Gambara (seeress)

The legend is about the origin of the Langobard people, then known as the Winnili, and it takes place either before they emigrated from Scandinavia or after their migration, having settled in modern-day northern Germany.

Frea advised them to trick her husband, by having the Winnili women spread their hair in front of their faces so as to look bearded and present themselves as warriors.

[12] His brother's name Ambri is probably derived from the ethnonym Ambrones,[13] a tribe who left southern Scandinavia and were virtually annihilated by the Romans in 102 BC, apparently driven from their homes by soil exhaustion in Jutland.

[23] Moreover, in Paul the Deacon's late 8th c. work Historia langobardorum, she is introduced with the words The mother of these leaders, Gambara by name,' was a woman of the keenest ability and most prudent in counsel among her people, and they trusted not a little to her shrewdness in doubtful matters.

At that time, Gambara with her two sons, that is Ybor and Agio, who were chiefs over the Winniles, besought Frea, the wife of Godan, to be propitious to the Winnilis [sic.].

Then when it became bright, while the sun was rising, Frea, the wife of Godan, turned around the bed where her husband was lying, and put his face toward the east and awakened him.

[26]One scholar argues that at the time Paul the Deacon wrote his version of the account, the Lombards had been Christian for generations, and their language, if it ever existed, mostly forgotten, except for some legal and military terms.

[4] Pohl comments that Gambara lived in a world and era where prophecy was important, and not being a virgin like Veleda, she combined the roles of priestess, wise woman, mother and queen.

[33] She is outraged that the assembly and her sons Aio and Ibor want to avert a famine by killing all the infants and the elderly and banish all the rest who are not able bodied warriors and farmers.

[34] When these two men brought the news to their mother, Gambaruk, she saw that the authors of the nefarious decree had grounded their own safety on this crime; condemning the assembly's decision, she denied that it needed the murder of kindred to rescue them from their predicament and declared that it would be a more decent scheme, and desirable for the good of their souls and bodies, if they preserved the duty owed to parents and children and selected by lot those who should leave the land.

[17] Hauck describes her as a priestess and an earthly representative of the mother goddess Frea (Freyja),[9][1] but Schmidt was of an opposing view[1] and argued that nothing is known about Germanic priesthood at this time.

[36] Simek points out that although her name is interpreted as meaning 'seeress' ('staff bearer'), she is not said to perform any prophesying in the legend,[33] but Jarnut comments that in the so-called Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani, from the early 9th century, she is characterized as a great seeress, like Pythia and the Sibyl.

Both the Vinnili and the Vandals were ready to transform themselves into more successful model of a migrating army, and consequently to reject their old Vanir (fertility) cult and embrace Odin as their leader.

[39] In a similar vein, two Italian scholars, Gaspari (1983) and Taviani-Carozzi (1991) have interpreted the legend as a representation of the priestly aspect of Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis.

[40] There is long tradition among scholars to discuss this legend as such a transition, or as a change from a mother goddess to a god of war,[4][23] but Pohl (2006) notes that the account was written down 700 years later then the events it describes.

He also remarks that the legend is the only genealogy where a Germanic tribe (gens) derives its origins from the actions of a woman, and relying on Frea, she outwits Odin (Wodan), himself.

[41] They represented the prestige of the ancient royal Lombard lineage, and the Origo explained how, and Pohl suggests that the account may have been shaped in Italy with influence from the recurrent wise women in the literature about the early Germanic tribes.

"[42] Although, Paul the Deacon wanted the reader not to take the story seriously, it appears to be an authentic pagan myth about how the fledgling tribe was saved through the cunning of their goddess, who tricked her husband for their sake.

[22] Also, in spite of dismissing it, Paul the Deacon did write it down and doing so he preserved a legend that can be compared with several traditions from Scandinavian sources,[30] such as the window from which Odin looked down on earth which recalls the Hliðskjálf of Norse mythology,[4] and from where he could see everything.

[49] The Lombard legend of Gambara and Grímnismál show how Frigg deceives her husband with sorcery and guile, and emphasize her similarities with Freyja, whom even Loki characterized as a sorceress and as false, and who was skilled in magic.