LEGEND: FENRIR, THE GIANT WOLF

Fenrir, son of the god Loki and the giantess Angrboda, was a wolf cub when the gods brought him to Asgard. Only the god Tyr dared feed him, but the wolf grew each day and prophecies foretold he would be Odin's doom. The gods decided to chain him before it was too late.

Two iron chains, Loeding and Dromi, snapped like thread. Then the gods commissioned the dwarves to make the ribbon Gleipnir, forged from six impossible ingredients: the sound of a cat's footfall, a woman's beard, a mountain's roots, a bear's sinews, a fish's breath and a bird's spit. It was soft as silk and stronger than any chain. So Fenrir would agree to try it, Tyr placed his right hand in the wolf's jaws as a pledge of good faith.

When Gleipnir tightened and Fenrir understood the deceit, he closed his jaws and Tyr lost his hand: ever since, the god is one-handed. The gods bound the wolf to a rock and thrust a sword into his muzzle to hold it open; his saliva formed the river Von. There he waits chained until Ragnarok, when he will break free and devour Odin.