Who eats the sun?

On the relationship between Skǫll, Hati, and Fenrir

A composite image of “Tyr and Fenrir” by John Bauer and “Parhelia on a sunny arctic morning” by Andreas Weith.

Every so often I find myself in a position to mention that the giant wolf Fenrir will devour the sun as part of the world-ending cataclysm of Ragnarok. Whenever I do this, I am met with some confusion. The reply comes back almost like clockwork: “But I thought Skoll and Hati eat the sun and the moon.”

This, of course, is a perfectly reasonable reply. After all, it’s taken straight from the Prose Edda. If you are unfamiliar with the story, here is what Snorri Sturluson¹ tells us in Gylfaginning about wolves chasing the sun and the moon:

Þá mælti Gangleri: "Hverr er sá, er henni gerir þann ómaka?"
Hárr segir: "Þat eru tveir úlfar, ok heitir sá, er eftir henni ferr, Skoll. Hann hræðist hon, ok hann mun taka hana. En sá heitir Hati Hróðvitnisson, er fyrir henni hleypr, ok vill hann taka tunglit, ok svá mun verða."
Þá mælti Gangleri: "Hverr er ætt úlfanna?"
Hárr segir: "Gýgr ein býr fyrir austan Miðgarð í þeim skógi, er Járnviðr heitir. Í þeim skógi byggja þær tröllkonur, er Járnviðjur heita. In gamla gýgr fæðir at sonum marga jötna ok alla í vargs líkjum, ok þaðan af eru komnir þessir úlfar. Ok svá er sagt, at af ættinni verðr sá einna máttkastr, er kallaðr er Mánagarmr. Hann fyllist með fjörvi allra þeira manna, er deyja, ok hann gleypir tungl, en stökkvir blóði himin ok loft öll. Þaðan týnir sól skini sínu, ok vindar eru þá ókyrrir ok gnýja heðan ok handan.

Then spoke Gangleri: “Who is it that makes this trouble for [the sun]?”
High says: “It is two wolves, and the one who goes after her is called Skoll. She is afraid of him, and he will take her. But the one which runs before her is called Hati Hrodvitnisson, and he wants to take the moon, and so it will happen.”
Then spoke Gangleri: “What is the pedigree of the wolves?”
High says: “A certain troll-woman lives on the eastern side of Midgard in a forest, which is called Ironwood. In the forest live those troll-wives, which are called Ironwithes. The old troll-woman raises many jotuns as sons and all in wolf’s likeness, and from them come these wolves. And so it is said, that from this family becomes that mightiest one, which is named Managarm (either “Moon’s Dog” or “Moon’s Attacker/Damager”). He will fill himself with the flesh of all those people who will die, and he will swallow the moon², and will spatter heaven and all the skies with blood. From this the sun will lose her shine, and winds will then be restless and will rage from here to there.”

If we are honest, Snorri’s account raises just as many questions as it provides answers. If Skoll will catch the sun, why does the myth need Managarm’s rampage to block out her shine? If Hati Hrodvitnisson will catch the moon, why are we also told that Managarm will swallow it? For that matter, who is Hati’s father Hrodvitnir and why does Skoll have no similar patronym?

If you’re anything at all like me, you probably prefer something a little clearer. For this we can turn to Vafþrúðnismál 46:

Óðinn kvað:
‘Fjǫlð ek fór, | fjǫlð ek freistaðak,
fjǫlð ek reynda regin:
hvaðan kømr sól | á inn slétta himin,
þá er þessa hefir Fenrir farit?’

Odin said:
“Much I travelled, much I trialed,
much I tested the powers [= the gods]:
Whence will a sun come into the smooth heaven,
once Fenrir has destroyed this one?”

So it is Fenrir who destroys the sun after all! But how can this be squared with Snorri’s information?

In reality, we should not expect to create a perfectly cohesive system from ideas that were passed down orally for centuries. If two mythological sources each claim that a different wolf will eat the sun, both could very well be accurate reflections of someone’s ancient belief. Even so, it can be fun to try our hand at untangling some of the obscurity. Perhaps Fenrir, Skoll, Hati, and Managarm all destroy the sun or moon according to separate, legitimate traditions, or perhaps there is more going on here than meets the eye.

