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Freyja (sometimes anglicized as Freya), sister of Freyr and daughter of Niord (), 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]
In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Freyja is introduced as follows.
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.
Surviving tales regarding Freyja often associate Freyja with numerous enchanted possessions.
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.
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.
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".
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 has 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.
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.
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]:
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]
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 that the Gullveig mentioned in Völuspá was Freyja under another name. Gullveig ignited the war between the Vanir and Aesir.
According to Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning <small>(35)</small>, Freyja also bore the following names:
Some of these names (Hörn, Sýr, Gefn, Mardöll) are also listed in a þula which also supplies:
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.
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).
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[3].
The Orion constellation was called Frigg's distaff or Freyja's distaff[3].
The chemical element vanadium is named after Freyja via her alternative name Vanadis.
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.
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.
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