Took an oath from fire, water, iron, stone, beasts and disease — and skipped the mistletoe
She thought the little plant west of Valhalla too young to swear; Loki got the omission out of her in disguise.
Myth · Norse
Frigg
Norse mythology — queen of the Æsir
Frigg is Odin's wife and the foremost of the goddesses: queen of Asgard, patron of marriage, motherhood and the household, and the only being besides Odin who knows the fates of all — though she never speaks them. Her great myth is her failed attempt to save her son Baldr, when she took an oath from every thing in the world not to harm him and passed over one small plant as too young to ask.
How to spot them
- ▸Queen of the Æsir, seated beside Odin on the high seat Hliðskjálf, from which all worlds are visible
- ▸Dwells in the watery halls of Fensalir; attended by the handmaids Fulla, Gná and Hlín
- ▸Spins clouds; the belt of Orion was known in the north as her distaff
- ▸Quiz clue: 'knows every fate but tells none', 'mother of the brightest god', 'Friday'
Stories & episodes
Wagered with Odin over which of two foster-sons would turn out better
The frame of Grímnismál: her whispered warning that King Geirröðr was mean with food undid him.
Sent a rider down the long road to Hel to beg back the dead
Hermóðr rode Sleipnir nine nights to bargain with Hel for Baldr's return.
Tricked her husband into naming a people 'Long-beards' by turning the women's hair into beards
The Lombard origin legend, where the pair appear as Frea and Godan, told by Paul the Deacon.
Seated beside Odin on the high seat from which all the worlds are visible
Hliðskjálf, which only the two of them may use.
Quick-fire facts
- •She is the daughter of Fjörgynn and the wife of Odin; her sons are Baldr and the blind Höðr
- •Her hall is Fensalir, 'fen-halls'; her chief handmaid is Fulla, who carries her casket and knows her secrets
- •Friday is her day — Old English Frīgedæg, translating Latin dies Veneris, so the Romans matched her to Venus
- •In Lokasenna, Loki taunts her with the death of Baldr and she answers that if Baldr were present he would not leave alive
- •Snorri and the poems both say she knows all fates, yet speaks no prophecy herself
- •Scholars debate whether she and Freyja descend from a single earlier goddess — the 'Frigg and Freyja common origin' hypothesis
- •Wagner's Fricka, Wotan's wife in the Ring, is her operatic descendant
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Sources
- Sacred Texts Archive — The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation) Grímnismál, Lokasenna and Völuspá
- Snorri Sturluson — The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) Gylfaginning for the oaths and Baldr's death
- World History Encyclopedia — Frigg