Barri

39. Barri the grove is named, which we both know, the grove of tranquil paths. Nine nights hence, there to Niord’s son Gerd will grant delight.

In Skírnismál, Freyr’s servant Skírnir rides to Jötunheimr to win the giant’s daughter Gerðr for his master. In stanza 39 she names Barri as the grove where she will meet Freyr in nine nights. Skírnir repeats her words to Freyr in stanza 41, and Freyr answers that one night is long and more will be hard to bear.

The poem does not say where Barri lies, and it does not place it in Álfheimr. Freyr is tied to Álfheimr only by Grímnismál stanza 5, which says the gods gave it to him as a tooth-gift. This is a story about Freyr and Gerðr, so Barri should not be read as an elven place.

The name is discussed but not settled. Some scholars link it to barr, a word for conifer needles, which would suit a grove, while others have looked to barley. The poem explains neither. Later writers have also proposed that Barri is a real island, but that is argument from outside the poem, not something it says.

The poem calls it “the grove of tranquil paths”, which says only that it is a quiet wood known to both speakers. Gerðr is a giant’s daughter, but the text never says on whose land the grove stands.