Editing Skírnismál (section)

== Curses ==
There is material evidence that [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~alvismal/1maer.pdf the contemporary audience of ''Skírnismál'' believed in the effectiveness of curses like Skírnir's and even attempted to employ them.]

[[:no:Aslak Liestøl|Aslak Liestøl]] published a thirteenth-century text which contains a curse that is notably similar to the curse Skírnir's threatened Gerðr with. Liestøl asserts that the runic inscription is a genuine spell, and was intended to work on a real woman.

Carolyne Larrington outlines the different elements of the curse Gerðr is threatened with:

# She will be invisible, but also a public spectacle.
# She will experience intolerable sexual frustration.
# She will have a [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~alvismal/1maer.pdf "physically repulsive"] husband.
# She will fall to a low social status, and will lose the little autonomy she has.
# She will experience "[m]ale, authoritarian disapproval".