Editing Gerðr (section)

==Archaeological record==
[[File:Goldgubb.jpg|thumb|Two figures embrace on a small piece of gold foil dating from the Migration Period to the early the Viking Age.]]
Small pieces of gold foil featuring engravings dating from the [[Migration Period]] into the early [[Viking Age]] (known as ''[[gullgubber]]'') have been discovered in various locations in [[Scandinavia]], almost 2,500 at one location. The foil pieces have been found largely at sites of buildings, only rarely in graves. The figures are sometimes single, occasionally an animal, sometimes a man and a woman with a leafy bough between them, facing or embracing one another. The human figures are almost always clothed and are sometimes depicted with their knees bent. Scholar [[Hilda Ellis Davidson]] says that it has been suggested that the figures are partaking in a dance, and that they may have been connected with weddings, as well as linked to the [[Vanir]] group of gods, representing the notion of a divine marriage, such as in the ''Poetic Edda'' poem ''[[Skírnismál]]''; the coming together of Gerðr and Freyr.<ref name=DAVIDSON121>Davidson (1988:121).</ref>