Chain

Figures that bear it

A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is a kind of this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.

• Azhi Dahaka bears Persian mythology
  why

  His defeat is one of the central myths of Iranian tradition: the hero-king Fereydun (Avestan Thraētaona) rises up against him, and rather than killing him outright, binds Zahhak in chains upon Mount Damavand, where in some tellings he is prophesied to break free at the end of the world and be slain only then by the hero Garshasp.

• Fachan bears Irish folklore
  why

  An Irish manuscript account of the same misshapen kind arms it terribly, with a thick iron flail-club in its skinny hand carrying twenty chains, and fifty apples on every chain, every one of them capable of harm.

• Fenrir bears Norse mythology
  why

  In an attempt to control the beast, they tried to bind him with various chains, but Fenrir broke free each time.

• Kludde bears European folklore (general)
  why

  The figure takes a range of animal disguises, most often a black dog or horse but also cat, bat, frog, or wolf, and its approach is signalled by rattling chains and a flickering blue flame, a detail that links it to the wider family of will-o'-the-wisp and bogey lights reported on lonely roads at night.

• Krampus bears Germanic folklore
  why

  Krampus is typically depicted as a large, hairy, demonic figure with the cloven hooves and curling horns of a goat, a long pointed tongue lolling from his mouth, and a chain-draped body hung with bells.