Fælværa
Ossetian · deity · cosmogonic · Recorded classification
THE ONE-EYED GOD AND THE REASON FOR THE EYE. The tradition explains a shepherd-god's blind side as an injury inflicted by the wolves' own lord, so that the flock can always be taken from the side he cannot watch. Holding one of this pair without the other would leave the story with no cause.
Domains
- sheep and flocks
- protection of livestock
- shearing festival
Relations
- enemy: TutyrReciprocated within this batch. The enmity is not decorative: it is the etiology of his blindness in one eye and of the wolf's advantage over the flock.Reference treatment of Fælværa and Tutyr: Fælværa was the protector of sheep, possibly named after Florus and Laurus, and his festival was celebrated before sheep-shearing in September; he has only one eye, and he is often the enemy of Tutyr, who struck out Fælværa's left eye so that wolves could come at the flocks from the blind side, where the shepherd-god could not see them; Tutyr is the lord of the wolves and master of all wolves, identified with Saint Theodore of Tyre; the Ossetians believed that wolves could not attack livestock without Tutyr's will, and that calling on Tutyr at the time when wolves attack livestock would make the wolves run away. (secondary)
Sources
- The protector of sheep, whose festival fell before the September shearing; he has only one eye, because Tutyr the wolf-lord struck out his left eye so that wolves could come at the flocks from the blind side.: Reference treatment of Fælværa and Tutyr: Fælværa was the protector of sheep, possibly named after Florus and Laurus, and his festival was celebrated before sheep-shearing in September; he has only one eye, and he is often the enemy of Tutyr, who struck out Fælværa's left eye so that wolves could come at the flocks from the blind side, where the shepherd-god could not see them; Tutyr is the lord of the wolves and master of all wolves, identified with Saint Theodore of Tyre; the Ossetians believed that wolves could not attack livestock without Tutyr's will, and that calling on Tutyr at the time when wolves attack livestock would make the wolves run away. (secondary)