Fenrir

Overview

Snorri’s account makes Fenrir a child of Loki and Angrboda whom the gods bring into their own sphere. As he grows, they attempt to bind him and discover that ordinary restraints cannot hold him. A remarkably slight-looking bond, Gleipnir, succeeds where stronger-looking fetters fail, but the wolf demands a pledge before accepting the test.

Týr places his hand in Fenrir’s mouth and loses it when the gods refuse to free the wolf. The episode gives the restraint a cost in trust and injury. At Ragnarök Fenrir breaks loose and kills Odin before Víðarr avenges his father. This is a named wolf in a specific family and prophecy, distinct from other Eddic wolves that pursue the sun or moon.

Gylfaginning XXXIV gives the successive tests their names and stakes. Týr alone dares feed the growing wolf. Fenrir breaks Lædingr on his first effort, then violently shatters the stronger Drómi. Skírnir obtains Gleipnir from dwarves: a soft, smooth ribbon made from six impossible or absent things, including a cat’s footfall, a woman’s beard and a rock’s roots. On Lyngvi, an island in Ámsvartnir, Fenrir suspects magic and objects that breaking such a slender band would bring little glory. His demand for a hand in his mouth is a safeguard against deceit, rather than an unprovoked attack on Týr.

Once the restraint holds, the gods anchor its chain through a rock and a deeper fastening stone. Fenrir’s snapping jaws are propped apart with a sword, and his flowing saliva becomes the river Ván. The dialogue explicitly explains why the gods did not simply kill him: they would not stain their sanctuary with his blood. These details make the imprisonment a located episode involving promises, sacred space and engineered restraint, rather than merely a statement that the wolf is chained.

In section LI the released wolf advances with his lower jaw against the earth and upper jaw against heaven; fire blazes from his eyes and nostrils. Odin confronts him while Thor is occupied by the serpent. After Fenrir swallows Odin, Víðarr braces one foot against the lower jaw and pulls the upper jaw apart, killing him. This is the prose narrator’s particular account of the avenging action; its leather shoe and torn jaws should not replace differently described poetic witnesses without a separate citation.

Origins & earliest records

This entry follows Gylfaginning, sections XXXIV; LI, in Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, composed around 1220 and translated here by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur in 1916. The medieval work incorporates older poetic traditions, but its compilation date does not establish the beginning of a being’s oral history or every earlier attestation.

Records & interpretation

Located Gylfaginning episodes in Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur’s 1916 translation preserve the named being’s actions and the prose narrator’s qualifications. Chapter numbering and printed page references belong to this edition, rather than to every manuscript or modern translation.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Prose Edda: Gylfaginning XXXIV, pp. 42–45; LI, pp. 78–80

   Snorri Sturluson; translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur · c. 1220; translation 1916

   Brodeur’s located 1916 prose translation; episode outcomes and explicitly competing fishing accounts retained where applicable.

2. 02

   The Younger Edda

   Snorri Sturluson · 1901

   Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1901; translation copyright 1879, with translator’s preface dated September 1879.

Family, evolution & connections

Textual genealogy: Loki and Angrboda in Gylfaginning

Three children explicitly named in Gylfaginning chapter XXXIV.

Read the named parental pair and its enumerated children in Brodeur's translation. A joint-parent node represents two parents, not a single ancestor. A relationship in this medieval narrative, not a biological phylogeny or a synthesis of every Norse source. Hel is a named figure here, distinct from uses of Hel as a place. Other children of Loki are outside this selected branch.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textThe Prose Edda: Gylfaginning XXXIV; LI (Brodeur translation)Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

Fenrir

Image associated with the exact linked encyclopedia article; consult credited file description for its interpretation.