Fulla, Hlyn, Gnaa, Snotra, Var, Lofn (Sjofn), and Syn, are enumerated as
maid-servants of Frigg.
Fulla goes about with her hair flowing over her shoulders and her head
adorned with a golden ribbon. She is intrusted with the toilette and
slippers of Frigg and admitted into the most important secrets of that
goddess. The word Fulla means full, fulness, and as the servant of Frigg
she represents the fulness of the earth, which is beautifully suggested
by her waving hair and golden ribbon (harvest), and when Balder sent the
ring Draupner from Hel, his wife Nanna sent Frigg a carpet, and Fulla a
gold ring.
Hlyn has the care of those whom Frigg intends to deliver from peril.
Gnaa is the messenger that Frigg sends into the various worlds on her
errands. She has a horse that can run through air and water, called
Hofvarpner (the hoof-thrower). Once, as she drove out, certain vans saw
her car in the air, when one of them exclaimed:
What flies there?
What goes there?
In the air aloft what glides?
She answered:
I fly not, though I go,
And glide through the air
On Hofvarpner,
Whose sire’s Hamskerper[42]
And dame Gardrofa.[43]
Gnaa is interpreted to mean the mild breezes, that Frigg sends out to
produce good weather.
Var listens to the oaths that men take, and particularly the troth
plighted between man and woman, and punishes those who keep not their
promises. She is wise and prudent, and so penetrating that nothing
remains hidden from her. Her name Var means _wary_, careful.
Lofn (_lofa_, _loben_, love) is so mild and gracious to those who invoke
her, that by a peculiar privilege which either Odin himself or Frigg has
given her, she can remove every obstacle that may prevent the union of
lovers sincerely attached to each other. Hence her name is applied to
denote love, and whatever is beloved by men.
Sjofn delights in turning men’s hearts and thoughts to love; hence love
is called from her name _sjafni_.
Syn keeps the door in the hall and shuts it against those who ought not
to enter. She presides at trials, when anything is to be denied on oath;
whence the proverb, Syn (negation) is set against it, when anything is
denied.