tyr

Tyr
Other Names	Tyr, Tīw, Ziu,
First Appearance	Norse Myth
Created by	Norse Myth

Origin

Týr sacrifices his arm to Fenrir in an illustration by John Bauer, 1911.

Tyr is the god of war, heroic endeavor and justice in Norse mythology. In the Eddas, he is either the son of Odin or Hymir. He is the god of single (man-to-man) combat. Tyr only has one hand.

At one point in time, the gods decided that the wolf Fenrir could no longer go free. They wanted to lock him up onto a chain. But he broke every chain they tried to put on him. Finally, they had the Dwarves make a magical chain. But Fenrir sensed what the gods would do. So Fenrir asked that one of them put his hand into his mouth. Knowing that if Fenrir was left unfettered, he would have grown strong enough to kill all the gods and destroy the world. Tyr was the only one who had the courage. When Fenrir sensed he had been tricked, he bit off Tyr's hand. Tyr remained handless forever.

Fenrir will remain bound until Ragnarök. Then, Tyr's opponent will be Garm, the guard dog of Hel.

Public Domain Appearances

All published appearances of Tyr from before Januray 1, 1929 are public domain in the US.

Some notable appearances are listed below:

• Poetic Edda
• Prose Edda

Notes

• The modern English weekday name Tuesday comes from the Old English tīwesdæg, meaning 'day of Tīw'.

See Also

• Wikipedia
• ComicVine
• Myths in Media Wiki