The Right Hand of Tyr

 
  Years ago, when I first started getting in to all of this, I wore a Tiwaz rune, which represented the Norse God Tyr. Nowadays I usually wear a Thor's Hammer, but originally, I was all about Tyr. Thanks to a friend of mine, she knows who she is, I have begun to return my focus back to the Sky God.

   First, a brief background of Tyr for uninitiated:

        In his book "The Rites of Odin", Ed Fitch calls Tyr "the invincible warrior of the Nordic pantheon, and far older than all the others of Asgard." Tyr is the Norse god of war, justice, and courage. In the modern times, what Tyr is probably most famous for is being on-handed. The story goes that Odin could foresee that the Fenris Wolf would kill him during Ragnarok. In an attempt to prevent this, the Aesir tried to trick Fenris in to letting them bind him with a magical rope, Gleipnir, to see if Fenris could break it. Fenris, being a clever wolf, did not trust the Aesir and requested that one them put their hand in his mouth as a sign of good faith. If he could not break the Gleipnir, and the gods refused to unbind him, then he would take the hand of the god who volunteered. 

    Tyr was the god who stepped up. As you may be able to imagine, Fenris was unable to break the rope. At this point, the Aesir made it clear that they had no ntentions of releasing Fenris. Tyr, being the god of justice and courage, kept his right hand in Fenris' jaws as he promised, and Fenris took his right hand as promised.

    Much is spoken of Tyr's honor and bravery for volunteering when he knew from the beginning that the Aesir would not unbind Fenris and he would surely lose his hand. What of his hand, though? It is not necessarily an essential body part, Tyr was able to adapt to having one hand and still hold his own, even killing the hound Garm at Ragnarok. One hand makes up a relatively small percentage of the whole body, and the gods saw fit to give us a spare, so it's easy to forget about the wolf-fodder that is Tyr's right hand.

    Such is the fate of those few brave souls who sacrifice everything for the good of others. Not greatly important in the grand scheme of things, and the general populace is able to get along with their lives without granting them much of a second thought. 

   These are the warriors, the soldiers, the men and women who are willfully thrust in to the jaws of death in the hopes of keeping the darkness at bay, even if for a little while. These are the Right Hand of Tyr. Hail.

The Einherjar Metaphor

This is an idea that I have had and toyed with for some time now and feel that I should share it with the group.

In case you're not familiar with the Einherjar:

*In Norse mythology, the einherjar (Old Norse "lone fighters"[1]) are those that have died in battle and are brought to Valhalla by valkyries. In Valhalla, the einherjar eat their fill of the nightly-resurrecting beast Sæhrímnir, and are brought their fill of mead (from the udder of the goat Heiðrún) by valkyries. The einherjar prepare daily for the events of Ragnarök, when they will advance for an immense battle at the field of Vígríðr.* From Wikipedia

Myths always have some truth in them, and my theory of the truth behind the Einherjar is a group of chosen warriors who reincarnate over many lifetimes, honing their skills and learning their craft, preparing for "Ragnarok" or some other cataclysmic clash. Part of the Einherjar myth is that while in Valhalla, they fight each other during the day in great bloody battles, and at night those who fell are resurrected to feast and fight again in the morning.

Of course, there are other belief systems which state that we reincarnate until we have reached enlightenment. I think that the Einherjar metaphor would apply to very few people, people that are reborn as warriors in every life, in order to learn all that they can about warfare and become the "ultimate" warriors.

One example of an Einherjar might be Gen. George S. Patton. Here is a man who helped to turn the tide and win World War 2, a great battle against evil. He believed in reincarnation and that he had been a warrior in many past lives, he even wrote a poem chroniciling his battles in the past "Through a Glass, Darkly" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/543355/posts.

Once again, this is just an idea, a theory and should no way be seen as any sort of doctrine or established religious belief, or anything of that sort.

Keen mind, strong body, indomitable spirit.