Chapters 114-123 - Germanic Mythology

dangerous arrow of pain," and then gave the arrow to Loki (Hárbarðsljóð); (8) from
Loki's hands it comes to Hödur, and was shot by the latter (Lokasenna, Völuspá).
It is dangerous thing to employ nature-symbolism as a tool for mythological
research. It is unserviceable for that purpose, so long as it cannot be subjected to the rules
of severe method. On the other hand, it is admissible and justifiable from the standpoint
of nature-symbolism to consider the other result won in a methodic way by mythological
investigation. If, as already indicated, Hlebard is the same as Thjazi-Völund, then he who
was the author of the fimbul-winter and let loose the powers of frost over the earth, also
had his share in the sun-god Baldur's death and descent to the underworld. Herein, of
course, also lies logic, And also therein that the weapon with which the sun-god is slain is
made from the mistletoe, which blossoms and bears fruit in the winter, and is a plant
which rather shuns than seeks the sunlight. When one reminds himself how folktales have
explained the appearance and qualities of various animals and herbs by placing them in
some connection with the figures of divine myth or legend, then it is entirely possible that
the popular imagination saw in the mistletoe's timidity toward light the effect of grief or
shame at having been an instrument in evil hands for evil purposes. Many things indicate
that the mistletoe originally was a sacred plant, not only among the Celts, but also among
the Teutons. The Indic Aryans also knew sacred parasitical herbs.
The word gamban which forms a component of gambanteinn means
"compensation," "recompense," when used as a noun, and otherwise "retaliating." In the
Anglo-Saxon poetry occurs (see Grein's Dictionary) 49 the expression gamban gyldan, "to
compensate," "to pay dues." 50 In the Norse sources gamban occurs only in the
compounds gambanteinn (Skírnismál 32; Hárbarðsljóð 20), gambanreiði (Skírnismál
33), and gambansumbl (Lokasenna 8). 51 In the song of Skirnir, the latter threatens Gerd,
who refused Frey's offer of marriage, that she shall be struck by gambanreiði goða, the
gods' [724] avenging wrath. In Lokasenna, Loki comes unbidden into the gods' feast in
Ægir's hall to mix bitterness with their happiness, and he demands either to receive a
place at the drinking-table or to be shown the doors. Bragi answers that the gods will
never suffer him a place to sit at their drinking-banquet, "since they well know whom
among beings it is for which they shall prepare gambansumbl, "a feast of revenge or a
drink of revenge." 52 He obviously utters this as a threat, alluding to the fate which shortly
thereafter befalls Loki, when he is captured and bound, and when a venom-spraying
serpent is fastened above his mouth. For the common assumption that gamban means
49 C. W. M. Grien's Sprachschatz der Angelsächsichen Dichter ('Vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon Poems'),
Cassel, 1861.
50 Cleasby-Vigfusson, s.v. gamban, define the word as "a dubious word, perhaps costly; in A.S. poetry
gamban occurs twice or thrice in the alliterative phrase gamban gyldan = 'to pay a fee' (Grein)."
51 The meaning of these terms is disputed. Cleasby-Vigfusson, s.v. gamban, defines them as "gamban-reiði,
f. splendid gear (?), Skírnismál 33; gamban-sumbl, n. a sumptuous banquet, Lokasenna. 8; gamban-teinn,
m. a staff, Skírnismál 32," adding "These poems seem to be by one hand, and the word occurs nowhere else
in the northern languages." The LaFarge-Tucker Glossary to the Poetic Edda defines them as "‡gamansumbl
['a conjectured word/form attested in other texts', cp. p. xvi] n. merry-feast"; "gamban-reiði, violent
(?) wrath"; and " gamban-teinn n. great or sumptuous feast (or magic potion?)."
52 Ursula Dronke, Poetic Edda, Vol. II, p. 357: "Sumbl may be used of the drink itself as well as of the feast
in general (Alvismál 34, Hávamál 110, Háleygjatal 15), its potency being sacral as well as realistic."; p. 412
"Bragi might well, in his oratorical fashion, call it gambansumbl, 'the feast of divine power', from which the
disgraced Loki should be excluded."