1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Týr

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search

See also Týr on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.

TÝR, the Scandinavian god of battle. He is not a prominent figure in Northern mythology, for even in this special capacity he is overshadowed by Odin, and there are hardly any traces of worship being paid to him. Among other Teutonic peoples, however, he seems at one time to have been a deity of considerable importance. In Anglo-Saxon he was called Tī (Ti, Tiig, gen. Tīwes, whence “Tuesday”) and equated with the Roman Mars. He is also identified with the German god mentioned more than once by Tacitus, as well as in inscriptions, by the name Mars. His Teutonic name is the same as the word for “god” in several other Indo-European languages (e.g. Lat. dīuus, Lith. dēvas, Skr. devas), and even in Old Norse the plural tīvar was still used in the same sense. (See Teutonic Peoples § Religion, ad fin.)  (H. M. C.)