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FREYJA

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18276066 GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 1

d in heathen gods, or at least continued to invoke the latter in particular cases in which they 1 old norse sagas and songs have remarkable passages in winch the gods' are coarsely derided. a good deal in lokasenna and harbard's song may pass for rough joking -which still leaves the holiest things unshaken (see suppl. but faith has certainly grown fainter, when a daring poet can compare osinn and freyja to dogs (fornm. sog. 2, 207. islend. sog. 1, 11. ed. nov. 372. nialss. igo: when another calls the gods rangeyg (squint-eyed, unfair) and rokindusta (fornm. sog. 2, 154. when we come to freyr, i shall quote a story manifestly tending to lessen the reverence for him; but here is a passage from oswald 2913 'din got der ist ein junger tor (fool, ich wil glouben an den alten' if we had a list o

osins hylli; sam. 47. ullar hylli ok allra gosa; sa^m. 45. on the other hand, of the primitive sensuous representation of an angry avenging deity (see suppl, the most striking example will be treated of presently in ch. viii, under donar, thunder^ the idea recurs several times in the edda and elsewhere: rci&r er j^er osinn, rt/^y er];er asabragr; sasm. 85^ osinn o/ractr; siem. 228. rcid' vars];a freyja oc fnasasi; soim. 71^ she was wroth, clirestien; jaia fist dex de sa main iiue, por nature fere muser, tout le mont i porroit user, s'ele la voloit contrefere, que ja nen porroit a chief trere; no dex, s'il sen voloit pener, mi porroit, ce cuit, assener, que ja une telle feist, por peine que il i meist (see suppl. 1 piacula ircc deum, liv. 2, 9. deos iratos liabeam! dii immortales liominibu

and as both of these by turns are called schlachtmoivat, there might linger iu 52 woeseip. became one destined for the king's table. it is the 'sivin ealgylden, eofor irenheard' of the anglo-saxons, and of its exact relation to the worship of froho (freyr) we have to treat more in detail by and by. the greeks sacrificed swine to demeter (ceres, who as nerthus stands very near to niorsr, freyr and freyja, rams, goats (see suppl. as friscing came to mean victima, so conversely a name for animal sacrifice, goth. sauss, seems to have given rise to the ojst. name for the animal itself, sau&r=^qi\\qv. this species of sacrifice was therefore not rare, though it is seldom expressly mentioned, probably as being of small value. only the saga hakonar goga cap. 16 informs us];ar var oc drepinn (killed

ruly a' densitas imaginuni' as jonas has it (see p. 83. saxo gram. 327 mentions a simulacrum qucrcii factum, carved in oak? or an oaktree worshipped as divine (see suppl. not only three, but occasionally two figures side by side are mentioned, particularly those of wuota7i and donar or of mars and merciirius, as w^e see from the passages cited. figures of freyr and thor together, and of frigg and freyja, occur in miiller's sagabibl. 1, 92. names of places also often indicate such joint worship of two divinities, e.g. in hesse the donnerseiche (thor's oak) stood close by the wodansberg; and explorers would do well to attend to the point. but noitlier the alleged number of the statues, nor their descriptions in the sagas can pass for historical; what they do prove is, that statues there were

e an ohg. erestac, to match the eresberg. one might be led to imagine that in ertag the earth (erde according to the forms given at the beginning of ch. xiii) was meant. but the ancient way of thinking placed the earth in the centre of the world, not among the planets; she cannot therefore have given name to a day of the week, and there is no such day found in any nation, unless we turn venus and freyja into the earth. to bear this ertag company, there is that name of a place eersel, quoted p. 154 from gramaye, in which neither era honor, nor its personification era (ch. xvi, xxix) is to be thought of, but solely a god of the week. it is worth noticing, that ertac and erdag occur as men's names; also, that the taxandrian eersel was but a little way off the tisberg or fanmars in hainault (s

. it is true, the names do not correspond quite exactly. the on. freyr gen. freys, which saxo gives quite correctly in its danish form as fro gen. fros (whence froso, fro's island, the swed. likewise fro, ought to be in gothic fraus or fravis^ instead of which, every page of ulphilas shows /raiya gen. fniujins, translating kvplo; on the other hand, the on. dialect lacks both the weak form (freyi, freyja, and the meaning of lord. the remaining languages all huld with the gothic. in ohg. the full form frouwo was already lost, the writers preferring truhtin; it is only in the form of address 'fro min (0. i. 5, o5. ii. 14, 27. v. 7, 35. ludw. bed) that the^ frey= fravi, as liey luivi (hay, mey= inavi (maid, ey= avi (isle &c. 14 210 fro. word for a divine or earthly lord was preserved, just as

n, sn. 212 fro. 211. i shall come back to this mysterious combination of two mythical names, when i come to speak of the hero ingo. the on. skalds append this freyr to other names and to common nouns, e.g, in kormakssaga, pp. 104 122' fiornis freyr, myv^\freyr' mean no more than hero or man in the heightened general sense which we noticed in the words irmin, tir and t^r. in the same way the fern. freyja means frau, woman, lady, kormakss. p. 317. all that i have made out thus far on the name and idea of the o-od, will receive new light and confirmation when we come to examine his divine sister freyja. the brother and sister are made alike in all their attributes, and each can stand for the other. fro does not appear in the series of gods of the week, because there was no room for him there;

xamine his divine sister freyja. the brother and sister are made alike in all their attributes, and each can stand for the other. fro does not appear in the series of gods of the week, because there was no room for him there; if we must translate him by a eoman name, it can scarcely be any other than that of liher, whose association with libera is extremely like that of fro with frowa (freyr with freyja. as liber and libera are devoted to the service of ceres or demeter, fro and frowa stand in close union with nerthus, fro's godhead seems to hold a middle place between the notion of the supreme lord and that of a being who brings about love and fruitfulness. he has wuotan's creative quality, but performs no deeds of war; horse and sword he gives away, when consumed with longing for the fai

