#mars thingsus

[poeticnorth]

Poem time! This one is from my third book, North Sea Rune Poems

[coinandcandle]

Tyr Deity Guide

Who is Tyr?

Tyr, or Týr, is a Norse god and member of the Aesir associated with justice, the law, and the formalities of war. He is also the guardian of oaths, treaties, and contracts. In interpretatio romana he is equated to the Roman god of war, Mars. His most well-known role is in the story Gylfaginning where he loses his arm. To some, it is this story that has earned Tyr the title of the bravest Norse god.

Parents and Siblings

Hymir (according to the poetic edda)

Hrod

Odin (according to Sturluson)

If he’s the son of Odin then his siblings (half-siblings) include:

Thor

Baldur

Váli

Vidarr

Heimdall

Hermod

Bragi

Hodr

Lovers or Partners

There is reference of a wife in Lokesenna but no name given.

Children

There is reference of a son in Lokesenna but no name given.

Epithets

The one-handed/armed god

Thingsus (*Þingsaz 'thing-god')

Feeder of the wolf/Fosterer of the Wolf

Notes

Tyr’s most popular story, Gylfaginning, tells of the deal he makes with Fenrir. Only Tyr was brave enough to approach Fenrir in order to feed him. This created a kinship between the two.

The gods tricked Fenrir by telling him that the various chains presented were testaments to his strength, and they congratulated him with cheers when he broke through them. Eventually, they presented the impossible chains made by the dwarves. Suspecting trickery, Fenrir demanded that, as a sign of good faith, one of the gods place their hand in his mouth as the chains were placed on him. Tyr stepped up to this task. As soon as Fenrir’s suspicions were verified and he realized he couldn’t break free, he bit off Tyr’s arm.

It was said that the gods laughed at the trapped wolf, except for Tyr.

Tuesday comes from Týsdagr, or “Týr’s Day”.

The name “Tyr” comes from Old Norse Týr which means “a god” or “the god”. Old Norse  Týr, Old English Tiw, Old High German *Ziu, Gothic Tyz, Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz, “god” (Orel, Vladimir. 2003. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. p. 408.)

Tyr is not the only god involved in war, Thor and Odin are also known as gods of war, though they reigned over three different aspects of war. Tyr is the law and justice, Odin is wisdom, and Thor is more brute force.

Tyr’s name is the namesake for the Tiwaz rune, ᛏ, representing “t”.

During Ragnarök, Tyr’s death was supposed to be caused by the wolf Garmr whom he would kill at the same time.

Tyr may be linked to the Proto-Indo-European deity *Dyeus the god of the daytime sky as well as a deity of justice, though nothing links Tyr to the sky in mythology.

Tyr is said to have a grandmother with nine hundred heads.

Modern Deity Work

Many of these correspondences are influenced by their associations with Tuesday and Mars (the planet). You don’t have to agree with these and you’re free to form your own correspondences as these are just suggestions!

Correspondences

Rocks/Stones/Crystals/Metals Black sardonyx, Jasper, Amethyst, Bloodstone, Iron, Garnet, Ruby

Herbs/Plants Valerian, Thistle, Juniper, Nettle, Laurel, Mustard seed

Animals Wolf

Sign - Tiwaz rune - Sword

Offerings and Acts of Devotion

Practice or learn about the law

Practice bravery and challenge yourself

Donate or volunteer to help disabled veterans

Study a martial art

Work out and improve your fitness

Any of the items listed in the correspondence section

Alcohol

Meat

Bread

Honey

References and Further Reading

Tyr - Mythopedia

Gylfaginning by Snori Sturluson (via Sacred-texts)

Tyr - Wikipedia

Tyr - norse-mythology

Tyr - World History Encyclopedia

Tyr - Encyclopedia Britannica

Ways to Worship Tyr - tarotbee

Tyr - Norse Mythology for Smart People

[eggshell-skull-rule]

Notes on Tyr, Dyēus, Jupiter, and runes

The Norse Tyr (Tiwaz) is suspected to have once held a more central role in the pantheon. The great sky god from before the cult of Odin. His name is supposed to come from the Proto- European Dyēus (Father Daylight Sky God). He can be linked to other Eurasian gods...

