The Myth of Freya and the Brisingamen Necklace
⚠️🔞️ Warning: adult themes! 18+ only! 🔞️⚠️
Greetings, reader! In this blog post, I will be explaining and analyzing the iconic myth of how Freya acquired her necklace of Brisingamen. One of my favorite myths! The oldest surviving text of this myth comes from the Sörla Þáttur, written in the 14th century.
"It chanced one day that Freyja went to the rock and found it open, and the dwarfs were forging a gold necklace, which was almost finished. Freyja was charmed with the necklace, and the dwarfs with Freyja. She asked them to sell it, offering gold and silver and other costly treasures in exchange for it. The dwarfs replied that they were not in need of money, but each one said that he would give up his share in the necklace… [for nothing else except for her to lie one night with each of them.] And at the end of four nights they handed it to Freyja. She went home to her bower and kept silence about it as if nothing had happened."
- Sörla Þáttur/The Tháttur of Sörli, english translation by Nora Kershaw 1921
"It [Sörla Þáttur] begins by saying Freya was the daughter of Njorð and one of Odin’s mistresses, then describes Freya’s encounter with four dwarves who were master craftsmen. Seeing a magnificent necklace that the dwarves had created Freya attempts to buy it but is rebuffed – the dwarves say they will only give it to her if she spends a night with each of them in turn. Desperate to gain the beautiful necklace Freya agrees and four days later emerges with the necklace. Loki finds out that she has it and tells Odin who orders him to steal it. Loki then sneaks into Freya’s room disguised as a fly and finds her sleeping with the necklace still on. He changes into the shape of a flea and bites her so that she will roll over and he will be able to unclasp the necklace. He leaves her still soundly sleeping and takes the necklace back to Odin; when Freya confronts Odin about the theft, he says he will only return the necklace to her if she agrees to use her magic to enspell two kings and 20 lords so that they will eternally fight, rising each day from the dead to continue their battle, until freed by a Christian king. Freya reluctantly agrees and gains her necklace back. The story then moves on to describe tales of the mortal protagonists. Although never named in the tale it is widely assumed that the necklace in question is Brisingamen and this story is given in retellings and modern accounts as the story of how Freya acquired it."
- Pagan Portals: Freya by Morgan Daimler 2023
Unfortunately the Sörla Þáttur text was written by christians centuries after Scandinavia had become christianized, rather than being a primary source text by actual believers of Freya and the Norse gods. There is some immensely obvious christian anti-Freya bias, trying to depict Freya as an unfaithful woman of materialism and greed whose actions spread misery and agony that only christians are able to fix. We can safely ignore the obviously christianized components. But if one applies a more critical analysis to the myth as written, we can uncover some deeper truths that embody Freya's true beauty and power and vitality.
All other written and artistic depictions of the myth I have seen drop everything past Freya agreeing Odin's demands in the Sörla Þáttur text. There are others that even remove Loki's theft of the necklace, focusing solely on Freya's acquisition of the necklace and her return home without involving Loki or Odin at all.
- Polyamory and Bodily Autonomy -
To start, first one must analyze this myth from a polyamorous perspective. Most of the Aesir and Vanir gods are depicted or at least mentioned as having multiple spouses and lovers in other myths, with other deities and with humans and jotun and even horses. Loki, who is married to Sigyn, transforms into a horse and mates with the stallion Svaðilfari in one myth, giving birth to Sleipnir the eight-legged horse. In another myth, when Loki is accusing Freya of fucking basically everyone of every species in the nine realms, her father Njord comes to her defense and states there is no harm in a woman having multiple lovers. Odin is mentioned as having multiple concubines. With the rampant horniness and multiple sexual partners throughout Norse mythology as a whole, clearly polyamory and open relationships are practiced by the gods.
Next, one must analyze this myth from a feminist bodily autonomy perspective. When Freya agrees to sell her sexual services to the dwarves, she is consenting to the act. She could say no, and walk away. She is in no way being coerced. She does not need the necklace for immediate or future survival, she just wants it because she likes it. The act of her selling her body feels gross from a purity-based values perspective, because she is engaging in sex work. Sex workers are often shamed and ridiculed, because they defy the institution of marriage where a woman's body is seen as a passive thing to be contained and owned. But one must remember: it is Freya's body. It is Freya's choice how she uses her body.