soil and iov peace til drs oc fricfar, sn. 28; conf. yngl. saga cap. 12. the swedes revered him as one of their chief gods, and adam of bremen says that at upsal his statue stood by those of thor and wodan (see suppl. also in stem. 85^ he is named next to osinn and thorr (asabragr) as the third god. adam calls him fricco^ which is precisely parallel to the frequent confusion of the two goddesses- freyja and frigg, which i shall deal with at a future time. but he paints him as a o^od of peace and love: tertius est fricco, pacem voluptatemque largiens mortalibus, cujus etiam simulaclnaim fingunt inycnti 1 which occurs elsewhere as a man's name, e.g, friccheo in schannat, trad. fiud. 386. fro. 213 priajjo^ si niiptiae celebrandae sunt (sacrificia offcrunt) fricconi. then there is the story, h

ame christmas season, dame holda or berhta sallied out, and looked after the ploiiffhs and spindles, motherly goddesses instead of the god, frouwa instead of fro. with this again are connected the formae aprorum worn as charms by the remote aestyans, who yet have the' ritus habitusque suevorum. tacitus germ. 45 says, these figures represent the worship of the 'mater deum' of a female fro, i.e.,oi freyja; and, what is conclusive on this point, the edda (sajm. 114) assigns the gullinlursti to freyja, though elsewhere he belongs to freyr (see suppl. anglo-saxon poetry, above all, makes mention of these hoar-hadges, these gold swine. when constantine sees a vision in his sleep, he is said to be eoforcumue bejjeaht (apri signo tectus, el. 76; it must have been fastened as an auspicious omen ove

g72, fi'cyr ok niordr are again placed side by side. the story of the brisinga-men(-monile; append, to sn. 354) says, osinn had appointed both freyr and morcfr to be sacrificial gods. hallfrec5r sang (fornm. sog. 2, 53, conf. 12, 49]\ier skyli freyr oc frcyja, fiarcs loet ek asul xiarsar, liknist grom vi5 grimni gramr ok thorr enn rammi! that freyr in these passages should be brought forward with freyja and niorcr, is easy to understand (see suppl. of niur&r our german mythology would have nothing to tell, any more than saxo gram, ever mentions him by that name, had not tacitus put in for us that happy touch of a goddess js'eiihns, whose identity with the god is as obvious as that of fro with frouwa. the gothic form nairpus would do for either or even for both sexes; possibly fravija was c

that lived on the sea coast. the edda makes him rule over wind, sea and fire, he loves waters and lakes, as nertlius in tacitus bathes in the lake (sn. 27; from the mountains of the 218 fro. midland he longs to be away where the swans sing on the cool shore; a water-plant, the spongia marina, bears the name of niar&ar vdttr, niors's glove, which elsewhere was very likely passed on to his daughter freyja, and so to mary, for some kinds of orchis too, from their hand-shaped root, are called mary's hand, lady-hand, god's hand (dan. gudshaand. as dionysus stands outside the ring of the twelve olympian gods, so morsr, freyr and freyja seem by rights not to have been reckoned among the ases, though they are marshalled among them in sn. 27-8. they were vanir, and therefore, according to the view

e may be some foundation for these views, still to my mind the conceptions of aesir, vanir, alfar in the edda are sketched on a ground altogether too mythical for any historical meaning to be got out of them; as regards the contrast between ases and vanir, i am aware of no essential difference in the cultus of the several gods; and, whatever stress it may be right to lay on the fact that froiiwa, freyja answers to a slavic goddess priye, it does not at all follow that fro, frouwa and nerthus were in a less degree germanic deities than the rest. tacitus is silent on the german liber, as he is on our jupiter, yet we are entitled to assume a universal veneration of donar, even though the gothic fai'rguni is better represented in perkunas or perun; so also, to judge by what clues we have, frau

ain belong to the eldest race of gods> wh. miiller, nibehingensage pp. 136 148, wishes to extend the vanir gods only to the siieves and goths, not to the western germans, and to draw a distinction between the worship of freyr and tliat of "wiiotan, wliicli to me looks very dou\)tful. as little can i give up the point, that nior^r and nerthus were brother and sister, and joint parents of freyr and freyja; this is grounded not only on a later re])resentuti(jn of snorri in the yngl. saga cap. 4, where yet the female nidrs is nowhere named, as tacitus conversely knows only a female nerthus and no god of that name; but also on tsu'm. 65' vi(5 svstor thiuni gaztu slikan niog' with thy sister begattest thcu such brood, though here again the sister is left muiamed. chaptee xi. paltar (balder. the

iscndach brings us at once to tise= zisa. it is a matter for further researches to demonstrate^ but 1 doavn in the riess between the rivers lefh and wertach, in the niiilst of siieves^ at a time suimosed to be before even the romans settled in the region, mikka. frouwa. 299 that three divinities, zio, zisa and isis, are assigned to the suevi, is ah'eady abundantly clear, 8. frikka (frigg. frouwa (freyja. our inquiry turns at length to the goddesses of the norse religious system, of whom unequivocal traces are forthcoming in the rest of teutondom. foremost of these are frigg tlie wife of osinn, and freyja the sister of freyr, a pair easy to confound and often confounded because of their similar names. i mean to try if a stricter etymology can part them and keep them asunder. the name of fre

teutondom. foremost of these are frigg tlie wife of osinn, and freyja the sister of freyr, a pair easy to confound and often confounded because of their similar names. i mean to try if a stricter etymology can part them and keep them asunder. the name of freyja seems the easier: it is motived no doubt by the masculine freyr (gramm. 3, 335. now as we recognised freyr in the gothic frauja (p. 209, freyja leads us to expect a gothic fraujo, gen. fraujons, both in the general sense of domina mistress, and in the special one of a proper name frcuijo. the notion of mistress, lady, never occurs in ulphilas. to make up for it, our ohg. remains express it very frequently, by fruwd, froicd; the 'mug. frouive,frou and our modern /ra?6 have preserved themselves purely as common nouns, while the masc

