Coming to Terms with Tyr
by Diana Paxson, from Mountain Thunder, Issue 10, Autumn 1993.
In the assembly of the Aesir Tyr sits alone, upright and silent. To some he seems remote or judgmental, and to some, a victim. He is a god of Law and Justice, not always popular among those of us who rebel against the dominant culture. His path is often lonely. And yet, uncompromising though he may be, he is perhaps the most trustworthy of the Aesir, a "straight arrow" who (with one notable exception) always keeps his word. Like Odhinn, Tyr is a god of self-sacrifice. Where Odhinn's offering is given to save the world by gaining wisdom, that of Tyr is made in order to bind the chaotic forces that would destroy it. His spirit guides those who practice martial arts as a spiritual discipline. He is invoked by those who seek justice, and help in binding the wolves of war.
Among the major symbols associated with Tyr are the sacred post, weapons, and the Hand. According to Widukind's tenth-century chronicle, the Irminsul was a sacred pole set up by the Saxons to celebrate their victory over the Thuringians in honor of Mars, called by the Saxons, Hermin. Thirty years later, Charlemagne destroyed it. A ninth-century chronicle described Irminsul as "the column of the universe, upholding all things." (Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, p. 1-6)
The god whom the Latin writers identify with the Roman Mars is Tyr (the ancient Tiwaz or Tiw), and his connection with the Irminsul supports the theory that he was the original sky-god and lord of the world-tree (note that the Tyr rune is also part of the astrological symbol for Mars).The rune resembles a spear even more than it does a Tree, and was in fact sometimes inscribed on spearheads. However, by the Viking period, it had become firmly associated with Odhinn, whose spear Gungnir sanctified the slain. Possibly the scepter-spear is yet another symbol taken over by the Odhinn cult from that of Tyr. Ellis-Davidson states that there are no one-handed spearmen among the Bronze Age rock carvings of Scandinavia, however there are numerous representations of spears (also axes and swords), and several god-like figures holding them.
The identification between spear and sovereignty was also known in the ancient Mediterranean. According to Pausanias, Hephaistos made a scepter for Zeus which was called doru, "spear." In Rome, the Imperator began a military campaign by touching a sacred spear and crying, "Mars, awake!" A more manageable form of the spear is the wand. According to Nigel Pennick, the "kings" on some decks of old French playing cards carry a scepter or rod on the end of which is a hand.
The sovereign sky-god, the world tree, and the hand form a complex of symbols that go back to an extremely early time. Ellis-Davidson's discussion of the hand symbol in The Chariot of the Sun adds some interesting evidence. Single handprints are often found in connection with Bronze-Age Scandinavian rock carvings of the sun disc. The one-handed Irish god, Nuadu, was the sovereign of the Tuatha de Danaan (although he was ritually deposed when his hand was cut off in battle and only after he was given a new hand of silver could he reign once more). The hand, whether represented by a palm-print, an armed fist (the Red Hand of Ulster), or a hand at the end of a scepter, seems to have been a symbol of regal authority. In addition to the Ulstermen, a number of Scottish clans have legends in which a chieftain cuts off his hand and throws it onto a piece of land to claim sovereignty. The hand is also, of course; a symbol of law, and shaking on bargain still constitutes a legal agreement.
Nigel Pennick's chapter on "The Royal Centre, Fairs, and Sacred Boards" in Games of the Gods, provides some evidence which may illuminate these relationships. Medieval Fairs were laid out on a grid based on the same principles that governed both Germanic and Celtic concepts of spatial organization, with four (sometimes subdivided) sectors surrounding a sacred center, which was the place of the King. This center was marked by a pole (representing the sacred tree often planted at the center of a town, and surviving in the Maypole which still stands in the central square of many German villages) at whose top was placed a glove.
When this pole was raised, the fair was open, and the Law of the Fair took effect within its borders. The cry, "The Glove is up!" opens the Renaissance Pleasure Faire to this day. In her discussion of the significance of attaching Grendel's hand to the eaves of Heorot, Ellis-Davidson remarks that it may recall "... an earlier tradition of a great hand which once symbolized the power of a deity." (p. 159). It seems to me very likely that this was precisely the case, and that the glove on its pole at the center of the medieval fairs was in effect the Hand of Tyr at the top of the Worldtree. For more background on these concepts, see Hastrup's Culture and History in Medieval Iceland, Celtic Heritage, by Alwin and Brinley Rees, and Pennick's Games of the Gods.
