Thor has his hammer, Freyr his ship – and Odin has the spear. Gungnir is the weapon of the All-Father: forged by dwarves, marked with sacred runes and made so that it never misses its mark. It is at once a weapon and a sign of rule – and it stands at the beginning of the first war of the world.
The name Gungnir means roughly „the Swaying One“ or „the Swinging One“ – perhaps after the trembling of the spear-shaft in flight. In Norse tradition it is inseparably bound to Odin: wherever the god appears as war-lord, as judge over victory and fall, or as the mysterious wanderer, the spear is his hallmark.
Gungnir came into being on the same occasion as the other great treasures of the gods. After Loki had spitefully cut off the golden hair of the goddess Sif, he had to procure a replacement. He went to the sons of Ivaldi, skilful dwarves in the underworld of Svartalfheim/Niðavellir. These forged three wonders: new, genuine gold hair for Sif, the ship Skidbladnir – and the spear Gungnir. So, out of an act of Loki’s revenge, the mightiest weapon of the heaven of the gods came into the world.
Gungnir is perfectly balanced and, once thrown, strikes every target – regardless of the strength or skill of the thrower. In some traditions it returns to the hand like Thor’s hammer. Onto its point are carved runes that hallow it and bind its power. So Gungnir is not merely a weapon but a sign of law and of the consecrated oath: vows sworn upon the spear-point were held to be especially binding.
Gungnir’s most famous appearance is in the Völuspá, the great world-poem of the Poetic Edda. At the first war of the world – the strife between the Æsir and Vanir – Odin hurls his spear over the enemy host. With this he consecrated the foes to death and opened the fight. From this mythic image grew a real custom: Germanic warriors would, at the start of a battle, throw a spear over the enemy army and so dedicate them to Odin.
„Into the host his spear did Othin hurl:
then was the first war in the world.“
— Völuspá, st. 24 (after Henry Adams Bellows, 1923, public domain)
There is a second, darker connection. In the Hávamál Odin himself tells how he hung nine nights on the world-tree Yggdrasil, sacrificed to himself – „wounded by the spear“. The spear with which he consecrates himself is Gungnir. So the weapon is at once the instrument of rule and the tool of the deepest sacrifice, through which Odin won the runes and wisdom.
„I know that I hung on the windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded by the spear, given to Odin,
myself to myself.“
— Hávamál, st. 138 (after Bellows, public domain)
All the treasures of the Edda at a glance · Mjöllnir – Thor’s hammer · Odin (Wotan) · Æsir & Vanir · Yggdrasil.
Poetic Edda: Völuspá (st. 24), Hávamál (st. 138). Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda (Skáldskaparmál: forging by the sons of Ivaldi; Gylfaginning), c. 1220. English public domain: Henry Adams Bellows (1923). Scholarship: Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology; John Lindow, Norse Mythology (2001).