, vrouwe in addressing and as title (huyd. op st. 1, 52. 356. eein. 297. 731. 803. 1365. 1655. 2129. 2288. 2510- 32-57-64 &c, seldomer in other positions, eein 2291; the modern vrotl'w has extended its meaning even beyond the limits of our frau. all the above languages appear to lack the fem. proper name, in contrast to the oist. wdiich possesses frcyja almost solely as the goddess's name, and no freyja= hera. yet we find husfreyja housewife, sccm. 212, and snorri is still able to say that freyja is a tignarnafn (name of honour) derived from the goddess^ that grand ladies, rikiskonur, are frcyjar, sn. 29. yngl. saga c. 13. the readings frur, fruvor here are corrupt, for the icel. form frit has evidently slipped in from the dan. frue, swed /rw, and these from( 1 ermany. the goddess should b

is a tignarnafn (name of honour) derived from the goddess^ that grand ladies, rikiskonur, are frcyjar, sn. 29. yngl. saga c. 13. the readings frur, fruvor here are corrupt, for the icel. form frit has evidently slipped in from the dan. frue, swed /rw, and these from( 1 ermany. the goddess should be in swed. froa, dan. froe, which i have never met with; the swed. folk-song of tlior's hammer calls freyja froijenborg (the dan. fridlefsborg, a danish one has already the foreign fru. saxo is silent about this goddess and her father altogether; he would no doubt have named her froa. our merseburg poem has now at last presented us with fruci= frowa, as the proper name of the goddess^ friyg gen. friggjar, daughter of fiorgynn and wife of osinn, is kept strictly apart from freyja, gen. freyju: in

fruci= frowa, as the proper name of the goddess^ friyg gen. friggjar, daughter of fiorgynn and wife of osinn, is kept strictly apart from freyja, gen. freyju: in the vaf]?rudnismal and the beginning of the grimnismal, o&lnn and frigg are plainly presented as husband and wife; and as hroptr and svafnir are also names of osinn' hroptr ok frigg, svafnir ok frigg' in saem^ as fiaiijo from fraujo, and freyja from freyja, a song of frauenlob's, ettm. p. 112 makes icq? come from a frankish king jfijypeo. is this an echo of a mythical wippo, wibba (geneal. of mercia, end of ch. vii) l the explanation is as false as when the edda derives vif i'rom vela, for all a woman's being practically a weaver and a peace-weaver; we should have to assume two roots, viban and veiban, side by side. the on. proper

nish folk-song has likewise' friggc, fru og thor. the on. usually has gg where the as. has eg and ohg. cc or kk, namely, where a suffix i had stood after g or k: thus, on. egg (acies, as. ecg, ohg. ekki; on. bryggja (ponsj, as. brycge, ohg. prukka; on. hryggr (dorsum, as. lirycg, ohg. hrukki. in the same way we get an as. fricg, ohg. frikka, frikkia, even farther away from frouivd than frigg from freyja. it is the confounding of these two beings that will explain how adam of bremen came to put fricco instead of fro for freyr (supra, p. 212; he would equally have said fricca for freyja. fricco, friccho, friccolf were in use as proper names in ohg. and now it seems possible to explain, what is otherwise unaccountable, why the sixth day of the week, dies veneris, should be called in on. both

rmtac, frigciac, now frcitag, in as. frigedxg (for fricgedteg, v. supra, pp. 123-6, and in faroese fngggjaded (lyngbye 532. among these forms the as, presents no difficulty: in the ohg. and on. names we are puzzled by the absence of the guttural. i believe a solution is offered by that most important passage in paulus diac. 1, 8 where wodan's consort is named i^rea, which can only mean frigg, not freyja, as saxo gram, too, while expressly grounding on paulus, makes use of the form frig' paulo teste auctore frig dea' this langob. frca accords with the ohg. fria, i take it to be not only identical with frigg, but the original form of the name; it has less to do with freyja and the as. masc. frea. as an on. bru (pons) stands related to bryggia, so will fri to frigg. the langob. frea is= frea

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGICK SPELLS

although a virgin goddess, she also presides over childbirth. because of her connection with the hunt, she is altogether a more active goddess than aphrodite if you are seeking love or, perhaps, trying to encourage a reluctant lover of either sex or win love under difficult circumstances. she is perfect for outdoor love spells and for casting your love net wide to attract an as yet unknown lover. freyja freyja is the viking goddess of love and sexuality and can be invoked for rituals to increase confidence in inner beauty and worth, for the increase of passion and for fertility in every aspect. a witch goddess, she is potent for all magick, especially astral projection and crystal and gem magick. venus venus, the goddess of love, is the roman form of aphrodite and by her liaison with mercu

ility and for matters of women's health. venus is sometimes known as the morning or evening star and at her brightest she is the most brilliant object in the sky besides the sun and moon. for this reason, in many cultures she took the name of the goddess of beauty. she was ishtar to the babylonians, aphrodite to the greeks and her viking counterparts are the goddess frigg, the mother goddess, and freyja, maiden goddess of beauty and love, after one or both of whom friday is named. spells at the hour of venus are especially good for new love and the growth of self-love, for if we do not love ourselves we cannot love others creatively. element: earth colour: green, pink crystals: amethyst, emerald, jade, moss agate, rose quartz incenses: geranium, rose, strawberry, vervain trees: almond, app

CASSANDRA EASON A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC

GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 3

nother xx peeface. aspect, and was still better qualified to stand for the devil. the stories of his artfulness, his cunning tricks, have reproduced themselves repeatedly in all branches of our race. i now turn to the goddesses. a mother of gods, nerthus, is named to us by tacitus; her name is the exact counterpart to that of a norse god, who confirms her existence, as freyr would confirm that of freyja, had she come down to us only as the high german frouwa, and from the gothic frauja (m) we have the same right to infer a fem. fraujo. say that her name of nerthus has long ago died out, if it ever extended to all branches of our race; a whole group of beings almost identical with her lives on in fadeless legend: holde, berhte, fricke, harke, gaue, stempe, trempe. at the first glance none o

