The goddess Freya in Norse mythology is associated with various symbols and elements, one of which is runes. Runes are ancient Germanic alphabet characters used for communication and divination purposes. They hold deep significance in Norse culture and are often associated with magic and spirituality. Freya is a powerful goddess known for her beauty, love, and fertility. She is also associated with war and death, making her a complex and multifaceted deity. Runes were believed to be magical symbols that could tap into the divine power and knowledge of the gods and goddesses.
Freyja
Freyja (modern forms of the name include Freya, Freja, Freyia, Frøya, and Freia) is considered to be the goddess of Love and Beauty, but is also a warrior goddess and one of great wisdom and magick. She and her twin brother Freyr are of a different “race” of gods known as the Vanir. Many of the tribes venerated her higher than the Aesir, calling her “the Frowe” or “The Lady.” She is known as Queen of the Valkyries, choosers of those slain in battle to bear them to Valhalla (the Norse heaven). She, therefore, is a psychopomp like Odhinn and it is said that she gets the “first pick” of the battle slain. She wears the sacred necklace Brisingamen, which she paid for by spending the night with the dwarves who wrought it from the bowels of the earth. The cat is her sacred symbol. There seems to be some confusion between herself and Frigga, Odin’s wife, as they share similar functions; but Frigga seems to be strictly of the Aesir, while Freyja is of the Vanic race. The day Friday (Frejyasdaeg) was named for her (some claim it was for Frigga).
Thor
Tyr
Runes were believed to be magical symbols that could tap into the divine power and knowledge of the gods and goddesses. In the context of Freya, the use of runes can be seen as a way to connect with her energy and seek guidance or assistance in matters of love, fertility, or other areas of life. The runes associated with Freya can vary depending on different interpretations and traditions.
10 Comments
nik
I like this site because it has some very useful and accurate things. But there are a few things a little wrong. Nothing big, but it’s just some misspellings. Like Freyja instead of Freya. And in some places on this site it’s Ragnarok, but other places it’s Raggnarok. Raggnarok is the correct one. Just saying…
N
The myths were translated from very old languages and the info here was gathered from many different places so the English spelling is rather arbitrary, however, I agree with you and changed it, thanks! (Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Freja, Freyia, Frøya, and Freia.)
Andraste
Nik, Freyja is the Old Norse spelling of the name..Freya is the Swedish..
Nina
Freyja isn´t misspelled it´s the origin and icelandic spelling of the name. Freya is actually just the modern spelling.
In Denmark and Sweden the name is mostly spelled Freja.
Hörður
It is Freyja and i know this since i speak the language that still is currently most like the one spoken during the time of norse mythology being better believed in
Great von barnholt
I have always been taught that the twins Freyja and Freya, were named as follows: Freyja for the female and Freya for the male. So there are a lot of girls who are using the male spelling. My granddaughter is named FREYJA (being a girl).
N
Thanks for stopping by! The twin brother is Freyr. Freyja and Freya are both common spellings for the Goddess. Perhaps U.S. parents opt for the spelling without the j so it doesn’t look foreign or encourage incorrect pronunciations.
Lola
Kerren, A friend of mine and his wife are having a baby and have chosen this beautiful name as well. Do you have any advice for maybe books, (are there childrens books?) I will be honest, I am not very educated on the Norse Goddess and figured I should take advice from someone who is living it! 🙂 I had some gifts for them and thought it would be neat to find a book or cool picture that has some sort of graphic of the name with the meaning- what do you think?
Freja Cook
Just want to say that as a child I was always told of how important my name was and this article really collects the key points surrounding the goddess and myths
I never realis ed however that her necklace was called brisingamen – I’ve a book called that somewhere and now I shall have to read it!
rodney edwards
freja is a goddess of pleasure and lust and any sexual nature go to her and give ur pleasurs u have with ur partner in sex as a sacrafice she likes this a lot and remember all the goddesses are warriors not just her
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Freya
Freya (Old Norse Freyja, “Lady”) is one of the preeminent goddesses in Norse mythology. She’s a member of the Vanir tribe of deities, but became an honorary member of the Aesir gods after the Aesir-Vanir War. Her father is Njord. Her mother is unknown, but could be Nerthus. Freyr is her brother. Her husband, named Odr in late Old Norse literature, is certainly none other than Odin, and, accordingly, Freya is ultimately identical with Odin’s wife Frigg (see below for a discussion of this).
