Garmr

We're heading down to the Norse underworld this week for one of the fearsome guardians of Hel, Garmr! How does this hellhound compare to Cerberus from Greek myth? How does he contribute to Ragnarok? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

I am fully back from Manchester and embracing the southern English heat, although it has managed to drop massively in temperature which is lovely. I got to see the new Deadpool last weekend and highly recommend it even if you aren’t massively into superhero movies like me.

DESCRIPTION:

Anyway, whilst we can kind of link Marvel to Norse mythology, let’s move swiftly over to actual Thor rather than Chris Hemsworth’s version. This week, we’re looking at a fierce enemy of Thor’s, Garmr, the guardian of Hel. 

Garmr is traditionally described as a monstrous male hellhound or wild dog, with bloodstained, black fur, jaws of sharp, jagged teeth and around the same size as a small house. He is very basic in regards to his appearance, as he is just a hellhound, however, sometimes he's depicted as having multiple heads as well as multiple eyes or a flaming body, but the basics are really what is most commonly associated with him. 

He stands watch at the gates of Hell to make sure that no one unauthorised gets in, and no one who’s meant to be a denizen of the hells gets out. He’s known to eat souls of the dead if they try, and the meat and souls of the living who attempt to reclaim the dead ones. 

Speaking of the Hells, let’s chat about where Garmr is from. He resides in Hel, the Norse version of Hell. This is of course, not the only afterlife, with the epic Valhalla being the most famous, filled with banquet halls and fighting. There was also Fólkvangr which was a more peaceful, field living good afterlife - and you were chosen by either Odin, king of the gods, for warrior heaven Valhalla or Freyja, goddess of love and beauty, for the calm Fólkvanger. However, if you were not so nice, you would be sent to Hel.

You would think that Hel would be rough in comparison to the others, but actually it wasn’t so bad - fields of summer with heavy gates that separated the living and the dead running through it. Hel was situated in the realm of Niflheim, one of the nine Norse realms - and was known to be a cold, desolate place - however, usually full of mist from the neighbouring Muspelheim, realm of fire. It wasn’t all alright though, if you were an oath-breaker, murderer or adulterer though, you were sent to Nastrond, which was a very literal hell, a hall made of the spines of snakes and a place of darkness and horror. 

This realm was ruled over by Hel, the goddess of death and Garmr is her guardian pet dog, and you’d generally only meet them if you didn’t die a notable or heroic death, one of the great shames from Norse paganism. Garmr lives within a cave near the entrance of Hel, called G nipahellir, where he took up his guard duties for his owner.

Garmr though was mostly just massive in regards to his powers, he was just a massive dog with an immense hunger for anything that crossed him and howled immensely loud. He was able to eat people in one bite, as well as being able to hold his own against gods too - making him one of the most important figures alongside Hel, in the downfall of the Norse pantheon, Ragnarok, but we’ll get into that later. He is almost considered a god himself as he is so powerful and large, but he’s not ever mentioned officially amongst the roster - although is actively chained to stop him going on any rampages.

He could be killed only by gods, however we don’t actually know what specifically kills him - we do just know it’s godly intervention of some kind. We also don’t know how he came to be, most monsters in Norse myths come from the marriage of the trickster god Loki and his wife Angrboda, including Hel herself, Jörmungandr, the world serpent and Fenrir, the great wolf. Garmr just seems to come into being, he may have even lived there before Hel did, but we’re not sure - what we do know is that there’s only one guardian dog of hell in this mythology and he’s not out there having puppies either.

ORIGIN:

For etymology, it’s actually very contested within the mythology community. Some think it comes from Indo-European languages for ‘to growl’, some think it’s from the Old Norse coming from the word ‘gjarma’, meaning to howl or to yelp. I think the latter is much more feasible as well as pretty cool, so I’ll run with that. 

For his history, as always with Norse mythology, our holy book for myths is the Poetic and Prose Edda, some of the oldest texts known to man, which describe all the Norse myths we know of today. 

These were believed to be written back in at least the 8th century in around 900 AD when Norse paganism across Scandinavia and in some other European countries was rife. The Poetic Edda is a collection of poems and Garmr is mentioned multiple times across three poems, which I have extracts from. 

The best of trees must Yggdrasil be,

Skíd bladnir best of boats;

Of all the gods is Óðinn the greatest,

And Sleipnir the best of steeds;

Bifröst of bridges, Bragi of skalds,

Hábrók of hawks, and Garm of hounds.

This poem actually shows the respect the Norse had for Garmr, naming him the best of hounds and the best of boys. He was the epitome of a great guard dog, even though no one wanted to pet him. He’s also mentioned in a trip that Odin takes to Hel where he meets Garmr on the way;

Then Óðinn rose, the enchanter old,

And the saddle he laid on Sleipnir's back;

Thence rode he down to Niflhel deep,

And the hound he met that came from hell.

Bloody he was on his breast before,

At the father of magic he howled from afar;

Forward rode Óðinn, the earth resounded

Till the house so high of Hel he reached.

And lastly, we have a poem about his role in Ragnarok;

Now Garm howls loud before Gnipahellir,

The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free;

Much do I know, and more can see

Of the fate of the gods, the mighty in fight.

This is also where the Prose Edda comes in, a collection of stories instead of poems from the same time - and gives him a prophetic story about his role in Ragnarok too;

Then shall the dog Garmr be loosed, which is bound before Gnipahellir: he shall do battle with Týr, and each become the other's slayer.

