TIWAZ

Real Name: Buri

Identity/Class: Asgardian God

Occupation: Ancestor of the Asgardian Gods

Group Membership: The Gods of Asgard

Affiliations: Boom Boom (Tabitha Smith), Hrimhari, Karnilla, Stone People of Nornheim, Thor, Warlock (Technarch),
Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg); creator of living ice sculptures

Enemies: Frost Giants, Hela

Known Relatives: Unidentified frost giantess (wife), Borr, Mimir, Njord (sons), Odin, Vili, Ve (grandsons), Hoder, Thor, Balder, Vidar, Tyr, Hermod, (great-grandsons), Angela (great-granddaughter), paternal ancestor of the majority of the Norse gods

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: The icy wastes in the northern reaches of Nastrond

First Appearance: (Buri) Journey Into Mystery I#97/3 (October, 1963); (Tiwaz) Thor I#355 (May, 1985)

Powers/Abilities: Tiwaz possesses the normal conventional attributes of the Asgardian Gods including superhuman strength (Class 100 perhaps), stamina and resistance to injury. He is strong enough to be almost an equal to Thor. He also has mystical powers to an unknown degree, but he can animate typically non-corporeal objects and decrease the size of living beings, such as he did with Volstagg. He was also able to grow or shrink to any size he wished.

History: (Norse/German Myth, Journey Into Mystery I#97/2) – Buri is a member of the extra-dimensional race of beings known as the Asgardians who were worshipped as gods by the ancient Viking and Germanic tribes of Northern Europe. According to Norse myth, after countless centuries of nothingness (save the Well of Life and the unending expanses of frozen ice that were the lands of Mist to the North and lands of Fire to the south) that was the world, Ymir, first of the Frost Giants, emerged from beneath the frigid plane as if by magic. Seconds later, following the birth of Ymir, came the cosmic primeval cow, Audmilla. For ages, Ymir and the magic cow roamed the frozen wastes, Ymir protecting the cow, and the cow nourishing Ymir.

One day the cow found something stirring in the ice. At first the new form was unrecognizable but then "slowly, powerfully, a noble head appeared above the ice... And thus the first of the good Aesir came into being! Look well at him! Look well at the one called Buri! For those who follow him shall be gods!" (see comments)

Buri grew wise and strong and took a Frost Giantess wife and was succeeded by a son, Borr. Borr in turn took a wife (the giantess Bestia) and fathered three sons: Odin, Vili, and Ve, the three founding Norse gods.

(Thor I#355 (fb) - BTS) – Buri went into self-imposed exile as a god called Tiwaz.

(Thor I#354 - BTS) - Thor followed footprints of Tiwaz when he ran into Hela.

(Thor I#355) - Tiwaz discovered Thor after a brutal battle with Hela. He nursed Thor back to health. Tiwaz amused Thor by making icy figures that he animated to life. In friendly matches, Thor wrestled with Tiwaz daily and lost. Once he returned to normal strength, Thor at last beat Tiwaz in a match. He departed Tiwaz's company -- unaware that Tiwaz was in fact Buri.

(New Mutants I#82 - BTS) - Hrimhari, Boom Boom, and Warlock were freed by the children of Volstagg and sent to recruit the aid of Tiwaz. They had nearly reached Tiwaz's dwelling, when they were caught in a net and captured by a Frost Giant serving Hela.

    The name Tyr meant "god" (cf. Hangatyr, the "god of the hanged" as one of Odin's names; probably inherited from Tyr in his role as judge) and goes back to a Proto-Germanic Tîwaz, continuing Proto-Indo-EuropeanDyeus, originally the chief god, the precursor also of e. g. Zeus in Greek mythology, and Dyaus Pitar in Vedic religion. The oldest attestation of the god is Gothic Tyz (Vienna cod. 140, though the "Teiw" found on the Negua Helm may very well be a direct reference to the God, rather than a god, and predates the Gothic (and indeed runic script) by several centuries. For other meanings of Odin, Woden or Wotan see Odin (disambiguation), Woden (disambiguation), Wotan (disambiguation).... Map of the Pre-Roman Iron Age culture(s) associated with Proto-Germanic, ca 500 BC-50 BC. The area south of Scandinavia is the Jastorf culture Proto-Germanic, the proto-language believed by scholars to be the common ancestor of the Germanic languages, includes among its descendants Dutch, Yiddish...The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. ...*Dyēus is the reconstructed chief god of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon. ...Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ...Greek mythology consists of a large collection of narratives detailing the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, which were first envisioned and disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition. ...In vedic religion, Dyaus Pita is the Sky Father, husband of Prthivi and father of Agni and Indra (RV 4. ...The religion of the Vedic civilization is the predecessor of classical Hinduism, usually included in the term. ...
    Tîwaz was overtaken in popularity and in authority by both Odin and Thor at some point before the Migration Age. In terms of his relationship to Thor, it is clear that Tyr's linguistic cognates in other Indo-European pantheons were the original possessors of the thunder, eg. Zeus, and in some cases ultimately passed that attribute on to another god, eg. Dyaus to Indra. In Eddaic myth, and apart from that aspect of Thor named Magni (meaning "spiritual strength", as in "with all my might and main"), only Tyr's strength is ever compared to Thor's. For other meanings of Odin, Woden or Wotan see Odin (disambiguation), Woden (disambiguation), Wotan (disambiguation). ...Thor carries his hammer and wears his belt of strength (MS SÁM 66, 18th century). ...
    There is sketchy evidence of a consort, in German named Zisa: Tacitus mentions one Germanic tribe who worshipped "Isis", and Jacob Grimm pointed to Cisa/Zisa, the patroness of Augsburg, in this connection. The name Zisa would be derived from Ziu etymologically, in agreement with other consorts to the chief god in Indo-European pantheons, e. g. Zeus and Dione. Gaius Cornelius Tacitus Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (ca. ...It has been suggested that Isis in literature be merged into this article or section. ...The Brothers Grimm on a 1000DM banknote. ...Augsburg is a city in south-central Germany. ...Dione in Greek mythology is a vague goddess presence who has her most concrete form in Book V of Homers Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite: Aphrodite journeys to Diones side after she has been wounded in battle while protecting her favorite son Aeneas. ...

Tyr is also supposed to be derivative of the name Tiermes which appears as a name for several Northern war-gods from Norse to Slavic. It's not the only recurring name in Norse myth; Bali/Vali also recurrs as a name for a son of Odin as well as a son of Loki.
--Will U

Thanks for a small corretion to David A. Zuckerman.

Profile by Snood, Will U, Greg O'Driscoll & Markus Raymond