Tyr pronounced like the English word “tier,” is the Norse god of War and heroic glory, but also the god of law and justice. Evidence indicates Tyr was one of the most important gods to the Norse peoples. Considered a son of Odin, Tyr is Thor’s older brother and was a veteran defender of Asgard before the time of Thor, although one contradictory myth names Tyr as the son of the giant Hymir. As the Lawgiver of the gods, he had his own rune and his day is Tuesday. According to the prose version of Ragnarök, Tyr is destined to battle to mutual death with Garm, guard dog of Helheim.
Roman inscriptions name him “Mars,” and invoke him as Mars Thincsus, or “Mars of the Thing,” the Norse legal assembly. The most compelling evidence for Tyr’s role as jurist comes from the tale of The Binding of Fenrir. As a pup, the dreadful wolf Fenrir grew so quickly, Odin and the gods decided to have him chained to keep Ragnarök, the end of days from happening. Fenrir broke every chain the gods tried until they sought magic aid from the dwarves who forged Gleipnir, an unbreakable chain made from six materials impossible to find: The sound of a cat’s footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish and the spittle of a bird. Suspicious, Fenrir declared he would only allow the gods to chain him if one of them would stick an arm in his mouth as a pledge of good faith. Brave Tyr accepted the challenge and when the wolf found himself unable to break free, he bit off noble Tyr’s hand.
For the ancient Norse, war and law were related to each other: law could be used to gain victory just like war. The Norse war gods are each connected to a particular aspect of war: Thor in the brute physical combat; Odin in the psychological and mystical forces; and Tyr in the legal principles of justice in war. The brave and valiant Tyr is regarded the bringer of victory, but also a promoter of perjury in legal struggles—this quirk made Tyr a bane to settlement among regular folks. In one of the poems in the Poetic Edda, the Valkyrie Sigrdrifa instructs the human hero Sigurd to invoke Tyr for victory in battle. But a different poem corroborates this picture by having Loki insult Tyr, saying he could only stir people to strife and could never reconcile them.