Fenris the Wolf

Loki looked like a god, he had the gifts of a god and the mind of a god, but his heart was elsewhere: it was with the giants, for was he not a giant at least in part by blood? And did he not have a home in Jotunheim, the cold, desolate and blasted Land of the Giants? I wouldn’t have liked to live there, and I don’t know anyone who would. As for Loki, although he had in Asgard a lovely wife, Sigyn, who was faithful to him to the end of days, in Jotunheim he had another family altogether. There his wife was a beastly giantess, and his children? Oh, it is better not to think about them. But if you must, there was Hel, who turned people to stone – only the gods were safe from her; the Midgard-Serpent, who was a horrible reptile, worse even than Fafnir the dragon, and who doubled in size every single day; and last, but not least, the cruel Wolf, Fenris, who was always hungry, and whose jaws were immense and whose pointed teeth were as sharp as swords.

One day God Odin, Loki’s father, was looking around the world with his Eye – there was a lot to see – and although Odin was very wise, that was only after he had looked. As I said, Odin was looking around the world, and his Eye fell upon Loki’s home in Jotunheim, and he saw Loki’s terrible children. He saw how strong and powerful they were getting, and what dreadful trouble they would eventually cause, and he sent Thor and Tyr and some of the other gods to fetch them to Asgard.

I would never have brought them to my home, but perhaps Odin wanted to keep his Eye on them. It was only the wolf, Fenris, which he kept in Asgard – because he was the most dangerous one and should be kept close. He sent the others away.

Fenris was a strange and difficult pet – there is no doubt about that. He roamed freely about Asgard, frightening the goddesses. One evening, some of the gods were too frightened to come to the Council Chamber as it meant passing Fenris who was snapping his huge jaws in the doorway, Odin decided it was time to act.

He opened up another passage into the chamber. When the gods had all come in, he closed the door. “What a mistake we have made,” he bemoaned, “to feed and pamper this wolf, who is already our enemy, so he grows ever stronger? No, we must find a solution. We cannot kill him, for we can have no bloodshed here in my home.” “Chain him up, that’s what I’d do,” said Thor to his father. “Yes, but how? How will we find a chain strong enough to hold such a creature?” replied Odin. “Leave that to me,” said Thor, always a god of action. That night Thor worked away with his great hammer, and the other gods helped him. In the morning, all admired the thick chain with its complex links that gleamed in the sunshine.

Odin spread out the chain and put some meat high up on a tree. The gods called Fenris, spread out the chain, and asked him to show his wonderful strength by breaking it. “Then you can have the meat,” they promised. Fenris looked at the chain and sniffed the meat. The wolf knew how strong he was, and that breaking the chain would not be a problem for him, so he agreed to be bound. But after he was bound, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break the chain and was no more a threat for Odin and the other gods.