Cowards (Chapter 74)

Fright is a natural thing, and we know when we must be careful. One example is Ty who got himself mutilated because of his lack of fear. The myth where Ty, or Tyr, Tir and Tue as he's also called, lost his hand is a very important myth, about the explanation of a time of transition before Christian times. Holmgongu, or Holmgand (a dual) as we say today, comes from a time long ago before Viking Times. This was a time where Ty was one of the most important divinities in the North. Ty is a war god, he is entirely without fear and terror, and from that we get the word Tyredd which means to not have fear. Fenris ran free in Asgrad and created unrest and insecurity among the œsene (gods) and the åsynjene (goddesses). No one managed to tame the wolf and only Ty dared to feed it, as wild and large as it was.
Fenris is an embodiment of mankind's anger and aggression, which had become uncontrollable during this period of time. The gods were afraid of what Fenris was capable of, and at the point of losing control of mankind because Ty, who was the domineering god at this time, gave them such a source for an enormous amount of anger and an animal aggression. They were determined to bind Fenris. They didn't want to kill the wolf, yet they knew he would be the downfall of Odin, for it's forbidden to spill blood on holy ground. So they made a chain which they called Lædingr and bound Fenris with it. He loosened the chain without any problems. After that they made an even stronger chain which they called Dromi and with this also bound the Fenris wolf. The wold laid down, unhitched, and freed himself of his chains so that it flew into pieces everywhere. From this we get the expression when one is struggling with something to free themselves out of a dilemma it's said, " Let him free himself from Løding " or " let him be free from Drome." Finally the got the dwarves to forge a chain which surely would hold Fenris bound if they could get it around him, and this was called Gleipnir and was made from the sound of the footsteps of a cat, a woman's beard, the roots of a mountain, a bear's sinews, the breathe of a fish, and the spittle of a bird. None of these things can be found today. They finally got Fenris lured to a small island and bound him, but only if Ty would lay his hand in Fenris's mouth who was certain he wouldn't be fooled. The chain held and the god's rejoiced with the exception of Ty, he lost his hand. Fenris was still wild and crazy and snapped at them, so they took the mooring line Gelgja which was fastened to the chain and stuck it through a large rock named Gjoll, then placed the rock deep in the earth, and took a large stone and buried it even deeper down and used it as an anchor. The stone is called Tviti. Then Thor took his sword and put it through Fenris's jaw, he imapled the wolf to the ground and such stands Fenris to this very day, and he howls terribly. The saliva which runs from the wolf's mouth is called van. Such he lies until Ragnarok.
The two things which we ought to notice here, are that Fenris shall become Odin's slayer, and that it's humanities anger and aggression that will be their destruction, and that the fearless Ty lost his hand and with that his place in society. He became a mutilated god. After Ty was mutilated, Odin, Thor, and Freyr became the foremost gods in the north. The strongest strength was replaced by a new strongest strength, the psychological strength now ruled. Ty always let the physical strength rule. Now we come back to Holmgongu; in Ty's days of glory it was custom to settle disputes between people by putting them in a boat and letting them row to an island, and only one would come back alive and he was the one who was strongest. Ty had the most strength. In the Viking Times, this was modified. They drew a ring on the ground about three meters in diameter and put two men to fight there. If one of them was shoved out of the ring, he lost, and usually the fight ended with the first drop of blood. The first one who bled usually lost. It was only so often they fought until death during the Viking Times. Ty was mutilated because he was not afraid, and for this he lost his influence, or better said lost most of his influence. His fearlessness let Fenris bite his hand, and with that he had to yield to the other gods. The last variants of Holmgongu which I write about here is a more mild form of the first one where they fought to death, with the exception of where one of the warriors was so unhonorable that he gave his own life or when one was so injured he couldn't fight anymore; it's unhonorable to strike a man when he's down. For that matter I can mention that Ty's holy island lies in Hordaland south and west of Bjorngvinjar, a place called Tysnes where there are still stone monuments which were created in the bronze age. They were made by worshippers of Nerbus, we know this from Tacitus who wrote it in his book Germania. It is unknown who this Nerbus is, but we assume it's a name of Njordr before he became more or less replaced by his 2 children Freyja and Freyr. There is a good possibility that it's another name of Jord which means "earth" who is the mother of Thor and one of Odin's wives. Of the elder gods we have Ullr, Nerbus and Ty who are all more or less replaced by other gods and forgotten. After the next ragnarok the gods of today will be fogotten, Odin of Vidarr and Vali, Thor of Modi and Magni, Freyja of Hnoss and etc…. This is an eternal process, and it is actually only a name choice of the same god, for the same god lives on in his children, just like us people.
So back to what I began with, namely fear. Like I said we need fear, if not we'll be mutilated like Ty was, or even worse, but there are two ways to be afraid, one is to react with fear, and the other is to react with anger. Each to their time, anger when you see someone who is trying to kill you and fear when you stand on the edge of a cliff and are on the verge of falling off.
I am alive today because I reacted with anger instead of fear when I heard that the communist-fag would kill me! Had I reacted with fear I would in all honesty have been a coward, one who should die.