Fenrir

As mentioned in another post, Fenrir is one of the three children of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. Better known as the Fenris Wolf, Fenrir is a huge, terrible monster, in the shape of a wolf. A prophecy has been saying that this wolf and his family will be responsible for the destruction of the world. Therefore, the gods did catch the wolf and encaged him. The only God that dared feed the monster was Tyr, the norse god of battle.

When the gods were to catch Fenrir, they first tried to trick him. They dared him that if they chained him he would not be able to break free, and said that he was weak. Fenrir therefore let them put him in chains, but he easliy broke free, as were the chains a mere cobweb.
Then the gods only saw the possibility of a magic c
hain, so they asked the dwarfs to make one. The result was that the dwarfs forced a magic, soft and thin ribbon which they named Gleipnir. It was so incredibly strong, that one would be fooled by its appearance. The ribbon was forced by 6 elements: a cat's footstep, the roots of a mountain, a womans beard, the breath of fishes, the sinewas of a bear and a birds brittle.

The gods once again used the same trick on Fenrir. It was not easy to lure him into to it this time though - as he thought it would be much to easy and no challange. He finally agreed, but only on the condition that one of the gods would have to put his fist between the wolfs jaws. Tyr was the one making that offer.

The wolf could nowhere near break free from the chain, but as a revenge bit off the hand of Tyr.

Bottomline, the gods were very pleased with themselves and their catch. They carried Fenris to a huge rock a mile down into the earth called Giol, and chained him to it. They now put a sword between the jaws of Fenrir to prevent him from biting again, and they left him there.

It was then only at the outbreak of Ragnarok, the chaos and destructino that would end the world, that Fenrir broke free of the chains and joined the battle against the gods. Fenrir then seeked out Odin and devoured him. Vidar, son of Odin, then avenged his father and killed the wolf.

What could be the mythological and psychological significance of Fenrir? Wolves are seen very widely in myths and faerytales, and often represent a wild and destructive natural force, belonging to the wilderness, that which is outside human control. It is some dark force that lures in the dark, in the woods, and just waits to consume us whenever we wander into the unknown. In the Little Red Riding Hood we find the wolf inhabiting the forest between the girls and the grand mothers home, as well as we know story of the big bad wolf. Even more significantly we have the whole concept of the werewolf, the evil creature that will hunt the night at fullmoon. The wolf would be a symbol of the fierce natural powers that a human cannot control - of the dark forces in the unconscious that are having a great power over us, a power strong enough to actually devour us, and therefore we fear it greatly.