Gerda

Pronunciation: Geard-ah
While Gerda is often venerated, she isn’t one of the Gods proper. Her name means “giver” and she is a Giantess of immense beauty and radiance. According to the accounts given in the Poetic Edda, Ing Fro’s eventual winning of her hand in marriage was far from easy, and came ultimately as a result of the threat of a powerful curse. This has led scholars to associate her icy demeanor to winter’s hard grip upon the arable land, and the reluctant winning of her ‘affection’ as symbolic of the thaw that accompanies the transition of the seasons- from winter into spring or summer Gefjon. Later mothering the chief dynasty of Danish kings. She is clearly a goddess of fruitfulness in some aspects; however, she is also the protector of maidens and their modesty, and unmarried women are said to go to her hall after death.