Freya is famous for her fondness of love, fertility, beauty, and fine material possessions – and, because of these predilections, she’s considered to be something of the “party girl” of the Aesir. In one of the Eddic poems, for example, Loki accuses Freya (probably accurately) of having slept with all of the gods and elves, including her brother. [1] She’s certainly a passionate seeker after pleasures and thrills, but she’s a lot more than only that. Freya is the archetype of the völva, a professional or semiprofessional practitioner of seidr, the most organized form of Norse magic. It was she who first brought this art to the gods, [2] and, by extension, to humans as well. Given her expertise in controlling and manipulating the desires, health, and prosperity of others, she’s a being whose knowledge and power are almost without equal.
Freya presides over the afterlife realm Folkvang. According to one Old Norse poem, she chooses half of the warriors slain in battle to dwell there. (See Death and the Afterlife.)
Freya the Völva
Seidr is a form of pre-Christian Norse magic and shamanism that involved discerning the course of fate and working within its structure to bring about change, often by symbolically weaving new events into being. [3] This power could potentially be put to any use imaginable, and examples that cover virtually the entire range of the human condition can be found in Old Norse literature.
In the Viking Age, the völva was an itinerant seeress and sorceress who traveled from town to town performing commissioned acts of seidr in exchange for lodging, food, and often other forms of compensation as well. Like other northern Eurasian shamans, her social status was highly ambiguous – she was by turns exalted, feared, longed for, propitiated, celebrated, and scorned. [4]
Freya’s occupying this role amongst the gods is stated directly in the Ynglinga Saga, and indirect hints are dropped elsewhere in the Eddas and sagas. For example, in one tale, we’re informed that Freya possesses falcon plumes that allow their bearer to shift his or her shape into that of a falcon. [6]
During the so-called Völkerwanderung or “Migration Period” – roughly 400-800 CE, and thus the period that immediately preceded the Viking Age – the figure who would later become the völva held a much more institutionally necessary and universally acclaimed role among the Germanic tribes. One of the core societal institutions of the period was the warband, a tightly organized military society presided over by a chieftain and his wife. The wife of the warband’s leader, according to the Roman historian Tacitus, held the title of veleda, and her role in the warband was to foretell the outcome of a suggested plan of action by means of divination and to influence that outcome by means of more active magic, as well as to serve a special cup of liquor that was a powerful symbol of both temporal and spiritual power in the warband’s periodic ritual feasts. [7] [8]
One literary portrait of such a woman comes to us from the medieval Old English epic poem Beowulf, which recounts the deeds of King Hroðgar and his warband in the land that we today know as Denmark. The name of Hroðgar’s queen, Wealhþeow, is almost certainly the Old English equivalent of the Proto-Germanic title that Tacitus latinised as “veleda.” [9] Wealhþeow’s “domestic” actions in the poem – which are, properly understood, enactments of the liquor ritual described above – are indispensable for the upkeep of the unity of the warband and its power structures. The poem, despite its Christian veneer, “hint[s] at the queen’s oracular powers… The Hrothgar/Wealhtheow association as presented in the poem is an echo of an earlier more robust and vigorous politico-theological conception.” [10]
This “politico-theological conception” was based on the mythological model provided by the divine pair Frija and Woðanaz, deities who later evolved into, respectively, Freya/Frigg and Odin. Woðanaz is the warband’s chieftain, and Frija is its veleda. In addition to the structural congruencies outlined above, Wealhþeow and Freya even own a piece of jewelry with the same name: Old English Brosinga mene and Old Norse Brísingamen (both meaning something like “fiery/glowing necklace”). That both figures refer to the same ancient archetype, whether on the human or the divine plane, is certain.
Freya and Frigg
While the late Old Norse literary sources that form the basis of our current knowledge of pre-Christian Germanic religion present Freya and Frigg as being at least nominally distinct goddesses, the similarities between them run deep. Their differences, however, are superficial and can be satisfactorily explained by consulting the history and evolution of the common Germanic goddess whom the Norse were in the process of splitting into Freya and Frigg sometime shortly before the conversion of Scandinavia and Iceland to Christianity (around the year 1000 CE).
