Now that our cosmic story world has been established, we can move on to the places where story has broken down. In these places a great hurt exists, where we have broken the bonds of reciprocity with the natural world and with each other. Story can help us identify these places of hurt, and story can help us to heal them.
(The Binding of the Wolf)
Long ago, when the worlds were still young and the great ash tree Yggdrasil stretched its branches across the sky, the gods lived together in their shining home in Asgard.
In those days the world was not yet divided the way it is now.
Gods, giants, animals, forests, mountains, and humans all belonged to the same great living web.
But the web was not always comfortable.
Because the universe contains not only gentle things, but wild things too.
And one of the wildest beings ever born was the great wolf Fenrir, child of the trickster Loki.
When Fenrir was young he was only a pup.
The Gods raised him among them.
But Fenrir grew.
He grew stronger.
He grew wilder.
And the Gods began to fear him.
Only one God was brave enough to feed him and care for him, the courageous Týr.
Yet the fear of the other Gods kept growing.
They did not try to understand the wolf.
They did not try to live with the wolf.
Instead they decided they must control him.
The First Bindings
The Gods forged a great chain and asked Fenrir to test his strength.
Fenrir snapped it easily.
So the Gods forged a stronger chain.
Fenrir broke that one too.
Each time the chains grew heavier.
Each time the Gods trusted Fenrir less. And each time Fenrir trusted the Gods less as well.
Fear was growing on both sides.
The Binding That Could Not Be Seen
Finally the gods asked the dwarves—
the deep craftspeople of the earth—
to make a binding unlike any other.
The dwarves created a ribbon called Gleipnir.
It was soft as silk and thin as thread.
But it was made from strange things:
- the sound of a cat’s footsteps
- the beard of a woman
- the roots of mountains
- the sinews of a bear
- the breath of a fish
- the spit of a bird
Things that seem impossible.
Things you cannot see.
The strongest bonds are often like that.
Invisible.
The Broken Trust
When the Gods brought Gleipnir to Fenrir, the wolf felt uneasy.
He had learned that the Gods were afraid of him.
And he had learned that fear can lead to tricks.
So Fenrir made a request.
“If this is only a game,” he said,
“one of you must place your hand in my mouth as a sign of trust.”
The Gods looked at one another.
None wished to risk their hand.
Only Týr stepped forward.
Týr placed his hand between the wolf’s great jaws.
Fenrir allowed the ribbon to be wrapped around him.
Then he pushed against it.
He struggled.
He pulled with all his might.
But the ribbon did not break.
Fenrir realized he had been deceived.
And in his anger and grief he closed his jaws.
Týr lost his hand.
The wolf was bound.
Trust was broken.
The Great Hurt
The wolf was chained to a rock on a lonely island.
A sword was placed between his jaws to hold them open.
The Gods returned to their shining halls.
But something had changed in the world.
A wound had opened.
The Gods had bound the wildness of the world instead of learning to live with it.
They had chosen fear instead of relationship.
And the invisible ribbon that held Fenrir was made of the same things that bind humans today:
- Things we cannot see, but which shape our lives.
- Fear of difference.
- Fear of power.
- Fear of the unknown.
These fears grow into invisible bonds.
They bind people to one another in painful ways.
They divide humans into races and nations.
They divide humans into genders and roles.
They divide humans from nature.
They even divide humans from the sacred.
The world becomes full of separations. Just like the wolf, many beings become chained by invisible ribbons.
The Prophecy
The Old Norse stories say that the binding of Fenrir does not last forever.
One day, at the great turning of the ages called Ragnarök, the wolf will break free.
But Ragnarök is not only destruction.
After the old world falls, a new world rises green and alive again. A world where life begins anew.
Some storytellers say this means something important:
- The wounds of the world are not permanent.
- The chains made of fear can one day be broken.
And perhaps the work of humankind is to begin that healing before Ragnarök arrives.
- To rebuild trust.
- To reconnect with the natural world.
- To remember that we are part of the great living web of Yggdrasil.
The Question at the End of the Story
When this story is told, the teller often ends with a question:
What invisible ribbons bind the world today?
And more importantly:
How might we begin to loosen them?
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