Freyja

For other meanings of Freya, see Freya (disambiguation).

Freyja (sometimes anglicized as Freya or Freja), sister of Freyr and daughter of Niord (Njǫrðr), is usually seen as a Norse fertility goddess.

Freyja, in an illustration to Wagner's operas by Arthur Rackham.

Freyja means "lady" in Old Norse (cf. fru or Frau in Scandinavian and German). While there are some sources suggesting that she was called on to bring fruitfulness to fields or wombs, she was a goddess of, love, beauty, sex, and attraction. Freyja was also a goddess of war, death, magic, prophecies and wealth. Freya is cited as receiving half of the dead lost in battle in her hall Folkvang, whereas Odin would receive the other half.

Correspondingly, Freyja was at times one of the most popular goddesses. According to Snorri's Ynglinga saga, Freyja was a skilled practitioner of the seiðr form of magic and introduced it amongst the Æsir.

Prose Edda

In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Freyja is introduced as follows.

Njörðr í gat síðan tvau börn, hét sonr Freyr en dóttir Freyja. Þau váru fögr álitum ok máttug. ... Freyja er ágætust af ásynjum, hon á þann bœ á himni er Fólkvangar heita, ok hvar sem hon ríðr til vígs, þá á hon hálfan val, en hálfan Óðinn ... Salr hennar, Sessrýmnir, hann er mikill ok fagr. En er hon ferr, þá ekr hon köttum tveim ok sitr í reið. Hon er nákvæmust mönnum til á at heita, ok af hennar nafni er þat tignarnafn er ríkiskonur eru kallaðar fróvur. Henni líkaði vel mansöngr. Á hana er gott at heita til ásta. Gylfaginning, Eysteinn Björnsson's edition [1]

Njördr in children: the son was called Freyr, and the daughter Freyja; they were fair of face and mighty. ... Freyja is the most renowned of the goddesses; she has in heaven the dwelling called Fólkvangr, and where so ever she rides to the strife, she has one-half of the kill, and Odin half ... Her hall Sessrúmnir is great and fair. When she goes forth, she drives her cats and sits in a chariot; she is most conformable to man's prayers, and from her name comes the name of honor, Frú, by which noblewomen are called. Songs of love are well-pleasing to her; it is good to call on her for furtherance in love. Gylfaginning, Brodeur's translation [2]

Snorri also mentions that Freyja had a husband named Odr. He often went away on long journeys, and for this reason Freyja cried tears of red gold. The Lay of Hyndla also names a protégé of Freyja, Óttar.

In two stories a giant wants to marry Freyja; the owner of Svaðilfari as related in Gylfaginning and Þrymr as related in Þrymskviða. Both were ultimately deceived and killed by the gods.

Possessions

Surviving tales regarding Freyja often associate Freyja with numerous enchanted possessions.

Cloak

Freya owned a cloak of robin feathers, which gave her the ability to change into any bird. She lends this garment to Loki in Þrymskviða.

Hildisvini

Freyja rides a boar called Hildisvín the Battle-Swine. In the poem Hyndluljóð, we are told that in order to conceal Ottar, Freyja transformed him into the guise of a boar. The boar has special associations within Norse Mythology, both relative to the notion of fertility and also as a protective talisman in war, probably because real boars can be quite fierce animals.

Seventh century Swedish helmet plates depict warriors with large boars as their crests, and a boar-crested helmet has survived from Anglo-Saxon time and was retrieved from a tumulus at Benty Grange in Derbyshire. In Beowulf, it is said that a boar on the helmet was there to guard the life of the warrior wearing it. Other sources show that Freyja rode a chariot drawn by a pair of cats the size of lions.

Jewelery

 

Freyja, depicted in a painting by J. Penrose.

In the Eddas, Freyja is often portrayed as being thought to be the most desirable of all goddesses. When she desired to acquire the famous necklace Brisingamen (Brísingamen) from four dwarves, (Dvalin, Alfrik, Berling, and Grer), they desired a night each with her, a demand which she eventually acceded to.

Later on, Odin made Loki steal the necklace for him, and demanded the same price of Freyja as the dwarves had, though he eventually relented. Freyja loved jewelery so much that she named her daughter "Hnoss", meaning "jewel".

Association with war

The earliest example of Freyja's association with war comes from Sörla þáttr alias The Saga of Hedin and Högni written c. 1400. It is not-so-vague attempt to immortalize the Christian King Olaf Tryggvason in mythic terms. His ascension to rulership and subsequent conversion to Christianity of all Norway became the culmination of prophecy and even the will and direct action of Heathen Gods. Odin himself, in this tale, declared it to be so. Also here, Freyja steps completely out of character and urges a man to commit murder and kidnapping to start a war. She does not step into battle herself, nor does she ever touch a weapon.

This clearly non-original story should had surprising influence over the centuries. It is quite clear that this deliberate work is the origin for most 'Freyja-as-War-Goddess' conceptualizations known today. Without Olaf Tryggvason's conversion at the heart of the story - there is no story. Snorri Sturlusson even writes about the same war and Olaf's victory without making any reference to Freyja or the old gods at all - and his version predates Sörla þáttr.

[[Image::Freyja and cats and angels by Blommer.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A depiction of Freyja riding a cat-driven chariot and flanked by cherubs in a painting by Nils Blommér.]]

Receiver of half the slain

Snorri writes in Gylfaginning (24) that "wherever she rides to battle, she gets half the slain" (Faulkes translation); he does not say whether or not Freyja actively participates in the battle in any way. Though Freyja receives some of those warriors slain on the battlefield, there is no record of how that occurs. Does Freyja pick them herself? Or do Odin or the Valkyries decide? There are no answers to these questions.

