blue-eyed goddess, was also, at times,
considered as a personification of the earth. As such she married Odur,
a symbol of the summer sun, whom she dearly loved, and by whom she
had two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. These maidens were so beautiful
that all things lovely and precious were called by their names.

While Odur lingered contentedly at her side, Freya was smiling
and perfectly happy; but, alas! the god was a rover at heart, and,
wearying of his wife's company, he suddenly left home and wandered far
out into the wide world. Freya, sad and forsaken, wept abundantly,
and her tears fell upon the hard rocks, which softened at their
contact. We are told even that they trickled down to the very centre
of the stones, where they were transformed to gold. Some tears fell
into the sea and were changed into translucent amber.

Weary of her widowed condition, and longing to clasp her beloved in her
arms once more, Freya finally started out in search of him, passing
through many lands, where she became known by different names, such
as Mardel, Horn, Gefn, Syr, Skialf, and Thrung, inquiring of all she
met whether her husband had passed that way, and shedding everywhere
so many tears that gold is to be found in all parts of the earth.

"And Freya next came nigh, with golden tears;
The loveliest Goddess she in Heaven, by all
Most honour'd after Frea, Odin's wife.
Her long ago the wandering Oder took
To mate, but left her to roam distant lands;
Since then she seeks him, and weeps tears of gold.
Names hath she many; Vanadis on earth
They call her, Freya is her name in Heaven."

Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).

Far away in the sunny South, under the flowering myrtle-trees,
Freya found Odur at last, and her love being restored to her, she
was happy and smiling once again, and as radiant as a bride. It is
perhaps because Freya found her husband beneath the flowering myrtle,
that Northern brides, to this day, wear myrtle in preference to the
conventional orange wreath of other climes.

Hand in hand, Odur and Freya now gently wended their way home once
more, and in the light of their happiness the grass grew green, the
flowers bloomed, and the birds sang, for all Nature sympathised as
heartily with Freya's joy as it had mourned with her when she was
in sorrow.

"Out of the morning land,
Over the snowdrifts,
Beautiful Freya came
Tripping to Scoring.
Whit