Fenrir

Fenrir is a wolf and, along with Hel and the Midgard Serpent, is one of the three children of Loki and Angrboda. He was raised by the Aesir in Asgard and frightened them to death because of his fast-growing strength and his ferocious character. That’s why Wodan and the other gods played a trick on him, by pretending that they wanted to prove the resilience of various iron chains on him. Fenrir agreed and promptly broke the first two of them. The third chain, named Gleipnir, was forged by the Dwarves, and no one was able to craft metal as well as they could. Freyr’s servant Skirnir had picked the chain up in Svartalfheim and had brought it to Asgard to restrain Fenrir once and for all. But the wolf was a clever one; he sensed a trap and demanded one of the gods’ hands in his mouth while being chained up. Tyr was the fearless volunteer and did as Fenrir had asked. Once the awful brute realised that he had met his match in the strength of the magical chain, he mangled Tyr’s hand as the unfortunate god couldn’t pull back his arm fast enough. Chained and degraded, to prevent him from spreading his malice over the world, the beast was brought to the island Lyngvi, attached to the ground and had his jaws forced apart by a sword. But that will not last forever, for he will eventually free himself so that he does not miss the Ragnarök. He will rush to the battlefield of gods and giants to fulfil his act of vengeance on Wodan, and to engulf the sun and moon. Fenrir will succeed and Wodan will fall but Vidar, Wodan’s son, will avenge his father by slaying the god’s enemy at the end of the battle.