Gandalf, your favourite character from The Hobbit derives his name from Old Norse 

If you have read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings or even watched their screen adaptations, you will surely be familiar with the character of Gandalf. He is a wizard and one of the protagonists in these fantasy epics. Everyone who knows Gandalf is aware that, despite being super powerful himself, he uses encouragement and persuasion to get his work done. In fact, Tolkien himself described Gandalf as an angel incarnate and compared him with the Norse God Odin who helped those in need in disguise.  

Gandalf is a Norse name 
Not many know, but Tolkien derived the name Gandalf from Voluspa, one of the well-known poems of Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse narrative poems. The poem is all about dwarves and comprises of a catalogue of their names, one of which is Gandalfr. For those unaware, it is a combination of two words, ‘gandr’ meaning ‘wand/ staff’ and ‘alfr’ meaning ‘elf.’ In fact, the name Gandalf is pretty common in the Norse culture. For instance, a legendary Norse King is called Gandalf Alfgeirsson, while modern Norwegian playwright Henrick Ibsen also calls the Norse sea-king Gandalf in his second play The Burial Mound.  

Gandalf also has other names too. For instance, his real name is Thorin Oakenshield, as given by Tolkien himself. As a spirit, he is called Olorin, while his own kind, aka, the maiars call him Incanus, tharkun or Lathspell.  

Possesses a ring of power 
People who have only seen the movies, especially The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring often considers that it was unwise of Gandalf to refuse when Frodo Baggins, a hobbit (small, human-like creatures dwelling underground) from the kingdom of Shire offered him the One Ring. After all, this magic ring grants the wearer the power of invisibility. However, what most people don’t know is that as per Tolkien’s books, Gandalf is in possession of Narya, the ring of fire since the beginning. In fact, it is one of the three rings produced exclusively for elves. Whoever owns it has immense courage and can fight ageing. No wonder, despite being very old, Gandalf can fight all his enemies.  

Can transform his appearance at will 
Despite being portrayed as a wizard and sometimes even a human, the truth is that he is neither of them. Okay, so what exactly is Gandalf then? Well, he is a maiar, or a spirit that has been existing even before the creation of the Middle Earth. Okay, so if he is indeed a spirit, then how come is he visible? Well, because he took over the bodies of the dead. In fact, it is being a maiar that also helps Gandalf transform his appearance at his own free will, be it from Gandalf the Gray to Gandalf the White and vice versa. Not only that, he can actually change to basically anything he wants to be.