If there is one thing Snorri is guilty of, it’s trying a little too hard to systematize information found across scattered poetic sources. In this case, his information about Skoll and Hati is certainly derived from Grímnismál 39:

Skǫll heitir úlfr | er fylgir inu skírleita goði
til varna viðar;
en annarr, Hati, | hann er Hróðvitnis sonr,
sá skal fyr heiða brúði himins.

A wolf is called Skoll who follows the bright-faced god
to the shelter of the woods;
and another, Hati, he is Hrodvitnir’s son,
that one shall be before the sky’s bright/clear bride.

This passage refers to both a “bright-faced god” and “the sky’s bright/clear bride”. At face value, it may seem that each wolf is therefore associated with a separate heavenly body, one a “god” and the other a “bride”.

Because the sun is always feminine in Norse literature, it is relatively obvious that she is the bride mentioned here. What is less obvious is that the word goð “god/gods” is grammatically neuter and is only rarely used in the singular. When it is, it refers to a female deity in nearly every case³. The terms vanagoð “god of the Vanir” and grátfagra goð “weep-beautiful god”, for instance, are both listed as kennings for Freyja in Skáldskaparmál. Thus the “bright-faced god[dess!]” mentioned at the beginning of the stanza is to be understood as the sun as well.

Snorri has clearly understood the text in this way, explaining that one wolf (Skoll) runs behind the sun and the other wolf (Hati) runs ahead of her. However, he adds two details not found in Grímnismál or elsewhere in surviving sources. The first is that Hati is chasing the moon. The second is that both wolves will eventually catch their quarry.

Fascinatingly, the Hauksbók manuscript’s version of Hervarar saga ok heiðreks⁴ provides an alternate interpretation of Hati’s behavior. At this point in the saga, Odin has disguised himself as a character named Gestumblindi and is posing riddles to King Heidrek:

Gestumblindi mællti: Hvat er þat er lyðum lýsir en logi gleypir ok keppast um þat vargar ávallt. Heiðrekr konungr (hygg þú at gátu). Góð er gáta (þín) þat er sól hon lýsir lond oll ok skínn yfir alla menn en Skalli ok Hatti heita vargar þat eru úlfar er annarr þeira ferr fyrir en annarr eptir sólu.

Gestumblindi spoke: “What is that which illuminates people but flame swallows, and wargs⁵ always compete with each other for it? King Heidrek, think about the riddle.”
[Heidrek:] “Your riddle is good; it is the sun; she illuminates all lands and shines over all people, but the wargs are called Skalli and Hatti; these are wolves which, one of them goes before and the other one after the sun.

Note that our interpretation of Grm. 39 is confirmed again here. What seems to be consistent across surviving sources is that two wolves aggressively accompany the sun, one ahead and one behind. But whereas Snorri’s interpretation is that Hati is fixated on the moon, Gestumblindi’s riddle asserts that both wolves are actually competing with each other for the sun. Like Grímnismál, this riddle stops short of asserting that the wolves chasing the sun will ever catch it.

It seems likely that Snorri’s interpretation comes from a desire to synthesize Grímnismál’s information with Vǫluspá stanzas 39 and 40 (in Pettit’s⁶ arrangement):

Austr sat in aldna | í Járnviði
ok fœddi þar | Fenris kindir;
verðr af þeim ǫllum | einna nǫkkurr
tungls tjúgari | í trolls hami.

Fyllisk fjǫrvi | feigra manna,
rýðr ragna sjǫt | rauðum dreyra;
svǫrt var ða sólskin | of sumur eptir,
veðr ǫll válynd. | Vituð ér enn, eða hvat?

East sat the old woman in Ironwood
and birthed/raised there Fenrir’s kind⁷;
from all of them a certain one becomes
the moon’s destroyer⁸ in troll’s skin.

[He] fills himself with the flesh of doomed people,
reddens the powers’ homes with red blood;
black was the sunshine then over summers after,
all weather precarious. Will you know yet [more], or what?

