here, he was always welcome to Vingolf or Valhalla,
and occupied one of the twelve thrones in the great council hall
of Glads-heim.

"The hall Glads-heim, which is built of gold;
Where are in circle, ranged twelve golden chairs,
And in the midst one higher, Odin's Throne."

Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).

As the God of courage and of war, Tyr was frequently invoked by the
various nations of the North, who cried to him, as well as to Odin,
to obtain victory. That he ranked next to Odin and Thor is proved
by his name, Tiu, having been given to one of the days of the week,
Tiu's day, which in modern English has become Tuesday. Under the name
of Ziu, Tyr was the principal divinity of the Suabians, who originally
called their capital, the modern Augsburg, Ziusburg. This people,
venerating the god as they did, were wont to worship him under the
emblem of a sword, his distinctive attribute, and in his honour held
great sword dances, where various figures were performed. Sometimes
the participants forming two long lines, crossed their swords, point
upward, and challenged the boldest among their number to take a flying
leap over them. At other times the warriors joined their sword points
closely together in the shape of a rose or wheel, and when this
figure was complete invited their chief to stand on the navel thus
formed of flat, shining steel blades, and then they bore him upon it
through the camp in triumph. The sword point was further considered
so sacred that it became customary to register oaths upon it.

"... Come hither, gentlemen,
And lay your hands again upon my sword;
Never to speak of this that you have heard,
Swear by my sword."

Hamlet (Shakespeare).

A distinctive feature of the worship of this god among the Franks and
some other Northern nations was that the priests called Druids or Godi
offered up human sacrifices upon his altars, generally cutting the
bloody- or spread-eagle upon their victims, that is to say, making a
deep incision on either side of the back-bone, turning the ribs thus
loosened inside out, and tearing out the viscera through the opening
thus made. Of course only prisoners of war were treated thus, and it
was considered a point of honour with north European races to endure
this torture without a moan. These sacrifices were made upon rude
stone altars called dolmens, which can still be seen in Northern
Europe. As Tyr was consid