This is the story of what could have been a good boi.

But mr. Odin got spooked when this puppy started to become a BIG boi.

So they used the pup's desire to impress the gods against him, tricked him, had his only friend betray him, tied him up, and put a sword through his face, then left him to rot until the end of times.

Understandably upset, Fenrir became a bad boi.

So much they assumed him to be a monster that they made him into one!

Humorous perspective of the story aside, this illustration features Fenrir, the sword, Tyr's biten hand, the watchful eye of Odin, his two ravens Huginn and Muninn, and the binding chain or rope Gleipnir, which holds the wolf in place underground until the end of times.

Can be found as "Fenrir", plus your preferred color keywords.

These are the colors I made so far, click to go to the art prints:

Black Blue	White Black	White Blue	White Red
Black Red (Bloody)	Black White Red	Black White	Stone
Black Grey Grit	Dark	Cream	Wood

His story, a general recap of the most popular versions

As we all know, Fenrir is a major character in Norse mythology, and the monstrous wolf who would eventually kill Odin, and swallow the world during Ragnarök.

He is the son of the trickster god Loki, and the giantess Angrboda, and eventually the father of the wolves Sköll and Hati, which chase the moon and the sun to eat swallow them, and in turn kickstart the Ragnarök.
As a pup, he grew incredibly fast, which made the gods nervous. Given the looming prophecy and the nature of his parents, the gods decided to constrain him in an effort to prevent him from causing harm.

Many times they tricked him into showing him strength by challenging him to break free from various chains, and each time he broke his bounds.
Eventually, they tasked the dwarves with creating a chain strong enough to bound him, the dwarves made a magic chain called Gleinir out of: the beard of a woman, the roots of mountains, the sound of a cat’s steps, sinews of a bear, breath of a fish, and spittle of a bird.

Once they approached Fenrir with this new but seemingly thin bound, the wolf grew suspicious, and only agreed to let himself be bound if the only god that had been friendly to him, Tyr, placed his hand in the wolf’s mouth. As expected, Fenrir was finally captured and Tyr ended up losing his hand. He was then gagged by a sword and tied with Gleipnir to a boulder.

Despite being bound, Fenrir's role in Ragnarok was foretold. He is supposed to break free, bring destruction and chaos and consume everything along his path, including Odin, just to be eventually killed by Odin’s son, Vidarr in revenge.

As all stories, Fenrir’s story has some topics and interpretations, such as the inevitability of fate, the uncontrollable power of nature, and the cycle of destruction and rebirth. In my opinion, it’s also a great story of self-fulfilling prophecy, since it could be theorized that Fenrir was a victim of being judged by who his parents were, and eventually became a monster due to the fear, distrust and actions of the gods themselves.

Process

As all knotwork illustrations, this was quite the puzzle and challenge, I don't show all the sketches made, but enough to say (and you can see) that I had to go over the shapes and ideas quite a few times!

Also, I actually started it around 2 years ago, not long after finishing Fafnir, but I was only able to find the time to finish it this year.

Art thieves are at large

My illustrations, designs and even mockups are constantly being stolen by less than human scum that put it for sale on their Etsy, Amazon, Temu, Aliexpress shops and other places. Hence my watermarks are getting bigger, because they have even cut my mockups or blurred my signatures.

Please help me by not posting my artwork anywhere without signatures, credit or links.

Thank you! 🖤