Is Fenrir a Werewolf or just a Wolf?

Let’s talk about Fenrir tonight, in a previous post where I was talking about werewolf’s in the Viking sagas and folklore I posed the question “ Is Fenrir a werewolf? Or just a wolf?”…

Let’s analyses the sources we have that talk about him, In a text called Gylfaginning is mentioned that he is the son of Loki with a jötunn or giantess called Angrboda , note that Loki is from this kind too.

So he is not born from wolfs but from two jötunar so he is one too. An this already answer us part of the question, he is not “just a wolf” but let's continue and see if we can call him werewolf or another thing.

Now the most known text where Fenrir is mentioned is Völuspá that is part of the Poetic Edda were we can read the prophecy of Ragnarok, here its say that Fenrir will lose his chains and Odhin will fight and he is addressed as Ulf, the Old Norse word for wolf.

Strangely enough he’s addressed as “Freki” too, Freki means frenzy or the rabid one, and is actually y the name of one of Odhin wolfs…. But for now let’s put that aside as it don’t really concern our main question.

There is also a mention in Völuspá about another jötunn woman giving birth to Fenrir kind in the Iron woods, so again he is more than anything a jötunn in the shape of a Wolf, or did he poses the ability to shape shift like his father Loki? This is actually never mentioned anywhere, or not that I know at least.

What we actually have is a source were he “Talks” with the “Æsir, this is written in Gylfaginning again, as they are trying to chain him and none of the binding they use works, they try a last one but Fenrir is not quite convinced as he is suspicious of this tiny new tread, yet the gods convince him appealing to his pride and Fenrir finally accept the challenge telling himself that if one ought to be famous, one must put himself into some danger. Still he request that one of the gods put a hand on his mouth, and we know how that ends.. Tyr lost he’s and Fenrir get restrained.

During all this narrative Fenrir is referred as “ Úlfrinn” which mean “the wolf” but we have this long conversation of his whit the Æsir , so he is a wolf that talks, that is clear.

He is also called Ulf in Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal, were kennings for the Gods.

So… is there any source that calls Fenrier a different thing than wolf? , like Varg for example? That I mentioned before that was a word for wolf and werewolves as well as outlaws?...

Not to my knowledge LOL Im sorry… he is called other thing though, Vanagandr, the Monster of River van and Hrodvitnir The Famous wolf are the two more famous but he also called The foe of Odhin, The Slaughterer beast, Bane of The High god, The Second Grief of Frig m Father of Hati, Son of Loki and son of Angrboda.

All really cool but none of those make us think of him as a werewolf, not either the previous mentions about his demeanors and behavior… or it does?

We have to understand one thing about werewolves back then, and it’s that the people of this time mostly didn’t imagine a bipedal half man half wolf being wen thinking about a werewolf.

Im sure there was exceptions , the Ulfhednar for example were mostly depicted like men’s wearing wolf pelts , but won’t be difficult to think someone imagined them as guys with wolf heads for example, also we have mentions in the sagas about a guy with dog legs so yes there were some cases like those, but more often they think about a werewolf as a somehow supernatural quadruped wolf, maybe quite big, maybe a talking one, maybe men or women that using a pelt take the shape of the wolf…buy they were depicted and think of as that Wolf the animal we all know.

So thinking about that and Fenrir characteristics, he is not your run out of the forest wolf, but a jötunn Wolf who can talk, he is intelligent and he’s considered a monster , I think we could considered him some kind of werewolf of that time.

Or what do you folks think? Will you call him a werewolf knowing all this or not?