Submitted by: Luca Panaro
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Skírnismál, "the Words of Skírnir," whose name means "Shining one," is a poem contained in the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda (not be confused with the identically named Codex Regius of the Prose Edda). Although this is the most frequently used name of the poem, it is actually called För Skírnis, "Skírnir's Journey," in Codex Regius, and is called Skírnismál in AM 748 i a 4to, a manuscript that contains some of the purely mythological poems found in Codex Regius (but it is also the only manuscript that contains Baldrs draumar, "Baldr's dreams")(LINK). This other manuscript version of Skírnismál, although incomplete, has an interesting difference in that some scribe has added the names of the speakers in the margins, which is a factor in some scholars' judgement that Skírnismál may actually be a script for a dramatic play, perhaps a ritual drama. Even without this feature, Professor Terry Gunnell is well known for arguing for a performance-based understanding of many eddic poems, proposing the dramatic effects of taking on the speaking role of a god in a fire-lit hall at night, especially with an audience intoxicated on beer or mead. (LINK).
Skírnismál or För Skírnis is about the eponymous Skírnir, messenger of the god Freyr (LINK), who is sent to woo a beautiful jötunn woman, Gerðr, on behalf of his lord. The poem is thus unique in that it focuses on a Vanir (LINK) deity, Freyr, and his servant, rather than on Æsir gods (LINK), who are otherwise always the subjects of the mythological poetry and appear more often in sagas. The text also contains an instance of cursing, when the unwilling Gerðr has to be forced by Skírnir to agree to the meeting with Freyr, transforming the narrative from a mythic bridal-quest or wooing (LINKS?) into what is effectively a rape. Scholars have considered the contents of the curse, summarized below, along gendered lines, for instance how its different effects constitute an inversion of those things women in this time may have desired to have and to be.
Like Grímnismál, Skírnismál has a prose introduction, though this one is much shorter. It explains that Freyr, son of Vanir god Njörðr (LINK), sits upon Óðinn's (LINK) special throne, Hlíðskjálf (LINK), and looks throughout the worlds with its special power. He peers over into Jötunheimar ("the worlds of the Giants") and sees a beautiful girl, and he falls in love (or lust) with her immediately and begins to suffer from strong heartsickness. Njörðr asks Freyr's page, Skírnir, to speak to his son about this. The prose leads off with "Then Skaði [Njörðr's wife] said:" and the poem begins with her dialogue, asking Skírnir to go to Freyr.
Freyr discloses his lovesickness to Skírnir, who offers to go on his behalf in exchange for a particular horse and also Freyr's sword, which magically fights on its own. Freyr agrees, and for this reason he is without his sword at Ragnarök (LINK) when he fights against Surtr (LINK). Then Skírnir sets off and arrives in Jötunheimar without incident, coming to the courts of Gymir, Gerðr's father. There are savage dogs tied outside the gate to Gerðr's hall, and Skírnir asks a nearby herdsman if he can speak with Gerðr. Even though the herdsman declines, Gerðr hears them talking and asks what is happening, and to invite the man inside to drink mead. She asks who his people are, and why he has come, and Skírnir begins offering gifts to Gerðr to make her agree to meet with Freyr. First he offers eleven golden apples, which may or may not be the same apples owned by the goddess Iðunn (LINK), which he gives to the Æsir so they never grow old; then he offers a ring with the same property as Draupnir, Óðinn's ring, but it is not named here and not explained how Skírnir would have it. Gerðr rejects both of these gifts and says she will never settle down with Freyr.
Skírnir grows quickly impatient, and turns to threats. First he threatens to chop her head off with his sword if she doesn't comply, and then to kill her father, but she still won't submit. Then he begins to threaten her with a powerful curse with terrible ramifications: Carolyne Larrington (1992) has summarized the effects: "The main elements of the curse threaten Gerðr with: a. Being invisible (26.4–6); being a public spectacle (28) b. Unbearable sexual frustration (29; 34.5–8; 36.3–4) c. A physically repulsive husband (31.1–3) d. Low social status and loss of autonomy (30; 35.4–10) e. Male, authoritarian disapproval (33)." In the article this list is quoted from, Larrington discusses the violent and gendered nature of the curse, and how it would negate the ideals of (contemporary) female social status, such as autonomy, respect, honor, and choice in love and marriage. The stanzas outlining the curse are extensive and detailed, about how she will be trapped in various terrible places, forced to do things against her will, only able to have sex with ogres and frost-giants, or no one at all, and being given goat urine to drink, a direct counter-reference to the mead that comes from the udders of the magical goat Heiðrún (LINK) in Valhöll. He closes his curse with a threat of writing runes, specifically the rune þurs, "giant, ogre," which is normally called "thorn" and three others that would cause "perversion, frenzy, and unbearable desire." After these horrific threats, Gerðr at last submits to meet with Freyr and gives Skírnir a time and place for the rendezvous. Returning to Freyr, Skírnir gives him the news, and Freyr laments that he will have to wait nine days until the meeting. The poem ends there.
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