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Description
No greater shadow looms over Asgard than the great wolf Fenrir, one of the three monstrous children of Loki and the jötunn Angrboða. His name means something like "swamp dweller", and he is also strangely referred to as Fenrisúlfr, "Fenrir's Wolf". This is probably just a poetic device that doesn't translate into the rules of modern English, since the World Tree is also referred to as "Yggdrasil's Ash" on occasion. It may also indicate some sort of alternative form Fenrir can assume ala the famous Berserkers who embody the rage of a wild animal, but this is a bit too speculative for my tastes. What we do know about Fenrir internally is few and far between, and some have even equated him to the hound that guards the Gates of Helheim, Garmr, for their equal obscurity, but this doesn't really add much to his character if this identification is correct. Both clearly have beef with Odin, and for good reason. While Odin flung the wolf's siblings Hel and Jörmungandr into far off realms, fearing the prophecy that they would spell his doom at Ragnarök, Fenrir was not so easily disposed. Born and raised in the realm of the gods, the pup could not simply be executed, as spilling blood is forbidden on the sacred grounds of Asgard. As such, Fenrir was allowed to stay, but none of the gods would afford him any kindness. None, that is, but Týr, who became Fenrir's only friend and keeper. Odin, meanwhile, who will be Fenrir's prey in the final battle, became ever more paranoid as the wolf grew larger and larger, big enough to swallow the sky. Terrified of his fate, Odin hatched a scheme to be rid of the wolf: he came to Fenrir offering a game. The gods presented him with tougher and tougher bonds to "test his strength", but Fenrir broke through each one. Desperate, Odin commissioned the dwarves to forge a magical chain named Gleipnir, fashioned from things which did not exist: a cat's footsteps, a woman's beard, a mountain's root, a bear's sinews, a fish's breath, and a bird's spittle.

When the gods presented this chain, Fenrir started to become suspicious about just how antsy they seemed to tie him up. There's a certain point where it stops being kinky, afterall. Fenrir would only agree to be bound one last time if one of the gods put their hand in his jaws as insurance. All the gods hesitated, save for Týr, Fenrir's only friend. Týr put his hand between the wolf's mighty teeth, the gods tied him up, and when Fenrir could not break the fetters, and the gods refused to let him go, Fenrir chomped down and snapped Týr's hand off at the wrist. It is unclear whether Týr was a willing sacrifice in this plot, or if he was played just as much as his friend. It is however noteworthy that in the Prose Edda's telling of this tale, it is said that all the gods laughed at Fenrir's misfortune. All the gods but Týr. Indeed, in the poem Lokasenna, when Loki insults Týr for his missing hand, Týr's only response is to emphasize the loss of his hand with Loki's loss of his son. Take that for what you will.

So there suffers Fenrir to this day, withering away, chained to a rock deep underground on the mythical island of Lyngvi surrounded by the lake Amsvartnir, a veritable Alcatraz. Still, the prophecy of Ragnarök is still in motion, and it is foretold that Fenrir will escape his binds one day to seek vengeance on Odin. In all his paranoia, the Allfather set in motion the very prophecy that he burnt so many bridges to avoid. This is why Odin sends his valkyries to select Earth's toughest warriors of noble blood to be his einherjar. He still clings to this mad notion that he can cheat death and destiny, but it will not be enough. Fenrir will devour the wiley Odin in the final battle, and the wolf' pups Sköll and Hati will devour the Sun and Moon respectively. Vengeance for Odin will come in the form of his own son, Víðarr, who wields, of all things, a magical giant shoe made from all the discarded scraps of leather that fall off your average peasant's footwear. With this shoe, he will clamp down on the wolf's bottom jaw and use it as leverage to split the monster's mouth apart at the seam. Jesus Christ, that's metal as hell, and really gross. Personally, I'm of the opinion that there is no such thing as a bad dog, so I don't like to think about that. It can be easy to paint Fenrir as the big bad wolf, and certainly there is historical precedent for that, but personally, I can't help but sympathize with Fenrir and find him a spot on my altar. From my perspective, as someone who has suffered from the miscarriage of justice, whose friends have been harassed for seeming "monstrous" just because how they were born, it's hard not to see a powerful ally in Fenrir as the embodiment of true justice eventually overcoming the men on high horses who twist the law to their needs at the expense of us poor and needy. That's just my two cents, though.

