Tyr

“Then when the Aesir were unwilling to set the wolf free, he bit off the hand of Tyr at the place now called the wolf-joint.” — Prose Edda, Gylfaginning 34

Lore: Tyr is the god of war and justice — a combination that modern minds find contradictory but that the Norse understood as inseparable. War without law is chaos; law without the courage to enforce it is meaningless. Tyr is the bravest of all the gods, proved by the only test that matters: he volunteered to put his right hand in the mouth of Fenrir (the great wolf, son of Loki, Gylfaginning 34) as a guarantee of good faith while the gods attempted to bind the beast with the unbreakable fetter Gleipnir (Gylfaginning 34). When Fenrir realized he had been tricked and the fetter would hold, he bit off Tyr’s hand (Gylfaginning 34). Tyr did not cry out. He knew the cost before he offered it. In older Germanic tradition (as Tiwaz), Tyr may have been the chief god of the pantheon before Odin displaced him — the god of the daytime sky, cognate with Greek Zeus and Sanskrit Dyaus Pita.

Parallel: Tyr’s sacrifice echoes the biblical theme of sacrificing part of oneself for the greater good. Jesus says, “If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off” (Matthew 5:30). The binding of Fenrir parallels the binding of Satan (Revelation 20:1-2) — a monstrous evil force that must be restrained until the appointed time. Both Fenrir and Satan are bound, both break free for the final battle, and both are ultimately destroyed.