We now see that there is a third detail added by Snorri that does not actually appear in other sources, which is that Skoll and Hati are members of the brood raised by an old woman in Ironwood. If we subtract Snorri’s uncorroborated details, Skoll and Hati are simply two wolves who drive the sun daily across the sky in competition to catch it. This begins to sound, as Edward Pettit suggests⁹, very much like a myth designed to explain the daylight cycle¹⁰, entirely independent of the moon, which may or may not have had anything at all to do with Ragnarok in the pre-Christian tradition.

It’s worth noting that we often disregard Snorri at our own peril. Though he sometimes introduces details that are not found in the Poetic Edda, those details are sometimes corroborated by other sources. In this case, however, Snorri’s unique details about Skoll and Hati are both absent from other sources and partly contradicted by Hervarar saga. It is not unreasonable to suppose that these may have been embellishments designed to strengthen a connection he saw between Vǫluspá’s moon-destroying, sun-darkening wolf, and Grímnismál’s duo antagonizing the sun. John Lindow asserts that “[c]learly Snorri has adapted [Skoll and Hati] to his notion of Ragnarök, when Garm will bay and Fenrir will get loose to slay Odin.”¹¹

Of course, it is always possible that Snorri did not invent this information himself, but was instead drawing from folkloric traditions of his time. But before continuing this line of thinking, we ought to dig in to the identities of these wolves to see what else we can learn.

Let us begin with Hati Hrodvitnisson, the only wolf with a confirmably pre-Christian patronym¹². The exact form Hróðvitnir is not found outside of Grm. 39, however an extremely likely alternate version of the same name, Hróðrsvitnir, is found in Lokasenna, in yet another stanza 39:

Týr kvað:
‘Handar em ek vanr, | en þú Hróðrsvitnis,
bǫl er beggja þrá;
úlfgi hefir ok vel, | er í bǫndum skal
bíða ragna røkrs!’

Tyr said [to Loki]:
“A hand am I lacking, but you (lack) Hrodrsvitnir,
the bale is a yearning for us both;
it is not well for the wolf, who in bonds must
await Ragnarok!”

As it turns out, Hrod(rs)vitnir is just another name for Fenrir, the wolfish son of Loki who currently lies in bonds awaiting the end of the world. Normally the name Hróðvitnir is interpreted as meaning something like “Fame-Wolf”¹³, with the idea being that Fenrir is either the most famous wolf or that his desire for fame and glory is what got him into his current predicament¹⁴. More importantly, Hati is clearly Fenrir’s son.

Snorri believes that Hati and Skoll are drawn from a common brood. If he is correct about that, Skoll might be thought of as Fenrir’s son as well. When considering the fact that Skoll is given no patronym, we must remember that we are dealing with poetry. The reason why the word Hróðvitnis appears after the caesura in line 2 of Grm. 39 is because the poet needed a word that alliterates with Hati. There is no reason to believe that this information was placed there to contrast his lineage against Skoll’s. In other words, Snorri may well be correct in this case. Two wolves that sport with each other daily and share a cosmic role would certainly seem to be members of a common pack, if not siblings outright. I am of the opinion that Skoll is most likely Hati’s brother¹⁵ and thus also Hrodvitnir’s (Fenrir’s) son.

It is perhaps fitting that the parental wolf is responsible for the removal of the sun at the end of an age, and the child wolves are responsible for miniature removals of the sun every twenty-four hours. I would not be surprised to learn that this apparently small-scale repetition of Fenrir’s behavior is precisely why Hati (and probably Skoll) came to be thought of as Fenrir’s offspring.¹⁶ Consider that Thor’s hammer (symbolically his role in the cosmos) is inherited by two sons after his death at Ragnarok¹⁷. Perhaps not too dissimilarly, it is two sons of Fenrir who jointly typify his future role each day until the sun of the current age is finally destroyed in the future cataclysm.

