Chapters 114-123 - Germanic Mythology

harðan jötun
eg hugða Hlébarð vera,
gaf hann mér gambantein,
en eg vélta hann úr viti.
"a hearty giant
I think Hlébarð was,
he gave me gambanteinn,
and I bewitched him out of his wits."
[720] Harbard-Loki speaks here of a giant who, in his mind, was a valiant one, but
whose "senses he stole," that is, whom he "cunningly deprived of thought and selfcontrol."
Two circumstances are reported to which these words might apply. The one
concerns the giant-builder who built the Asgard-wall, and, indignant about the trick by
means of which Loki cheated him out of the agreed on wages, rushed toward the gods
and was killed by Thor. The other concerns Thjazi, who, seeing his beloved stolen away
by Loki and his plan on the way to failure, recklessly stormed to meet certain ruin. The
intended giant's real name is not given, he is designated by the epithet Hlébarður, which,
according to Nafnaþulur (Prose Edda II, 484), is a synonym of Vargur and Gyldir. It has
already been shown above that Vargur in Þórsdrápa and Fjallgyldir in Haustlöng are
epithets of Thjazi. Loki says that this same giant, who he cunningly robbed of his senses,
had previously given him a gambanteinn. This word designates a weapon manufactured
by Völund. His sword of revenge and victory is called gambanteinn in Skírnismál. But
gambanteinn is, at the same time, a synonym of mistilteinn, which is why in an Icelandic
saga from the Christian time, Völund's sword of victory also turns up again under the
name mistilteinn (see No. 60). Thus the giant Hlebard gave Loki a weapon, which,
according to its designation, is either Völund's sword of victory or the mistletoe. It cannot
be the sword of victory. We know the hands to which this sword has gone and shall go:
Völund's, Mimir-Nidhad's, the night-dis Sinmara's, Svipdag's, Frey's, Aurboda's and
Eggther's, and finally Fjalar's and Surt's. The weapon which Thjazi's namesake Hlebard
gives Loki must, accordingly, have been the mistletoe. With this, we must remind
ourselves what is said of the mistletoe. Unfortunately, the few words that Völuspá says of
it are the only fully reliable source we possess on this subject; but certain features of
Gylfaginning's account (Chapter 49 [Pr. Edd. I, 172-174]) may be mythically correct.
"Slender and fair"— harmless and beautiful to behold —grew, according to Völuspá, the
mistletoe, "higher than the fields" (as a parasite on a tree); but from the sapling which
seemed innocent came "a [721] dangerous arrow of pain," which Höður shot. According
to a fragment of a song joined with Vegtamskviða ("Baldur's draumar"), and according to
Gylfaginning, the gods had taken an oath of all things not to harm Baldur; but, in doing
so, according to Gylfaginning, they had left out one thing: the mistletoe. By cunning Loki
got intelligence concerning this. He went and ripped up the mistletoe, which he
afterwards knew to place in Hödur's hand, while, according to Gylfaginning, the gods
were entertaining themselves by seeing how every weapon directed at Baldur hit him
without effect. But that Loki should hand Hödur this sapling in the form in which it had
grown on the tree, and that Hödur should use it in this form to shoot Baldur, is as
improbable as that Hödur was blind. 47 One must take Völuspá's words literally, that the
47 [Rydberg's footnote]: When I come to consider the Baldur-myth in the second part of this work
[Investigations into Germanic Mythology, Vol. II, Part 2, pp. 90-102], I shall show what the source is from
which Gylfaginning's author, on the basis of a misunderstanding, has drawn the conclusion that the
sportsman, the warrior, the archer, and the hunter Hödur should be blind. The misunderstanding brought