How to tell the parser it's not a string but a 'path'

Good day,

I've just spent 5 hours on this and still can't find a solution.

I have an element called glossary. It contains a link to a different
part of the XML file. If I select the path from it, Saxon assumes that
I'm now working with a string value, but I'm not. How to I tell it not
to treat it as a string but to get the value of the node that the
'string' is pointing to?

----This doesn't work ----
(it outputs the path and not the value of the node where the path is pointing )

   </xsl:template>  <xsl:template match="glossary">
      <xsl:variable name="location" select="'/gset/d/'"/>
      <xsl:variable name="path" select="."/> <!-- Test data contains
gset/goal/description -->
      <xsl:variable name="fullpath" select="concat($location,$path)"/>
..
            <xsl:value-of select="$fullpath"/>
..
    </xsl:template>

----If I "hard code" the value, it works:----
(now I ignore the variables and hardcode a sample path)

   </xsl:template>  <xsl:template match="glossary">
      <xsl:variable name="location" select="'/gset/d/'"/>
      <xsl:variable name="path" select="."/>
      <xsl:variable name="fullpath" select="concat($location,$path)"/>
..
            <xsl:value-of select="/gset/d/gset/goal/description"/>
..
    </xsl:template>

I'm off to bed to cry myself to sleep!

Kind regards,
Jacobus