Where can he have met her before? Was there any time when Freyja did not dwell in Asgard? Völuspa answers this question, as we know, in the affirmative. The event threatening to the gods and to the existence of the world once happened that the goddess of fertility and love came into the power of the giants. Then all the high-holy powers assembled to consider "who had mixed the air with corruption and given Od's maid to the race of giants." But none of our Icelandic mythic records mentions how and by whom Freyja was liberated from the hands of the powers of frost. Under the name Svipdag our hero is mentioned only in Grogalder and Fjölsvinnsmal; all we learn of him under the name _Ódr_ and _Óttarr_ is that he was Freyja's lover and husband (Völuspa, Hyndluljod); that he went far, far away; that Freyja then wept for him, that her tears became gold, that she sought him among unknown peoples, and that she in her search assumed many names: _Mardöll_, _Hörn_, _Gefn_, _Syr_ (Younger Edda, 114). To get further contributions to the Svipdag myth we must turn to Saxo, where the name Svipdag should be found as Svipdagerus, _Óttar_ as Otharus or Hotharus, and _Ódr_ as Otherus or Hotherus.[4]
There cannot be the least doubt that Saxo's Otharus is a figure borrowed from the mythology and from the heroic sagas therewith connected, since in the first eight books of his _History_ not a single person can be shown who is not originally found in the mythology. But the mythic records that have come down to our time know only one _Ottarr_, and he is the one who wins Freyja's heart. This alone makes it the duty of the mythologist to follow this hint here given and see whether that which Saxo relates about his Otharus confirms his identity with Svipdag-Ottar.