Norsery Rhymes from A to Z Garmr, The Greatest of Hounds
Happy Thor’s Day, here’s another 20 min sketch of a Norse or Germanic, or Celtic mythological characters. This week it’s another version of Garmr / Garmir / Garm. A mythical dog mentioned several times in the Poetic and Prose Eddas.
It's name translated likely to "Growl" from Proto Indo European.
it's listed as the Greatest of Hounds as Odin the Greatest of Gods. It's Howl is said to be one of the harbingers of Ragnarok. Baldur Descibes a meeting of Odin and a hound thought to be Garmr in Hel, where it is described as howling and blood covered. Though this last one may be another unnamed dog in Hel.
It's also described as loosing it's chains, and fighting Tyr, though this is likely a conflation with Fenrir. But this seemed like an interesting version to start with.
