Gandalfr

Old Norse

Etymology

From gandr (“witch's familiar”) +‎ alfr (“elf”), thus meaning “an elf familiar”. Originally thought to mean “elf with a magic staff”^[1] due to misattribution with later Icelandic gandur (“a magic staff”).

Proper noun

Gandalfr m (genitive Gandalfs)

(Norse mythology) name of a dwarf
a male given name

Declension

Declension of Gandalfr (strong a-stem, indefinite singular only)

masculine	singular
masculine	indefinite
nominative	Gandalfr
accusative	Gandalf
dative	Gandalfi
genitive	Gandalfs

Descendants

All descendants are learned.

Icelandic: Gandálfur
Faroese: Gandálvur
Norwegian Nynorsk: Gandalv, Gandålv
→ English: Gandalf

References

^ Chester Nathan Gould, "Dwarf-Names: A Study in Old Icelandic Religion", in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol 44 (1929), issue #4

[1] Chester Nathan Gould, "Dwarf-Names: A Study in Old Icelandic Religion", in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol 44 (1929), issue #4

[1]