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In Thor, there is a scene where you can see what looks like the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's vault. Later (in Avengers: Age of Ultron, IIRC) you learn that Thanos actually has the Infinity Gauntlet, raising some questions about the one in Odin's vault, which are answered in Thor: Ragnarok when Hela sees it in the vault, knocks it over, and proclaims it to be a fake.

After all this, Kevin Feige talked about how the Gauntlet in Odin's vault was originally mostly just an easter egg, but also gave an in-universe explanation for Odin having a fake Infinity Gauntlet; essentially that Odin was pretending to have it so people on Asgard wouldn't worry about it being used against them.

However, in Infinity War, Eitri tells Thor how Thanos came to Nidavellir and forced him to make the Infinity Gauntlet, then killed everyone and chopped off Eitri's hands, putting an end to everything there. It seems that no one was aware that Nidavellir was shut down or that any of this had happened, and seeing as how the Gauntlet was made for -- and went directly to -- Thanos, how did Odin come to know that it even existed and get details of what it looked like in order to create a fake for his vault?

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    All of this could possibly be explained if there if there were two Infinity Gauntlets; the first one made a long time ago by someone else who wanted to control the Infinity Stones (maybe even the old, warlike Odin?), possibly even by Eitri, the second obviously being the one Eitri made for Thanos. Odin had no idea where the first one was, so he made a replica to assure people they were safe. However, nor did Thanos, so he just went and had a new one made.
    – Obie 2.0
    Commented May 3, 2018 at 19:41
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    We know that Thanos asked the dwarves to make the Gauntlet, not that he designed it. The Infinity Stones are common knowledge for powerful people like Odin. So it is possible that someone invented the concept the Gauntlet to harness the power of the Stones, but Thanos was the (first?) one to really have it made.
    – Taladris
    Commented May 4, 2018 at 4:25
  • @Taladris I think you should make this an answer, since I believe it is the most possible and logically fits as a solution.
    – binarymax
    Commented May 4, 2018 at 15:52
  • Btw, Thanos didn't "chop off" Eitri's hands, just seems to have encased them in the same metal as Mjolnir and Stormbreaker are made of, thus (virtually) indestructible. Eitri should go find Hela... :-P
    – enorl76
    Commented Sep 6, 2018 at 17:36

1 Answer 1

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We know that Thanos asked the dwarves to make the Gauntlet, not that he designed it.

The Infinity Stones are common knowledge for powerful people like Odin. So it is possible that someone invented the concept the Gauntlet to harness the power of the Stones, but Thanos was the (first?) one to really have it made.

It is shown in movies (for example Guardians of the Galaxy) that only powerful beings can safely handle an Infinity Stone. It is not clear that even Odin could use the powers of the six stones without being harmed. So we can guess that someone in the past designed the Gauntlet for this very purpose.

We may have more information in the sequel.

Edit (post-Endgame):

the dwarf version of the Infinity Gauntlet is not discussed in Endgame. However, Tony creates his own version of the Gauntlet to handle the Infinity Stones. Of course, he knew of Thanos' gauntlet from the Battle on Titan and talks with other characters, but this hints that the gauntlet is not amazing in itself, compared to the Stones, and that maybe the concept of an object holding the Stones was floating around.

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    +1 The fact that Stormbreaker's mold already existed when Thor, RR, and Groot arrived at Nidavellir lends weight to the idea that the plans for these sorts of things exist ahead of time.
    – Harris
    Commented May 10, 2018 at 20:24

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