Description: Týr depicted with only one
hand because his right hand was bitten off by the wolf
Fenrir.
Source: AM 738 4to
Folio or Page: 38r
Medium: ink drawing on paper with coloured ink wash
Date: 1680
Dimensions (mm): 75 x 80
Provenance:
Árni Magnússon received the manuscript from Magnús Jónsson in Leirá,
and he received it from Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir in Bæ. It was
previously owned by Sigurður Gíslason in Bæ.
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi received the manuscript on
September 30, 1991.
Rights:
Images from ÁM 738 4to are displayed
with permission from the Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í
íslenskum fræðum in Iceland. Link to
E-manuscript. This image was cropped from f. 38r.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Reykjavik: Stofnun
Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum. AM 738
4to. 1680. Hand
copied paper manuscript.
Secondary Sources
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Artist Not
Known
Artist not known for this illustration in the AM738 manuscript.
Gods and Goddesses
Týr (non.)
Tyr (en.)
The god who put his hand in the mouth of the wolf Fenrir as pledge
that the gods were not really trying to bind the wolf but were only
testing his strength. Fenrir bit off Týr's hand when they succeeded in
binding him.
Myths
Binding of Fenrir Myth
This myth relating the story of how the gods managed to trick the wolf
Fenrir into letting them bind him with a magic fetter. They fail with a
fetter called Leyding and another called called Dromi but succeed with
one called Gleipnir. Unfortunately, the god Týr had put his hand in
Fenrir´s mouth as a guarantee that the gods were not trying to trick
Fenrir into being bound. Fenrir bites off Týr´s hand when he realizes
that he has cannot break the fetter.
Source Materials:
AM 738 4to (is.)
Edda Oblongata (la.)
This manuscript is known by its shelf mark AM738. However, it is also known as the Edda Oblongata
because its height is unusually tall compared to its width. It was
created circa 1680 by an unknown scribe.
Prose Edda (is.)
Snorri Sturluson's thirteenth-century prose work concerning Old Norse
mythology and poetics.
