ture in case she persisted in her refusal, Gerda finally consented
to become Frey's wife, and dismissed Skirnir, promising to meet her
future spouse on the ninth night, in the land of Buri, the green grove,
where she would dispel his sadness and make him happy.

"Burri is hight the seat of love;
Nine nights elapsed, in that known grove
Shall brave Niorder's gallant boy
From Gerda take the kiss of joy."

Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).

Delighted with his success, Skirnir hurried back to Alf-heim, where
Frey came eagerly to learn the result of his journey. When he learned
that Gerda had consented to become his wife, his face grew radiant
with joy; but when Skirnir informed him that he would have to wait
nine nights ere he could behold his promised bride, he turned sadly
away, declaring the time would appear interminable.

"Long is one night, and longer twain;
But how for three endure my pain?
A month of rapture sooner flies
Than half one night of wishful sighs."

Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).

In spite of this loverlike despondency, however, the time of waiting
came to an end, and Frey joyfully hastened to the green grove, where,
true to her appointment, he found Gerda, and she became his happy wife,
and proudly sat upon his throne beside him.

"Frey to wife had Gerd;
She was Gymir's daughter,
From Joetuns sprung."

Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).

According to some mythologists, Gerda is not a personification of the
aurora borealis, but of the earth, which, hard, cold, and unyielding,
resists the spring-god's proffers of adornment and fruitfulness (the
apples and ring), defies the flashing sunbeams (Frey's sword), and
only consents to receive his kiss when it learns that it will else be
doomed to perpetual barrenness, or given over entirely into the power
of the giants (ice and snow). The nine nights of waiting are typical
of the nine winter months, at the end of which the earth becomes the
bride of the sun, in the groves where the trees are budding forth
into leaf and blossom.

Frey and Gerda, we are told, became the parents of a son called
Fiolnir, whose birth consoled Gerda for the loss of her brother
Beli. The latter had attacked Frey and had been slain by him, although
the sun-god, deprived of his matchless sword, had been obliged to
defend himself with a stag horn which he hastily snatched from the
wall of hi