gandr

• gandʀ

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡandr̩/

From an earlier gandʀ (pre 11th c.), from Proto-Norse *ᚷᚨᚾᛞᚨᛉ (*gandaʀ), as attested in adjective ᚢᚾᚷᚨᚾᛞᛁᛉ (ungandiʀ, “not bewitched”), from Proto-Germanic *gandaz. Root sense, “magic”? or “spirit”?, is unknown.

Unclear relations to Etymology 2.

gandr m (genitive gands)

2. that of black magic, witchery; bewitchment; further: that (potentially) caused by witchery

   Hyponym: gandferð (“witchcraft-travel”)

   1. nausea, heartache (potentially caused by witchery)
   2. tempest, storm, that of wind (potentially caused by witchery)
   3. (figuratively) that of harm (potentially caused by witchery)

      hallar gandr

      building damage (fire)

      selju gandr

      willow damage (wind)

4. “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.

   1. objects which a witch rides on: serpent, wolf, horse

      Hyponym: Vánagandr (“wolf of the river Ván: Fenrir”)

   2. wolf, outlaw

      Synonym: vargr

This word, though commonly glossed simply as “staff” or “wand” (see Etymology 2), is by no means a neutral term. In Historia Norwegiae (1200), written in Latin, it is exclusively used in the context of a peculiar type of sorcery. Here follows translations by Peter Fischer (2003) of the relevant sections; for the original Latin text, see the entry for Latin gandus:

• There are some who are worshipped by the ignorant masses as though they were prophets, since, whenever questioned, they will give many predictions to many folk through the medium of a foul spirit which they call “gand”, and these auguries come true. Furthermore they attract to themselves desirable objects from distant parts in an astounding fashion and miraculously reveal hidden treasures, even though they are situated a vast distance away.
• Next they consulted another specialist in the magic arts as to what had happened in each case. This individual went through all his practices in similar fashion, though with a different outcome: the hostess arose in sound health and then he revealed to them that the sorcerer had died in the following way: his gand, having taken on the likeness of a whale, was shooting rapidly through a lake when it had the misfortune to encounter a hostile gand, which had transformed itself into sharply pointed stakes; these stakes, hidden in the depths of the lake, penetrated the repulsed creature's belly, and this was also manifested by the death of the magician in the house.

Its descendants includes the objects which a witch rides on, including serpents, wolves and horses, and their magic staffs, potentially related to the later myth of witches riding brooms. Compare also “gand-fly” (Old Norse gandfluga, Icelandic ganfluga, Norwegian Nynorsk gandfluge, Swedish ganfluga), “magic force in form of a fly”, usually a disease sent through air by a wizard.

• ganða

• Faroese: gandur (“black magic”)
  • Faroese: gan- (“black magic”) (in gankona)
• Icelandic: gandur (“a riding animal; (archaic) a wolf, a dangerous beast”)
  • Icelandic: gan- (“black magic”) (in ganfluga)
  • ⇒? Icelandic: gandal- (in gandalfar, “witchcraft-travel”)
• Norn: *gandr (“black magic; galder”)
  • → Scots: (Shetland) gander (“noisy speech, figurative squawking speech; strong loud wind; nausea, heartache; bewitchment”)
  • ⇒? Scots: ganfer, gamfer (“ghost, spook; supernatural phenomenon; atmospheric sign”) (from gandferð, “magic travel”?; compare dialectal Norwegian gannfar, gandferd)
    • → English: ganfer (“type of ghost”)
• Norwegian: gand, gann, gan (“black magic”)
• Old Swedish: gander, gand, gan
  • Swedish: (old/dialectal) gand, gan, gane- (“black magic”)
    • → Southern Sami: gane- (“black magic”) (in gane-čurek, compare Swedish ganfluga)
•  → Latin: gandus

Unclear etymology. Potentially the same as Etymology 1, derived from a witch's magic staff or wand. Potentially derived or intermixed with a root word for wooden branch and stem etc, related to Welsh cang (“big branch”), Irish geagh (“tree-branch”), geagach (“branchy”), compared to descendants like Swedish gangel, gångel (“branch”).

gandr m (genitive gands)

2. based on descendants: staff, wand; staff-like objects (straight, cut branch/stem)

   Hyponym: spágandr

   1. magic staff, wand
   2. tiller, whipstaff (based on a descendant for “helm”); further: helm
   3. (figurative, poetic) serpent (snake or dragon)

      gandis vángr

      the serpent's field (gold); i.e. the dragon's resting spot (pile of gold)

      storðar gandr

      the world serpent (Jörmungandr)

      Hyponym: Jǫrmungandr (“the world serpent”)

• ganða

• Icelandic: gandur (“a magic staff; (obsolete) helm”)
  • ⇒ Icelandic: göndull (“big penis”)
• Norwegian: ganne (“cut straight tree branch, stem; log cabin/blockhouse?”)
• Old Swedish: gander, gand
  • Swedish: (old/eastcoast) gånder, gångel, gangel (“tree branch”), (Åboland) gand, ganda, gander (“snag, dry stem/branch”)
    • ⇒ Swedish: (Åboland, verb) gandra (“to raise a gand-stem”)

• Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1791-1852) (1860), Lexicon poëticum antiquæ linguæ Septentrionalis, page 221