#viking folklore

[future-king-of-ithaca]

OOC

Whats up you lovely little shits guess who just got four mythology books?

[er-cryptid]

Associations with Odin

wisdom

healing

knowledge

death

the gallows

royalty

war

victory

sorcery

poetry

runic alphabet

.

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[metalalia]

Mythological Throwback Thursday: Freyja

How do you feel about shapeshifting warrior goddesses with killer accessories? This Mythological Throwback Thursday, in recognition of International Women’s Day 2017 we’re revisiting the legend of Freyja, primal Norse god of sex and death. Let’s get to it.

Freyja was set apart from the Æsir, the main group of Norse gods (Odin, Thor, Baldr et al). As one of the Vanir, her remit was more closely associated with nature and mysticism, life and death. She held sway over fully one half of all those who fall in battle, bearing them to her dominion of Fólkvangr, the heavenly meadow.

Freyja possessed a feathered cloak that allowed her to fly, or change form into a raven. She also owned a gold and amber necklace called Brísingamen, which she acquired from four dwarf smiths, on the condition that she sleep with each of them. The necklace made her already considerable beauty irresistible to any god, and Freyja was not modest about using her charms to pursue anyone she desired.

Unfortunately, this behaviour did not meet with everyone’s approval. In one tale Freyja and Loki engaged in poetic flyting (kind of a Norse rap battle) over her sexual conduct. Loki’s sex-shaming ways backfired when he was reminded of his own indiscretions. Freyja was quick to put her foot down when an unpleasant coupling was suggested, though: in the poem Þrymskviða Thor’s hammer Mjölnir is stolen by a giant, and offered in exchange for Freyja’s hand in marriage. She objects so violently that Valhalla itself shakes and Brísingamen breaks and falls from her neck. Eventually Mjölnir is recovered by Thor borrowing Freyja’s cloak and necklace and disguising himself as her. (Yes, really.)

Freyja was a promiscuous goddess, but nonetheless devoted to her husband Óðr. When he went missing she wept tears of red gold and left Asgard, searching for him in many strange lands under assumed names. She eventually found him, banished and lost at sea, where he had mutated into a hideous sea monster. Such was her love that she remained with him, comforting him in his plight. When Óðr was slain, Freyja threatened to take a terrible revenge, but to prevent this he was permitted to enter Valhalla, where they could remain husband and wife forever.

In Norse culture, Freyja was a figure highly venerated by the völva, shaman women who would often travel from settlement to settlement, having separated themselves from their family ties. They emulated Freyja’s art of magic in love, war and death. Admired, revered and feared by the menfolk, who were culturally barred from practising mysticism, they would advise warlords and kings in peace and war. Many Viking warlords had wives that turned to the ways of the vǫlvur, though there were equally warnings about men coupling with them, for they possessed means to addle a man’s mind and make him weak-- both magical and chemical. Völva burials have been discovered, many interred with their wands, some with sumptuous burials including jewellery aping Freyja’s own style.

Quite the character. Freyja does not yet enjoy the contemporary limelight afforded her counterparts Thor, Odin and Loki. While she did have an element named after her, vanadium (from one of her pseudonyms, Vanadís) she is often dismissed as the Norse equivalent of Venus: a parallel which diminishes both their roles. Perhaps her association with cats will drive her popularity up in the Internet age? We’re sure Freyja, with her mystic powers, would already know the answer…