Myths, Religions & Legends Power Ranking TOP100
I wrote a book ranking the most powerful gods, monsters, and heroes from world mythology, religion, and legend in order of strength! Of course, the rankings reflect a great deal of my own subjective judgment, but the reasoning behind each placement is grounded in the lore and episodes of each mythology, so I think it’s a book that will feel reasonably convincing.
This time I’d like to introduce some of the characters featured in the book’s ranking. Of course, many more characters appear in the ranking beyond those introduced here, so I think anyone interested in mythology, religion, and legend will enjoy it!
Rank 55: Víðarr (Norse Mythology)
Overview
Despite being a son of Odin, Víðarr has an extremely low profile in Norse mythology — his only meaningful role in practical terms is his battle with Fenrir at Ragnarök.
Even when Loki is quarreling with the gods, Víðarr is notably the only one who is not directly mentioned — which is why he is called the “Silent God” or the “Quiet Aesir.”
Yet at Ragnarök, he achieved the remarkable feat of fighting and killing Fenrir — the wolf that had devoured Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology. Knowing his destined battle with Fenrir was coming, Víðarr is said to have prepared for it long before Ragnarök arrived.
The shoes he wore were magical footwear made by stitching together all the leftover scraps of shoes from around the world. He used them to pin down Fenrir’s lower jaw, then used his great strength to tear apart the upper jaw, killing Fenrir.
He is also one of the few gods to survive Ragnarök, and is likely the leading candidate to become the next supreme god.
Reason for This Ranking
Víðarr is characterized by an extraordinary contrast: he killed Fenrir — one of the most powerful monsters in Norse mythology — survived the world-ending Ragnarök as one of its rare survivors, and is a son of the supreme god Odin — yet his presence in the myths is almost nonexistent.
Norse mythology also states that Víðarr possessed war-god strength second only to Thor, so his power cannot be doubted.
However, I have some reservations about whether he is truly stronger than Fenrir.
Fenrir had fought consecutively against other gods, warriors, and Odin throughout Ragnarök, and was likely not at full strength. Additionally, Víðarr’s victory owed much to the meta advantage of the anti-Fenrir shoes he had specifically prepared — so to claim he could win against an opponent of equivalent strength to Fenrir without such specialized preparations seems doubtful.
If Víðarr had defeated Fenrir in a completely fair, head-on battle with no tactical preparation, placing him above Fenrir would be the obvious choice — but since that is not what happened, I evaluated him at this position in the ranking.