God, Sun, day, sky, weather, fertilising rain, water, thunder, lightning, fire, wisdom, writing, scholarship, scribes, messenger, war, battle, the Thing, law.

Dyēus, Dyaus, Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́.

Tiwaz, Tiyaz, Tyr, Tiw, Tir (Nabu)Tishtrya...Tirgan festival in modern Iran, water and rainbows...Archangel... Gabriel in Armenian folk tradition.

Zoyz, Ziu, Zeus, Jove, Jupiter, Pater, Father, King of the Gods...

Mars Thingsus, Mars Tiggi... some of the gods above were also likened to Hermes, Mercury, Apollo, Thoth.

[For my own reference]

In the Scandinavian context I believe Tyr is a Jötunn, not a son of Odin but of Hymir. Odin- Wotan- Wodanaz doesn't seem to have a Proto- Indo- European root.

Allfather. Ansuz- Óss can be "ash" or "oak" in futhorc. Óss, Odin...Jupiter in the Old Icelandic rune poem... Mercury, Hermes...

Jupiter also seems to circle back in the direction of Thor: Doner, Tonans, Tarhunz, Thurisaz, Thunraz, Thunor, Tarhunna, Indra, Parjanya, Perun, Perkūnos... the thunder, oaks... Donar's oak. Oaks sacred to Jupiter...Thor is a giant who defends the Asir from giants (I know, I know, everyone's supposed to be a son of Odin but I think he's rather older than Odin).

[germanicseidr]

Tiwaz

The God Tiwaz/Tyr is perhaps the oldest of the Germanic pantheon. He is the God of war and justice and might already have been worshipped since the Bronze Age.

His name dates back to the invading Yamnaya people (proto-indo Europeans). The original proto-Germanic name Tiwaz is linked to the chief God of the proto-indo Europeans, Dyeus.

Dyeus simply means God and since the Proto-Germanic language is derived from Proto-Indo European, we can assume that Tyr/Tiwaz simply just means God. Tiwaz was worshipped as the chief God of the Germanic people until Wodan took his place. How and why Wodan became the chief God is unknown.

One of the runes in the Futhark is named after him, the Tiwaz rune and the day tuesday has been named after him as well. We can see how important his sense of justice is since legal assemblies were named things. The word thing is related to Tiwaz. This also holds true for other Germanic languages.

We have very little sources about Tyr before the eddas were written. He has been mentioned by the Romans who gave him of course a Latin name, Mars Thingsus. Mars is the Roman God of war. Here are the Roman sources about Tyr:

Tacitus: "Among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship. They regard it as a religious duty to sacrifice to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind. Part of the Suebi sacrifice to Isis as well." (Mercury is Wodan, Hercules is Donar and Mars is Tyr. We are not sure who Isis could have been in the Germanic pantheon, it might be Freyja.)

Two inscriptions at Hadrian's wall placed by Frisians and the Tubanti: "DEO MARTI THINCSO ET DVABVS ALAISAGIS BEDE ET FIMMILENE ET N AVG GERM CIVES TVIHANTI VSLM" and

"DEO MARTI ET DVABVS ALAISIAGIS ET N AVG GER CIVES TVIHANTI CVNEI FRISIORVM VER SER ALEXANDRIANI VOTVM SOLVERVNT LIBENTES M" Both inscriptions speak about a Deo Marti. Deo means God in Latin and Marti is of course Mars/Tyr.

The Roman historian Jordanes wrote about the Goths and described how they saw Mars as an ancestral figure. Jordanes: "Moreover so highly were the Getae praised that Mars, whom the fables of poets call the god of war, was reputed to have been born among them. Hence Vergil says: Father Gradivus rules the Getic fields."

Of course Tyr still continued to play a role long after the Romans were gone. He has been described in the eddas but he has a less prominent role in them than before. Tacitus did not describe Tyr as a chief God either so the change must have happened at least before 50AD. I bet almost anyone here already knows the stories about the one-handed Tyr so I won't recap them here.

Why do you think the Germanic people stopped worshipping Tyr as the chief God?

