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Freyja / Freya - the Goddess Freyja
(Freya)
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Freyja
Freyja (sometimes anglicized as Freya), sister of Freyr and daughter of
Niord (Njǫrðr), is usually seen as a 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
fertility, love, beauty, 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 Sessrúmnir, 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.
In 2005, the name Freja was the fifth most popular given name for Danish
girls born that year and has subsequently become a common female name in
Denmark.[1]
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(Odin in some
sources). 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's 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.
Other sources show that Freyja rode a chariot drawn by a pair of cats.
Jewelry
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.
Alternatively, King Alberich gave it to her.
Freyja loved jewelery so much that she named her daughters "Hnoss",
meaning "jewel" and "Gemesi", meaning "treasure".
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.
19th century accounts
Since rural Scandinavians remained dependent on the forces of nature, it
is hardly surprising that fertility gods remained important, and still
in rural 19th century Sweden, Freyja retained elements of her role as a
fertility goddess.[2] In the province of Småland, there is an account of
how she was connected with sheet lightning in this respect[2]:
Jag minns en söndag på 1880-talet, det var några gubbar ute och gick
bland åkrarna och tittade på rågen som snart var mogen. Då sa Måns i
Karryd: "Nu ä Fröa ute å sir ätter om råjen är mogen." [...] När jag som
liten pojke satt hos den gamla Stolta-Katrina, var jag som alla dåtida
barn mycket rädd för åskan. När kornblixtarna syntes om kvällarna, sade
Katrina: "Du sa inte va rädd barn lella, dä ä bara Fröa som ä ute å slår
ell med stål å flenta för å si etter om kornet ä moet. Ho ä snäll ve
folk å gör dä bare för å hjälpa, ho gör inte som Tor, han slår ihjäl
både folk å fä, när han lynna [...] Jag har sedan hört flera gamla tala
om samma sak, på ungefär samma sätt.[3]
I remember a Sunday in the 1880s, when some men were walking in the
fields looking at the rye which was about to ripen. Then Måns in Karryd
said: "Now Freyja is out watching if the rye is ripe" [...] When as a
boy I was visiting the old Proud-Katrina, I was afraid of lightning like
all boys in those days. When the sheet lightning flared in the nights,
Katrina said: "Don't be afraid little child, it is only Freyja who is
out making fire with steel and flintstone to see if the rye is ripe. She
is kind to people and she is only doing it to be of service, she is not
like Thor, he slays both people and livestock, when he is in the mood"
[...] I later heard several old folks talk of the same thing in the same
way.[4]
In Värend, Freyja could also arrive at Christmas night and she used to
shake the apple trees for the sake of a good harvest and consequently
people left some apples in the trees for her sake.[2] Moreover, it was
dangerous to leave the plough outdoors, because if Freyja sat on it, it
would no longer be of any use.[2]
Potential relations to Frigg
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.
Other names
Forms of "Freyja"
* Freja — common Danish and literary Swedish form.
* 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
The Danish verb "fri" means "to propose". 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".
In Avestan, an ancient Indo-European language found in the Gathas, "frya"
is used to mean "lover","beloved", and "friend". The Sanskrit word Priya-
has approximately the same meaning.
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
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[5].
Misc
The Orion constellation was called Frigg's distaff or Freyja's
distaff[5].
The chemical element vanadium is named after Freyja via her alternative
name Vanadis.
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.
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.
Modern popular culture
Main article: Freyja in popular culture
Freyja, depicted as "Freia", appears in Richard Wagner's opera cycle,
Der Ring des Nibelungen. This has led to many portrayals based on
Wagner's interpretation, although some are closer to pre-Wagnerian
models. Since Wagner's time, numerous depictions and references have
entered popular culture to varying extents.
References and notes
1. ^ Statistics Denmark. (January, 13 2006). Fornavne for børn født i 1.
halvår 2005.
2. ^ a b c d Schön, Ebbe. (2004). Asa-Tors hammare, Gudar och jättar i
tro och tradition. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo. p. 227-228.
3. ^ The writer Johan Alfred Göth, cited in Schön, Ebbe. (2004).
Asa-Tors hammare, Gudar och jättar i tro och tradition. Fält & Hässler,
Värnamo. p. 227-228.)
4. ^ Translation provided by Wikipedia editors.
5. ^ a b 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).
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