It is said in Grímnismál:

The ninth hall is Folkvang, where bright Freyja

Decides where the warriors shall sit:

Some of the fallen belong to her,

And some belong to Odin.

In Egil's saga, Thorgerda (Þorgerðr), threatens to commit suicide in the wake of her brother's death, saying: "I shall not eat until I sup with Freyja". This should be taken to mean that she expected to pass to Freyja's hall upon her death. Any greater associations with Freyja and death are not supported.

Potential relations to Frigg and Gullveig

There is frequent modern speculation that Freija is the same as Frigg (see the discussion under Connection between Frigg and Freyja).

Early traditions do not distinguish clearly between Freyja and Frigg, though the names have different origins and in the later Scandinavian mythology, Freyja and Frigg were obviously not one and the same, being different goddesses with separate functions, personalities and symbols. The two appeared in the same text together on many occasions, however. Some sources say Freyja was married to Odin, most likely due to Frigg and Freyja once being the same character and Loki claims that she had a sexual relationship with her brother Freyr in Lokasenna.

It has also been widely speculated^{[citation needed]} that the Gullveig mentioned in Völuspá was Freyja under another name. Gullveig ignited the war between the Vanir and Aesir.

Other names

Forms of "Freyja"

• Freja — common Danish and literary Swedish form. as in Freja Andrews of Westport.
• Freia
• Freya
• Froya
• Friia — second Merseburg Charm
• Frija — variant of Friia
• Frøya, Fröa — common Norwegian, and rural Swedish form.
• Reija — Finnish form

Other forms

According to Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning (35), Freyja also bore the following names:

• "Vanadis", which means "Dís of the Vanir".
• Mardöll, whose etymology is uncertain, also appears in kennings for gold;
• Hörn, which may be related to the word hörr meaning "flax", "linen" (Hörn is also listed in the þulur as a giantess name);
• Gefn, which means "the giver", is a suitable name for a fertility goddess;
• Sýr, whose translation is "sow", illustrates the association of the Vanir with pigs (cf. Freyr's boar Gullinbursti).

Some of these names (Hörn, Sýr, Gefn, Mardöll) are also listed in a þula which also supplies:

• Þrungva;
• Skjálf, which is also the name of the wife and murderer of king Agni.

Named after Freyja

Etymology

In Dutch, the verb "vrijen" is derived from "Freya" and means "to have sex/make love". The (obsolete) German verb "freien" means "looking for a bride". The derived noun "Freier" (suitor) is still used, though more often in its second meaning "client of a prostitute".

In Avestan, an ancient Indo-European language found in the Gathas, "frya" is used to mean "lover","beloved", and "friend".

Places

Many farms in Norway have Frøy- as the first element in their names, and the most common are the name Frøyland (13 farms). But whether Frøy- in these names are referring to the goddess Freyja (or the god Freyr) is questionable and uncertain. The first element in the name Frøyjuhof, in Udenes parish, are however most probably the genitive case of the name Freyja. (The last element is hof 'temple', and a church was built on the farm in the Middle Ages, which indicates the spot as an old holy place.) The same name, Frøyjuhof, also occur in the parishes Hole and Stjørdal.

In the parish of Seim, in the county of Hordaland, Norway, lies the farm Ryland (Norse Rýgjarland). The first element is the genitive case of rýgr 'lady' (identical with the meaning of the name Freyja, see above). Since the neighbouring farms have the names Hopland (Norse Hofland 'temple land') and Totland (Norse Þórsland 'Thor's land') it is possible that rýgr (lady) here are referring to a goddess. (And in that case most probably Freyja.) A sideform of the word (rýgja) may occur in the name of the Norwegian municipality Rygge.

There´s Horn in Iceland and Hoorn in Holland, various places in the German lands are called Freiburg (burg meaning something like settlement).

Plants

 

Freyja's hair - Polygala vulgaris - a species of the genus Polygala.

Several plants were named after Freyja, such as Freyja's tears and Freyja's hair (Polygala vulgaris), but after the introduction of Christianity, they were renamed after the Virgin Mary, suggesting her closest homologue in Christianity^[1].

Misc

Friday (Freyja Day) is the fifth day of the week in Germanic language speaking countries.

The Orion constellation was called Frigg's distaff or Freyja's distaff^[2].

Homologues

Freyja might be considered the counterpart of Venus and Aphrodite, although she has a combination of attributes no known goddess possesses in the mythology of any other ancient Indo-European people and might be regarded as closer to the Mesopotamian Ishtar as being involved in both love and war. It is also sometimes thought that she is the most direct mythological descendant from Nerthus.^{[citation needed]}

Britt-Mari Näsström posits in her "Freyja: Great Goddess of the North" that there is a tenable connection from Freyja to other Goddesses worshipped along the migration path of the Indo-Europeans who consistently appeared with either one or two cats/lions as companions, usually in the war Goddess aspect but occasionally also as a love Goddess. These would include: Durga, Ereshkegal, Sekhmet, Menhit, Bast, Anat, Asherah, Nana, Cybele, Rhea, and others. That the name Freyja translates to the deliberately ambiguous title of "Lady" infers that like Odin, She wandered and bore more names than are perhaps remembered in the modern age.

References and notes

1. Schön, Ebbe. (2004). Asa-Tors hammare, Gudar och jättar i tro och tradition. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo. p. 228.
2. Schön, Ebbe. (2004). Asa-Tors hammare, Gudar och jättar i tro och tradition. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo. p. 228.

• Egils Saga
• Grímnismál
• Lokasenna
• Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda
• H. R. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe
• E. O. G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North
• Jan de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, 2nd Edition (the seminal work of reference on Germanic and Scandinavian religion).