We are now left to attempt uncovering the identity of Managarm. This name is not found anywhere in surviving Old Norse text apart from Snorri’s singular mention in Gylfaginning. This includes his own (and everyone else’s) documentation of kennings and heiti (names for things). However, it would be a bit strange for Snorri to invent this word for just one usage, without any additional benefit to his mythological systematization. It is not impossible that this name existed in the pre-Christian tradition, though it may be more likely that Snorri was drawing upon contemporary folklore in his endeavor to connect Grm. 39 with Vsp. 39-40. The name must have either been unknown or uncommon among skalds. Either way, it seems to have been designed as a synonym for tungls tjúgari (or potentially vice versa). Both terms begin with a reference to the moon in the genitive singular, followed by an allusion to a destroyer.

What we know is that an old woman in Ironwood raises wolves. One of these will become “the moon’s destroyer in troll’s skin”. As we will see momentarily, Snorri certainly believes that this wolf is not Fenrir, but we will be calling this into question.

If anything, Snorri’s assertion that Managarm will swallow the moon, made only six sentences after claiming that Hati will take the moon, seems to imply that he believes Managarm is another name for Hati. To confirm this, we can turn to his discussion of events at Ragnarok:

Þá verðr þat, er mikil tíðendi þykkja, at úlfrinn gleypir sólna, ok þykkir mönnum þat mikit mein. Þá tekr annarr úlfrinn tunglit, ok gerir sá ok mikit ógagn. Stjörnurnar hverfa af himninum. Þá er ok þat til tíðenda, at svá skelfr jörð öll ok björg, at viðir losna ór jörðu upp, en björgin hrynja, en fjötrar allir ok bönd brotna ok slitna. Þá verðr Fenrisúlfr lauss.

Then something will happen, which is to be considered a huge event, that the wolf will swallow the sun, and people will consider this a great disaster. Then the other wolf will take the moon, and will also do much harm. The stars will disappear from the heavens. This leads to that event, wherein all the earth and mountains will shake so as to loosen up the trees from out of the earth, and to collapse the mountains, and to snap and break all fetters and bonds. Then Fenriswolf will get loose.

“The wolf” and “the other wolf” mentioned here are probably references to Skoll and Hati, as Snorri has previously told us that each will ultimately catch the sun and moon. The additional “much harm” done by “the other wolf” who takes the moon is therefore a likely reference to the people-eating and blood-spattering that Snorri has previously ascribed to Managarm. This further solidifies the idea that he believes Hati and Managarm are one and the same. The fact that Fenrir gets loose only as a consequence of these events shows that Snorri does not believe any of these wolves are the same as Fenrir.

One potential problem with Snorri’s interpretation is the sheer number of wolves wreaking havoc at the end of the world. What we find in poetry is that Fenrir alone is often used as a stand-in for the entire concept of Ragnarok. In this context he is typically just called “the wolf”. For instance, Grímnismál 24 notes that eight hundred of the Einherjar will pass through a single door of Valhalla “when they go to fight the wolf” (þá er þeir fara at vitni at vega). In Lokasenna 58, Loki taunts Thor about not being brave enough “when [he] ought to fight against the wolf” (er þú skalt við úlfinn vega) because then Odin will be swallowed. One more particularly interesting example comes from Eiríksmál 7. In Odin’s answer to a question about why he would deny victory to someone considered brave, he explains:

Því at óvíst es at vita,
nær ulfr inn hǫsvi
sœkir á sjǫt goða.

Because it is not known for certain,
when the gray wolf
will attack the homes of the gods.

Of all cataclysmic events, the battle with a singular wolf (Fenrir) is frequently referenced as Ragnarok’s signature moment. Eiríksmál is noteworthy here because it asserts that Fenrir will directly attack the sjǫt “homes” of the gods. The only other surviving poetic reference to a wolf directly attacking the gods’ homes (which even repeats the word sjǫt!) occurs in Vsp. 40 when the moon-destroying wolf (whom Snorri has called Managarm) will “redden the powers’ homes with red blood”. This seems to imply that Vǫluspá’s moon-destroyer is none other than Fenrir.

Managarm is a noteworthy wolf who belongs to a pack tied to Fenrir by Vsp. 39. Though he is specifically called the “moon’s destroyer” in an alliterative phrase, his actions in stanza 40 will also lead to an absence of sunlight. Surely this is because he is the sun’s destroyer as well (Fenrir according to Vaf. 46). It seems the composer of Vǫluspá most likely meant to convey that a “certain one” of “Fenrir’s kind”, meaning Fenrir himself, will one day destroy the moon and darken the sun.

