and."

CHAPTER IX: FREY

The God of Fairyland

Frey, or Fro, as he was called in Germany, was the son of Nioerd and
Nerthus, or of Nioerd and Skadi, and was born in Vana-heim. He therefore
belonged to the race of the Vanas, the divinities of water and air,
but was warmly welcomed in Asgard when he came thither as hostage
with his father. As it was customary among the Northern nations to
bestow some valuable gift upon a child when he cut his first tooth,
the AEsir gave the infant Frey the beautiful realm of Alf-heim or
Fairyland, the home of the Light Elves.

"Alf-heim the gods to Frey
Gave in days of yore
For a tooth gift."

Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).

Here Frey, the god of the golden sunshine and the warm summer
showers, took up his abode, charmed with the society of the elves
and fairies, who implicitly obeyed his every order, and at a sign
from him flitted to and fro, doing all the good in their power,
for they were pre-eminently beneficent spirits.

Frey also received from the gods a marvellous sword (an emblem of the
sunbeams), which had the power of fighting successfully, and of its
own accord, as soon as it was drawn from its sheath. Frey wielded
this principally against the frost giants, whom he hated almost as
much as did Thor, and because he carried this glittering weapon,
he has sometimes been confounded with the sword-god Tyr or Saxnot.

"With a short-shafted hammer fights conquering Thor;
Frey's own sword but an ell long is made."

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

The dwarfs from Svart-alfa-heim gave Frey the golden-bristled boar
Gullin-bursti (the golden-bristled), a personification of the sun. The
radiant bristles of this animal were considered symbolical either
of the solar rays, of the golden grain, which at his bidding waved
over the harvest fields of Midgard, or of agriculture; for the boar
(by tearing up the ground with his sharp tusk) was supposed to have
first taught mankind how to plough.

"There was Frey, and sat
On the gold-bristled boar, who first, they say,
Plowed the brown earth, and made it green for Frey."

Lovers of Gudrun (William Morris).

Frey sometimes rode astride of this marvellous boar, whose speed was
very great, and at other times harnessed him to his golden chariot,
which was said to contain the fruits and flowers which he lavishly
scattered