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italic=no (; Old Norse: Týr, ) is a god in Germanic mythology and member of the Æsir. In Norse mythology, which provides most of the surviving narratives about gods among the Germanic peoples, italic=no sacrifices his right hand to the monstrous wolf Fenrir, who bites it off when he realizes the gods have bound him. italic=no is foretold of being consumed by the similarly monstrous dog Garmr during the events of Ragnarök.
The interpretatio romana generally renders the god as Mars, the ancient Roman war god, and it is through that lens that most Latin references to the god occur. For example, the god may be referenced as Mars Thingsus (Latin 'Mars of the Assembly
In Old Norse sources, italic=no is alternately described as the son of the jötunn Hymir (in Hymiskviða) or of the god Odin (in Skáldskaparmál). Lokasenna makes reference to an unnamed and otherwise unknown consort, perhaps also reflected in the continental Germanic record (see Zisa).
Due to the etymology of the god's name and the shadowy presence of the god in the extant Germanic corpus, some scholars propose that italic=no may have once held a more central place among the deities of early Germanic mythology.
Various place names in Scandinavia refer to the god, and a variety of objects found in England and Scandinavia seem to depict italic=no or invoke him.
The Proto-Germanic masculine noun *tīwaz ( *tīwōz) means 'a god, a deity', and probably also served as a title or epithet that came to be associated with a specific deity whose original name is now lost. It stems from Proto-Indo-European *deywós, meaning 'celestial, heavenly one', hence a 'god' (cf. Sanskrit: 'heavenly, divine', Old Lithuanian: Dievas]], 'a god, deity'), itself a derivation from *dyēus, meaning 'diurnal sky', hence 'daylight-sky god' (cf. , , ). The Germanic noun *tīwaz is further attested in the Finnic languages loanword teivas, found as a suffix in the deities and Rukotiivo. The Romano-Germanic deity Alateivia may also be related, although its origin remains unclear.
Due to linguistic evidence and early native comparisons between *Tīwaz and the Roman god Mars, especially under the name Mars Thingsus, a number of scholars have interpreted *Tīwaz as a Proto-Germanic sky-, war- and thing-god. Other scholars reject however his identification as a 'sky-god', since *tīwaz was likely not his original name but rather an epithet that came to be associated with him and eventually replaced it.
Germanic weekday names for Tuesday that do not transparently extend from the above lineage may also ultimately refer to the deity, including Middle Dutch Dinxendach and Dingsdag, Middle Low German Dingesdach, and Old High German Dingesdag (modern Dienstag). These forms may refer to the god's association with the thing (*þingsaz), a traditional legal assembly common among the ancient Germanic peoples with which the god is associated. This may be either explained by the existence of an epithet, Thingsus (*Þingsaz 'thing-god'), frequently attached to Mars (*Tīwaz), or simply by the god's strong association with the assembly.
The forest Tiveden, between Närke and Västergötland, in Sweden, may mean 'Tyr's forest', but its etymology is uncertain, and debated. Ti- may refer to týr meaning 'god' generally, and so the name may derive from Proto-Indo-European deiwo]]-widus, meaning 'the forest of the gods'. According to Rudolf Simek, the existence of a cult of the deity is also evidenced by place names such as Tislund ('italic=no's grove'), which is frequent in Denmark, or Tysnes ('italic=no's peninsula') and Tysnesø ('Tysnes island') in Norway, where the cult appears to have been imported from Denmark.
A votive altar has been discovered during excavations at Housesteads Roman Fort at Hadrian's Wall in England that had been erected at the behest of Frisian legionaries. The altar dates from the 3rd century CE and bears the Latin inscription Alaisiagae]] Bede Et Fimmilene. In this instance, the epithet Thingsus is a Latin rendering of Proto-Germanic theonym *Þingsaz. This deity is generally interpreted by scholars to refer to italic=no. The goddesses referred to as Beda and Fimmilene are otherwise unknown, but their names may refer to Old Frisian legal terms.See discussion in and .
In the sixth century, the Roman historian Jordanes writes in his Getica]] that the Goths, an east Germanic people, saw the same "Mars" as an ancestral figure:
Upon his return from hunting, Hymir's wife (unnamed) tells Hymir that his son has come to visit, that italic=no has brought with him Thor, and that the two are behind a pillar. With just one glance, Hymir immediately smashes the pillar and eight nearby kettles. The kettle containing italic=no and Thor, particularly strong in its construction, does not break, and out of it the two gods stride.
Hymir sees Thor and his heart jumps. The jötunn orders three headless oxen boiled for his guests, and Thor eats two of the beasts. Hymir tells the two that the following night, "we'll have to hunt for us three to eat". Thor asks for bait so that he might row out into the bay. Hymir says that the god can take one of his oxen for bait; Thor immediately chooses a black ox, and the poem continues without further mention of italic=no.
In Sigrdrífumál, the valkyrie Sigrdrífa imparts in the hero Sigurd knowledge of various runic alphabet. One charm invokes the god Týr:
In Lokasenna, the gods hold a feast. Loki bursts in and engages in flyting, a contest of insults, with the gods. The prose introduction to the poem mentions that "Tyr was in attendance, even though he had only one hand because the wolf Fenrir had recently ripped off the other while the wolf was being bound." Loki exchanges insults with each of the gods. After Loki insults the god Freyr, italic=no comes to Freyr's defense. Loki says that "you can't be the right hand of justice among the people" because his right hand was torn off by Fenrir, elsewhere described as Loki's child. italic=no says that although he misses his hand, Loki misses Fenrir, who is now bound and will remain so until the events of Ragnarök.