, now eastward, now westward. an important mark of distinction is the change of gender in the same name of a god among different tribes. in gothic the masc. frauja (lord) was still current as a common noun, in o.h. german the fem. frouwa, in o. saxon only the masc. froho, fro, a.s. frea, so that goths and saxons seem to have preferred the god. high germans the goddess; in the north both freyr and freyja are honoured alike. but the north knows only the god nicirsr, and the germans living on the opposite side of the baltic only the goddess nerthus. the relation of zio to zisa, perhaps isis (p. 298, demands further explanation. no doubt the numerous aliases of that female deity, who is not yet forgotten in modern legend, are due to differences of race: holda shews herself in hesse, thuringia

wanderings of heroes and encounters with wise women and giants seem to be a common epic property prevailing everywhere, while the very absence here of all the other main motives of the greek myth excludes the supposition of borrowing. we may surely give their due weight to the many resemblances of wuotan to zeus and apollo, of zio to zeus and ares, we may recognise nerthus in demeter, fx-igg and freyja in hera and aphrodite, wieland in hephaestus and daedalus, without the whole swarm of grecian gods needing therefore to be transported to our soil, or all that this produced having to be looked for in greece. must' honum hlo hugr i briosti' have somehow got into the edda from homer's iyexaaae se ol<^i\ov r/rop? the distinction, drawn in homer as well as the edda, between the speech of gods

lain the dragon made room for michael or george; and the too pagan siegberg (p. 198, which may have meant the same as eresberg (p. 201, was handed over to michael, as the mons martis in france was turned into a mons martyrum, montmartre. it is remarkable that the ossets have converted the dies martis into georgeday, and dies veneris into mary's day (pott 1, 105. 2, 802. the places of osinn and of freyja in minni-drinking are taken by john and by gertrude, a saint who in other ways also has changed places with the goddess (pp. 61. 305. 673; but we can easily see why the heathen counterpart to a saint's legend is oftener to be found in the eoman than in our german mythology. the church in her saints and canonizations had not the wit to keep within bounds, and the disproportion comes out most

are wardens and patrons of the art divine, zeus and apollo among the greeks, with us wuotan 1' tehessa isiin iloa' kalew. 22, 236. 29, 227, the father (the god wainiimoinen) was making (waking) joy= he sang' io kiiwi ilo ilolle' 22, 215, joy came to joy= the song resounded, struck up. 902 poetet. and bragr, wainamoinen witli tlie finns. saga was wuotan's daughter (p. 310, as the muse was zeus's; freyja loved the minnesong: mienni lika'si vel mansongr/ sn. 29. on the origin of poetry the younger edda (sn. 82 87) gives at full length a myth, which the elder had alluded to in havanial (sffim. 12. 23-4. once upon a time the aesir and vanir made a covenant of peace, and in token of it each party stept up to a vessel, and let fall into it their spittle^ as atonements and treaties were often hal

king 6s, which on p. 561 i translated' reason: perhaps' speech, gift of speech' would be more correct? 1 be that as it may, o&hroerir seems cleai-ly to be' poesin ciens, dulcem artem excitans' which is in striking harmony with the as' gid wrecan' and finn' teen ilea' above; hroera, ohg. hruoran, mhg. riieren, means tangere, ciere, and the cauldron would have been in ohg. wuodhruori, as. woshrcre. freyja's husband oct (sasm. 5. sn. 37, whom she sought through the world and bewept with, golden tears, may have been a personification of poetic art^ was he the same as kvdsir, who traversed the world, and was murdered by the dwarfs? thus o^hroerir contained the sweet drink of divine poesy, which imparted immortality; and from the exertions made by the gods, particularly osinn, to regain possessi

ut of the reckoning. when waiuamoinen touches his harp, the whole of nature listens, the four-footed beasts of the wood run up to him, the birds come flying, the fish in the waters swim toward him; tears of bhss burst from the god's eyes, and fall on his breast, from his breast to his knees, from his knees to his feet, wetting five mantles and eight coats, kalew. rune 22-9. such tears are shed by freyja (gratfogr, p. 325, her that well liked song, and was wedded to osr; in fairytales lucky maidens have the power to laugh roses and weep pearls. the stromkarl also breaks into weeping when he sings to the harp (p. 493. but as all nature, animate and inanimate, betrays her sympathy with human lamentations, so at the sound of the bewitching albleich (elf-lay, p. 470, we are told, the rushing ri

legend have arisen, hke' halvel wood' out of the i^ersonal name? conf. halja and hell. in schmidt's fastelabeudsamml. p. 76 we hud the combination' der woor, die goor, der tvilde jager. furious host: guro. 947 'gracious' fricha; conf. sommer's thiir. sag. 165-6. and berhta, the shining, is identical with her too; or, if the name applies more to frouwa, she is still next-door to her, as the norse freyja was to frigg. it is worth noting, that here norweg. legend also names a' huldra^ not frigg nor freyja. the dogs that surround the god's airy chariot may have been wuotan's wolves setting up their howl. a scand. story not well authenticated^ makes o&lnn be wounded by a boar, like hakelbernd, and this wounding seems altogether legendary (p. 921-2; whon the boar sucked the blood out of the sle

e slange mit sinen genozen von liimel wart her abe gestozen, sins libes wesen tcilt er eudriii (divides in three, etc. renuer 3100 seq. names taken from his figure. 999 the shape of a fy pervaded all nature. lith. mussd hirhijcs, flygod (mielke 231, birbiks usu. blowing, buzzing. fairytales have diabolic spirits imprisoned in phials as flies loki turns into a flij (fluga, when he wants to defraud freyja of the brisinga-men. connect with this a lombard story in paul diac. 6, 6 of the' malignus spiritus' who settles on the window as a flij, and gets a leg chopped off; and one in acta bened. sect. 1, p. 238 of a devil being cast out' in muscae similitudinem prorumpens cum sanguine de naribus egressus est inimicus' as a fly, loki finds his way into locked rooms through the keyhole, he can slip

b, where day and night divide (in twilight; if we might read qvigindu, it would be 'ride on the calf' as in the mhg. poem, p. 1048. neither this law nor the edda tells us of sorceresses assembling in troops at appointed places, yet the valkyrs ride together by twelves and twenties. but the idea of night-riding itself may be derived even from goddesses: the hyndlu-lio^ has for its groundwork, that freyja seated on her hoar, whose bristles glow in the gloom of night, and her sister hyndla (canicula) on a wolf, ride up to holy valholp (see suppl. in germany proper, successive stages can be pointed out. before christianity, the old giantesses (etenins) may well have 1 a magician, who was kveld-svnsfr (evening-sleeper, bears the name kveldulfr egilss. p. 3; it is like the ohg. nahtolf by which

