Darkness, so deep. So hard to breathe. Help me, Father! The chains keep me. It was supposed to be a game, it was supposed to be fun. Tyr, I’m sorry, I was just afraid. The earth shakes and I know my father suffers, why hasn’t Thor saved him? Is Thor okay? Has the battle started without me? Soon they’ll come back for me, soon my chains will be undone. Soon. Soon. Soon.
Long ago in the holy realm of the Aesir gods, and their village of Asgard, before Svadilfari was hired to build walls worth of the god village, three children were born to the Jotnar Loki, blood brother of Odin, and the wise woman Angerboda. Powerful, wonderous children, triplets fated to rend the very core of the world tree. Jormungandr, Hela, and Loki’s first born son, Fenrir.
Often lovers, Loki and Angerboda split soon after the birth of their children, but as a token of their love Angerboda agreed to allow Loki his firstborn son to reside in the Asa realm that Loki was so fond of. Ages passed, and the children of Loki grew, never seeming to stop. Jormungandr felt the call to the seas, where he could grow outside the sight of the gods. Hela was granted her own realm as domain; no one is quite sure how she managed to convince the Allfather to grant that boon. The Eldest son, Firstborn Fenrir the Asa-warg grew proudest of all, mighty on the field of battle alongside the Aesir. Fostered with the First Asa king, Tyr, who taught the wolf god the secrets of fighting and walking like a man.
Unknown to Fenrir, Tyr, and his father, Odin Borson the wandering King of Asgard, performed a dreadful resurrection of a Volva, a Seeress, who told Odin of ancient secrets and futures sins, and of a truly awful battle, a war that will shake the world tree to the core and be the end of the gods. A prophecy with Fenrir at its heart.
With his dark secrets, the Allfather returned to the Asa village with machinations, and schemes. The Allfather began testing the wolf, sending him to die in increasingly dangerous missions, only to hide his frustrations behind toasts to the Lokison’s might. When it was evident that the wolf could not be slain by mere troll or even dragonfire, Odin then began crafting magic chains and cages to restrain and banish his bane. Time and time again the proud wolf broke his chains and the Aesir began calling him Fenrir Chainbreaker.
“Nothing can bind me!” the Wolf would boast.
“Nothing?” Asked the dwarfs of Svartalfheim when the blacksmiths had failed Odin too many times.
“We have bound him in all the strongest metals and alloys known to the gods.” Odin explained his plight, “Nothing can hold that which I need in bindings most.”
To this Sindri of the Ivaldi clan had a terribly clever glint in his eye, “What we need is a chain that isn’t. If nothing can hold the wolf then we make a chain out of nothing!”
And so the dwarfs got to their craft, collecting all the materials that didn’t exist to fashion their rope that needed to be made out of nothing, and many tales will claim roots of a mountain, the spittle of a bird, the beard of a woman, but the reality is beyond the explanations of men, barely understood by the dwarfs and utterly unknowable to the gods who above all else are beings of consecrated reality.
Open, the sons of Ivaldi named the ribbon, or Gleipnir, as came to be known to the men who settled in northern Midgard. Open was passed from Sindri to Odin, who called an assembly of the great asa warriors gods who became renowned to the tribes of men, his sons Thor, Baldr, and Heimdallr, Tyr but not Loki.
“Great Wolf.” Odin spoke merrily, “Today I have a new test of your great strength, a chain even you will certainly be unable to break free from!”
But the wolf looked upon Open and found a deep unease within, as the chainless chain looked no more than a simple ribbon. Fenrir knew already he was trapped, at least in one sense. The great Aesir warriors looked upon Fenrir and Open with some confusion, an amused befuddlement and he hated them for it. The wolf looked into Odin’s eye and knew the Allfather challenged not only his strength but also his pride. “I will allow myself to be tied in your newest binds, Allfather.”
Odin grinned, “Wonderful, Thor, Baldur take the ch-”
Fenrir growled and the Asa gods held stiff, “If, one of you places your hand in my mouth. I shall rest your forearm between my teeth tight but without breaking skin, and when I break free I shall release.”
The gods stood, silent, stoic and showing no emotion.
“No volunteers? Why not, this is but a sporting game?” The wolf grinned.
“I will do it.” Tyr uttered.
Thor’s stoicism split to a wide grin, “That’s the spirit!”
Fenrir relaxed, “Then...let us begin.”