Ýrr

Born in autumn preceding the most devastating winter in Ylfing's history, Ýrr lost almost everything she had, knew, or cared about by the time she was a year old. The only surviving member of her family, what remained of her clan became her family and meant everything to her. She would have done anything to see it recover, and in the end that meant making a series of increasingly difficult decisions, the first of which was challenging the current chieftain, Jökull. Against the odds, she won the fight, but lost so much more. Rather than rallying Ylfing together under new leadership, the remnants of the clan split under two banners: those who would continue to follow Jökull, White Wolf of the North, tried and true leader who saw them through the winter; and those who backed Ýrr, a yearling with a vision.
The second decision was to move her portion of Ylfing out of the Tundra until they had grown and recovered enough to sustain themselves in the harsh climate. This was perhaps more difficult than challenging Jökull—at the time, she took that course of action believing Ylfing would stay together, never having expected to lose half her people. But in choosing to leave her homeland, she knew full well the cost of the decision. It was no easy one to make, and not one her people agreed with, but in the end they found the push they needed in an unlikely source: Aess, a Pherris wolf. With no knowledge or understanding of the Dreamlands, Ýrr and her people believed him to be a Fylja, a guide sent to her dreams to reveal knowledge of the future.
These early years in foreign lands were hard for everyone, but especially Ýrr. She lost her home and everything she knew, she lost a litter with no means to care for or protect it, and yet this young she-wolf had to be responsible for carrying Ylfing through its hardship. Slowly they did grow and adjust, but their homesickness never faded, and sadly their hardships were not over.
Permanently returning to the Tundra was meant to be a time of celebration, a sign that they had made it, survived and thrived, and yet the fight for their home became the hardest decision of all in the battle to reclaim their old territory from Jökull, becoming the new White Wolf of the North. The burdens of that decision would cloud the wolves involved for years to come, a burden Ýrr would carry the longest.
Perhaps she would never feel whole again, but in time she would heal in her later years and finally enjoy her people, filling Ylfing with good memories: watching it grow and expand, seeing the pups they raised in those early days become competent adults, reconnecting with Aess, and having her own daughter, Eygló. The scales may never have perfectly aligned on what she lost compared to what she gained, but in the end she was able to leave Ylfing with a brighter future than she had had, and that was all she ever wanted.

Read Ýrr's Saga, Ylfing's years 1-7, here.

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Hvítylgr í Norðum
White Wolf of the North
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