This tale receives further treatment in section 34 of Gylfaginning ("The Æsir brought up the wolf at home, and it was only Tyr who had the courage to approach the wolf and give it food."). Later still in Gylfaginning, High discusses italic=no's foreseen death during the events of Ragnarök:
Skáldskaparmál opens with a narrative wherein twelve gods sit upon thrones at a banquet, including italic=no. Later in Skáldskaparmál, the skald god Bragi tells Ægir (described earlier in Skáldskaparmál as a man from the island of Hlesey) how function. By way of kennings, Bragi explains, one might refer to the god Odin as "Victory-Tyr", "Hanged-Tyr", or "Cargo-Tyr"; and Thor may be referred to as "Chariot-Tyr".
Section nine of Skáldskaparmál provides skalds with a variety of ways in which to refer to italic=no, including "the one handed As", "feeder of the wolf", "battle-god", and "son of Odin". The narrative found in Lokasenna occurs in prose later in Skáldskaparmál. Like in Lokasenna, italic=no appears here among around a dozen other deities. Similarly, italic=no appears among a list of Æsir in section 75.
In addition to the above mentions, italic=no's name occurs as a kenning element throughout Skáldskaparmál in reference to the god Odin.
The Sigrdrífumál passage above has resulted in some discourse among runology. For example, regarding the passage, runologists Mindy MacLeod and Bernard Mees say:
italic=no is featured in several video games.
Attestations
Roman era
While italic=no's etymological heritage reaches back to the Proto-Indo-European period, very few direct references to the god survive prior to the Old Norse period. Like many other non-Roman deities, italic=no receives mention in Latin texts by way of the process of interpretatio romana, in which Latin texts refer to the god by way of a perceived counterpart in Roman mythology. Latin inscriptions and texts frequently refer to italic=no as Mars.
The first example of this occurs on record in Roman senator Tacitus's ethnography Germania:
These deities are generally understood by scholars to refer to *Wōđanaz (known widely today as Odin), *Þunraz (known today widely as Thor), and *Tīwaz, respectively. The identity of the "Isis" of the Suebi remains a topic of debate among scholars. Later in Germania, Tacitus also mentions a deity referred to as regnator omnium deus venerated by the Semnones in a grove of fetters, a sacred grove. Some scholars propose that this deity is in fact *Tīwaz.
Old English
The Latin deity Mars was occasionally glossed by Old English writers by the name Tīw or Tīg. The Genitive case tīwes also appears in the name for Tuesday, tīwesdæg.
Viking Age and post-Viking Age
By the Viking Age, *Tīwaz had developed among the North Germanic peoples into italic=no. The god receives numerous mentions in North Germanic sources during this period, but far less than other deities, such as Odin, Freyja, or Thor. The majority of these mentions occur in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from traditional source material reaching into the pagan period, and the Prose Edda, composed by Icelandic skald and politician Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.
Poetic Edda
Although italic=no receives several mentions in the Poetic Edda, of the three poems in which he is mentioned—Hymiskviða, Sigrdrífumál, and Lokasenna—only the incomplete poem, Hymiskviða, features him in a prominent role. In Hymiskviða, italic=no says that his father, Hymir, owns a tremendous cauldron with which he and his fellow gods can brew fathoms of ale. Thor and italic=no set out to retrieve it. italic=no meets his nine-hundred headed grandmother ("who hates him"), and a girl clad in gold helps the two hide from Hymir.
Prose Edda
The Prose Edda sections Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál reference italic=no several times. The god is introduced in part 25 of the Gylfaginning section of the book:
Archaeological record
Scholars propose that a variety of objects from the archaeological record depict italic=no. For example, a Migration Period gold bracteate from Trollhättan, Sweden, features a person receiving a bite on the hand from a beast, which may depict italic=no and Fenrir.
A Viking Age hogback in Sockburn, County Durham, England may depict italic=no and Fenrir. In a similar fashion, a silver button was found in Hornsherred, Denmark, during 2019 that is interpreted to portray Týr fighting against the wolf Fenrir.
Scholarly reception
Due in part to the etymology of the god's name, scholars propose that italic=no once held a far more significant role in Germanic mythology than the scant references to the deity indicate in the Old Norse record. Some scholars propose that the prominent god Odin may have risen to prominence over italic=no in prehistory, at times absorbing elements of the deity's domains. For example, according to scholar Hermann Reichert, due to the etymology of the god's name and its transparent meaning of " the god", "Odin ... must have dislodged italic=no from his pre-eminent position. The fact that Tacitus names two divinities to whom the enemy's army was consecrated ... may signify their co-existence around 1 A.D."
In popular culture
The 15th studio album by the English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Tyr, released in 1990, is named after italic=no.
See also
Notes
Sources
(2025). 9781846155048, Boydell Press. ISBN 9781846155048
(2025). 9783825353599, Universitaetsverlag Winter. ISBN 9783825353599
External links
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