So it’s probably time I tell you about what happens at Ragnarok with Garmr. Ragnarok, as I said earlier, is the downfall of the Norse pantheon, but also the end of the world as we know it. From that last extract from the Edda, you can probably guess what his role is, it’s to get free and kill Tyr, the god of justice, but Tyr will kill him in turn. 

Tyr is special in this instance, because he is slightly more afraid, but vengeful around godly, vicious creatures after Loki tricked him to have his hand bitten off by his wolf son, Fenrir. So Garmr and Tyr going up against each other is kind of the sequel everyone wants, but they do end up tearing each other to pieces and Ragnarok continues without them.

Of course, this event is really big and is important in terms of how this is reflected in Norse paganism, Garmr is a representation of chaos and death, going up against Tyr, the embodiment of justice and good, but they end up cancelling each other out. Garmr also represents the natural order, especially being a creature of the underworld, as well as the sanctity of life, death and the afterlife. Also, just in case you were worried about the after effects of the end of the world in Norse mythology, the world is reborn - you’re welcome.

One question that is always at the top of everyone’s mind with Garmr is how similar he is to Fenrir, and realistically, are they the same creature? The answer is they’re similar, but certainly not the same beast. Fenrir is a wolf but he’s also a god who is bound by the gods and has immense hatred for them - whilst Garmr is the loyal guardian of hell, and he’s a hellhound. So that puts that to bed. 

Of course, we do have another important mythical comparison from across Europe with the Greek hellhound, Cerberus. Cerberus was the hound of Hades, or hell in the Greek underworld, although he was slightly different as he had three heads instead of one. The beasts are both the guardians of their respective hells and fiercely protective of both their realm and their masters, with voracious appetites for those who stepped into or out of them. 

The biggest difference really is that Cerberus is pretty safe around other gods, as there’s no real beef between the Gods in the Greek pantheon that isn’t quickly squished. Hades, god of the dead, isn’t the James Woods-esque villain from Disney’s Hercules and they all get on okay when they’re not stealing each other’s wives and daughters.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there are a few bits with Garmr in - however, not really enough to fill this out, so I’ve also popped in some Cerberus stuff in here too for the whole hell guardian vibe.

For art, there’s only really one portrait of Garmr, which is Hel from 1889 by Johannes Gehrts. Otherwise I’d recommend looking at some of the independent art, but also video game versions of him are also pretty cool.

In movies, we have; All Dogs Go to Heaven, Hercules, Scoob!, Where the Dead Go To Die, The Lost Boys, Scooby-Doo, Wishmaster, The Neverending Story, Jonah Hex, Hellboy, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Bye Bye Man, Ghostbusters, Dark Angel: The Ascent, Predators, Never Cry Werewolf, Black Dog & An American Haunting.

For TV, we have; Abyssal Infinitum, Tokyo Afterschool Summoners, Mystery Science Theater 3000, 2 Stupid Dogs, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, The Owl House, Phineas & Ferb, League of Super Evil, Fangbone!, Mr Pickles, Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel, Teen Wolf, What We Do in the Shadows, Rescue Me, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Reaper, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ultraman Nexus, Supernatural, Chrono Crusade, Black Butler, Digimon, One Piece, Naruto, Hellsing & Berserk.

In video games, we have ones such as; Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Typoman, MementoMori, God of War, Boktai, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Apocalypse, Total War: Warhammer, Smite, Runescape, Quest 64, Penumbra, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Devil May Cry, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Nightmare Creatures, Monster Hunter, Dungeon Keeper, Shadowgate, League of Legends, Deadly Premonition, Kingdom Hearts 2, Heroes of Might and Magic, Odin Sphere, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Pokemon, The Elder Scrolls, Dragon’s Crown, Shadow Hearts, Doom Eternal, Fallout 4, Secret of Mana, Bounty of One, Poly Poly! Speed Daisakusen & Age of Wonders.

My book recommendation this week is for Tales of Norse Mythology by Helen A Guerber for fabulous Norse myths in a wider variety and Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman because this book is just a great coverage of the Norse mythos world.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

Well, it’s a tricky one because Garmr does live exclusively in the Norse underworld and I can’t say I’ve been. However, being a pagan myself and believing in Hades as a Hellenic pagan, I can totally believe that in a mirroring mythology such as the Norse, Garmr makes sense to have been around like Cerberus is. 

I do think it’s nice that Hel has a bestie in her banishment and that he’s so loyal to her, so much so to go against, realistically, her uncle and be destined to die in the fight. I am aware that I’ve not mentioned that Hel is banished to live in Hel by the way, I said at the beginning that this isn’t a god’s podcast - and honestly could you have guessed that she doesn’t want to be there? Probably!

I really like the myth around Hellhounds in all mythologies, especially these guardian dogs that stand their ground for their respective realms - realistically protecting the dead from desecration from the living too. I also love how the Norse people respected Garmr as a good boy and a very good guard dog for this reason, and kind of take him out of the big bad monster category that his uncles live in. 

By the way, if you’re interested in more Norse monsters like Jormangandr, Draugr, Sleipnir or Fenrir, I’ve covered the former two in episodes semi-recently and Sleipnir and Fenrir are yet to be covered, but are probably some of my favourite god/monsters from this mythos - so keep listening for those in future episodes for more on them.

But what do you think? Did Garmr protect the Norse hells? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

I love a dog-underworld-guardian you know, whilst Garmr isn’t my favourite of the few, he’s definitely a really cool monster to study for a week and I will look at him with new respect before I punt him in World of Warcraft raids now.

Next week, we’re heading over to Poland and Lithuania for the first time in ages and looking at the horrible Plague Maiden, Morowa Dziewica. So come prepared with your plague masks next Thursday!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, including some very cool merchandise - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.