Tyr
One-handed god of the Aesir, whose right hand the wolf Fenrir "rent from" him; in Hymiskvitha he guides Thor to the giant Hymir, whom he calls his father, to fetch the great kettle; the Sigrdrifumol names him as the god to call on for victory-runes.
Why this wins its question: Most pages open with the binding of Fenrir as told by Snorri. This object shows that the poems know only the result, and adds the Hymir genealogy and the rune stanza that summaries omit.
Key takeaways
- The Poetic Edda states the lost hand as a fact of Tyr's body (Lokasenna 38–39) and never tells the story of the binding.
- Hymiskvitha makes the giant Hymir his father — a genealogy that sits oddly with his place among the Aesir and that the poem does not explain.
- Victory-runes call on Tyr (Sigrdrifumol 6); that, and nothing else in the poems, is his cult.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Tyr lost his hand to the wolf: Loki says "Fain would I tell how Fenrir once / Thy right hand rent from thee", and Tyr answers "My hand do I lack, but Hrothvitnir thou" — the wolf that waits in fetters for the fall of the gods (Lokasenna 38–39). The poems do not narrate the binding in which the hand was lost.
Loki's second taunt is that Tyr's wife bore Loki a son and Tyr was paid nothing for the wrong (Lokasenna 40); Tyr's reply is that the wolf will stay bound "Till the gods to destruction go" and Loki too will be fettered (Lokasenna 41).
In Hymiskvitha Tyr tells Thor where a kettle "a mile in depth" may be found — "A kettle my father fierce doth own" — with the giant Hymir at the end of heaven, and goes with him to fetch it (Hymiskvitha 4–6); at the end Tyr "twice to move it tried" and fails, and Thor carries it (Hymiskvitha 34–35).
Tyr's name is the one carved for victory: "Winning-runes learn, if thou longest to win, / And the runes on thy sword-hilt write ... / And twice shalt thou call on Tyr" (Sigrdrifumol 6).
Loki's opening reproach is that Tyr can never make friendship "between two men" (Lokasenna 38) — the poems' only hint of Tyr as a god of settlements, and a reproach rather than a title.
Questions answered
- How did Tyr lose his hand?
- Tyr lost his hand to the wolf: Loki says "Fain would I tell how Fenrir once / Thy right hand rent from thee", and Tyr answers "My hand do I lack, but Hrothvitnir thou" — the wolf that waits in fetters for the fall of the gods (Lokasenna 38–39). The poems do not narrate the binding in which the hand was lost. source
- What does Tyr do in Hymiskvitha?
- In Hymiskvitha Tyr tells Thor where a kettle "a mile in depth" may be found — "A kettle my father fierce doth own" — with the giant Hymir at the end of heaven, and goes with him to fetch it (Hymiskvitha 4–6); at the end Tyr "twice to move it tried" and fails, and Thor carries it (Hymiskvitha 34–35). source
- Is Tyr a god of war?
- Tyr's name is the one carved for victory: "Winning-runes learn, if thou longest to win, / And the runes on thy sword-hilt write ... / And twice shalt thou call on Tyr" (Sigrdrifumol 6). source
- Who is Tyr's father?
- In Hymiskvitha Tyr tells Thor where a kettle "a mile in depth" may be found — "A kettle my father fierce doth own" — with the giant Hymir at the end of heaven, and goes with him to fetch it (Hymiskvitha 4–6); at the end Tyr "twice to move it tried" and fails, and Thor carries it (Hymiskvitha 34–35). source