Gersemi (
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
"treasure") is the daughter of the fertility-goddess
Freyja
In Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a char ...
in
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...
. She could be the same figure as
Hnoss
Hnoss (Old Norse: , "jewel" or "treasure") is one of the daughters of Freyja and Óðr in Norse mythology.
Name
The Old Norse term ''Hnoss'' has been translated in a variety of ways by scholars and folklorists. David Leeming and Christopher Fe ...
, another daughter of Freyja.
Name
The
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
name ''Gersemi'' means 'treasure', something which is considered precious or valuable. It is most likely a
derivative
In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is t ...
of the unattested Old Norse noun ''*gersamr'', compared with the
Icelandic ''gersemi'' or the
Old Swedish
Old Swedish ( Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1375 unti ...
''gärsimi'' ('treasure'), and with the
Danish ''gjørsum'' (a special fine imposed on a manslaughterer).
References
Bibliography
*
*
Vanir
Norse goddesses
Freyja
{{norse-myth-stub