The Wolf in the Viking Era: Exploring Jungian Norse Wolf Archetypes in Germanic Myth, from Denmark - Fenrir the Wolf: The Devouring Archetype and the Fate of the Ego

AbstractThis paper examines the Norse wolf Fenrir as a symbolic container for the archetype of devouring instinct and egoic dissolution. Drawing on Jung’s concept of the Shadow and Self, Fenrir is explored not as a mere mythic antagonist but as an expression of ego’s confrontation with primordial psychic force. The analysis focuses on Danish iconography, including the Jelling stones and burial constraints, to contextualize cultural responses to unbounded power. The paper proposes that Fenrir symbolizes the individuation crisis when ego faces annihilation by the unconscious. Such devouring figures demand not suppression but symbolic integration. This interpretation reframes apocalyptic myth as an inner transformation narrative, emphasizing the necessity of symbolic death for psychic renewal.