giantess
Gerðr
A giant's daughter so beautiful that light shone from her arms, whom Freyr's servant Skírnir won for him by bribes, threats and a runic curse.
Gerðr is a giantess, daughter of Gymir and Aurboða, "fairest of all women" Gylfaginning 37, and the wife of Freyr Hyndluljóð 32. Everything else about her comes from one story, told in the poem Skírnismál and more briefly by Snorri (see Freyr and Gerðr).
Freyr sees her from Odin's high seat as she walks to her father's house in Jötunheim, and "brightness gleamed from her hands, both over sky and sea" Gylfaginning 37. He sends his servant Skírnir to win her. In the poem she is anything but eager. She invites the stranger in with a fear that he is "My brother's slayer" Skírnismál 16, refuses eleven golden apples and says she and Freyr will never share a home Skírnismál 19-20, and refuses a ring "burned Of old with Othin's son" (usually taken to be Odin's ring Draupnir) because her father has gold enough Skírnismál 21-22. When Skírnir threatens to behead her, she answers that her father will fight him Skírnismál 23-24.
What breaks her is a curse. Skírnir strikes her with a magic staff and promises her a life of loathing and hunger by the gates of Hel, among three-headed giants, and he carves three runes, "Longing and madness and lust" Skírnismál 26-37. She gives in at once, offering him mead and saying she never thought she would love one of the Vanir Skírnismál 38, and agrees to meet Freyr in the grove of Barri in nine nights Skírnismál 40. Snorri leaves out the threats entirely: Skírnir "wooed the woman for him, and received her promise" Gylfaginning 37.
The price was Freyr's sword, which he gave to Skírnir and will miss at Ragnarök Lokasenna 42. Loki puts it bluntly: "The daughter of Gymir with gold didst thou buy" Lokasenna 42. Snorri lists Gerðr among the goddesses at Ægir's feast Skáldskaparmál 1, so she seems to have joined the gods after her marriage.
In the sources
Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.
when she raised her hands and opened the door before her, brightness gleamed from her hands, both over sky and sea, and all the worlds were illumined of her.
I will not take at any man's wish These eleven apples ever; Nor shall Freyr and I one dwelling find So long as we two live.
Though this I fear, that there without My brother's slayer stands.
Though I did not believe that I should so love Ever one of the Wanes.
Freyr's wife was Gerth, the daughter of Gymir, Of the giants' brood, and Aurbotha bore her
Where the sources disagree or fall silent
- Who Gerðr's brother was and who killed him (Skírnismál 16). Snorri says Freyr killed a giant named Beli (Gylfaginning 37); some readers think Beli was her brother, but no text says so.
In modern culture
Not from the medieval sources.
Gerðr is rarely used in modern fiction. Skírnismál's story of a reluctant bride won by threats has drawn a lot of modern commentary, from readings as a seasonal myth of earth and sun to discussions of coercion in the poem.
