Ásynjur
Gná
Frigg's messenger, who rides through sky and sea on the horse Hófvarpnir; some of the Vanir once saw her flying overhead.
Gná is Frigg's messenger. Snorri, who is our only source, lists her fourteenth among the Ásynjur and says that Frigg sends her "into divers lands on her errands", riding a horse that "runs over sky and sea" Gylfaginning 35. The horse is Hófvarpnir, "hoof-thrower", which Brodeur translates as Hoof-Tosser.
Snorri adds a scrap of verse, presumably from a lost poem. Some of the Vanir saw her in the air, and one called out:
What flieth there?What fareth there,Or glideth in the air?Gylfaginning 35
Gná replied that she was not flying but faring, gliding on Hoof-Tosser, "him that Hamskerpir / Gat with Gardrofa" Gylfaginning 35. The horse, like Sleipnir, has a named pedigree, though nothing else is known of its parents. Snorri ends by deriving the verb gnæfa, "to tower", from her name, a typical piece of his word-lore.
Gná appears nowhere in the poems of the Edda. Her page and her horse rest on this one passage.
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.
The fourteenth is Gná: her Frigg sends into divers lands on her errands; she has that horse which runs over sky and sea and is called Hoof-Tosser.
What flieth there? What fareth there, Or glideth in the air?
I fly not, though I fare And in the air glide On Hoof-Tosser, him that Hamskerpir Gat with Gardrofa.