As we’ve noted above, the Migration Period goddess who later became Freya was the wife of the god who later became Odin. While somewhat veiled, this is ultimately still the case in Old Norse literature. Freya’s husband is named Óðr, a name which is virtually identical to that of Óðinn (the Old Norse form of “Odin”). Óðr means “ecstasy, inspiration, furor.” Óðinn is simply the word óðr with the masculine definite article (-inn) added onto the end. The two names come from the same word and have the same meaning. Óðr is an obscure and seldom-mentioned character in Old Norse literature. The one passage that tells us anything about his personality or deeds – anything beyond merely listing his name in connection with Freya – comes from the Prose Edda, which states that Óðr is often away on long journeys, and that Freya can often be found weeping tears of red gold over his absence. [11] Many of the surviving tales involving Odin have him traveling far and wide throughout the Nine Worlds, to the point that he’s probably more often away from Asgard than within it. Many of Odin’s numerous bynames allude to his wanderings or are names he assumed to disguise his identity while abroad. Thus, it’s hard to see Freya’s husband as anything but an only nominally distinct extension of Odin.
Freyja and Frigg are similarly accused of infidelity to their (apparently common) husband. Alongside the several mentions of Freya’s loose sexual practices can be placed the words of the medieval Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, who relates that Frigg slept with a slave on at least one occasion. [12] In Lokasenna and the Ynglinga Saga, Odin was once exiled from Asgard, leaving his brothers Vili and Ve in command. In addition to presiding over the realm, they also regularly slept with Frigg until Odin’s return. [13] [14] Many scholars have tried to differentiate between Freya and Frigg by asserting that the former is more promiscuous and less steadfast than the latter, [15] but these tales suggest otherwise.
Frigg is depicted as a völva herself. Once again in Lokasenna, after Loki slanders Frigg for her infidelity, Freya warns him that Frigg knows the fate of all beings, an intimation of her ability to perform seidr. [16] Frigg’s weaving activities are likely an allusion to this role as well. And, as it turns out, Freya is not the only goddess to own a set of bird-of-prey feathers for shapeshifting – Frigg is also in possession of one. [17]
The word for “Friday” in Germanic languages (including English) is named after Frija, [18] the Proto-Germanic goddess who is the foremother of Freya and Frigg. None of the other Germanic peoples seem to have spoken of Frija as if she were two goddesses; this approach is unique to the Norse sources. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that in the Norse sources we find a confusion as to which goddess this day should have as its namesake. Both Freyjudagr (from Freyja) and Frjádagr (from Frigg) are used.
The names of the two goddesses are also particularly interesting in this regard. Freyja, “Lady,” is a title rather than a true name. It’s a cognate of the modern German word Frau, which is used in much the same way as the English title “Mrs.” In the Viking Age, Scandinavian and Icelandic aristocratic women were sometimes called freyjur, the plural of freyja. [19] “Frigg,” meanwhile, comes from an ancient root that means “beloved.” [20] Frigg’s name therefore links her to love and desire, precisely the areas of life over which Freya presides. Here again we can discern the ultimate reducibility of both goddesses to one another: one’s name is identical to the other’s attributes, and the other name is a generic title rather than a unique name.
Clearly, then, the two are ultimately the same goddess. Why, then, are they presented as nominally distinct in the late Old Norse sources? Unfortunately, no one really knows.
Looking for more great information on Norse mythology and religion? While this site provides the ultimate online introduction to the topic, my book The Viking Spirit provides the ultimate introduction to Norse mythology and religion period. I’ve also written a popular list of The 10 Best Norse Mythology Books, which you’ll probably find helpful in your pursuit.
References:
[1] The Poetic Edda. Lokasenna, stanzas 30, 32.
[2] Snorri Sturluson. Ynglinga Saga 4. In Heimskringla: eða Sögur Noregs Konunga.
[3] Heide, Eldar. 2006. Spinning Seiðr. In Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes and Interactions. Edited by Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert, and Catharina Raudvere. p. 166.
