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Norse Wolf Torc (click for detail)
Norse Wolf Close-up (click for detail)
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This massive torc pays tribute to the giant wolf Fenrir of Norse mythology.
Read the story below!
The Norse wolf torc is constructed with an extra heavy braid of wire, and
is approximately 5/8 inch (16 mm) thick. Available in bronze or sterling
silver.
Fenrir was one of three monstrous children of the god Loki and the giantess
Angrboğa. It was prophesied that these three siblings would bring about great
misfortune among the gods, and so Odin commanded that they should be brought
before him.
And so Fenrir was brought before Odin, along with his brother Jörmungandr
and his sister Hel, and Odin decided to banished them to remote places. Odin
cast the serpent Jörmungandr into the deep sea, where he lies about all the
land; and this serpent grew so greatly that he lies in the midst of the ocean
encompassing all the land, and bites upon his own tail, and became known
as the Midgard Serpent. He then cast Hel down to the underworld and gave
her authority over all those in the nine worlds who do not die gloriously
in battle but of sickness or of old age.
Odin had the wolf raised among the gods, but only the god Tır was daring enough to feed the growing monster. The gods, urged by the wolf's increasing strength and by prophecies that he would be their destruction, attempted to bind the great beast. Twice he agreed to be chained and twice easily burst out of two successive fetters of iron.
Odin then had the dwarfs forge the chain Gleipnir ("deceiver" or "entangler"). It appeared to be only a silken ribbon but was made of six wondrous ingredients: the sound of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, bear's sinews, fish's breath, and bird's spittle. Then the gods challenged Fenrir to break this. But the wolf noted the thinness and fineness of construction of Gleipnir and suspected a trick. He agreed to make the test only if one of the gods was willing to place his hand in the wolf's mouth during the binding as a pledge to free him if he failed to break the chain. No god was willing to do this, until Tır stood forth and placed his hand in the wolf's mouth. Fenrir strained to burst the chain, but the more he struggled the tighter he was held. When the gods would not free him, Fenrir bit off Tır's hand at the wrist, and this point afterwards became known as "the wolf joint".
When the gods saw that the Wolf was fully bound, they took the chain and passed it through a great rock called Gjöll ("Scream"), and fixed the rock deep down into the earth. Fenrir gaped terribly, and thrashed about and strove to bite them and so they thrust into his mouth a sword. The guards caught in his lower jaw and the point in the upper, and he was gagged. Fenrir howled hideously, and slaver ran out of his mouth, forming a river called Ván ("Hope"). There he lies till the Twilight of the Gods.
It is prophesied that at Ragnarök Fenrir will at last break free and
join forces with the enemies of the gods and will then swallow Odin himself
whole.
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