Does Freya agree to prostitute herself to the dwarves in exchange for material goods? Only Freya can decide that.
Does Freya choose to refuse the dwarves' proposition and not have sex with them? Only Freya can decide that.
Does Freya choose to return to Svartelheim later and trade more sexual services in exchange for other goods she wants? Or does she decide the necklace transaction was a one-time thing and never has sex with the dwarves again? Only Freya can decide that.
Does Freya have sex with multiple lovers, or be exclusive and engage in sexual practices with only one partner? Only Freya can decide that.
Does Freya permit almost anyone she comes across to enjoy her body, or is she selective and only consents to sex with some persons? Only Freya can decide that.
What criteria does Freya use to decide on her sexual partners? Only Freya can decide that.
Freya does not need to explain herself to anyone. Not to the Aesir gods, not to the other Vanir gods, not to social conventions, not to human cultural norms, not to the patriarchy. She doesn't even need to be consistent. She can be capricious and unpredictable in who she fucks, regardless of if her choices "make sense" to someone else or not.
Because it is her body. It is her choice.
Another important piece of empowerment: Freya seeks out Brisingamen just because she wants it. She does not have to justify wanting a material possession to look pretty. She feels no shame at seeking out and pursuing something she wants for her own pleasure. She does not need it for her job or duties. She just wants it. And she goes out and gets it.
A consistent focus in retellings of this story are Freya, the dwarves, the necklace, and the sexual transaction. I have seen several variations in the specifics of this myth. In one version there are only three dwarves, in another as many as nine (whoa nelly 😳️🥵️). In another version, the necklace of Brisingamen was not forged before Freya arrived at the dwarven forge, but after. The four nights of lovemaking with the wonderful goddess were part of the forging process, providing the dwarves with the necessary divine inspiration and love magic to design and craft such a masterpiece. The creation of the necklace was a cooperative mystical endeavour which Freya formed a critical part of, rather than her just purchasing the completed necklace.
The number four in specific keeps recurring. Why four dwarves specifically? They may symbolically represent divine forces. Four seasons, four classical elements, four directions, four winds, etc. Freya is a powerful mage and shamaness. Sex is a powerful way of knowing someone or something deeply and intimately. By making love to the four dwarven craftsmen, she intimately learned the four essential components of reality and of magic. A dwarf in Norse mythology is also a creature of the deep underground. A nature spirit of stone and minerals and metals and jewels. The dwarves are not mere inhabitants of the underground world of Svartelheim, but native spiritual forces of the deep earth. Freya also descends into Svartelheim from Asgard, as Asgard is visualized in Norse mythology as being "higher up" on Yggdrasil. A divine goddess of love and fertility descends deep into the earth to engage in sexual union with primordial spirits of metal and stone. As above, so below. Earth and sky, joined in sexual union. It is extremely intuitive to percieve the physical land as divided into squares, although the Earth is not literally square. Humans like to plot coordinates on square grids, and mark plots of land in squares or rectangles. In Chinese cosmology, the earth is depicted as square and heaven as circular. The four dwarves are the four "corners" of a square, a primordial shape of the earth and of the ground. This is similar to an Egyptian pyramid. Four corners for stability and foundation, connected to the earth (the dwarves). One point of union and focus, towards the sky (the goddess Freya).
The necklace itself, the iconic Brisingamen, embodies Freya's beauty and power. While not explicitly stated as being so, it is extremely likely that it provides, augments, or helps with Freya's powerful divination and shamanic seidr magical abilities. Other magical tools such as Thor's hammer Mjolnir and Freya's falcon cloak are explicitly stated to provide magical powers and augment the abilities of their user. The necklace is also just plain beautiful. Glamour magic is still magic, being so unfathomably beautiful that you can bend the flow of events around you. There's a reason humans are captivated by beautiful things, and build entire buildings to house and protect them (art galleries and museums). A beautiful thing simply existing is magical.
In a few retellings of the myth I've read… Freya is said to have merely "embraced" the dwarves. Only gives them a kiss, a quick smooch. But Freya is a love and sex goddess. She FUCKED those dwarves. They fucked HARD.
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