Bought a dwarf-made necklace, and a trickster stole it from her bedchamber
Brísingamen, won from four dwarves; Heimdall fought Loki for it, both in the shape of seals.
Myth · Norse
Freyja
Norse mythology — Vanir goddess of love, war and seiðr
Freyja is the great goddess of the Vanir: of love and desire, but equally of gold, war and magic. She rides a chariot drawn by cats, wears a necklace made by dwarves, flies in a cloak of falcon feathers, and weeps tears of red gold for an absent husband. She takes half of everyone killed in battle — a claim even Odin cannot better — and it was she who taught the Æsir the sorcery called seiðr.
How to spot them
- ▸A chariot drawn by two cats; a boar with golden bristles; a cloak of falcon feathers
- ▸A famous necklace or torc bought from four dwarves
- ▸Weeps tears of red gold for a husband who is always wandering
- ▸Quiz clue: 'daughter of Njörðr, sister of Freyr', 'Fólkvangr', 'taught the Æsir seiðr'
Stories & episodes
Refused, furiously, to be married off to the giant who had hidden Thor's hammer
In Þrymskviða her anger makes the halls of the gods shudder and snaps the necklace from her throat.
Takes half of all the battle-slain to her own field and hall
Fólkvangr and the hall Sessrúmnir; Odin receives the other half in Valhalla.
Lends her feathered cloak so that Loki can fly to the land of the giants
Used both to recover Iðunn and to scout out the stolen hammer.
Taught the Æsir the prophetic magic of the Vanir
Seiðr, which Ynglinga saga says was thought shameful for men to practise.
Demanded by a giant builder as his fee, along with the sun and the moon
The gods agreed to the price only because Loki swore the walls could never be finished in time.
Quick-fire facts
- •She is a Vanir goddess, daughter of Njörðr and sister of Freyr, and came to the Æsir after the Æsir–Vanir War
- •Her husband Óðr is always absent; her daughters are Hnoss and Gersemi, whose names both mean 'treasure'
- •Her necklace is Brísingamen, made by four dwarves; her boar is Hildisvíni; her chariot is drawn by cats
- •Her name simply means 'Lady', as Freyr's means 'Lord'; Snorri says noble women are called frúr after her
- •Friday's English name comes from Frigg (Old English Frīgedæg), but the two goddesses are so often confused that Freyja is regularly credited with it
- •In Hyndluljóð she rides her protégé Óttar to a giantess for his genealogy, disguising him as the boar Hildisvíni
- •Snorri's Prose Edda says she was the last of the gods still honoured after the others were forgotten
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- Sacred Texts Archive — The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation) Þrymskviða, Grímnismál and Hyndluljóð
- Snorri Sturluson — The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation)
- World History Encyclopedia — Freyja