The story begins with a transgression. While Odin was away, Frey sat in Odin’s high seat, Hlidskialf, and looked out at all the worlds. He looked in Jötunheim, and saw the giantess Gerdr. He was instantly smitten, and became lovesick for her. Skr doesn’t make any comment about this, but in the Prose Edda Snorri explicitly links Frey’s presumption with his punishment – languishing about infatuated. (There is a suggestion here that while Odin can handle the sight of seductive giantesses, and even get the better of them, Freyr can't.)
In a move reminiscent of the plot of Hamlet, Njord and Skadi send for Frey’s servant Skirnir to find out what is wrong with their son. (In Snorri, only Njord is mentioned.) Skirnir fears he will incur his master’s wrath, but instead Frey tells him his woes, and then commissions him to get Gerdr for him. To assist him, he gives Skirnir his horse and sword.
Skirnir rides off into Jötunheim, presumably with the aid of the supernatural horse, and arrives at Gerdr’s homestead. She comes out, and offers him mead, although she says she fears he may be her brother’s slayer. She asks him if he is elf, Vanir or Aesir that braves the fire to see her. He tells her he is neither, but has come from Frey. Then he offers her treasure: first eleven golden apples, and when she turns those down, the ring Draupnir, which dripped eight more rings every ninth night, and was burnt on the pyre with Baldr.
When she’s not impressed, telling him she has all the gold she needs, he turns nasty. First he threatens her with the sword, saying he’ll cut her head off. Gerdr is unmoved, telling him her father will give him a battle, Then Skirnir curses her with a “taming wand” (Larrington’s translation). His curse is quite elaborate, but it boils down to three main points: lewdness and frenzy and unbearable desire.
Gerdr gives in; saying, “I had never thought that I should ever love/ one of the Vanir well.” Skirnir then presses his point, asking her where she will meet with Frey. She tells him the place, and says she will be there in nine nights’ time. The poem ends on a comic note, as when Skirnir tells Frey this, he wails that he can’t wait that long.
As I mentioned above, Snorri also relates this story in the Prose Edda. He gives it a moralistic gloss, and plays down the ferocity of Skirnir. He has Frey tell Skirnir to ask Gerdr for her hand, while the poem leaves it open what Frey’s intentions are. Frey is the threatening one in this version, telling Skirnir to bring Gerdr whether her father is willing or not. Frey gives Skirnir his sword to defend himself with, and the implication is that he did not return it, because Snorri goes on to say because of this Frey had to fight Beli with an antler, and will be unarmed at Ragnarok. We are left to assume that Frey’s magic sword, which fought on its own, remained in Jötunheim, another example of a "wrong-way" transaction.
The only other mention of Frey and Gerdr is in the Ys, a part-legendary account of the kings of Sweden, beginning with Odin, Njord and Frey. We are told that Frey had a wife, Gerdr, and a son, Fjölnir, who became king after him. Since Snorri also wrote this saga, we can see why he might want to regularize relations between Frey and Gerdr.
The first thing to note is that whoever composed Skirnismal obviously knew the Njord – Skadi story. No doubt that reference to Skadi at the beginning was intended to remind the audience of that other Van – giantess encounter. (For modern audiences, it merely serves to confuse, since it refers to Skadi as Frey’s mother. We can only speculate as to why.)
The next thing we notice is that the direction of travel is reversed – Skirnir goes to Jötunheim, where Skadi had to travel to Asgard in search of a husband. Also, both Gerdr and Skadi have a blood feud to deal with: Skadi has lost her father, Gerdr her brother.[285]
When Skirnir tries to bribe Gerdr into meeting Frey, he mentions eleven apples of gold. This has always been understood to be the apples of Idunn, and Gerdr’s contemptuous dismissal of them suggests that she was aware of Thiazi’s fate.
And, in another reversal, Skirnir threatens Gerdr with being stared at by all, in other words, subject not just to Frey’s male gaze, but that of all males. Skadi seems to invert this when she sizes up the gods by their feet, but of course it rebounds on her.
Also, while Skr ignores Gerdr’s desires in favour of Frey’s, the whole action of the Njord – Skadi myth springs from Skadi acting on her own desires: first for compensation, then for a husband, and finally to be free of that husband when things don’t work out.