Tyr's association with the realm of sovereignty leads one to a re-evaluation of the relationship between War and Justice. Georges Dumézil (in Gods of the Ancient Northmen) proposes a tripartite model of Indo-European mythology in which Tyr's functions parallel those of the Roman Dius Fides or the Indo-Iranian Mitra, rather than Ares/Mars, as a god whose primary concerns involve cosmic and worldly order and social contracts. He is closest in function to Vishnu in Hindu theology.
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem's intimations that the Tyr-star keeps faith with princes may support this identity. However in the surviving mythology we have no stories in which Tyr acts as a warrior. Rather than being seen as a battle god, he should be seen as a god of Law, especially as determined by judicial combat. The holmgang, or formal duel, was distinguished from other kinds of fighting in that it was subject to strict rules and took place in a formally delineated enclosure.
In the later period, the functions of the ancient Indo-European sky-god seem to have been divided, Thor inheriting his thunder and responsibility for fatherly protection, Odhinn his spear of sovereignty, and Tyr, his concern with maintaining the Law of earth and heaven. This Law was primarily expressed in the institution of the Althing.
The Thing was the setting for both verbal and physical trials. However, Germanic legal procedures were not necessarily intended to achieve abstract justice, but rather to stop a fight: what Dumézil calls "a pessimistic view of the law." Hence even murder could be paid for with wergild, or feuds settled on the field of honor. Tyr's loss of his hand in a fraudulent guarantee may result from this attitude, since it was an eminently practical (as well as painful and basically dishonorable) solution to the problem of controlling the wolf's appetite.
The fact that Tyr's role in the binding of Fenris could not be transferred to another god underlines its importance. Gundarsson believes that Tyr was the chief actor in the binding of Fenris because the Wolf is the embodiment of the forces of chaos, and therefore the God of Law's chief enemy. However the relationship between wolf and war god may be even more complex. In Gylfaginning Snorre tells us, "The gods brought up the wolf at home, and only Tyr had the courage to go up to it and bring it food." Thus, the wolf takes his hand into his mouth in pledge that the fetter will not bind him, not only because Tyr is presumably the most honorable of the Aesir, but because it is Tyr who has cared for him. In helping to bind Fenris, Tyr not only breaks an oath, but betrays a trust. He and the wolf are linked by more than his hand. In effect, Fenris is Tyr's fosterling. He and the god therefore become the polarized aspects of a single archetype. This kind of paradox is found in the war-gods of other pantheons: Mars was invoked both in battle and for the fertility of the fields, the orisha Ogun is the most violent of the Yoruba pantheon, and yet he spends his life working for the people in expiation.
It is possible that the story of Tyr and the Wolf reflects a evolution from Tiwaz' original function as supreme sky-god and guarantor of true justice, and that Odhinn's expansion from responsibility for magic and shamanic functions (a much more flexible and uncontrolled mode of action) into sovereignty screwed up the system. However, Tyr's sacrifice can also be seen as a higher law in conflict with a lower one, or two kinds of power achieving equilibrium. As Odhinn sacrificed self to self and gave his eye to gain true vision, so the uncontrolled violence of war (the wolf) is bound by cosmic justice (the god). Functionally, the mutilations of Tyr and Odhinn are parallel
There has been a polarization of violence and non-violence in our society. It takes major brainwashing to turn people into soldiers, yet unpremeditated and domestic violence is even more likely to occur when people are not accustomed to dealing with violent energy. Banning guns and other weapons may cut down on accidents, but does not prevent people from attacking each other with frying pans and kitchen knives. It is hypocritical to pretend that we are non-violent because we do not personally kill things. Even people who find it hard to step on a spider have no qualms about eating a hamburger. Unless we have the physiology to survive on a vegetarian diet, we live by the deaths of other beings. Even vegetarian must kill plants, which are also living beings, to survive.
