Tyr God Wood Carving / Statue

Carved from Ash Wood, this statue represents the god Tyr, the Norse god of war but also the god who, more than any other, presides over matters of law and justice. . He is known to be a brave warrior and member of the Aesir who sacrificed his arm to chain the wolf Fenrir, in the tale of The Binding of Fenrir.

Tyr’s role as one of the principal war gods of the Norse, like Odin and Thor, is well-attested in sources from the Viking Age and earlier. For example, in the Sigrdrífumál, one of the poems in the Poetic Edda, the Valkyrie Sigrdrifa instructs the human hero Sigurd to invoke Tyr for victory in battle.

The rune that represents him is Tiwaz. To rule justly, one is asked to make many self-sacrifices, and Tiwaz can develop the power of positive self-sacrifice and temper over-sacrifice. The belief that courage and a right cause carries the day is governed by Tiwaz. It is the common justice of the people rather than the use of law by tyrants (a word that uses Tyr as a root)

Tyr is still present in modern language by being the origin of Tuesday  which stems from Old English “Day of Tiw (Tyr)” (Tiwesdæg).