At this point we would be remiss if we did not take note of the fact that, even though the name Mánagarmr does not exist in Vǫluspá, the name Garmr certainly does. In fact, the lines within which it appears are repeated three times in the poem. The first occurrence is stanza 43:

Geyr Garmr mjǫk | fyr Gnipahelli,
festr mun slitna | en freki renna;
fjǫlð veit hon frœða, | fram sé ek lengra,
um ragna rǫk | rǫmm, sigtíva.

Garm barks much before Gnipahellir,
the cord will break and the ravener will run;
she knows much lore, I see farther forward,
regarding the bitter fate of the powers, of the victory-gods.

Could Managarm actually be Garm?

This is where things start to get muddy. Normally, the word garmr is used to mean “dog”. In fact Grímnismál 44 refers to Garm as the best “of hounds” (hunda). However, it can also be used in poetry to mean something like an attacker, damager, or enemy. For example, Snorri quotes an anonymous verse in Skáldskaparmál that refers to the wind as limgarmr “damager/enemy of branches”. The poem Hǫfuðlausn by Óttarr Svarti also uses the phrase garm[r] Gauta “Odin’s attacker” to refer to a warrior¹⁸. This has sometimes been translated as “Odin’s wolf” based on the idea that the more literal “Odin’s (attack-)dog” would be an allusion to a wolf. Lastly, Snorri of course provides Mánagarmr (perhaps best translated “Moon’s Damager”) as the name of a wolf.

It is hard not to draw an immediate connection between Fenrir and Garm. After all, both seem at face value to be canines that break free of their restraints at Ragnarok. Pettit notes that Garm is either “a mighty dog (Grm. 44) or perhaps an alias of the wolf Fenrir”¹⁹, Simek postulates that “it is possible that Garmr might simply be another name for the Fenriswolf”²⁰, and Lindow asserts that “[In Vǫluspá], Garm appears to be identical with Fenrir”²¹. By contrast, Anders Hultgård believes that “[m]ost probably, the poet thought the ‘ravenous one’ to be another beast than Garmr, presumably Fenrir.”²²

I should draw attention to the non-committal phrasing scholars tend to use when discussing this idea. This is because, if Garm is the Fenriswolf, then we must reckon with the fact that Grm. 44 calls Garm a hound, and that Snorri treats these two figures as separate in no uncertain terms. He explains that, whereas Fenrir will be killed by Vidar after swallowing Odin, Garm (who will have also gotten free from his bonds by now) will battle Tyr and the two will kill each other. Yet, even here, it is eyebrow-raising that Tyr, whose hand was bitten off at Fenrir’s binding, would find himself battling a different previously-bound canine at Ragnarok. There are reasons to suspect a connection between these two animals, and reasons to be suspicious of that connection as well. Simek seems relatively sure that Snorri has invented the fight between Tyr and Garm, saying: “Snorri has him fight against Týr at Ragnarǫk and both die in the process. This, however, would appear to be Snorri’s addition.”²³

I will add that bound monsters are rather common in Norse mythology. Lindow notes²⁴ that the theme is matched by both Fenrir and Garm (if they are different), by Loki who is bound with his son’s entrails, by Jormungand who is bound in the sea biting his own tail, and possibly even by Hel who appears bound to the world of the dead. We therefore should not be too sure that Garm is Fenrir simply because he, like Fenrir, seems to break free of his restraints at Ragnarok. It would appear that all bound monsters are freed from their restraints at this event. Additionally, if Hultgård is correct, Garm may not be a bound monster at all. Indeed Grímnismál seems to speak of him in positive terms.

In this light, we are left to wonder at the similarities between Fenrir and Garm, but probably can not be fully confident about one interpretation vs. another. If Garm is Vǫluspá’s destroyer of the Moon, he must then be a wolf rather than a dog, which suggests a bit more strongly that he might indeed be Fenrir. But if Garm is unequivocally a hound (not a wolf, and thus not the moon-destroyer), then Managarm must certainly be Fenrir. Otherwise he is some unique wolf who cannot be connected to any information outside Vǫluspá.