Artist photo: Johan Egerkrans

[fairgu-nikko-blog]

Tiwaz, Tiw, Tyr and the Indo-European connection

I was reading a conversation and had a lot of thoughts on the topic. Keep in mind that Interpretatio Romana and comparative linguistic reconstruction does not exactly give a definitive answer to anything. I feel in the end some of it comes down to judgment or a matter of faith. But here goes.

When looking at linguistic reconstruction of proto-Indo-European deities there easy connections as well as more difficult ones. The material conditions and history of a culture/society result in shifts of which we can only now fully see the results.

As for the connections, Jupiter (Iu Piter) and Zeus (Zeu Pater) are easy connections. But with more distantly related cultures there can be shifts in the roles and attributes of deities. Reconstructed proto-Indo-European points to a Dyḗus Ph2tḗr (I’ll be spelling it Dyeus for short), a sky father who is chief over all deities. Etymologically related to this is also Tiwaz, known to the Norse as Tyr, a high god to Germanic peoples.

With Jupiter and Zeus we see the most attributes in common. Both are definitively the chief gods of their states/cultures. Jupiter was seen as the supreme patron of the Roman state and thus had a role in upholding law and social order. According to the New World Encyclopedia, Roman citizens would make oaths of truthfulness to the god in courts by swearing “by Jove.” Zeus, too held this function. A notable epithet he held was Zeus Horkios, a guardian of oaths and doer of justice.

When we draw our eyes to Tiwaz, we note that not all of these attributes transfer. The thunderer facet or aspect is not present -instead upheld by Donar/Thunor/Thor whom was compared to both Hercules (and Jupiter in some cases, to be fair) by Interpretatio Romana. But where Thor took those attributes, the role of chief god and justice holder was more consistently held by Tiwaz.

Much of the myth surrounding Tiwaz (Zio in Old High German), especially from continental sources, is lost to time. He was connected consistently by Interpretatio Romana to Mars as a war god. This war aspect of him remains even into the late period of the Germanic religion, though not unsurprising as even Wuotan/Odin had warrior attributes as chief (perhaps a result of the differences in the material condtions of those societies). Even so, “Mars” was named by Tacitus as the principly worshipped god of the Germans (over Hercules and Mercury). Tiwaz was also a presider over law and justice with connections to the Thing, the governing council and court that is seen throughout Germanic cultures even into the Viking Age. Tacitus writes that no punishments of crimes could be ordered without a priest’s approval that it was the will of this god. He is also commonly linked with Mars of the Thing (Mars Thingsus). His link to oaths remains well-known and the cause of his subsequent loss of limb to Fenrir. He also is a father of sorts, though not necessarily of the gods. Gothic studies professor Herwig Wolfram writes that ancient ethnography repeatedly pointed to him as progenitor deity of the Goths.

Many have postulated that during the migration period, Tiwaz lost favor among the warrior aristocracy for some reason. As a result, many of his possible chiefly and fatherly attributes could have been lost to the trickster psychopompic mad-god Wuotan (often compared to Mercury) who became much more in his role as Odin.

Of course, this is not definitive. The Roman and Greek deities have a variety of attested roles and facets that make one to one comparisons difficult. Additionally the name of Tyr also could be derived solely from the word for god rather than the name of a past deity, though I personally find it telling that the connection is there and that they’d refer to the being solely as god hints at a very central place for Tyr. An outside comparison is the Indo-European Luwian people’s sky/oath/justice god named Tiwaz which is also etymologically linked to Dyeus. Though this is not free from the previous issue either.

Ultimately, Tiwaz shares some of the roles and functions of other chief gods (especially if Tacitus’ accounts are taken into factor) while other roles are found in the attributes of others. I personally lean toward Tiwaz as a chief god and derivative of Dyeus, but that’s my judgment call based on the attributes I find most important of the principle deity. What you decide is up to you.

Disclaimer: this blog is very personal, I’d appreciate it if you kept my original content on Tumblr and not post it elsewhere.

[poeticnorth]

Oh hey, it's just me talking out of my arse again about Heathen things

https://layofthenorthsea.wordpress.com/2022/10/25/mars-thingsus-taking-a-look-at-mars-and-tyr/