Tyr(pronounced like the English word’ tier’ )was the Norse god of justice, war and law and together with Odin and Thor, was one of the most important of the Norse and Viking gods. Tyr came into Norse culture by means of his existence as a Germanic divine being, but prior to that the Romans recognized Tyr with Mars, the Roman god of war.

His importance in both Roman and Germanic culture can be testified by the usage of his name for the letter ‘T’of the runic alphabet and for the day of the week Tuesday which originated from the Old English’Day of

Tiw (Tyr )’. The most noteworthy attribute of Tyr was his missing right hand that is generally shown as missing from the wrist or forearm downwards as an outcome of a bite from the wolf Fenrir. The story of how Tyr lost his hand can be found in’The Blinding of Fenrir ‘from the Poetic Edda(the just misconception to include Tyr prominently). In this story Fenrir( one of 3 offspring from

Loki and Angrboda )was so feared that he was kept in Asgard for safe keeping. The story has it that Fenrir grew so powerful that the gods believed it a good idea to keep him in chains. Each time Fenrir broke devoid of his chains, they had the ability to change them with more powerful ones by encouraging Fenrir that each more powerful chain was a brand-new test of his strength. Ultimately the gods contacted the dwarves to create a new super-strong chain. The dwarves made this chain from things which didn’t exist like roots from mountains and was called Gleipnir or ‘Open’since it was useless to resist it. When the gods tried to tie Fenrir with the brand-new chain, he was suspicious because it was so light and he refused to be bound by it unless one of the gods laid their hand in his jaws. Tyr was the only one happy to accept Fenrir’s needs and needless to state, when Fenrir realised he couldn’t leave from his new chain, he tore Tyr’s arm off. This story helps to describe the a little inconsistent idea that a god of war can also be a god of justice and law. The gods swore an oath to Fenrir and Tyr’s selfless actions guaranteed that not only were the gods eventually saved from Fenrir however that the oath was honored in spite of coming

at terrific personal expense( a warrior with one arm is no longer much of a warrior). The Tiwaz rune is represented as an arrow pointing northwards and as a reflection of Tyr’s life, it

represents the sacrifice of the self for the good of all. The belief that courage and a right cause carries the day is governed by

Tiwaz. It is the

common justice of individuals instead of making use of law by autocrats(a wordthat utilizes Tyr as a root). A great choice of products consisting of runes from the Elder Futhark, consisting of the Tiwaz rune can be discovered here -Viking Rune Fashion Jewelry