Odin and Fenrir
How is Odin's death avenged?
In *The Deluding of Gylfi*, Odin advances toward the wolf Fenrir. He wears a golden helmet and a coat of armour, and carries his spear, Gungnir. The wolf's jaws gape from the earth to the sky.
Fenrir swallows Odin, killing him. At once, Odin's son Vidar steps forward and plants one foot on the wolf's lower jaw.
On that foot he wears a shoe that has been prepared over many years. It is made from scraps of leather that people have cut from the toes and heels of their shoes. Vidar grips the upper jaw with his hand and tears the wolf's mouth apart, killing him.
In *The Seeress's Prophecy*, Vidar takes his revenge another way. He thrusts his sword into the wolf. The blade reaches its heart, and so he avenges his father.
Sources for this story (3)Odin and Fenrir
This battle appears in *The Seeress's Prophecy* and chapter 51 of *The Deluding of Gylfi*. The former tells of Odin and Vidar before Thor; the latter places Thor's nine steps before Odin's death and Vidar's revenge. This page follows the former to fit the sequence of scenes.
hjör til hjarta,
þá er hefnt föður.
He thrusts his sword into the heart. So his father is avenged.
“The Seeress's Prophecy” Stanza 55
“The Seeress's Prophecy”Völuspá
“The Beguiling of Gylfi”Gylfaginning
“The Sayings of Vafthrudnir”Vafþrúðnismál
Image details
Dorothy Hardy “Fenris devorando Odin” 1909 CC BY-SA 3.0 View original image
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