ot associated: in the vilk. saga cap. 328-9 the wild host of ostacia (ostansia, or whatever the genuine form may be) shews a significant connexion. but enchantresses would be ranged specially with goddesses, out of whom the christian teachers might make up a roman diana, a jewish herodias, but the populace never entirely dropt the traditional native names. how natural then, if dame holda, if that freyja or ahundia (whether she be folia p. 308, or a celtic deity) had formerly led the round dance of elves and holden, that she herself should now bo made an unholde and be escorted by unholden (p. 926! in the norw. fairytale no. 15 1056 magic. the troldkidring takes quite tlie place of dame holda. in the jeu d'adans (supra p. 412 n) the three fays assemble on a meadow, where the old women of th

n very popular, as i frequently find in records (e.g. bohmer's cod. francof. 1, 185, and even at the present day, the names boseniacher,rosenldc]iler, blumlacjier. the same poem of apollonius has at 1. 2370: er kuste sie wol dreissig stunt (30 times) an iren rosenlachenden munt (mouth; other passages to the point are quoted aw. 1, 74-5. gifted children of fortune have the power to laugh roses, as freyja wept gold; probably in the first instance they were pagan beings of light, who spread their brightness in the sky over the earth 'rose-children, sun-children' georg 48-9, laughing daybreaks (p. 747, rose-strewing eos (p. 749. mart. cap. says, a silver urn' qua3 prasferebat serena fulgentia et vernantis coeli temperie renidebat' was called risus jovis (see suppl. the kissing mouth has even g

rom its leaves being folded mantle- wise. frauaseckeli(-satchel, geumrivale, ibid. frei/ju-lidr stands for several kinds of fern (supra p. 303; does it independently answer to herba capillaris, capillus veneris in apuleius's herb. 47, or was it borrowed from it? frauen-trdn, marien-thrdne, orchis mascula (staid, 1, 296, reminds of mielenium e lacrimis helenae natum' pliny 21,10 [33, still more of freyja's golden tears' gratr freyju^ sn. 128. 132 (conf. p. 325, and the flowers and precious stones that drop when goddesses laugh or weep (p. 1101; a costly wine is called wuser liehfrauen-milcli. how a flower came to be called motjier-of-god's mirror, is told in the nursery-legend. frauen-schlossli, frauen-sclilussel, primula veris. staid. 1, 124, otherwise himmels-schliissel (heaven's key, sch

to be' weise' of thiassi's eyes were made shining stars, all stars are gems of the sky; from this the transition to the sparkling stone was easy enough. heinr. von krolewiz, describing the sky as a house, again brings the eyes into connexion with the orphan, 11. 1194. 1203-16 (see suppl. the]:jearl, already in dreams a prognostic of the tear, is made in the myth to spring out of venus's tear, as freyja's tears turned into drops of gold (p. 1194; and wainamoineu's tears fall into the sea as pearls, kalew. rune 22. the pearl then is either metal or stone. our ancestors regarded it as a stone found in the sea, hence eorcanstan too may have meant pearl, and even the latin name wiio appi'oaches that notion of the incomparable orphan' in tantum ut nulli duo reperiantur indiscreti, undo nomen un

ars fall into the sea as pearls, kalew. rune 22. the pearl then is either metal or stone. our ancestors regarded it as a stone found in the sea, hence eorcanstan too may have meant pearl, and even the latin name wiio appi'oaches that notion of the incomparable orphan' in tantum ut nulli duo reperiantur indiscreti, undo nomen unionum romanae imposuere deliciae^ pliny 9, 35 [56' ideo' not only does freyja's tear turn into gold, but a greek myth makes i^ekrpov arise from the tears of phaethpn's sisters, daughters of the sun, be that substance gold or amber, succinum. for amber, tacitus and pliny already know a german word (flesum, gramm. 1, 58; an on. name is rafr, su. 156, sw. raf, dan. rav; as. glosses have eoviscuid (in mone 1106 eolcfang; couf. werlauff's learned treatise on amber (bernst

GRIMM TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 2 1883 COMPLETE

botyorn s daughter bestla. loki, who lives among the ases, is son to a giant farbauti, and a giantess angrbosa is his tw lf^nt6;^110011011111118; mhg ungevilege, applied to giants, nib. 45g, 1. kua ^geviiege knabe, er. 5552; knabe, as in der rnichel kuabe/p 518n giants, 531 wife. the gods associate with oegir the iotunn, and by him are bidden to a banquet. giants again sue for asms, as thrymr for freyja, while thiassi carries off isunn. hrungnir asks for freyja or sif, sn. 107. starka^sr is henchman to norse kings; in bother s army fight the giants asperian (asbiorn, osbern) and witolt. among the &ses the great foe of giants is thorr, who like jupiter inflicts on them his thunder-wounds; l his hammer has crushed the heads of many: were it not for thorr, says a scandinavian proverb, the gia

ty (p. 534. on the nine giantpillars near miltenberg the common folk still see the handmarks of the giants who intended therewith to build a bridge over the main (deut. sag. no. 19. the most notable instance occurs in the edda itself. a iotunn had come to the ases, professing to be a smrcsr, and had pledged himself to build them a strong castle within a year and a half, if they would let him have freyja with the sun and moon into the bargain. the gods took counsel, and decided to accept his offer, if he would undertake to finish the building by himself without the aid of man, in one winter; if on the first day of summer anything in the castle was left undone, he should forfeit all his claims. how the smith/ with no help but that of his strong horse sva&ilfari, had nearly accomplished the t

fires to may-day eve. 2 nor way also knows the custom: s. hans aften brandes der baal ved alle griner (hedged country-lanes, hvilket skal fordrive ondt (harm) fra creaturerne/ sommerfeldt s saltdalen, p. 121. but some words quoted by hallager p. 13 are worth noting, viz. brandskat for the wood burnt in the fields, and brising for the kindled fire; the latter reminds us of the gleaming necklace of freyja (p. 306-7, and may have been transferred from the flame to the jewel, as well as from the jewel to the flame. there is no doubt that some parts of italy had midsummer fires: at orvieto they were exempted from the restrictions laid on other fires.3 italian sailors lighted them on board ship out at sea, fel. fabri evagat. 1, 170. and spain is perhaps to be included on the strength of a passag

