gandr

Old Norse

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Norse *ᚷᚨᚾᛞᚨᛉ (*gandaʀ) (attested in adjective ᚢᚾᚷᚨᚾᛞᛁᛉ (ungandiʀ, “not bewitched”)), from Proto-Germanic *gandaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡandr̩/

Noun

gandr m (genitive gands)

1. “gand”; foul spirit, a witch’s familiar
   • Fóstbrǿðra saga (“The Saga of the Sworn Brothers”), chapter 23

     En er hún vaknar hratt hún mǿðilega ǫndunni. Bǫðvarr son hennar mælti þá: “Þú lézt illa í svefni móðir, eða hefir nokkut fyrir þik borit?" Þórdís svarar: "Víða hefi ek gǫndum rennt í nótt; ok em ek nú vís orðin þeira hluta, er ek vissa eigi áðr."

     And, awakening, she was painfully short of breath. Badwar, her son, then said: "You sounded pained in your sleep, mother, or has something happened to thee?" Thurdis answers: "I have roamed far with my gands tonight, and am now wise about such things as I knew not before."

   • Þiðreks saga, chapter 394 (352)

     Her eptir samnaz saman með Hertnið konungi mikill her. Ok hans kona Ostacia ferr út ok rærði sinn gand—þat kǫllom vér at hon færi at seiða, svá sem gǫrt var í forneskju—at fjǫlkungar konur, þær er vér kǫllom vǫlur, skyldu seiða hónum seið. Svá mikit gerði hon af sér i fjǫlkyngi ok trollskap, at hon seiddi til sin margskonar dýr, léona ok bjǫrnu ok flugdreka stóra. Hon tamði þá alla þar til at þeir lýddo henni, ok hon mátti vísa þeim á hendr sínom úvinum.

     After this a great army gathers around king Hertnid, and his wife Ostacia goes out and reared her gand—by which we mean that she went out to practice magic (seiðr) as was done in ancient times—that the sorcerous women which we call walas should aid him by seiðr. She accomplished so much by sorcery and trollship that she bewitched for herself all kinds of animals; lions and bears and great flying dragons. She tamed them all until they obeyed her and she could set them upon her enemies.

2. wolf, outlaw

Usage notes

• This word, though commonly glossed simply as “staff” or “wand”, is by no means a neutral term. It is exclusively used in the context of a peculiar type of sorcery. See further the quotes from the Historia Norwegiae at the entry for Latin gandus.

Declension

  Declension of gandr (strong a-stem)

masculine	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	gandr	gandrinn	gandar	gandarnir
accusative	gand	gandinn	ganda	gandana
dative	gandi	gandinum	gǫndum	gǫndunum
genitive	gands	gandsins	ganda	gandanna

Derived terms

• Gandalfr
• gandreið (“the ride of the witches”, literally “gand-riding”)
• gandrekr (“a wind caused by magic”)
• Gandvíkr (“the White Sea”, literally “Gand-bay”)
• Jǫrmungandr (“the Midgard Serpent”, literally “the immense gand”)
• spágandr (“prophecy-"gand"; a spirit invoked in divination?”)

Descendants

• Icelandic: gandur (“a riding animal; (archaic) a wolf, a dangerous beast; a magic staff”)
• Faroese: gandur (“black magic”)
•  → Latin: gandus