Gungnir

Gungnir, also called the Spear of Heaven, was the signature weapon of Odin, the All-Father of the Aesir. Forged by the master craftsman and alchemist Ivaldi, it was considered his masterwork. With Gungnir, Odin slew the primordial giant Ymir, ensuring his own rise to rule the Nine Realms, and it was the same spear with which he later stabbed himself in his mad pursuit of knowledge. Elegant and pale, it stood as the dark mirror of the Draupnir Spear carried by Kratos.

Origin and the slaying of Ymir#

Gungnir was forged by the dwarf Ivaldi and considered his masterwork. Once given to Odin, the spear became infamous across the Nine Realms long before the great war, in the days when Odin was waging his campaigns and consolidating his power. His most renowned feat with it was the slaying of the legendary primordial giant Ymir, father of the Jotnar, an act that established Odin's new power, though the detailed account of that fight remained unknown. The spear became the symbol of his rule, and he wielded it again in the long Aesir-Vanir War, hurling it over the host of the Vanir. When peace was at last secured through his marriage to Freya, Odin would most often be seen using Gungnir merely as a walking stick.

A weapon bound to its master#

Odin magically bound Gungnir to his own will, and through his unmatched mastery of the Bifrost he kept it concealed. In its full form the spear stood roughly two meters long, taller than Odin himself, its body and blade seemingly made of ivory or bone, unlike the more conventional weapons of the age. The All-Father could summon it from nothing on command and could shrink it in an instant from a full spear down to a small scepter or a walking stick, then make it vanish again the same way. The spear was decorated with sumptuous Norse runes that were not merely ornamental but carried a wide variety of battle enchantments, and it was wound with rope that glowed an intense purple in battle, a color tied to the Bifrost and to magic. In its staff form it appeared the same but for a concealed blade hidden within a slit in the head. Because the spear was bound so tightly to Odin and reflected his very mood, it is assumed that only he could use it.

The death of Thor and the fall of Asgard#

Though Odin was a deadly combatant, his position as ruler of the realms left him few foes to fight, and he rarely used the spear after becoming king. Gungnir appeared in its true nature during the climax of Ragnarok. When Thor refused to kill Kratos, an enraged Odin summoned the spear and ran its blade through the god of thunder's chest, killing him. The All-Father then turned the weapon on Kratos and his son Atreus, dueling them before the Great Lodge while unleashing an impressive store of dark magic.

Being a legendary weapon, Gungnir was extremely durable, deflecting a blow from the Leviathan Axe without difficulty and briefly allowing Odin to overpower his opponents. The All-Father attached the noose he had once used to hang himself to the spear, giving it the power to extend its blade in a whip-like fashion. When Kratos closed into melee, Odin used the spear to stab him, forcing the Spartan to disengage. By the end of the fight Odin was disarmed of Gungnir, and it was not seen again, presumably destroyed along with Asgard.

The dark mirror of the Draupnir Spear#

Gungnir stood as the antithesis of the Draupnir Spear that Kratos carried. Where Draupnir was a shining gold spear, a symbol of justice and nobility, Gungnir was a spear of a pale, cadaverous shade, associated with witchcraft and treachery. Its use revolved around magic, much of it striking foes from afar or shaping the space of battle, reflecting Odin's preference for indirect means and his guise as an approachable, harmless figure who would nonetheless bloody his own hands when cornered. Odin had used the weapon to kill and to curse many, and had even stabbed himself with it and steeped it in his own dark essence, the spear standing as the dark equivalent of the weapon Kratos forged only to protect his son.