Víðarr is the Norse god called the “silent god” who avenges Odin at Ragnarök.
Víðarr is Odin’s son by the jötunn Gríðr and is associated with vengeance, strength, and silence. During Ragnarök, the wolf Fenrir swallows Odin. Víðarr then attacks the wolf and kills it, ensuring that his father’s death is avenged.
The surviving sources describe the killing in slightly different ways. In the Poetic Edda, Víðarr drives a sword into Fenrir’s heart. Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda gives the famous version in which Víðarr places his specially reinforced shoe on Fenrir’s lower jaw, tears apart the wolf’s mouth, and kills him.
The title “silent god” does not necessarily mean that Víðarr was permanently mute; the surviving myths do not explain the epithet fully. He is also said to survive Ragnarök, alongside figures including his brother Váli. Váli is a common mix-up, but his major vengeance story concerns Baldr’s death, not Odin’s.