cloud and mist and sky.'"

Asgard and the Gods (Wagner-Macdowall).

The king pondered for a moment upon the meaning of this sudden
apparition and gift, and then hurried home, his heart beating high
with hope, and gave the apple to his wife to eat. In due season,
to his intense joy, she bore him a son, Volsung, the great Northern
hero, who became so famous that he gave his name to all his race.

Lofn, Vjofn, and Syn

Besides the three above mentioned, Frigga had other attendants in her
train. There was the mild and gracious maiden Lofn (praise or love),
whose duty it was to remove all obstacles from the path of lovers.

"My lily tall, from her saddle bearing,
I led then forth through the temple, faring
To th' altar-circle where, priests among,
Lofn's vows she took with unfalt'ring tongue."

Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).

Vjofn's duty was to incline obdurate hearts to love, to maintain peace
and concord among mankind, and to reconcile quarrelling husbands and
wives. Syn (truth) guarded the door of Frigga's palace, refusing to
open it to those who were not allowed to come in. When she had once
shut the door upon a would-be intruder no appeal would avail to change
her decision. She therefore presided over all tribunals and trials,
and whenever a thing was to be vetoed the usual formula was to declare
that Syn was against it.

Gefjon

Gefjon was also one of the maidens in Frigga's palace, and to her
were entrusted all those who died unwedded, whom she received and
made happy for ever.

According to some authorities, Gefjon did not remain a virgin herself,
but married one of the giants, by whom she had four sons. This same
tradition goes on to declare that Odin sent her before him to visit
Gylfi, King of Sweden, and to beg for some land which she might call
her own. The king, amused at her request, promised her as much land as
she could plough around in one day and night. Gefjon, nothing daunted,
changed her four sons into oxen, harnessed them to a plough, and began
to cut a furrow so wide and deep that the king and his courtiers were
amazed. But Gefjon continued her work without showing any signs of
fatigue, and when she had ploughed all around a large piece of land
forcibly wrenched it away, and made her oxen drag it down into the sea,
where she made it fast and called it Seeland.

"Gefjon drew from Gylfi,
Rich in stored up treasure