"I assure you," said Gunnar, "that I have not—for one. And I'll answer for every man in Norway."
"We know nothing of the Norwegians, of whom we hear for the first time," he was told; "but the people of this part have good reason to know Frey, and to fear him, seeing he lives among them, and is now a day's and night's journey from here. I myself," the speaker said, "saw him but fourteen days ago, in his holy place."
"What is his holy place?"
The man said, "It is his temple where he lives when he is not upon his rounds. All the winter he lives there with his wife, and the people worship him and make feasts for him. But when the winter is over, and the rains come to wash the world clean for the sun, Frey goes off in his wagon and visits all the villages in turn, and blesses the grain and makes it fertile. That is how the world goes on, and men get food for their pains."
Gunnar was amazed. "Do you say that Frey has a wife?"
"I do say so, since it is true. But as yet she is not fruitful, which vexes Frey."
"Let Frey consider himself," said Gunnar. "It is not always a wife's fault if she is not fruitful."
"You may be sure that the fault is not Frey's," they said.
"I am not at all so sure," said Gunnar. "Does Frey do his duty by her?"