Skadi
Gerdr
she seeks groom
Skirnir seeks bride
symbolic castration of Loki
threatened rape with rune-wand
marries Van willingly
marries Van unwillingly
Both Skadi and Gerdr qualify as beautiful giantesses, rather than the ugly troll-wife type. (Both are described as “shining”. Michael Chabon, in an essay on Norse myth, notes, "everything that is beautiful is something that glints".[286]) This has influenced some writers on this subject, such as Lars Lonnroth, who argued that Gerdr wasn't "really" a giantess, or at least was a more refined type of giantess, and not at all like those troll-wives. This could be said to be a somewhat speciest argument. John Hnefnell Adalsteinsson turned this around and suggested that Gerdr's reluctance to go with Frey could be compared to Freyja's outraged reaction to the idea that she should marry a giant in Thrymskivda.
Both get promoted to Asynia – we have not just Snorri’s authority for this, but other material as well. (Stephen Mitchell suggests that a Van of each generation is mated to a giantess in order to mediate the tensions between gods and giants that form such a large part of Norse myth.[287]) Both Skadi and Gerdr seem to have an autonomous zone in which they have some authority: Gerdr at her household while her father is away, and Skadi at Thrymheim, because her father is dead.
In Gylf Snorri mentions Gerdr after Iord (Thor's mother) and Rind (Vali's mother), as counted among the asyniur. What's interesting is that he begins with Gerdr's parents, Gymir and Aurboda, and then tells the story of Frey's infatuation with Gerdr. She gets her own chapter, moreover, while Skadi appears in Njord's. This may reflect her more equivocal status amongst the Aesir, as a divorcee.
Gerdr’s pedigree may be less than assured, however. Paul Bibre lists several things that point to Skr being from the 12th century or later, including the runes used in Skirnir’s curse.[288] Another anomaly is Gerdr’s father, Gymir, who seems to have been a sea-spirit in skaldic lore, and not a giant.
Although the introduction to Lks says the sea-giant Aegir was also called Gymir, Aegir is married to Ran and has nine daughters. Both Gymir and Aurboda are mentioned in that section of Hyndluljod known as Voluspa hin skamma or the Short Seeress’ Prophecy, which is also thought to be a late work. (Hollander suggests the twelfth century.[289]) This poem says Thiazi was kin to Gerdr’s parents, and that they were all giants. Whether this was lore or simply a poet's conceit we'll never know, but linking Gerdr and Skadi makes sense.
Skadi’ story is older, and her lineage assured. The only problem is, who was her mother? One of those questions that will forever be unanswered.
Indeed, some think that the Frey – Gerdr story grew out of the rich material of the Skadi – Njord myth. That story offered us two patterns: the rape of a goddess by a giant, and the marriage of giantess and god. I think that Skr has elements of both – the seduction of a giantess by a god (usually an Odinic theme) and the union of giantess and god (a Vanic theme).
Despite the Odinic theme, what stands out from this myth, as it does in the Njord-Skadi myth, is the hero's passivity. Neither Njord nor Frey take any part in their own wooing, and in fact they do very little in either story. In both cases a stand-in does their wooing for them, either Loki or Skirnir. Frey employs Skirnir deliberately, while Loki seems to have acted on his own initiative, but it comes to the same thing. There is an argument to be made that in both cases the gods use others of lower status to do things they would consider undignified, but as a result they're sidelined in their own stories.
Skadi’s demand was for
compensation, and she got it, in the form of Njord. It is curious that Frey loses his sword to Gerdr, who keeps it. A magical sword that fights by itself is a thing worth having, and surely not surrendered lightly. Was it wergild as well? The other interesting thing about the sword is that there are very few stories of a woman acquiring one. The main example is Hervor, of Hervorarsaga, who braved her father's burial mound and his own counsel to get his sword. She went on to become a warrior until she married, and eventually her sword passed to her son.
The other significant thing about Freyr's sword is that it represents a rare instance of treasure going from the gods to the giants. This may help to explain Snorri's evident disdain for Freyr's love-sickness. And not only is there the loss of the sword, but as Lindow points out, Freyr stops talking and socializing with the others, which goes against the Odinic wisdom that is found in speech, while drinking is symbolic of the mead of poetry, as well as being a ritual that functions as a social glue. In other words, even before he hands over his sword, Freyr has been incapacitated by the giants.[290]
In the "manly" world of the Norsemen, this could only read as weakness, and the Íslendinga saga backs this up. In it the chieftain Sturla Sighvatsson is clearly meant to be like the god Freyr, even down to his nickname, Dala-Freyr. (In theory, it meant something like "master of the Dales"[291]; in practice it was a gibe about Sturla's womanizing.) Finally, his enemies accused him of a lack of "manliness", cowardice and vanity. (The two who gave him this name were connected to Snorri Sturluson, by the way.)
