Gleipnir

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Icon tools.svg This article or section was due to content flaws on the quality assurance side of the Germanic project entered. This is done in order to bring the quality of the articles from this topic to an acceptable level. Please help to fix the shortcomings in this article and join the discussion !

Gleipnir ( old north: "the open one") is a magical thread in Norse mythology that was made by dwarves to chain the Fenris wolf - Loki's son - to a rock.

In order to have Fenris under their control, the gods raised the wolf with them and only Tyr had the courage to go to him and feed him. When the gods saw how much it grew every day, and all the predictions announced that it was destined for their perdition, the sir decided to make a very strong fetter, which they called Laedingr (Lading). But the first time the wolf stretched, the tie broke and he was free again.

The sir then made another even stronger fetter, which they called Drómi (Droma). Fenris shook and stretched and hit the tape on the floor so that the pieces flew far away. That's how he got rid of Drómi.

The sir feared that they would not be able to bind the wolf. Odin then sent the youth Skirnir to some dwarfs in Schwarzalfenheim and had the Gleipnir ribbon made. It was made of six kinds of things that do not exist in the human world: the sound of a cat's step, the beard of women, the roots of the mountains, the tendons of bears, the voice of fish and the saliva of birds. The ribbon was simple and soft like a silk cord. When it was brought to the sir , they thanked the messenger and then went to the island of Lyngwi in Lake Amswartnir , called the wolf, showed him the silk ribbon and asked him to tear it. But the Fenriswolf didn’t have the ribbon tied on until Tyr put his hand in his mouth as a pledge against a possible attempt at deception by the gods. And when Fenris stretched, the bond hardened and the harder he tried, the stronger it got. When the sir saw that the wolf could not break free, all but Tyr laughed because he lost his hand. The Fenriswolf can only free himself to Ragnarök when the prophecies are fulfilled, and he finally goes into battle against Odin to kill him (cf. Gylf 25 and 34).

literature