Citation: Freyja

Tags: Deity
Incomplete entry

Description:

Freyja (Old Norse "lady," "mistress") is a deity and a major figure in Norse mythology and Old Norse literature. She is one of the Vanir, a group of deities that waged a war with the Æsir early in the mythological timeline before the two were reconciled and blended into one group. Freyja is perhaps the foremost of the goddesses of Norse mythology, associated with death, battle, a specific kind of magic called seiðr (LINK), sacrifice, but also loosely with fertility, sex, and love (the latter three mostly by way of the Vanir's association with the land and fertility, and through Freyja repeatedly being desired as a bride by the jötnar).

According to Ynglinga saga, the first section of the compilation of kings' sagas called Heimskringla, Freyja first taught seiðr magic to the Æsir, saying that this magic originated with the Vanir (chapter 4). This same chapter, as well as chapter 10, associates Freyja with sacrifices and offerings. 

Freyja's warrior aspect is more pronounced in the Poetic Edda, where the poem Grímnismál describes how she has a hall in Fólkvangr (LINK)("army-field," i.e. battlefield), and there she receives half of the slain, while Óðinn gets the other half in Valhöll (Grímnismál stanza 14). This stanza is also quoted in Gylfaginning ch. 24, reiterating that Freyja receives half of the battle-dead, but adding that her actual hall is named Sessrúmnir ("Many/roomy seats"). This chapter also describes that Freyja is partial to love songs and can be called upon for matters of love, and is also the single source of her association with cats, saying that she travels in a cart pulled by two cats. She is married to a god named Óðr (Völuspá 25; Hyndluljóð 47; Gylfaginning 35), who is said by Snorri to be away from home traveling for a long time, and Freyja weeps golden tears for him and has searched for him under different names. We know nothing else of Óðr, but his name comes from the same root as Óðinn's. They have two daughters, Hnoss and Gersimi, which both mean "jewel" or "treasure."

In Hyndluljóð 7, Freyja rides on her boar, Hildisvíni (LINK), and one of her names in skáldic poetry is Sýr ("sow," female pig or boar); her brother Freyr (LINK) is also associated with boars or pigs, and he owns the golden-bristled boar Gullinbursti made by the dwarfs Brokkr and Eitri/Sindri (LINKS). She owns a valshamr (LINK)("falcon-shape") or fjaðrhamr ("feather-shape"), a feather-cloak which allows whoever wears it to change into the shape of a falcon and fly (Frigg also owns a feather-cloak, and it is unclear if it is the same object or they each have their own; Skáldskaparmál 18 & 19).

Another name attributed to Freyja in skáldic poetry is Vanadís, dís of the Vanir. A dís is a kind of female spirit-being that attends people or family lines, bring either luck or abandoning their charge resulting in death. They are especially referenced in relation to battles and conflict. Because of this name, in combination with her feather-cloak attribute and her role as a goddess of battle and death, Freyja is sometimes associated with Valkyries (LINK), but keep in mind that this is only an interpretation. Freyja's most well-known belonging is the Brísingamen (LINK), an ornamental necklace or neck ring which is worn by her in multiple stories.