Gleipnir

The fetter on Fenrir

Gylfaginning: the wolf Fenrir, Loki's son by Angrboða, outgrows Leyding and Dromi, the iron fetters. The dwarves then make Gleipnir, thin as silk, from six impossibles — a cat's footfall, a woman's beard, a mountain's roots, a bear's sinews, a fish's breath, a bird's spittle. Fenrir agrees to try it only if a god's hand is in his jaws; Týr pays the hand. They bind him on the island Lyngvi, a sword propped in his mouth, until Ragnarok, when he breaks free and swallows Odin. Gleipnir is that binding, not a temple ribbon. Fenrir in the poems and in Snorri's prose is the same bound wolf; this is the dwarven fetter that holds him.