Prose Edda Part I: Fenrir

    The Edda was a story created a few centuries after Christianity had become widespread in Norse cultures. The author, Snori Sturluson, felt the old writing styles had become lost when new cultures got everybody excited learning about other ways to write literature. So he wanted to revisit the old writing style, and used old myths to do so. There are many writings labeled The Edda, this was the Prose Edda which is distinctly not a poem as The Edda is a poem. The “Gylfaginning,” the largest section of The Pros Eda, sets the stage with "the High Ones" excitedly telling a traveler about all the Norse gods and skimming over well-known stories and traits of each god.

     One of the stories that was covered in more detail was that of Fenrir. In today's culture, the name Fenrir is often associated with werewolves, mostly due to J.K. Rowling’s use of the word to name a werewolf character. Fenrir was a wolf man, a son of Loki. Loki was a dangerous cunning god, and out of him was born three monstrous creatures, one of which was Fenrir. Fenrir was prophesied to participate in the destruction of the world during the event called Ragnarök, and was a strong scary creature.

     The gods decided Fenrir was becoming too strong as he got older, so they searched for a way to chain him, contain him, and even called it a game so as to get the wolf to comply to being tied down. Each time, the gods failed to tie him down, even with the best and strongest mystical materials. 

     The gods did not trust Fenrir, because of a prophecy they had heard, but was that the only reason, and if so, was it just? Assuming that was all, it was the incorrect thing to do on the gods’ part. Doing something immoral for your own good, always leads to future immoralities. In Harry Potter, Peter Pettigrew betrayed his friends, the Potters, Harry’s parents. He told the man out to kill his friends where they were located. Later, the villain didn’t trust Peter because he had already demonstrated his disloyal tendencies, and cast a spell to insure Peter would die the first time he committed an act against the villain. The same thing is happening here, as we will see later in the story, the gods had fulfilled the coming of the prophecy in trying to avoid their fates.

     However, that does not mean there wasn’t merit to why the gods did what they did. Fenrir was a creature born out of chaos, destined to be as cynical as he was strong. This is something Fenrir himself caused. Fenrir chose to give into his cynical nature, going as far as to threaten the gods. Before allowing the gods to bind him on the last, and successful occasion, Fenrir had Tyr put his arm in Fenrir’s mouth. As soon as Fenrir was left where he was tied, Tyr lost his arm. People have a tendency to do this; failure to trust leads to becoming too untrustworthy to get anywhere with people.

    You have to be patient with people and give them the benefit of the doubt from time to time, even if they were born inclined to see the worst in the world. However, that does not mean you should not defend yourself from bad people, don’t allow people who work hard to be the worst they can be to affect how you aim for your ultimate goals in life. Understand and evaluate the bad things in the world for what they are, once you have done that, determine if it is something to ignore and cut out of your life, or if it is something to work on. Remember, you could always be Fenrir, biting others hands off when you don’t get the good out of life. If you need to stop your bad habits, evaluate the bad in the world so as to get rid of the obstacles, rather than get stuck at them and snarl.