Gangr (or Gang;
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
: , 'traveller') is a
jötunn in
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern per ...
. He is portrayed as the son of
Alvaldi and the brother of
Þjazi
In Norse mythology, Þjazi (Old Norse: ; anglicized as Thiazi, Thjazi, Tjasse or Thiassi) was a giant. He was a son of the giant Ölvaldi, brother of giants Iði and Gangr, and the father of Skaði. His most notable misdeed was the kidnapp ...
and
Iði
Iði (Old Norse: ; also Idi) is a jötunn in Norse mythology. He is the son of Alvaldi and the brother of Þjazi and Gangr.
Name
The Old Norse name ''Iði'' has been translated as the 'active one' or the 'hard-working one', deriving from ''ià ...
.
Name
The
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
name ''Gangr'' has been translated as 'traveller'. It is related to the
Icelandic ''gangur'' and the
Norwegian ''gang'' ('walking, hallway, corridor'), all stemming from
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...
''*gangaz'' ('walking, going, way'; compare with
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
''gagg'' 'street, road', and with
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
and
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old Hig ...
''gang'' 'going, journey, way').
Attestation
In ''
Skáldskaparmál'' (Language of Poetry)'','' Gangr is mentioned as the son of the jötunn
Alvaldi, who is "very rich in gold", and as the brother of
Þjazi
In Norse mythology, Þjazi (Old Norse: ; anglicized as Thiazi, Thjazi, Tjasse or Thiassi) was a giant. He was a son of the giant Ölvaldi, brother of giants Iði and Gangr, and the father of Skaði. His most notable misdeed was the kidnapp ...
and
Iði
Iði (Old Norse: ; also Idi) is a jötunn in Norse mythology. He is the son of Alvaldi and the brother of Þjazi and Gangr.
Name
The Old Norse name ''Iði'' has been translated as the 'active one' or the 'hard-working one', deriving from ''ià ...
.
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
Jötnar
{{Norse-myth-stub