4. eaeth. of the goddess, and her various names, we have spoken already: nerthus p. 251, erda p. 250, fairguni p. 172. 256, erce p. 253, 1 bird flies, wings drip. bird flies, feathers drop. stender s gramm. 260. 642 elements. hludana p. 256, and others; in which the ideas of the ancients about terra, gaia, ops, rhea, cybele, ceres repeat themselves. on p. 303 the indian prithivi was compared with freyja, and the closest kinship exists between freyr and niorsr (the male nerthus. but also the bare element itself, the molte (mould, pulvis) p. 251, was accounted holy: it is the ^6wv 7ro\v^6reipa out of its teeming lap rise fruits and trees, into it the dead are laid, and decay or fire restores them to dust and ashes.1 to die was to sink to the earth/ til iarsar (til moldar) hniga/ to kiss the

40. 2 the kuss. b6zhia korovka, has exactly the same meaning. tbans. chafee. bee. 695 204b) and der liebe froue henje, our lady s lien (alb. schott s deutsche in piemonfc 297, in contrast to herra-chtieli the coccinella (tobler 265a, though the name probably wavers be tween the two. by the same process which we observed in the names of plants and stars, mary seems to have stept into the place of freyja, and marihone was formerly freyjuhoena, which we still have word for word in froue henje, and the like in frauachiieli. and of romance tongues, it is only that of france (where the community of views with germany was strongest) that has a bete a dieu, vacjie a dieu; span, and ital. have nothing like it. at all events our children s song: marienlcaferfihen, flieg ausl (fly away) dein hausche

can this erekr hinn vrsfbrli be the hero of the lost mhg. poem erek der wallaere (pilgrim? the name qdainsakr may however be an adaptation of an older and heathen ol8insakr=vallh6ll, conf. the oden saker in sweden, p. 158, last line. vol. it. c c 824 time and woeld. again, as valholl had only received men who died by weapons (vapn-dau3a vera, whilst other dead men were gathered in folkvangr with freyja (p. 304, and virgins with gefjon (sn. 36; from this time forward gimill takes in without distinction all the just, the good, and hel all the bad, the criminal; whereas the former hel, as a contrast to valholl, used to harbour all the resi due of men who had not fallen in fight, without its being implied that they were sinners deserving punishment. the most difficult point to determine is, h

(tussle for the soul) between the hosts of heaven and hell be traceable to christian tradition. the ep. of jude v. 9 does tell of archangel michael and the devils striving for the body of moses/ and the champion michael at all events seems borrowed thence. but jealousy and strife over the partition of souls may be supposed an idea already present to the heathen mind, as the norse osinn, thorr and freyja appropriated their several por tions of the slain. at pp. 60 and 305 we identified freyja with gertrude: some say the soul, on quitting the body, is the first night with st. gerdraut, the next with st. michael, the third in such place as it has earned/ superst. f, 24. now as antichrist in the great world-fight is slain by michael (p. 811, while surtr has for adversaries osinn and thorr: ger

is at times undistinguishable from osinn, as aegis is wielded by the two highest deities zeus and athena: afterwards the helmet came into the hand of heroes. out of the magic helm sprang helot-helm, grim-helm, tarn-happe, tuunsch-mantel (kinderm. no. 122, wunsch-hut, which bestow on dwarfs, heroes and fortune s favourites the power to walk unseen, to sail swiftly through the sky. to the goddesses freyja and frigg belonged brisinga men, which, like the t/^a? of yenus and juno, awakened longing (fyte/oo, and matches the sword, spear and hammer of the gods (p. 885. on the veil or hood of the goddess sif grew golden hair, as corn does on the earth: its proper name is not given. smffblaffnir is described, wishing-geak. 871 now as a ship, now as a hat, both of which could either be folded up or

onal names of cheruscans, saxons, conf. suardones, with sweordweras, in cod. exon. 322, 13. in contrast with the sword, which ennobles men, stands female decoration, from which our language drew similar designations; and it is a significant thing that, as one of the highest gods borrowed lustre from the sword, so did the fairest of goddesses from her necklace, she after whom all ladies are called freyja (pp. 299. 306. in our oldest laws the sword 1 was an essential part of the f hergewate/ war-equipment, and the necklace of the frauen-gerade/ woman s outfit (ra. 567 seq; now, as we find in the lex angl. et werin. 7, 3 the expression ornamenta muliebria quod rjiedo dicunt/ it becomes a question, whether a totally different ex planation of the as. goddess rlieda from that attempted on p. 289

n s outfit (ra. 567 seq; now, as we find in the lex angl. et werin. 7, 3 the expression ornamenta muliebria quod rjiedo dicunt/ it becomes a question, whether a totally different ex planation of the as. goddess rlieda from that attempted on p. 289 be not the right one. ostara, eastre, was goddess of the growing light of spring, and hrede might be goddess of female beauty, another name for frouwa, freyja, or a personification of the necklace; 2 the root might be the same as in the ohg. hrat, a.s. hraed, on. hrasr (velox, celer, as the notions of swiftness and sweetness often meet. we must not overlook another word used for the above gerade: radeleve (ra. 567, ohg. rado- 1 and with it a horse and ship, the most precious of movable goods in antiquity. mearas and maftmas are coupled together i

as. sweorda lafe, homera lafe (beow. 5868. 5654, i.e. lafe preceded by a genitive, we see that hredan or hredean lafe would originally mean jewellery the legacy (leavings) of the god dess, which afterwards all women divided among them. and this explanation is supported by several other things. not only do the norse skalds designate woman in general by the name of any ornament that she wears; but freyja herself, whose bosom is adorned with that costly brisiuga men (goth. breisigge mani? p. 306, as mother earth too wears her iarsar men the green sward (p. 643, gave birth to a divine daughter identical with herself, whose name also gets to mean ornament and jewelry. sn. 37 says, she was called hnoss, and was so beautiful that everything elegant and precious was named hnossir; hnossir velja/

