Gerðr

Gerðr is a figure in Norse mythology, described as a giantess (jötunn) and the daughter of Gymir and Aurboða. She is best known for her role in the myth of Freyr’s courtship, which appears most fully in the Poetic Edda’s Skírnismál. In this poem Freyr, a god associated with fertility and prosperity, falls in love with Gerðr at first sight. Rather than wooing her himself, Freyr’s servant Skirnir is sent to win her over on Freyr’s behalf. Skirnir travels to Jötunheim and to Gerðr’s domain, offering gifts and delivering prophecies and threats designed to persuade her.

Skirnir promises Gerðr wealth, favorable outcomes, and the magic weapon Freyr possesses, should she consent to marry Freyr. After enduring Skirnir’s bold rhetoric and the exchange of gifts, Gerðr agrees to the union. In Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, the marriage of Freyr and Gerðr is referenced as a positive alliance that would bring prosperity and peace, underscoring the perceived harmony between the divine and the giants as a source of fertility and bounty.

The name Gerðr is attested in Old Norse sources, though its exact meaning is uncertain. It is often associated with beauty in the context of her wooing, and the myth as a whole is interpreted as linking divine fertility with earthly abundance. Gerðr’s episode highlights Skirnir’s role as an intermediary and is a recurring example of the motif of interspecies marriage in Norse myth.