Of course the ability to fight is not limited to men. Jung refers to a woman who acts aggressively as haunted by her animus, but in fact the ability of the female to defend her young is as much a survival trait as the ability of her mate to defend his family. Certainly in the sagas, the females are as deadly as the males, all the more so when they do not have the outlet of physical violence. The Valkyrie is the embodiment of battle fury.
The capacity for violence is a survival trait bred into humankind, a powerful natural drive. The modern, technological, world gives us few positive outlets for this energy, and yet the pressures of our lives are constantly causing our bodies to send us hormonal messages to fight or flee. Suppressing those impulses exacts its own toll, yet if we give way to them, we lose the ability to function within society. In ancient Germanic society, one response to this problem was the role of berserkr, a warrior who gave way to his fighting fury within the context of battle. Berserkrs who were overcome by it at other times were a distinct liability around the homestead, and often became outlaws.
The Viking world offered regular opportunities to exercise (or exorcise) violent impulses in warfare. In the modern world, we must find other ways to deal with them, not by denial or suppression, but by transforming and disciplining their energy. In our fight to do this, we have as patron and role-model the god Tyr, the god of war who is himself the means by which violence is bound.
The connection between the wolf and the god of war is extremely ancient. Even in a just war, the real winners are the wolves and the ravens. On the other hand, the wolf can have a positive connotation. In Latin myth, it is a she-wolf who nurtures Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of Mars. European mythology recognizes the relationship between wolves and men in the use of the word "wolf" or "wolf's head" for an outlaw, and the legend of the werewolf, a skin-changer who turns into a wolf when the moon is full. Wolves, along with bears, were the shapes most often used by berserkr warriors. Interestingly enough, in Navajo folklore, "wolf" is a name for a worker of evil magic.
In reality, wolves are no more greedy or ferocious than any other wild animal, but their intelligence, endurance, and pack organization make them formidable predators. It is quite possible that early humans learned some techniques for group hunting by observing wolves. North American wolves rarely, if ever, attack humans, but the evidence that European wolves attack anything available (including humans) in starving times is more convincing. Perhaps it is the very similarities of wolves and humans that contributed to the terror they inspire in European legend. We fear the wolf we hear outside because we are too aware of the power of the wolf within.
The story of Tyr is inextricably bound up with that of the Wolf Fenris, which represents unbridled violence and greed. The best summary of the myth of Tyr and Fenris can be found in Snorre Sturlasson's Prose Edda. Perhaps the best recent fictional treatment of the concepts surrounding Tyr is a story called "The Hand of Tyr," by Paul Edwin Zimmer. Dick Francis' novel, Whip Hand, whose protagonist has only one hand, illuminates the relationship between fear and courage. For an illuminating discussion of the natural history and human folklore of wolves, read Of Wolves and Men, by Barry Lopez.
One of Tyr's functions is to bind the wolf whether he appears as unbridled destructive fury in nature, the force which impels nations to make war, corporations to rape the environment, or individuals to battle themselves. To serve Tyr, one must learn to deal with both the energy of the warrior and the forces which that energy is meant to control.
Sources
Dumézil, Georges, Gods of the Ancient Northmen, trans. Einar Haugen, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1977.
Ellis-Davidson, H.R., Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, Pelican, London, 1964.
Francis, Dick, Whip Hand, Pocket Books, NY, 1979.
Gelling, Peter & H.R. Ellis-Davidson, The Chariot of The Sun, J.M. Dent, London, 1969.
Hastrup, Kirsten, Culture and History in Medieval Iceland, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985.
Lopez, Barry, Of Wolves and Men, Scribners, 1978.
Pennick, Nigel, Games of the Gods, Samuel Weiser, York Beach, ME, 1989.
Rees, Alwin and Brinley, Celtic Heritage, Thames & Hudson, London 1961.
Sturlasson, Snorre, The Prose Edda, trans. Jean I. Young, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1954.
Zimmer, Paul Edwin, "The Hand of Tyr," Greyhaven, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley, DAW Books, NY, 1983.
This article copyright 1993 by Diana Paxson.
Web version copyright 1997 by Diana Paxson and Mountain Thunder.
This page maintained by bratwurst@vinland.org
Last modified on 31 Mar 1997.