"This is one token of [Tyr's] daring: when the Æsir enticed Fenris-Wolf to take upon him the fetter Gleipnir, the wolf did not believe them, that they would loose him, until they laid Týr's hand into his mouth as a pledge. But when the Æsir would not loose him, then he bit off the hand at the place now called 'the wolf's joint;' and Týr is one-handed..."
- Snorri Sturlson, GYLFAGINNING
I had little inspiration for my Xerox project at first, thinking to just make some vague shapes from my hands, arms and hair and hope it'd be considered "artsy" enough.
However, as I sat at the scanner and thought, my mind turned to one of my favorite mythical tales, that of Fenrir, the great Wolf which will swallow Odin and most of the world in Ragnarok.
Before this, however, Fenrir had to be trapped by a godly fetter--essentially a mystical band of metal to contain him. At first, the gods tried to force him into a worldly cage, but every time he escaped. Finally, the gods crafted a new shackle, but knew they couldn't capture Fenrir traditionally. They made a wager with the proud wolf that he couldn't break through their mystical fetter, and Fenrir took them up on that bet, but distrusted that they'd release him if he failed to break it. Therefore, Tyr put his hand in the wolf's mouth, knowing it would likely be lost, for the sake of containing the dangerous Fenrir.
In this project, then, is the conflict of that tale: Tyr's self-sacrifice and nobility, coupled with Fenrir's unbridled ferocity, the rage of a bound animal. To me, that's deeply compelling.
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