Design notes, this one was tricky at first. Mammals for some reason still give me trouble when drawing anatomy. I'm quite happy with how it came out in the end, though. Most historical depictions of Fenrir just illustrate him as a big black wolf, which okay isn't inaccurate, but it is inadequate for my tastes. I wanted to give this pup some heft as the largest of all beasties, so I actually took inspiration from a few different predatory mammals. His body is a sort of mix between a hyena and an extinct canid called Epicyon, a bone-eating doggo which was the largest of its family ever, even surpassing the famous dire wolves in size. His big chompers meanwhile were inspired by again a hyena, as well as the face of Andrewsarchus, an extinct hoofed critter which was once considered the largest predatory mammal of all time, though last I checked its size has since been demoted. Correct me if I'm wrong, though. I wanted to give Fenrir those infamous bone-crunching teeth of hyenas, because it seems appropriate for the devourer of gods, no? For his fur colors, I actually took inspiration from the wolf cave painting at Font-de-Gaume, as the pattern lends itself to a sort of skull-like resemblance. His armor meanwhile is a mix between medieval dog armor and Roman war elephant equipment. Taking inspiration from the elephants, specifically the ones with towers attached to their backs, I included a bunch of ringlets in his armor as places for Gleipnir to ultimately loop through and hold Fenrir down. I didn't jump straight into the bound Fenrir because I like to design the basic design for a character before I draw variants and poses for them first so that I know what to manipulate. Also I'd have to look up reference images of sad dogs for his facial expression and I'm just not in a headspace to do that right now-

Description
No greater shadow looms over Asgard than the great wolf Fenrir, one of the three monstrous children of Loki and the jötunn Angrboða. His name means something like "swamp dweller", and he is also strangely referred to as Fenrisúlfr, "Fenrir's Wolf". This is probably just a poetic device that doesn't translate into the rules of modern English, since the World Tree is also referred to as "Yggdrasil's Ash" on occasion. It may also indicate some sort of alternative form Fenrir can assume ala the famous Berserkers who embody the rage of a wild animal, but this is a bit too speculative for my tastes. What we do know about Fenrir internally is few and far between, and some have even equated him to the hound that guards the Gates of Helheim, Garmr, for their equal obscurity, but this doesn't really add much to his character if this identification is correct. Both clearly have beef with Odin, and for good reason. While Odin flung the wolf's siblings Hel and Jörmungandr into far off realms, fearing the prophecy that they would spell his doom at Ragnarök, Fenrir was not so easily disposed. Born and raised in the realm of the gods, the pup could not simply be executed, as spilling blood is forbidden on the sacred grounds of Asgard. As such, Fenrir was allowed to stay, but none of the gods would afford him any kindness. None, that is, but Týr, who became Fenrir's only friend and keeper. Odin, meanwhile, who will be Fenrir's prey in the final battle, became ever more paranoid as the wolf grew larger and larger, big enough to swallow the sky. Terrified of his fate, Odin hatched a scheme to be rid of the wolf: he came to Fenrir offering a game. The gods presented him with tougher and tougher bonds to "test his strength", but Fenrir broke through each one. Desperate, Odin commissioned the dwarves to forge a magical chain named Gleipnir, fashioned from things which did not exist: a cat's footsteps, a woman's beard, a mountain's root, a bear's sinews, a fish's breath, and a bird's spittle.

