The Wolf That Devours Gods & the Human Shadow

From Ancient Origins

We usually think of monsters as things to be feared or destroyed. Yet sometimes they carry messages we would not hear in any other form. Fenrir is one of those monsters. In Norse myths, he is a massive wolf, born of the trickster god Loki, who grows too powerful to be left alone. The gods grow uneasy. They try to bind him with chains made from impossible things: the sound of a cat’s footsteps, the beard of a woman, even the roots of a mountain (Prose Edda, Gylfaginning, ch. 34–51). Still, Fenrir eventually breaks free, and at Ragnarök he devours Odin, bringing chaos to the world (Poetic Edda, Völuspá, st. 51–56).