Gerd
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- See Gastroesophageal reflux disease for the disease abbreviated as GERD.
Gerd, Gärd, Gerdhr, Gerda or Gerdur (Old Norse Gerðr) is a Jotun-giantess in Norse Mythology most well known as the wife of the Norse god Freyr. She is the most beautiful of all creatures and may have been a personification of soil fertility and sex. Her brilliant, naked arms illuminated air and sea.
Gerd is daughter of Gymir and Aurboða. She also has a brother named Beli who is leader of the Barking Giants. Gerd is included among the Ásynjur in Snorri Sturluson's Edda. According to the Ynglinga saga she was the mother of Freyr's son Fjölnir who succeeded Freyr as ruler of Sweden.
In the Skáldskaparmál Gerd is named along with Jörd, Rind, and Gunnlöd as rivals of Odin's wife Frigg, these other three being among those whom Snorri Sturluson elsewhere relates that Odin had bedded. Gerd in this list is probably an error for Gríd who is otherwise conspicuously absent.
Her name is probably from gerða 'to fence in' related to garðr 'enclosed space' cognate with the English word yard and (through Danish) of the English word garth.
The account of her wooing is given in the poem Skírnismál. She never wanted to marry Freyr, refused his proposals (delivered through Skirnir, his messenger) even after bringing her eleven golden apples and Draupnir. Skirnir finally threatened to use Freyr's sword to cover the earth in ice and she agreed to marry Freyr.
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