The Sörla þáttr was a smear piece designed to discredit the Norse pagan religion and to degrade Freya as a whore. Nevertheless, the piece spoke to an aspect of Freya that had been hinted at in older Norse sources. In the Lokasenna from the Poetic Edda, Loki accused Freya of having slept with all the gods and jötnar: Freya presides over the afterlife realm Folkvang. According to one Old Norse poem, she chooses half of the warriors slain in battle to dwell there. (See Death and the Afterlife.) Additionally, “Friday” was likely named after Freya. The word was believed to be a portmanteau of “Freya’s day.” Attributes

One of the principal deities of the Norse pantheon, the lovely and enchanting Freya was a goddess of blessings, love, lust, and fertility. A member of the Vanir tribe of deities, Freya shared her people’s penchant for the magical arts of divination. It was Freya who introduced the gods to seidr, a form of magic that allowed practitioners to know and change the future. Freya’s cultural popularity witnessed a resurgence with the rise of Germanic nationalism in the nineteenth century. She was mentioned in the Danish national anthem, “Der er et yndigt land” (“There is a Lovely Land”) by Adam Oehlenschläger, which read “it is called old Denmark and it is Freya’s hall.” [8] She also appeared as a character in Richard Wagner’s epic operatic cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. The work was a seminal artistic production of the nineteenth century and a rallying cry for German nationalism across Western and Northern Europe. Stories of Freya often highlighted her sex appeal and desirability. One such story was told in Gylfaginning of Sturluson’s Prose Edda, where Freya became a pawn in a dangerous bargain. The episode began when a hill giant approached the gods and offered to build an impregnable fortress that would protect the gods from enemy jötnar. In exchange, the giant wanted the sun, the moon, and Freya’s hand in marriage. After a short deliberation, the gods consented to the bargain on the condition that the builder had to have completed the fortress by the first day of summer. The builder countered with a condition of his own—he would build the wall in the time allotted so long as he could get help from his stallion, Svadilfari. The gods agreed to his terms, and the giant began his task. The word for “Friday” in Germanic languages (including English) is named after Frija, [18] the Proto-Germanic goddess who is the foremother of Freya and Frigg. None of the other Germanic peoples seem to have spoken of Frija as if she were two goddesses; this approach is unique to the Norse sources. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that in the Norse sources we find a confusion as to which goddess this day should have as its namesake. Both Freyjudagr (from Freyja) and Frjádagr (from Frigg) are used. See, for example: Grimm, Jacob. 1882. Teutonic Mythology, Volume 1. Translated by James Steven Stallybrass. p. 302.

McCoy, Daniel. “Nerthus”. Norse Mythology for Smart People. https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/nerthus/. After a loudspeaker announces that the otters will be fed soon, drawing everyone else out of the tunnel, Thea turns the girls into fairies with a little extra magic that will let them breathe underwater. She leads the way under an access door for staff and up to the surface of the tank, where all three jump in and head straight for the pirate ship. It takes both girls to unhook the flag and tow it to Thea, who shrinks her flag to Fairyland size then uses magic to create a replacement flag that looks only slightly different. Freya ( Old Norse Freyja, “Lady”) is one of the preeminent goddesses in Norse mythology. She’s a member of the Vanir tribe of deities, but became an honorary member of the Aesir gods after the Aesir-Vanir War. Her father is Njord. Her mother is unknown, but could be Nerthus. Freyr is her brother. Her husband, named Odr in late Old Norse literature, is certainly none other than Odin, and, accordingly, Freya is ultimately identical with Odin’s wife Frigg (see below for a discussion of this). Sturluson, Snorri. “Ynglinga Saga.” Heimskringla. Translated by Samuel Laing. Internet Sacred Text Archive. https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/heim/02ynglga.htm.

If nothing else, the story of Thrym’s theft of Mjölnir showcased how jealousy Freya guarded her own reputation. “Most lustful indeed should I look to all If I journeyed with thee to the giants’ home,” she claimed in her anger. Nevertheless, Freya was known for her promiscuity, a reputation she earned by using both her beauty and her sex as weapons. Much was uncertain about the identities of Freya and Odr. It was likely that Freya was another version of Frigg (Odin’s wife), and as such it appears that Odr may have actually been Odin. The deities’ various names and identities reflected linguistic, cultural, and mythological differences among the Germanic groups that told stories of these gods and goddesses. The Norse mythology that reemerged in modern times was not canonical in the sense that an authoritative version of it did not exist. Rather, separate traditions existed simultaneously, and mythic sources such as the Poetic Edda often transposed these different traditions onto one another. Family Tree Linda Chapman has written over 50 children's fiction books, including the following series: My Secret Unicorn, Stardust, Not Quite a Mermaid, and Unicorn School. She lives in Leicestershire with her husband and daughters. While the late Old Norse literary sources that form the basis of our current knowledge of pre-Christian Germanic religion present Freya and Frigg as being at least nominally distinct goddesses, the similarities between them run deep. Their differences, however, are superficial and can be satisfactorily explained by consulting the history and evolution of the common Germanic goddess whom the Norse were in the process of splitting into Freya and Frigg sometime shortly before the conversion of Scandinavia and Iceland to Christianity (around the year 1000 CE).In later life, Freya took Odr as her husband. Odr was a mysterious god whose name meant “furious and passionate,” as well as “mind and sense.” He would often be away on long journeys, and it was said that his frequent absence caused Freya to weep tears of gold. With Odr, Freya had two daughters: Hnoss and Gersemi, whose names meant “treasure.” The context here was important, however. The setting of the poem was a dinner party at which Loki, deep in his cups, accused every woman (including Frigg) of having slept with others promiscuously. He even accuses Freya of sleeping with her brother, Freyr. The deeper lesson of all this—and likely familiar one—could be that women in Norse and Germanic societies were judged more harshly than men for their perceived sexual improprieties. Pop Culture Freya is famous for her fondness of love, fertility, beauty, and fine material possessions – and, because of these predilections, she’s considered to be something of the “party girl” of the Aesir. In one of the Eddic poems, for example, Loki accuses Freya (probably accurately) of having slept with all of the gods and elves, including her brother. [1] She’s certainly a passionate seeker after pleasures and thrills, but she’s a lot more than only that. Freya is the archetype of the völva, a professional or semiprofessional practitioner of seidr, the most organized form of Norse magic. It was she who first brought this art to the gods, [2] and, by extension, to humans as well. Given her expertise in controlling and manipulating the desires, health, and prosperity of others, she’s a being whose knowledge and power are almost without equal.