Fenrir and Tyr

Why did Tyr lose his right hand?

While Fenrir was growing up among the gods, only Tyr fed him. The gods tried to bind the wolf, but he snapped both Laeding and the even stronger Dromi.

The dwarfs made Gleipnir. In Gylfaginning, its ingredients are the sound of a cat’s footsteps, a woman’s beard, the roots of a mountain, a bear’s sinews, a fish’s breath, and a bird’s spit. The Edda Fragments list bird’s milk instead of bird’s spit.

The cord was as smooth and soft as silk. Fenrir suspected that such a thin cord might hide a trick. He demanded that someone put a hand in his mouth as a pledge that the gods were not deceiving him.

While the other gods hesitated, Tyr placed his right hand in the wolf’s mouth. The more Fenrir struggled, the tighter the cord became. The wolf could not escape, and he bit off Tyr’s right hand.

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