#frigga fridays

[otterskin]

The goddess Frigg and her husband, the god Odin, sit in Hliðskjálf and gaze into "all worlds" and make a wager as described in Grímnismál in an illustration by Lorenz Frølich, 1895

I kinda wish the throne in the THOR films had clearly seated both Odin and Frigga. They look so cozy together.

Oh, and Frigga won that wager. By pulling some absolutely underhanded tricksy stuff. She knows the way to beat the God of Chance is to fix the odds in her favour.

Look at that face. She knows she's gonna win even as she proposes it and she can barely keep the smug smile in.

Link to the Story if you care to read it.

...I will say it goes very, very poorly for Odin. Yeesh. Frigga, that was probably way too far.

[otterskin]

These are from a Swedish Exploitation film called 'They Call her One Eye' or 'Thriller - A Cruel Picture'. The main character is called Frigga.

I don't recommend the film (it is very graphic and I think even reading the description is probably triggering), but I can't help but like the posters and the idea of this as a 'Frigga Variant'.

I mean...that's a cool look. What kind of a bad arse can wear a long leather trenchcoat in summer?

[otterskin]

Godan and Frea look down from their window in the heavens to the Winnili women in an illustration by Emil Doepler, 1905

Winnili women with their hair tied as beards look up at Godan and Frea in an illustration by Emil Doepler, 1905

Hey, I'm making Fridays 'Frigga Fridays', because if I'm doing Odin Wednesdays then he better have his equal partner right there with him.

This illustration is for one of my favourite 'Frigga Trickster' stories, where she pulls one over on Odin himself.

To cheat a little, here's the Wikipedia telling of the tale:

The 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum, and Paul the Deacon's 8th-century Historia Langobardorum derived from it, recount a founding myth of the Langobards, a Germanic people who ruled a region of what is now Italy (see Lombardy). According to this legend, a "small people" known as the Winnili were ruled by a woman named Gambara who had two sons, Ybor and Agio. The Vandals, ruled by Ambri and Assi, came to the Winnili with their army and demanded that they pay them tribute or prepare for war. Ybor, Agio, and their mother Gambara rejected their demands for tribute. Ambra and Assi then asked the god Godan for victory over the Winnili, to which Godan responded (in the longer version in the Origo): "Whom I shall first see when at sunrise, to them will I give the victory."[12]

Meanwhile, Ybor and Agio called upon Frea, Godan's wife. Frea counseled them that "at sunrise the Winnil[i] should come, and that their women, with their hair let down around the face in the likeness of a beard should also come with their husbands". At sunrise, Frea turned Godan's bed around to face east and woke him. Godan saw the Winnili, including their whiskered women, and asked "who are those Long-beards?" Frea responded to Godan, "As you have given them a name, give them also the victory". Godan did so, "so that they should defend themselves according to his counsel and obtain the victory". Thenceforth the Winnili were known as the Langobards (Langobardic "long-beards").[13]

So yeah, Frigga was pretty tricksy herself. There's a lot of cross-dressing in Norse Mythology and this was one of my favourite tales involving it. Hey, ladies - just impress Odin with your beard and be assured of victory!