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NAME: Freya. Also Freyja means (The Lady), Gefn (giver); Mardoll (sow.)
SYMBOLS: Tears of amber, a bore with golden bristles, the Brisingamen (Milky Way) ether a necklace or belt that she wore, a she goat. USUAL IMAGE: She is usually depicted a beautiful blond woman carrying a sword and wearing a cloak of falcon feathers and the Brisingamen. There is also myth that describes her as 7 x 7 times as tall as the tallest man. Some times she is shown in the form of a she goat, at other she is depicted riding a boar or driving a cart pulled by two large cats. (Note: While a well known writer has given these cats names, none are known from the original myths.) HOLY BOOKS: Icelandic Codices, The Eddia, Historia Danica. HOLY DAYS: Fridays. It may be that the name for Friday was taken from her name. Though there are others who say that Friday was named not for here but for Odin's wife Frigg. Who is a different Goddess... Though there may be a connection between the two. PLACE OF WORSHIP: The open during spring, the bed chamber, the battlefield. MAJOR TABOOS: Cowards, restraint, needless death. RELATIVES: Njord (father), Freyr (bother and/or husband, Od, Oth or Odur (husband), Nossa & Gersemi (daughters) FORM OF WORSHIP: Sex, battle or prayer. SYNODEITIES: Aphrodite (Greek), Venus (Rome), Gauri (Hindu), Kono-Hana-Sakuya (Japanese), Eoster (Anglo-Saxon.) DETAILS: Freya it seems is an example of an older Goddess who was taken in by a later group of people. She and her brother and sometimes husband are of the Vanir race but welcome in Asgard. She is the Goddess of sex, battle, and witchcraft. There are few Gods in the Norse pantheon that she was not said at one to have had relationships with, she also extended her favors to humans, Elfs and Dwarfs. But sex was not all she did. Her battle might was such that she was given half of all the brave who died in battle. She was also the supreme mistress of a form of magic known as Seidr which Odin so wanted to learn that he gave her half of the battle slain to learn it. Seidr, which means boiling or seething is a type of sex magic that involves prophecy, shapeshifting, `sendings,' talking to animals, Elfs & the dead, rising animal spirits and midwifing. Freya to say the least is too deep and complex a Goddess to detailed in this humble forum. There is much, much more that could be brought up. Hopefully the links I have included will help some. She has many followers to this day both in Iceland and around the world (authors Diana Paxton and Fritz Lieber are two of her more well known followers.) And then there is Ragnarok. You know the "twilight of the Gods." In that myth we are told what happens to Thor, Odin, Tue, and others with in the end only 7 gods (no goddesses) left. And where in this battle is Freya? You know? The Goddess WHO HAS HALF THE BRAVE BATTLE SLAIN!!! What? were she and they off on a coffee brake during the call to arms? In fact the Norse Goddesses are suspiciously missing from the form of the myth that survives. Mind you we should note that the only surviving version was recorded by Christian monks. So it is my guess that the "real" story of the Twilight of the Gods is lost to us. |
Links in the Brisingamen of Freya. | ||||||||||||
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