The Lay of Skírnir

Summary

A

Skírnismál tells how Freyr, the fertility god, looks out from Odin's high seat Hliðskjálf and catches sight of the giantess Gerðr in Jotunheim. He is immediately struck by a severe longing and refuses to eat or sleep. His servant Skírnir offers to travel to Gerðr and court her on his master's behalf, in exchange for Freyr's unmatched sword that fights by itself.

Skírnir rides to Jotunheim, passes through fire and guard-dogs, and meets Gerðr in her hall. He offers her apples, a magical gold armband, and Odin's ring Draupnir. She refuses all gifts. He threatens with his sword. She does not yield. He then delivers a long series of curse-stanzas (st. 26-36), the so-called níðstrongar, which promise her a life of dishonor, lovelessness, and magically afflicted exile among giants.

The curse succeeds. Gerðr yields and sets a time and place: the grove Barri in nine nights. Skírnir returns with the message. The poem ends with Freyr's final words of waiting, nine nights that feel like an eternity for one in love.

The poem is central to understanding Old Norse courtship-magic and the níð tradition. The curse-stanzas are the most elaborately developed in Eddic poetry and link erotic power, social shame, and ritual exclusion.

The story

Key concepts

• ljóðaháttr , the chant-metre dominating Skírnismál; three lines per half-stanza, the third a full line
• níð , ritual dishonor and shaming; stanzas 26-34 form the most elaborate níð-curse in Eddic poetry
• Hliðskjálf , Odin's all-seeing throne; Freyr's unauthorized use of it initiates the drama
• Gerðr , giantess and daughter of Gymir; her radiant beauty and path toward union with Freyr is the poem's subject
• tamsvendi , the taming-wand Skírnir uses to bend Gerðr's will; a concrete magical tool
• þurs-runan , the third rune in the Elder Futhark; in Skírnismál a curse-rune linked to giants and chaos
• ergi , sexual dishonor and unmanliness; one of three states Skírnir carves into Gerðr (st. 26, 30)
• Draupnir , Odin's ring that produces eight equally heavy rings every ninth night; offered to Gerðr as a gift and rejected (st. 18-19)

Interpretive traditions

A What we know

That Skírnismál is preserved in Codex Regius and Hauksbók and is one of the best-preserved Eddic poems is textually established.

That the poem is about Freyr's courtship of the giantess Gerðr through his servant Skírnir is the text's explicit content and uncontested.

That Freyr's sword, given away in the poem, is linked to his ultimate defenselessness against Surtr at Ragnarök (Völuspá st. 53; Lokasenna st. 42) is a well-supported intertextual interpretation.

That the curse-stanzas (st. 26-36) represent the most elaborate níð-tradition in preserved Old Norse poetry is widely acknowledged in scholarship (Cleasby-Vigfusson, Lindow 2001).

That the grove Barri in the final stanza is a fertility symbol ("barr" = needle-tree or grain) has support in the poem and in comparative religion.

B What we think we know

Whether the poem is a mythological creation narrative about a god's courtship of earth's representative (Gerðr as spirit of the earth, Freyr as fertility god) or a dramatic story without deeper allegorical meaning is debated.

Skírnir's role has been interpreted in different ways: as Freyr's alter ego, as a ritual actor, or as an independent agent. No consensus exists.

That the curse-stanzas (st. 26-36) are a later addition to an originally shorter poem is a text-historical hypothesis with some support in metrical analyses.

Whether the poem reflects actual courtship customs and legal forms (such as a man sending a representative) or is a mythological fantasy is discussed.

C What we do not know

What Gerðr's capitulation actually symbolizes (forced consent, ritual necessity, cosmic balance) is an open question touching on Old Norse ethics, gender, and power.

Whether the nature of the níð-curses is to be understood as performative magic (the words act by themselves), social coercion, or literary rhetoric cannot be determined with certainty.

Why Freyr sits on Hliðskjálf, Odin's exclusive throne, is not explained in the poem. Whether this is an intentional transgression, a mistake, or a poetic device to motivate the action is unclear.

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

• Neckel, Gustav, och Hans Kuhn. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 5. uppl. Heidelberg: Winter.

Translations

• Bellows, Henry Adams (trans.). 1923. The Poetic Edda. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. (PD)
• Larrington, Carolyne (trans.). 2014. The Poetic Edda. Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scholarly works

• Lindow, John. 2001. Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Simek, Rudolf. 1993. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
• Turville-Petre, E. O. G. 1964. Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
• McKinnell, John. 2014. Essays on Eddic Poetry. Ed. Donata Kick and John D. Shafer. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1994–1998. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Northern Society, vols. I–II. Odense: Odense University Press.