Gerðr

Gerd is the radiant giant-maiden of Skírnismál — the daughter of the giant Gymir whose beauty so strikes the god Frey that he falls helplessly, dangerously in love. Catching sight of her from Odin's high seat, where she raises her arms and the very air and sea shine with her brightness, Frey is seized by a longing so consuming that he sickens for her, and gives away his magic sword — the sword he will fatally lack at Ragnarök — to send his servant Skírnir to win her. Skírnir woos her first with gifts and then, when she refuses, with terrible curses of barrenness and madness until she yields and agrees to meet Frey. Gerd is the corpus's image of beauty as a force that unmans even a god — the giant-maid whose radiance brings the fertility-god to his knees and costs him the weapon that would have saved the world, won at last not by love but by threat. The bride who is the price of Frey's doom.