Freyr
;)
('Lord'), sometimes Frey, was the twin brother of the Germanic fertility goddess Freyja. Their father was Njord, the sea god associated with the wind and the sea. Freyr, with Odin and Thor, was one of the principal gods. He was mainly concerned with fertility, having control of sunlight, rain, fruitfulness and peace. His title of Skirr means 'shining', and the name of the frost giantess he married, Gerda, derives from 'field'. As late as 1200, Freyr's statue in his temple at Uppsala, Sweden was noted for the size of its penis. Possibly for this reason the Romans had always identified him with Priapus, the virile son of Dionysus and Aphrodite. Although a member of the Vanir by descent, Freyr moved to Asgard to live with the Aesir, the younger branch of the gods under the leadership of Odin, along with his father Njorn and his sister Freyja, as a gesture of goodwill that had been agreed at the end of the war between the Vanir and the Aesir.
Freyr's myth is about his wooing of Gerda, the daughter of the frost giant Gymir. When Freyr first saw Gerda he immediately fell in love with her, and because he did not know how to gain her affection he became ill. Njord became so worried about him that he asked his faithful servant Skirnir to find out what was amiss. Having learned of this love, Skirnir went to Jotunheim, the land of the giants, taking two of Freyr's greatest treasures, his magic horse and his magic sword. The servant was introduced to bring Gerda back to Asgard, whether her father liked it or not. On reaching Gymir's hall, Skirnir tried to persuade Gerda to declare her love for Freyr in return for 'eleven of the apples of youth'. She refused both this gift and Skirnir's second offer of one of Odin's arm-rings. Gerda's resolve was only strengthened further when Skirnir then threatened to decapitate her with Freyr's sword. Finally, Skirnir said that he would impose on her an unbreakable spell that would make her a permanent outcast and it was this that persuaded Gerda to pledge herself to the fertility god with an agreement to meet Freyr in a forest in nine days time. In this way the passion of Freyr was fulfilled, though it cost him his horse and sword which he gave to Skirnir. At Ragnarok, the doom of the gods, he sorely missed his mighty magic weapon, since it could fight giants on its own.