# Lævateinn

In Norse mythology, Lævateinn is a weapon crafted by Loki mentioned in the Poetic Edda poem Fjölsvinnsmál. The name Lævateinn does not appear in the original manuscript reading, but is an emendation from Hævateinn made by Sophus Bugge and others.
The weapon is needed to slay the rooster Viðofnir atop the Mímameiðr tree in order for the seeker to achieve his quest, or so replies the wise porter Fjölsviðr, the titular character of the poem.
Lævateinn has variously been asserted to be a dart (or some projectile weapon), or a sword, or a wand, by different commentators and translators. It is glossed as literally meaning a "wand" causing damage by several sources, yet some of these same sources claim simultaneously that the name is a kenning for sword. Others prefer to regard it as a magic wand (seiðr staff), can be considered the mistletoe dart that killed Baldur.

## Attestation

Lævateinn is the only weapon capable of defeating the cockerel Viðofnir, as explained by Fiölsvith "the very wise" porter in the poem Fjölsvinnsmál. Lopt, the sword's maker, refers to Loki.

### Name and meanings

Hævateinn, the untampered form of the weapon's name as occurs in manuscript, has been glossed as "sure-striking dart/arrow" by Árni Magnússon in 1787, and rendered "an arrow's name /That never disappoints the aim" by A. S. Cottle in 1797.
Lævateinn, the emendation made by changing the first letter from H to L, was proposed by Sophus Bugge in 1860/1861, later printed in Bugge's edition of the Poetic Edda (1867 ), and construed to mean 'Wounding Wand', or 'damage twig', or "Wand-of-Destruction".
To be fair, Lævateinn or læ-wand can have three possible senses of meaning, and the latter three English glosses exploit only one of them. The three meanings of læ (the nominative case of læva) are: "cunning", "deception", and "injury". The weapon's name is glossed as "wand of non deceit" in passing without further explanation by Einar Ólafur Sveinsson.

### Fjölsvinnsmál

The weapon is mentioned briefly thus in the poem Fjölsvinnsmál:
Bugge proposed that this poem Fjölsvinnsmál should be treated as Part II of Svipdagsmál (sequel to Part I Grógaldr), and the sword's name was emended to Lævateinn by him.
The poem underwent further modifications. The phrase "í sæg iárnkeri" ('placed in an iron vase') was modified by Hjalmar Falk to "í Lægjarns keri", where Lægjarn denoted 'Lover of Ill', a nickname of Loki.

## Theories

The Laeva- stem of the weapon's name is considered the genitive form of Lae-, as occurs in Loki's nickname Lægjarn, where lae means 'deceit, fraud; bane', and so forth.

### Type of weapon

The identification of the type of weapon is not in agreement among commentators and translators.
The Hævateinn was interpreted to be a dart/arrow (spiculum) by Árni Magnússon and A. S. Cottle in the 18th century as already noted.
Whereas Finnur Jónsson glossed it as a sword, along with other editors at the beginning of early 20th century, and it was specifically claimed to be the same as the flaming sword of the giant Surtr by Henrik Schück.
Or, the Hævateinn or Lævateinn was probably a magic wand crafted by Loki according to others, e.g., Albert Morey Sturtevant, and a paper on seiðr magic staffs citing Rudolf Simek.
Henry Adams Bellows glossed Lævateinn as meaning 'wounding wand', but rejected identification with the mistilteinn or "mistletoe with which Baldr was killed". To complicate matters, the argument is also made by e.g. Lee M. Hollander that although Lævateinn is literally renderable as a "Wand-of-Destruction", it is etymologically considered to be a kenning for a sword.
In Adolfo Zavaroni and Reggio Emilia's conception of the poem, Lævateinn is a cudgel ("Evilcudgel"), while it is Viðofnir who owns a collection of rods (divining rods) whereamong he maintains his sickle. In fact, the word völr in the text literally means "rounded rods", although translators have figuratively interpreted the word to be the rooster's plumage.

## Explanatory notes

* ↑ Latin: spiculum in feriendo certum.
* ↑ Or, if parsed as "sæ-gjarn" becomes construable as 'sea lover'.
* ↑ with an emendation by Falk shown in brackets
* ↑ Leszek Gardeła notes magic staff gambanteinn which also has a -teinn stem meaning 'twig'.
* ↑ In Zavaroni and Emilia's picture, Viðofnir is not a mere bird, but "one of the aspects or hypostases of the [god] Hœnir".