Most of us have come to see Tyr as a god who stands for justice, law, doing the right thing. I am not about to say otherwise. First, how we experience the deities is highly personal and will manifest in as many ways as there are people experiencing them. Second, he is all those things and therefore would not try to sway you in any other direction. That said, after my first post in our weekly honoring of Tyr, I have come to see a different aspect. Saga Erickson shared her UPG of Tyr and it just made too much sense to not explore this. She sees Tyr as the one who protects the greater good. Without his sword hand he is left incapable of meeting out justice.
The story of the binding of Fenrir is one of the more popular and well-known stories in our lore. After Odin speaks to the seeress and receives the prophecy that foretells Ragnarök, and one of the pivotable points is Fenrir killing Odin. Of course, Ole One Eye wasn’t about to let that happen and wanted Loki’s ‘goodboi’ to be restrained. Tyr had essentially foster-fathered Fenrir. After several tries the Aesir finally came upon a rope/chain strong enough to hold the wolf. By this point Fenrir was a bit suspicious. I mean, wouldn’t you be? So, our boy Tyr offered to place his sword hand in the wolf’s maw to be bitten off if the deities did not release him.
Tyr knew that if the ropes held Fenrir would not be released. He also believed restraining the growing wolf was for the greater good of all Asgard and its inhabitants. He chose to sacrifice his sword hand to protect the greater good of all the realms. Bear in mind this is a god aspect that was once seen as a major war god. A god who was known for his prowess with a sword. Consider that justice requires the presence of force to be enforced. Therefore, without his sword hand, he can no longer enforce justice fully. Tyr did what he knew must be done and willingly sacrificed part of his identity for the greater good.
Tyr’s sacrifice also shows the aspect of fairness. Although the entire activity was perpetuated in a deceitful manner by offering his hand as payment for the betrayal, he shows a sense of fairness. I believe that is stretching things a little, it comes across as being more about guilt in my opinion. There is also some allegorical reference to acting in fear. Did the Aesir act out of a sense of fear and create the exact set of conditions that would lead to the fulfillment of the seeress’s prophecy?
Did the binding of Fenrir create the circumstances that turns him against the Aesir? Would he have still held the anger towards Odin and the other Aesir if they had not tricked him? Perhaps there is some nature vs nurture at play here as well. That is a discussion for another time and place. The point of this discussion isn’t whether Tyr really did the right thing or not. We can examine that later as well. What matters for this discussion is that Tyr acted on what he felt was the right thing to do and he did the thing that he felt had to be done.
We can look to this story in our own lives. Sometimes we will be faced with an impossible choice. We will try to consider the ramifications of those choices. There may be information that leads to a specific path in that choice. We cannot know for sure what will happen until it has happened. We must make the best choice based on the information we have, by examining what we know to be right, and do what must be done. Hopefully, we follow Tyr and choose the greater good.
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