I conclude that it is Fenrir who destroys both the sun and the moon in the pre-Christian tradition, and that his two sons Skoll and Hati are responsible for driving the sun to set every twenty-four hours in competition to catch it. This interpretation unifies Vǫluspá, Grímnismál, Vafþrúðnismál, Eiríksmál, and Hervar saga, leaving only Snorri’s uncorroborated details in Gylfaginning unexplained. Snorri’s claim that Skoll and Hati will one day catch the sun and moon is probably embellished, as is his implication that Hati is Vǫluspá’s moon destroyer. How Garm fits into the story remains, as ever, somewhat unclear.

All that said, there is always the possibility that I am being unfairly skeptical of Snorri, and hypocritically trying to over-systematize the information, as seems to be the tradition among many authors. It’s worth noting the dirty little secret in Norse mythological studies, which is that Snorri is always right when we agree with him, and is only ever wrong when we disagree with him.

1. Snorri Sturluson is the oft-presumed author of the Prose Edda, though he is technically only ever credited with compiling it and with authoring the section known as Háttatal. Snorri was an Icelandic chieftain, lawspeaker, scholar, poet, and Christian who participated in some degree with the creation of the Prose Edda due to an academic interest in documenting the techniques and references found in skaldic poetry. See my post “Why You Should Mostly Trust the Prose Edda”.

2. “The moon” here is translated from O.N. tungl which is identical in both the nominative singular and plural, and is a word denoting a celestial luminary, though it most commonly refers to the moon. Snorri’s information about Managarm appears to be taken almost directly from Vǫluspá 39, which is quoted immediately after this passage, and wherein the word appears in the genitive singular. Faulkes (p. 15) translates this as “heavenly bodies”, probably based on the face-value ambiguity between singular and plural, however there is no ambiguity in the source poetry quoted by Snorri as his source. Faulkes also renders tungls tjúgari as “sun’s snatcher”, perhaps because the following stanza refers to a darkened sun or because he believes this figure is Fenrir, however the intended meaning is not likely the sun, given that the singular form of tungl is not used as a reference to the sun elsewhere in Old Norse, nor in descendant languages. For reference: Sturluson, Snorri. Edda. Translated by Anthony Faulkes, J.M. Dent, 2004.

3. As per Cleasby/Vigfusson, “very seldom in sing., and only if applied to a single goddess or the like” https://cleasby-vigfusson-dictionary.vercel.app/word/god. The attested exception, however, is the term goðs hjaldrs/hjaldrgoðs “of the god of battle”, which appears to be used twice as a reference to Odin.

4. “Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (Hauksbók)” Heimskringla.no, https://heimskringla.no/wiki/Hervarar_saga_ok_Hei%C3%B0reks_(Hauksb%C3%B3k). Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.

5. The word vargr (pl. vargar) was anciently applied to a person who was judged guilty of crimes worthy of outlawry. In poetry, it is also used to refer to wolves. King Heidrek’s answer, in which he clarifies that these vargar are indeed wolves, indicates that the usage of the word vargar in Gestumblindi’s riddle was designed to be ambiguous, hence my translation “wargs”.

6. Pettit, E., trans. The Poetic Edda: A Dual Language Edition. Open Book Publishers, 2023.

7. It is not explicitly clear that the old woman has given birth to Fenrir’s kind, nor is it clear that these figures are meant to be children or descendants of Fenrir. Both interpretations are plausible, though it is important to note that fœddi and Fenris have been chosen for their alliteration. In this light, Fenris kindir is perhaps more likely a kenning for any indistinct group of wolves (i.e., the old woman in Ironwood raised “members of Fenrir’s race”).

8. More literally, tjúgari means “pitchforker”. According to Pettit (p. 67), etymologically this word should also mean “drawer”, as in one who draws the moon to its destruction. He also suggests an alternate hypothesis that the “moon’s pitchforker” in Vsp. could be one who attacks the sun on behalf of the moon, stealing its beams of light with a pitchfork. This could explain why the “moon’s pitchforker” causes an absence of sunshine, however it is unclear what purpose is served by a wolf working on behalf of the moon to the detriment of the sun. Snorri must also have been unfamiliar with such a myth given that, in his interpretation, this same wolf swallows the moon. I side with the majority opinion that this figure is simply out to destroy the moon.