When the gods presented this chain, Fenrir started to become suspicious about just how antsy they seemed to tie him up. There's a certain point where it stops being kinky, afterall. Fenrir would only agree to be bound one last time if one of the gods put their hand in his jaws as insurance. All the gods hesitated, save for Týr, Fenrir's only friend. Týr put his hand between the wolf's mighty teeth, the gods tied him up, and when Fenrir could not break the fetters, and the gods refused to let him go, Fenrir chomped down and snapped Týr's hand off at the wrist. It is unclear whether Týr was a willing sacrifice in this plot, or if he was played just as much as his friend. It is however noteworthy that in the Prose Edda's telling of this tale, it is said that all the gods laughed at Fenrir's misfortune. All the gods but Týr. Indeed, in the poem Lokasenna, when Loki insults Týr for his missing hand, Týr's only response is to emphasize the loss of his hand with Loki's loss of his son. Take that for what you will.

So there suffers Fenrir to this day, withering away, chained to a rock deep underground on the mythical island of Lyngvi surrounded by the lake Amsvartnir, a veritable Alcatraz. Still, the prophecy of Ragnarök is still in motion, and it is foretold that Fenrir will escape his binds one day to seek vengeance on Odin. In all his paranoia, the Allfather set in motion the very prophecy that he burnt so many bridges to avoid. This is why Odin sends his valkyries to select Earth's toughest warriors of noble blood to be his einherjar. He still clings to this mad notion that he can cheat death and destiny, but it will not be enough. Fenrir will devour the wiley Odin in the final battle, and the wolf' pups Sköll and Hati will devour the Sun and Moon respectively. Vengeance for Odin will come in the form of his own son, Víðarr, who wields, of all things, a magical giant shoe made from all the discarded scraps of leather that fall off your average peasant's footwear. With this shoe, he will clamp down on the wolf's bottom jaw and use it as leverage to split the monster's mouth apart at the seam. Jesus Christ, that's metal as hell, and really gross. Personally, I'm of the opinion that there is no such thing as a bad dog, so I don't like to think about that. It can be easy to paint Fenrir as the big bad wolf, and certainly there is historical precedent for that, but personally, I can't help but sympathize with Fenrir and find him a spot on my altar. From my perspective, as someone who has suffered from the miscarriage of justice, whose friends have been harassed for seeming "monstrous" just because how they were born, it's hard not to see a powerful ally in Fenrir as the embodiment of true justice eventually overcoming the men on high horses who twist the law to their needs at the expense of us poor and needy. That's just my two cents, though.

Design notes, this one was tricky at first. Mammals for some reason still give me trouble when drawing anatomy. I'm quite happy with how it came out in the end, though. Most historical depictions of Fenrir just illustrate him as a big black wolf, which okay isn't inaccurate, but it is inadequate for my tastes. I wanted to give this pup some heft as the largest of all beasties, so I actually took inspiration from a few different predatory mammals. His body is a sort of mix between a hyena and an extinct canid called Epicyon, a bone-eating doggo which was the largest of its family ever, even surpassing the famous dire wolves in size. His big chompers meanwhile were inspired by again a hyena, as well as the face of Andrewsarchus, an extinct hoofed critter which was once considered the largest predatory mammal of all time, though last I checked its size has since been demoted. Correct me if I'm wrong, though. I wanted to give Fenrir those infamous bone-crunching teeth of hyenas, because it seems appropriate for the devourer of gods, no? For his fur colors, I actually took inspiration from the wolf cave painting at Font-de-Gaume, as the pattern lends itself to a sort of skull-like resemblance. His armor meanwhile is a mix between medieval dog armor and Roman war elephant equipment. Taking inspiration from the elephants, specifically the ones with towers attached to their backs, I included a bunch of ringlets in his armor as places for Gleipnir to ultimately loop through and hold Fenrir down. I didn't jump straight into the bound Fenrir because I like to design the basic design for a character before I draw variants and poses for them first so that I know what to manipulate. Also I'd have to look up reference images of sad dogs for his facial expression and I'm just not in a headspace to do that right now-