[4] Price, Neil S. 2002. The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. p. 279-328.
[5] Snorri Sturluson. Ynglinga Saga 4. In Heimskringla: eða Sögur Noregs Konunga.
[6] Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. 1964. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. p. 117.
[7] Tacitus, Cornelius. Germania 8.
[8] Enright, Michael J. 1996. Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European Warband from La Tène to the Viking Age.
[11] Snorri Sturluson. The Prose Edda. Gylfaginning 35.
[12] Saxo Grammaticus. The History of the Danes.
[13] The Poetic Edda. Lokasenna, verse 26.
[14] Snorri Sturluson. Ynglinga Saga 3. In Heimskringla: eða Sögur Noregs Konunga.
[15] See, for example: Grimm, Jacob. 1882. Teutonic Mythology, Volume 1. Translated by James Steven Stallybrass. p. 302.
[16] The Poetic Edda. Lokasenna, verse 29.
[17] Snorri Sturluson. The Prose Edda. Skáldskaparmál 18-19.
[18] Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. 1964. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. p. 111.
[19] Grimm, Jacob. 1882. Teutonic Mythology, Volume 1. Translated by James Steven Stallybrass. p. 300.
[20] Orel, Vladimir. 2003. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. p. 114.
Freya goddess runes
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Goddess Freya Rune Cards
She was the most beautiful and best beloved of all the goddesses, and while in Germany she was identified with Frigga, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland she was considered a separate divinity.
Although goddess of love, Freya was not soft and pleasure-loving only, for the ancient Northern races said that she had very Queen of the martial tastes, and that as Valfreya she often led Valkyrs. She was therefore often represented with corselet and helmet, shield and spear, only the lower part of her body being clad in the usual flowing feminine garb.
As goddess of beauty, Freya was very fond of the toilet, of glittering adornments, and of precious jewels.
Freya was also the proud possessor of a falcon garb, or falcon plumes, which enabled the wearer to flit through the air like a bird.
She also had a chariot of her own, however, in which she generally traveled, which was drawn by cats, her favorite animals, the emblems of caressing fondness and sensuality, or the personifications of fecundity.
The Northern people were wont to invoke her not only for success in love, prosperity, and increase.
One commonly associated rune is the Fehu rune, which represents wealth and abundance. As Freya is associated with fertility and prosperity, this rune can be used to invoke her blessings in matters of material wealth and abundance. Another rune associated with Freya is the Berkana rune, which represents growth and rebirth. This rune can be used to seek Freya's assistance in matters of personal growth, renewal, and transformation. Additionally, the Gebo rune, representing the concept of gift or exchange, can be associated with Freya. This rune can be used to invoke her blessings in matters of love, relationships, and partnerships. It is important to note that interpretations and associations of runes can vary among different practitioners and scholars. The exact meanings and associations of Freya's runes can be subjective and influenced by personal beliefs and traditions. In conclusion, the goddess Freya is associated with runes, ancient symbols used for communication and divination. These runes can be used to connect with Freya's energy and seek her assistance or guidance in various aspects of life such as love, fertility, and abundance. However, the exact associations and interpretations of Freya's runes may vary among different individuals and traditions..
Reviews for "The Power of Freya's Runes in Modern Witchcraft: Bridging the Ancient and Contemporary"
1. John - 2 stars
I was really disappointed with the "Freya goddess runes" set. The quality of the runes themselves was lacking, as they felt cheap and poorly made. The symbols were also not very clear and difficult to read. Additionally, the guidebook provided with the set was not very helpful, as it lacked detailed explanations or interpretations for the different runes. Overall, I do not recommend this set for anyone serious about working with runes.
2. Sarah - 1 star
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3. Michael - 2 stars
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4. Emily - 1 star
I purchased the "Freya goddess runes" with great excitement but was ultimately let down. The runes themselves were flimsy and poorly made, making it hard to handle them without feeling like they might break. The included guidebook was not very informative and lacked substantial explanations for each rune. The set also lacked any artistic or aesthetic appeal, with plain and uninspiring designs. I would not recommend this set to anyone looking for a quality and visually appealing rune set.