means to select jewelry for a present. hnoss may either be derived from hno$a, glomus, nodus (as hlass from hlafta, sess from sitja, or be connected with an ohg. form hnust, nust, nusc (graff 2, 1006-7; either way it so obviously agrees withbris (coinpages, nodus, or with nusta (ansula, nuskil (fibula, that it is wonderfully like the brisinga (or brisinga) men of the mother. but elsewhere we find freyja provided with another daughter gersimi (sn. 212. yngl. saga c. 13, whose name ex hibits the same notion over again, nay it has found its way, like rhedo, into ancient legal phraseology. gerserni (fern) means costly ornament, cimelium (gloss, to gragas p. 26, also arrha, and mulcta pactitia; the ostgota-lag giptab. 18 has garsimi, the vestgota-lag p. 140 gorsimar, the dan. laws giorsum, gior

y comes out in ov. met. 8, 800. doubt still hangs over the comparison attempted on p. 374 between a mhg. billich and the eddie bil or bil, whose own being is as yefc unexplained; but that the sexes do interchange is most satisfactorily proved by the frequent appearance, side by side, of an identical god and goddess, who are parent and child, or brother and sister, as nior^r and nerthus, freyr and freyja, liber and libera. so berhta became berchtolt, p. 279 (see suppl. 1 bruoder zornli, ergerli (p. 274. h. sachs i. 5, 538d exhibits hederlein in a bear s hide as brother of zenklein. snotra. wara. sunia. fruma. 889 of goddesses and godlike women that have sprung out of moral ideas, the number is far greater (p. 397. under various forms a divine mother stands beside the father or grandfather:

538d exhibits hederlein in a bear s hide as brother of zenklein. snotra. wara. sunia. fruma. 889 of goddesses and godlike women that have sprung out of moral ideas, the number is far greater (p. 397. under various forms a divine mother stands beside the father or grandfather: frau vote, ancestress of all the heroic families (zeitschr. f. d. a. 1, 21, holda the gracious, berhta the bright, frouwa, freyja the fair or happy, sippia, sif the kindly (p. 309. folia, fulla, abundia means fulness of blessing rather than full-moon; the komans hallowed copia with her horn of plenty; aurea fruges italiae pleno defundit copia cornu/ hor. ep. i. 12, 28. divesque meo bona copia cornu est/ ov. met. 9, 85. snotra the wise, well-behaved, sn. 38; the word lived on as an adj, goth, snutrs, as. snotor, on. sn

LINDOW JOHN NORSE MYTHOLOGY A GUIDE TO THE GODS HEROES RITUALS AND BELIEFS

ge insults and anecdotes. the next is hymiskvida (hymir fs poem, an account of thor fs journey to the giant hymir and fishing up of the midgard serpent. lokasenna (loki fs verbal duel) follows, and in it loki insults all the gods. it is a thor poem because it is thor who finally chases loki away. the last of the thor poems is thrymskvida (the poem of thrym, a burlesque in which thor, disguised as freyja, retrieves his hammer from the giant thrym. the last two mythological poems are volundarkvida (volund fs poem) and alvissmal introduction 13 pages from the famous codex regius of the poetic edda (british library (the words of all-wise. volundarkvida has no gods in it and to us today looks like a heroic poem, but the compiler of codex regius of the poetic edda must have thought that volund f

l project here. mimir fs head is sent back to the asir and pickled by odin and used for divination, but we must accept that snorri found such a concept within historical possibility. he would have been aided in such a supposition by the veneration and use of relics within christian europe of the middle ages. also as part of the settlement after the war between the asir and vanir, njord, frey, and freyja join the asir, and freyja brings the magic art of seid, a form of sorcery and divination, associated in the mythology especially with odin. brother-sister incest, which was practiced among the vanir, is dropped when they join the asir, and snorri may wish us to believe that the asir were morally to be preferred to the vanir, even if both groups were pagan. chapter 5 describes the emigration

y every text of scandinavian mythology. some other vernacular texts are also of interest. short independent texts are usually called thattir (sing, thattr, which etymologically means gthread h and suggests the interweaving of such texts in larger works, as would be the case when they were recorded in manuscripts. some of these are quite relevant to the subject. for example, sorla thattr tells how freyja acquired the brisinga men, a torque or necklace, by sleeping with dwarfs in order to outwit a cunning loki who is odin fs liege man. whereas sorla thattr seems like a mythic-heroic saga, thidranda thattr ok thorhalls shares the setting of the sagas of icelanders and presents some of the evidence regarding the disir, female spirits. not all the important source material is from iceland or ev

to uphold. the classic split was found in the vedic god varuna and the persian god mithra; in norse mythology, dumezil argued, odin represented the awesome side and ty lr the legal or contractual side of sovereignty. the second function was might or force, and in norse mythology thor fulfilled that function. the third function was fertility, and here the deities are often doubled, as are frey and freyja. at one time dumezil thought these functions represented actual social classes in proto-indo- european society, but later he backed away from this notion and was content to argue for the structure on a purely mythological plane. a second aspect of the dumezilian theory involved the gdisplacement of myth, h that is, the idea that a mythic structure could be gdisplaced h to the level of divin

tual of the germanic peoples. tacitus says elsewhere. and other sources, including place-names, agree.that worship occurs in a sacred grove. the killing of the slaves might also be regarded as a form of sacrifice, a subject to which i will return shortly. other aspects of the worship of nerthus find striking agreement with texts recorded much later that are associated specifically with the vanir. freyja fs cart is pulled by cats, and according to ogmundar thattr dytts, admittedly a late text (an idol of) frey is pulled about in a cart accompanied by an attendant, female in this case. frodi, who shares many characteristics with frey, was also pulled in a cart, and a time of great peace and prosperity was associated with both frey and frodi. although there does not seem to have been a separa