9. Pettit 2023, p. 201: “[Grm. 39 is a] reference to the setting of the sun behind woods on the horizon.”

10. It may be that bites from these wolves could be meant to explain solar (and/or lunar?) eclipsing as well, though the full extent to which the myth is intended to explain natural phenomena is unclear. Rudof Simek (p. 292) notes that “there could be a nature-mythological interpretation in the case of Skǫll and Hati (who pursues the moon). Such an interpretation would see the phenomenon of parhelions reflected in the wolves as these are called ‘sun-wolf’ in Scandinavian languages (Norwegian solvarg, Swedish solulv).” I would add that the Online Etymology Dictionary records the English term sundogs as a reference to parhelia since at least the 1650s. – Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Angela Hall, Boydell & Brewer, 2008.

11. Lindow, John. Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press, 2002. p. 273.

12. The composition of Old Norse poetry can be dated using a multi-factored analysis of its linguistic features. Grímnismál, in particular, is believed to have a 97.6% chance of having been composed in the 900s A.D. – Sapp, Christopher D. Dating the Old Norse Poetic Edda: A Multifactorial Analysis of Linguistic Features. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2022. p. 185.

13. As per Cleasby/Vigfusson, hróðr refers to fame, reputation, or praise. However, it is also suggested that hróð- in this case may be derived from the verb hrjóða “to destroy”. If so, Hróð(rs)vitnir could mean “Destroyer-Wolf” rather than “Fame-Wolf”. https://cleasby-vigfusson-dictionary.vercel.app/word/hrodr.

14. In the story as recounted by Snorri, Fenrir continually agrees to let the gods bind him with ever-stronger fetters in order to prove his strength, in order to get fame and glory.

15. Simek notes (p. 292) that “it is possible that Skǫll is merely another name for Fenrir.” This suggestion arises from the fact that Snorri tells us Skoll will eventually catch the sun, and Vaf. 46 tells us that Fenrir will eventually destroy the sun. Thus, both figures could be the same. However, accepting this interpretation leaves us to wonder how Fenrir is able to chase the sun across the sky each day while he is simultaneously bound in fetters awaiting Ragnarok. Additionally, if Skoll is indeed Fenrir, and if Snorri’s claim about Skoll and Hati’s origin is true, we find ourselves with an implication that Skoll’s mother, the troll-woman in Ironwood, is probably Angrboda who must now also be the mother of her own grandchild Hati. This is, of course, a rather unsettling implication. If we instead assume that Snorri’s claim is an embellishment, Skoll easily becomes another son of Fenrir and the potential incestuous behavior of Angrboda is entirely circumvented. I am of the opinion that this is a much cleaner interpretation.

16. Or perhaps it is Fenrir’s role at Ragnarok that is designed to mimic the daylight cycle. In either case, distinct spans of time seem to be commonly marked by wolves darkening the sun, either by chasing it into the shelter of the woods (sunset) or by finally devouring it/blocking its light with blood-spatter.

17. From Vafþrúðnismál 51: Móði ok Magni skulu Mjǫllni hafa “Modi and Magni shall have Mjollnir”.

18. “Ótt Hfl 1^I” skaldic.org, https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=verse&i=3567&v=i. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.

19. Pettit 2023, p. 68.

20. Simek 2008, p. 100.

21. Lindow 2002, p. 135.

22. Hultgård continues: “That Garmr represents a dog is indicated by the use of geyja (bay) for Garmr and ýla ‘howl’ for the ‘ravenous one’.” – Hultgård, Anders. "Cosmic Eschatology: Ragnarøk" The Pre-Christian Religions of the North: History and Structures, vol. III, edited by Jens Peter Schjødt, John Lindow, and Anders Andrén, Brepols, 2020, p. 1020.

23. Simek 2008, p. 100.

24. Lindow 2002, p. 82-83.