Sturla is killed by Gizurr Thorvaldsson, who is explicitly compared to Odin in the same saga. Clearly both the incident of Hlidskalf and Freyr's lovesickness generally were in the author's mind. It would be interesting to know if there was competition between the two cults and their followers more generally.
Both Freyr and Skadi lay down their weapons in order to pursue their marital or at least amorous agendas. Snorri of course sees Skadi's capitulation as positive, since it means her re-feminization. She was armed and threatening in the role of honorary son, so removing the arms moves the grievance she bears towards a resolution, and removes the threat to the gods.
As I stated above, however, there is some tension in the way Freyr comes across, between what some like Lotte Motz have seen as heroic, imperious behaviour and other views of him as a weak, effeminate figure. We know that he has a horse, a magic sword, and a magic ship, and that he fights at Ragnarok, unlike his father.
We don't know if he fought at the war against the Aesir, and in the euhemeristic version of Hkr, his reign as king was noted for peace and fruitfulness, not war. Some have taken that and the reports of effeminate priests at Uppsala to mean that Freyr had a "womanish" side.
Motz's argument sticks closer to the view of Freyr in Skr, where he comes over as more forceful and less of a nice guy, whereas in Skld it is quite clear that Snorri thinks he's a bit of a wimp, pining after a woman. (Of course, as some have pointed out, Snorri doesn't seem all that interested in romance, preferring stories of valour.) This means that Njord and Freyr are short-changed by him, although he acknowledges that they are important deities.
Lindow thinks that the nine nights that Freyr has to wait for Gerdr is a deliberate reference to the nine nights that Njord and Skadi spent at Thrymheim and possibly at Noatun. (See the section on Nine Nights for more.) In both cases, also, the residence seems to have been appointed by the goddess involved, since Gerdr is the one who chooses Barri, and Skadi's home is Thrymheim.
Both the nine nights and the golden apples lead us to think of the Skadi myth, and to agree with Gerdr that whatever Freyr is proposing, it's not likely to end well. Odin and Thor desert their giantess partners, and Freyr's father managed either twelve or eighteen nights with Skadi before they called it quits. Not a great record. That may in fact have been what the poet was getting at - Njord and Skadi's nines end in divorce, while Freyr and Gerdr are still apart at the end of Skr.
A last note on Gerdr and Skadi; several authors have said that both are involved in a blood feud with the gods, on the basis of verses in Skr.:
16. 'Tell him to come into our hall
and drink the famous mead;
though I am afraid that out here may be
my brother's slayer.'
and:
25. 'Do you see this sword, girl, slender, inlaid,
which I have here in my hand?
Before these edges the old giant will fall,
your father will be doomed.'
(Larrington's trans.)
The second verse sounds more like a threat than anything else; like much of Skirnir's persuasion, it is in the conditional mood[292]. There is more meat in the first, which might well mean that Skirnir or Freyr has killed Gerdr's brother for real, either in the past or just now.
Chapter 13
What is it that Giantesses Want?
The subject of Gerdr brings us to a very famous paper by Carolyn Larrington called '“What Does Woman Want?” Mær and munr in Skírnismál', which discussed Skirnir's threats of cursing to Gerdr, versus what we know of what women might themselves have desired, as shown in the sagas. Since most treatments of Skr have tended to assume that Gerdr was symbolically the fallow earth waiting to be fertilized, they didn't concern themselves with the "earth" felt about it.
