Oct 7, 2026 · 35 min · 10 segments
In this episode of Story Medicine, we explore "The Binding of Fenrir" from Norse mythology, as told in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda... a story about what we do with the things we fear, and what it…
Joe SummerfieldHost
More cunning than any other, he was forever bringing the gods into great trouble, and then with his cleverness, getting them out of it again.
The second was a great serpent, and the third was a daughter, and her name was Hel.
For a time, these three children were raised in Jotunheim, far away from the eyes of the gods.
The gods learned that from these three children, great misfortune would one day fall upon them.
Much ill could be looked for from the mother's blood, they said, and worse still from the father's.
Odin threw the serpent into the deep sea that surrounds all lands, and there it grew and grew until it lay in the depths encircling the whole world, biting on its own tail.
To her would come all who die of sickness and of old age, and it was her duty to give each of them a dwelling.
And of all the gods, only one had courage to go near him and give him his meat, and that was Tyr.
He was the most daring of all of the gods and the stoutest of heart, the one that warriors would call upon for victory in battle.
The gods watched him, and they saw how much larger he was each morning than the night before, and all the prophecies said the same thing, that this wolf was fated to be their harm.
More cunning than any other, he was forever bringing the gods into great trouble, and then with his cleverness, getting them out of it again.
The second was a great serpent, and the third was a daughter, and her name was Hel.
For a time, these three children were raised in Jotunheim, far away from the eyes of the gods.
The gods learned that from these three children, great misfortune would one day fall upon them.
Much ill could be looked for from the mother's blood, they said, and worse still from the father's.
Odin threw the serpent into the deep sea that surrounds all lands, and there it grew and grew until it lay in the depths encircling the whole world, biting on its own tail.
To her would come all who die of sickness and of old age, and it was her duty to give each of them a dwelling.
And of all the gods, only one had courage to go near him and give him his meat, and that was Tyr.
He was the most daring of all of the gods and the stoutest of heart, the one that warriors would call upon for victory in battle.
The gods watched him, and they saw how much larger he was each morning than the night before, and all the prophecies said the same thing, that this wolf was fated to be their harm.
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