G
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G alar (Yeller)
how to divide the treasure, decided that each should
take as much as his mouth would hold.
Gang is mentioned in S kaldskaparmal by poet
and historian Snorri Sturluson. (See also “Skade
and Njord” under Skade.)
One of the two deceitful dwarfs
who killed the wise man Kvasir (1) in order to make
the mead of poetry from his blood. The other dwarf
was his brother, Fjalar (2).
The brothers also killed the giant Gilling and
his wife. Their son, Suttung, avenged his parents’
deaths by stranding Fjalar and Galar on a rock that
would become flooded at high tide. To save their
lives, the brothers gave the mead to Suttung.
Their story is told by Snorri Sturluson in
S kalskaparmal . (See also “The Mead of Poetry”
under Odin.)
G arm
The fearsome, howling hound that stood
at the gates of Hel’s realm, guarding the kingdom
of the dead. In some stories, Garm could be quieted
only by a piece of cake given to him by those who
had already given bread to the poor. In The Lay of
Grimnir (see G rimnismal ), Garm is described as the
fiercest of all hounds. In Balder’s Dreams (see B aldrs
D raumar ), when Odin went to the underworld to
consult a seeress, the blood-caked hound of Hel
howled at him, but Odin went on, undeterred by
the hideous noise. At Ragnarok, Garm fought with
one-handed Tyr, and they killed each other. Garm
is sometimes thought to be another name for the
wolf Fenrir.
galdrar Magic charms or spells. In Norse
mythology, galdrar involved runes, magic numbers,
chants, and specialized uses of words to bring about a
variety of magical events, such as healing, reviving the
dead, defending against storms, and seeing into the
future. The use of galdrar and magic was originally
seen as a woman’s craft. In the poem Oddrunargratr
(Oddrun’s Lament), a part of the P oetic E dda , Oddrun
chants a magical charm to help Borgny deliver twins,
a boy and a girl.
The strongest form of galdrar was the seid, a pow-
erful magical chant associated with women, which
allowed the user to go into a deep trance so she could
see into the future and talk with spirits.
Although magic was seen as a typically female
craft, Odin was known as the father of galdrar. The
poem H avamal lists 17 chants that Odin knew and
gave to men, not women, so that they would pos-
sess the skills they needed in life: chants for things
like breaking chains, shooting arrows, starting fires,
strengthening shields, and winning a fair maiden’s
love.
G efjon (G efion ; Giver)
A goddess of fertility,
associated with the plow. In one myth told by Snorri
Sturluson in G ylfaginning , Gefjon disguised her-
self as a beggar. She asked Gylfi, the king of Sweden,
to give her some land. The king told her that she
could have as much land as she could plow in a day
and a night. The old woman went off to find her four
sons, who were huge oxen that had been fathered
by a giant. Gefjon hitched the oxen to a plow and
proceeded to cut deeply into the land of Sweden.
Then she and the oxen towed the land into the sea,
where it is now known as the island of Zealand, part
of Denmark.
G eirrod (1)
The giant who, with the help of
the trickster god Loki, persuaded the god Thor to
visit him without his famous weapons. It was a trap,
but thanks to the friendly giantess Grid, Thor was
G ang
One of the rime-giants, brother of Thjazzi
and Idi and son of Olvaldi, who left piles of gold to
be divided among his sons. The brothers, in choosing
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