Úlfsgil — Wolf's Gorge in Þórsmörk, Where Fenrir Bit the Mountain

Þórsmörk, South Iceland

Deep in Þórsmörk's volcanic valley there is a gorge called Úlfsgil — Wolf's Gorge — said to be where the great wolf Fenrir, escaping the divine chain Gleipnir, made one bite into the mountain range. The rock there bleeds red when it rains.

Þórsmörk — Thor's Forest — is a glacially carved valley in South Iceland where three glaciers meet above a landscape of birch scrub, black sand rivers, and volcanic rock formations of unusual intensity. It is one of Iceland's most dramatic interior landscapes and one of the few places where the old Norse divine topography still seems to inhabit the place-names without irony. The gorge known as Úlfsgil — Wolf's Gorge — is a narrow cleft in the eastern flank of the Þórsmörk valley, its walls stained with iron-red volcanic minerals. The gorge is deep enough that its floor stays in shadow through most of the summer day. The tradition that attaches to it is specific and old. Fenrir — the wolf who will consume the sun at Ragnarök, son of Loki, bound by the gods with the silk-thin chain Gleipnir made from the sound of a cat's footsteps and the beard of a woman — is said to have broken free, briefly, during an intermediate age before his final binding. In that brief escape, moving across the Icelandic landscape that the Norse settlers had brought their mythology into, he bit once into the mountain. The gorge was left. The rock bleeds red in rain because iron-rich water runs through the volcanic minerals of the canyon walls. The tradition knows this and insists the explanation does not diminish the fact. Fenrir was here. The rock remembers. The bleeding is not metaphor. Fenrir remains bound — for now. Þórsmörk sits at the foot of two active volcanoes, Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull. When they move, the valley fills with ash. The wolf turns in his sleep.