There is a paper by Roberta Frank called "The Lay of the Land in Skaldic Praise Poetry", which documents the number of skaldic poems which describe a victorious ruler sexually "taking" the land, usually figured as Jord, the earth-goddess. From the 10th century alone, we have:
...three skaldic poems. The first by Guthromr sindri, reports Hakon the Good, king of Norway, when on campaign did not abandon "Onarr's daughter [the land] but found her another lover. Two or three decades later, a second poet, Eyvindr Finnsson, confirms the military seizure of Norway by Hakon Sigurdarson, jarl of Hladir, 'under whose arm the bride of Val-Tyr [land] lies, all the way east...'(62,15). The third skald, Hallfredr, addressing (probably) the same jarl, gives this metaphor of masculinity a vigorous workout.[293]
No doubt this sort of thing is very flattering to the king or jarl involved, and to the male reader today. But a female reader can't help but note that what we are talking about here is essentially rape. It's not like the earth is getting any choice in the matter, and no one ever seems to consider what she might think of the matter. (Lotte Motz has noted that unlike the Irish sovereignty-goddess Medb, or the Sumerian Innana, Jord doesn't get to pick her lovers.[294]) The only thing that makes Skr stand out from these narratives is that Gerdr does actually get to have an opinion, even if she doesn't get her way.
There have been honourable exceptions to this scholarly blindness, such as Jon Hnefill Adalsteinsson, who compared Gerdr's reaction to Freyr to Freyja's reaction to being married to the giant Thrym. (Although Adalsteinsson doesn't pursue the point, Freyja's comment about being the most ragr of women if she married a giant is neatly paralleled by Skirnir's threat to curse Gerdr with unslakable sexual desire if she refuses his master.) And, of course, Lotte Motz was very critical of the whole interpretation of Gerdr as an earth-goddess awaiting the fertilizing sky-god, seeing Gerdr as meaning something like "the one enclosed" and connecting it to a whole range of Norse goddesses and other powerful female figures.[295] Motz, who sees the giants as earlier powers supplanted by the newer gods, sees Gerdr (and Skadi) as subjugated to the gods' patriarchal power.
Frank is also very dubious about the universality or indeed even the "Norseness" of a sacred marriage between earth-goddess and sky-god:
The poet's central task was to catch and keep those moments in which his patron seemed illuminated by a divine force, and the drott, the prince's family, servants, clients, and armed retainers, enveloped in a new confidence. Hallfredr's four half-stanzas celebrated and legitimated a ruler's seizure of land in stereotypical phrases that fused military and erotic imagery, a metaphoric interchange sanctioned a millennium earlier by Ovid and the Roman elegists. The assumption t
hat only archaic German myth or ritual could have produced the skald's suggestive poetry is mistaken.[296]
I think it's a fair guess that the stanzas equating Harald with Odin were more to do with current politics than some Indo-European myth or ritual.
I'm not sure how well Skr maps onto that template anyway. Freyr is the Veraldagud, the World-God, not a sky-god like Odin, Tyr and Thor, and Gerdr is not the earth-goddess, but a giantess. Myths that celebrate nuptials or at least sex between two deities usually have a fair bit to say about the sex and the bond between the two. This must be the only fertility myth of sky and earth in which the earth doesn't want to know, and is essentially blackmailed into giving up her autonomy. In fact, the poem ends before the two meet, which seems a bit pointless.
Further, if you accept either Clunies-Ross' idea that the giants are shut out of the gods' exchange network, or Kristensen's theory that gods are separating themselves from their chaotic giant relatives, either way the giants are the outsiders, who need to be controlled or eliminated. So it may very well be that for a medieval audience Skirnir's behaviour was okay, whereas if a representative of the giants had tried that on Freyja, Sif or Idunn the story would have a very different ending.
We see things from the vantage point of the Aesir. From the jotunar's POV, things look rather different. Gerdr and Skadi both are very clear about what they want, both negative and positive. Gerdr is the negative, since she does not want to be with Freyr, and makes this clear. Neither bribery nor threats move her; it takes a magical curse to change her mind, and even then she makes it clear that she has been browbeaten into it. Skadi, at the positive pole, states very clearly that she wants an Ase husband, and not just any Ase, but Baldr. She says this straight out, in her usual blunt fashion.
Skadi's choice from the feet is of course unsuccessful, although she does managed to reverse the usual direction of looking. She takes on the role that is usually given to Freyr or the skald Kormak, who is smitten by seeing Steingerdr's foot. Of course, he only sees her because she is peeping at him, so it becomes a bit more complicated. Skadi naturally plumps for the most attractive of the gods, just as the male giants want Freyja. Both are usually rationalized by saying that Skadi wanted position and power, and the giants the power of fertility, but maybe Baldr and Freyja are the sexiest of their genders? So naturally Skadi is disappointed to be saddled with an old man who is too stubborn to change residence.
Njord and Skadi Page 17
