Northern mythology

34 NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY.
assumed a new one among each people
that she visited in
her journeyings : hence she is called Mardoll^ Horn, Gefn,
and Syr ^
Of Nanna, the wife of Baldm', mention will be made
hereafter.
Idun (I)7unn, I];u^r),
the wife of Bragi, and daughter
of Ivaldj keeps in her casket the apples of which the gods
must eat, when they begin to grow old : they then again
become young ; and this process will continue till the destruction
of the gods, or Ragnarock. Her dwelling is in
Brunnakr ^.
Sir, Thorns wife, mother of UU and Thrud, has a noble
head of hair "\ Loki says there is but one who had unlawful
intercourse with her, and that was the wily Loki ^.
Saga dwells in Sockquabeck, over which the cool waves
tnurmm'.
golden cups ^.
There she and Odin joyful drink each day from
Gefion^' is a virgin, and is sensed by those that die virare
to be found in the story of Syritha and Othar, given by Saxo (p. 330,
sq.), though in ahnost every particular widely differing from the little
that has been transmitted to us of that myth. The flower Freyju hjir
{supercilium Veneris) owes its northern appellation to the goddess.
1
Gylf. 24, 35, 49, p. 66. Griranism. Str. 14. Hyndlulj. Str. 7. Hani
arsh. Str. 3.
- Gylf. 26. Hrafnag. 0«. Str. 6. Skaldskap. p. 121.
2 See more about Sif's hair at p. 38. A plant {polytricJium aureurn)
bears the name of Sifjar haddr (Sifje peplum).
* Skaldskap. 21. Lokaglepsa, Str. 54.
•^
Gylf. 35. Grimnism. Str. 7.
" Of Gefion, and the obligation under which the Danes lie to her, there
is the following tradition. A king named Gylti once reigned over the lands
now called Sweden. Of him it is related that he gave a wandering woman,
who had diverted him by her song, as much land as four oxen could
plough in a day and a night. This ivoman ivas of the race of the yEsir, and
named Gefum. She took four oxen from the north, from Jtitunheim,
who were her own sons by a Jotun, and set them before the plough, which
penetrated so deeply that it loosened a part of the land, which the oxen
drew out to sea westwards, until they stopt in a certain sound, where
Gefmn fixed the land, and gave it the name of Salund. Where the land