Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

Gerd, who tries to reject the love of the fair and blithe Vana-god, therefore will be
punished in the lower world with the complete loss of all that is called love, tenderness,
and sympathy, according to Skirnir's threats. Skirnir says that she either must live alone
and without a husband in the lower world, or else vegetate in a useless cohabitation
(nara) with the three-headed giant (31). The threat is gradually emphasized to the effect
that she shall be possessed by Hrimgrimnir, and this threat is made immediately after the
solemn conjuration (34) in which Skirnir invokes the inhabitants of Niflhel and also of
the regions of bliss, as witnesses, that she shall never gladden or be gladdened by a man
in the physical sense of this word:
Heyri jötnar,
heyri hrímþursar,
synir Suttunga,
sjálfir ásliðar,
hve eg fyrirbýð,
hve eg fyrirbanna
manna glaum mani,
manna nyt mani.
Hrímgrímnir heitir þurs,
er þig hafa skal
fyr nágrindur neðan.
Hear ye giants,
hear, frost-giants,
sons of the Suttungs,
the Asa-champions* themselves,
how I forbid,
how I banish
pleasure in men from the maid,
enjoyment of men from the maid.
Hrimgrimnir is the giant,
who shall possess you
down below the corpse-gates.
*With ásliðar, Asa-champions, there can hardly be meant others than the ásmegir
gathered in the lower world around Baldur. This is the only place where the word ásliðar
occurs.
Skirnir in speaking to Gerd could not have expressed the negative quality of
Hrimgrimnir in question more plainly, it seems to me. Thor also expresses himself clearly
on the same subject when he meets the dwarf Alvis carrying home a maid over whom
Thor has the right of marriage. Thor says scornfully that he thinks he recognizes
something in Alvis which reminds him of the nature of thurses, although Alvis is a dwarf
and the thurses are giants, and he further defines of what this similarity consists: þursa
líki þyki mér á þér vera; erattu til brúðar borinn: "Thurs' likeness you seem to me to
have; you were not born to have a bride." So far as the positive quality is concerned, it is
evident from the fact that Hrimgrimnir is the progenitor of the frost-giants.
Descended to Niflhel, Gerd must not count on a shadow of friendship and
sympathy from her kinsmen there. It would be best for her to confine herself in the
solitary abode which there awaits her, for if she but looks out of the gate, staring gazes
shall meet her from Hrimnir and all the others down there; and there she shall be looked
upon with more hatred than Heimdall, the watchman of the gods, who is the wise, always
vigilant foe of the rime-thurses and giants. But whether she is at home or abroad, demons
and tormenting spirits shall never leave her in peace. She shall be bowed to the earth by