 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Gambanteinn" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 |
The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "Gambanteinn" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
InNorse mythology, Gambanteinn (Old Norse gambanteinn 'magic wand') appears in two poems in the Poetic Edda. It only appears in Hárbarðsljóð and Skírnismál.[1]
InHárbarðsljóð stanza 20, Hárbarðr says:
A giant hard was Hlébard, methinks:
His gambanteinn he gave me as gift,
And I stole his wits away.
InSkírnismál (Stanzas 25 to 26) Skírnir speaks to Gerd:
Seest thou, maiden, this keen, bright sword
That I hold here in my hand?
Before its blade the old giant bends,—
Thy father is doomed to die.
I strike thee, maid, with my gambanteinn,
To tame thee to work my will;
There shalt thou go where never again
The sons of men shall see thee.
Skírnir then condemns Gerd to live lonely and hideous, unloved, either married to a three-headed giant or forever unwed. It might seem that this gambanteinn also refers to the sword with which Skirnir has previously threatened Gerd. But immediately after concluding his curse, Skírnir says (stanza 32):
I go to the wood, and to the wet forest,
To win a gambanteinn;
. . . . . . . . .
I won a gambanteinn.
The poem then continues with further threats by Skírnir condemning Gerd to a life of misery.
