Týr

Týr, depicted here with both hands intact, before the encounter with Fenrir. is identified with Mars in this illustration from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript.

Tyr (Old Norse: Týr^[1], ) is the god of single combat and heroic glory in Norse mythology, portrayed as a one-handed man. In the late Icelandic Eddas, he is portrayed, alternately, as the son of Odin (Prose Edda) or of Hymir (Poetic Edda), while the origins of his name and his possible relationship to Tuisto (see Tacitus' Germania) suggest he was once considered the father of the gods and head of the pantheon.

Corresponding names in other Germanic languages are Gothic Tyz , Old English Tíw and Old High German Ziu, all from Proto-Germanic *Tîwaz. The Old Norse name became Old Norwegian Ty, Old Swedish Ti, while it remains Týr in Modern Icelandic and Faroese).

Origins

The name Tyr meant "god" (cf. Hangatyr, the "god of the hanged" as one of Odin's names); probably inherited from Tyr in his role as judge and goes back to a Proto-Germanic Tîwaz, earlier Teiwaz, continuing Proto-Indo-European *deywos "god" (whence Latin: deus, Sanskrit: deva and Lithuanian: dievas).

The teiva

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