What hound guards the gates of Hel?

What hound guards the gates of Hel? Garmr. In Norse mythology, Garmr is a fearsome dog or wolf associated with Hel and commonly described as the blood-stained guardian of her gates.

Garmr appears in the Poetic Edda, including Grímnismál, where he is called the best of hounds. In Völuspá, his howling accompanies the approach of Ragnarök, when bonds break and the wolf Fenrir is released. Snorri’s Prose Edda adds that Garmr is bound before Gnipahellir and will break free to fight the god Týr during the final conflict.

The evidence is not completely uniform. In Baldrs draumar, Odin encounters an unnamed dog on the road to Hel, and interpreters often identify it with Garmr. Some traditions and modern retellings also blur Garmr with Fenrir, but they are normally treated as separate figures: Garmr is the hellhound, while Fenrir is the monstrous wolf destined to fight Odin.

Garmr’s role resembles that of a guardian beast such as Cerberus, although the two figures come from different mythological traditions.