Freyja
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- 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 the Norse fertility goddess.
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. She was also the goddess of war, death, magic, prophecies, and wealth. Correspondingly, Freyja was one of the most popular goddesses.
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[edit] Prose Edda
In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Freyja is introduced as follows.
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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.
[edit] Freyja as goddess of love
Image:Freya by Penrose.jpg Freyja was thought to be the most desirable of all goddesses. When she desired to acquire the famous necklace Brisingamen (Brísingamen) from four dwarfs, (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". Besides the necklace Brísingamen, she owned a cloak of hawk/eagle feathers, which gave her the ability to change into any bird. She lends this garment to Loki in Þrymskviða.
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. They 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. See more at the entry for Frigg.
In two myths 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.
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".
[edit] Freyja as battle goddess
There are no instances of Freyja being referred to as a goddess of battle or warriors. She never wields a weapon.
The earliest example of Freyja's association with war comes from Sorli's Yarn alias The Saga of Hogni and Hedin written in 1400c.e.. 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 the 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 not have had the power it did 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 Tryggvison'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 Sorli's Yarn.
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 wonderfully phallyc symbol) 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.
Freyja receives some of those warriors slain on the battlefield but there is no record of how that occurs them. Does Freyja pick them herself? Or does 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 Her hall upon her death. Any greater association with Freyja and death is not supported.
[edit] Freyja as a witch
According to Snorri's Ynglinga saga, Freyja was a skilled practitioner of the seiðr form of magic and introduced among the Æsir. It has also been widely speculated that the Gullveig mentioned in Völuspá was Freyja under another name.
[edit] Other names
[edit] Forms of "Freyja"
- Freja — common Danish and literary Swedish form.
- Freia
- Froya
- Friia — second Merseburg Charm
- Frija — variant of Friia
- Frøya, Fröa — common Norwegian, and rural Swedish form.
- Reija — Finnish form
- Freya
[edit] Other forms
According to Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning (35), Freyja also bore the following names:
- 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).
She is also called Vanadís ("Dís of the Vanir").
Some of these names (Hörn, Sýr, Gefn, Mardöll) are also listed in a þula which also supplies:
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 this word (rýgja) may occur in the name of the Norwegian municipality Rygge.
[edit] Freyja in place names
A lot of farms in Norway have Frøy- as the first element in their names, and the most common are the name Frøyland (13 farms). But wheather 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.
[edit] 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]
There is also frequent modern speculation that Freija is the same as Frigg (see the discussion under Connection between Frigg and Freyja).
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, Eriskegal, 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.
[edit] References
- 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).
 | Norse mythology |
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| List of Norse gods | Æsir | Vanir | Giants | Elves | Dwarves | Valkyries | Einherjar | Norns | Odin | Thor | Freyr | Freyja | Loki | Balder | Tyr | Yggdrasil | Ginnungagap | Ragnarök | |
| Sources: Poetic Edda | Prose Edda | The Sagas | Volsung Cycle | Tyrfing Cycle | Rune stones | Old Norse language | Orthography | Later influence | |
| Society: Viking Age | Skald | Kenning | Blót | Seid | Numbers | |
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