side denmark as the birthplace of hans christian andersen, we see a place-name that once bore the name of the god odin. there are hundreds of these in scandinavia, but they are seldom obvious, except in ice- 36 norse mythology land, where there are places with names like orsmork (thor fs forest, a favorite place for hiking and camping. and if you are acquainted with or have heard of anyone called freyja, thor, baldur (a not uncommon name in iceland, or any scandinavian name beginning with tor, you know of the persistence of the names of the gods in personal naming systems. the era when norse mythology was most known in more recent times was the romantic period, when the gods and myths were a popular source of inspiration. paul henri mallet fs introduction a l fhistoire de dannemarc, ou l f

n idols or the equivalent. the rune poems, which are relatively late, give ass or its equivalent as the name of the a-rune. in medieval icelandic the term asir is the one most often found when the gods are being described as a group, in prose and in poetry. in thrymskvida, for example, when it is revealed that thor fs hammer has been stolen by the giant thrym and that he will exchange it only for freyja, the poet writes: deities, themes, and concepts 49 then all the asir were at an assembly, and all the asynjur in discussion (stanza 14) often the term alfar, gelves, h is used as a parallel, probably because of the alliteration that the poetic form required, but also perhaps because of a fundamental association between the two groups. as she describes the world crumbling about them at ragna

entury audience could have understood the stanza as referring literally to a battle of peoples. although these stanzas are anything but clear, they seem to tell of a battle precipitated by the entry of gullveig or heid among the asir. they were unable to kill her with spears or fire, and she was a practitioner of seid, the ancient form of divination and of magic in general. since snorri says that freyja brought seid to the asir, many scholars have assumed that gullveig/heid is actually freyja, one of the vanir, and that her corruption of the asir precipitated the war. gullveig appears to mean ggold-drink h or possibly ggold-intoxication h; heid means perhaps gshiny. h stanza 23 seems to have to do with an inability to reach a truce during a war, and understood thus it leads nicely into the

they declared to be a great leader, and mimir, who was very wise. in response, the vanir sent kvasir, who was also very wise. hoenir proved to be unable of leadership without consulting mimir, so the vanir, suspecting that they had been cheated, beheaded mimir and sent the head to odin. odin preserved the head and it told him many hidden things. the asir made njord and frey into leaders of cult. freyja, njord fs daughter, first taught seid to the asir. brother-sister incest, which had been common among the vanir, was banned among the asir. 52 norse mythology even if freyja is not identical to gullveig/heid, the various versions seem to share the notion of a disruptive entry of persons into a people (gullveig/heid among the asir, hoenir and mimir among the vanir) and the acquisition of too

hin asgard was valholl. what makes asgard an enclosure is the wall around it, which an elaborate story in gylfaginning seems to address. the gods had established midgard and deities, themes, and concepts 61 had built valholl when a builder came to them and offered to build a fortress so secure that giants could not get through it. he offered to do the job in a year and a half against a payment of freyja, the sun, and the moon. the gods thought they had cut a great deal when they got him to agree to do the job within half a year with only the help of his horse svadilfari. they were mistaken, and when three days were left it appeared all but certain that the wall would be completed. the gods blamed loki and threatened him. loki changed himself into a mare and distracted svadilfari. the wall

adition are accorded berserks as elite troops, and the medieval icelandic law code, gragas, has a provision against going berserk. elsewhere in medieval icelandic literature, however, berserks are mostly stereotypical figures who threaten but are easily overcome by heroes, sometimes after challenging for the hand of a woman. although there may be a parallel here with the lusting of the giants for freyja and the other female asir, the only direct connection between berserks and the mythology is the passage from snorri. if, however, there indeed was a cult of warriors in animal disguise, it would almost certainly have centered around odin. references and further reading: d. j. beard, gthe berserkr in icelandic literature, h in approaches to oral literature, ed. tobin thelwall (ulster: new un

e poem. billing is listed as a dwarf name in the hauksbok version of voluspa and is found in a kenning for poetry: gcup of the son of billing. h since both the dwarfs and giants possessed the mead of poetry before odin retrieved it, this kenning works whether billing is a dwarf or a giant. the problem with understanding billing as a dwarf is not one of sexual congress between gods and dwarfs, for freyja slept with three dwarfs to obtain the brisinga men, and the dwarf alviss coveted thor fs daughter and even claimed to have affianced himself to her (alvissmal. however, if billing is a dwarf, his ggirl h (presumably daughter) would be one of the very few female dwarfs in the mythology. certainly billing fs girl is a member of an out-group, and odin seduces and rapes many of these. the most

brim, gsurf, seaway, h the name might allude to the making of the sea from ymir fs blood. it is also found in voluspa, stanza 37, where it appears to refer to a beer hall of the giants, although it is not wholly impossible that it refers to the owner of the beer hall. this hall stands at (or is named, if brimir owns it) okolnir (uncold. see also blain brisinga men torque or necklace belonging to freyja. in eddic poetry, the brisinga men is found in thrymskvida. it jerks when freyja is angered at the suggestion that she should go to giantland (stanza 13, and at heimdall fs suggestion (stanza 15, it is put onto thor as he assumed freyja fs disguise (stanza 19. otherwise the brisinga men is found only in snorri fs edda. in both gylfaginning and skaldskaparmal, snorri says simply that freyja

ythology scholars think they may indeed have been fighting over the brisinga men. in stanza 9 of the haustlong of thjodolf of hvin, one of the very earliest skaldic poems, loki is called ghoop-thief of brising fs people, h an apparent reference to his theft of the necklace. the same myth also appears to be recounted in the late sorla thattr, in which loki, taking on the form of a fly, steals from freyja a golden necklace made for her by dwarfs, but the necklace is not explicitly called the brisinga men. lines 1197.1201 of the old english epic beowulf allude to a legendary narrative in which the hero hama takes away the necklace of the brosings (brosinga mene, fleeing the terror of ermaneric. this necklace is clearly an analog of the brisinga men, and many scholars have tried to relate the

erstood as gtorque of the brisings, h not, as some scholars have thought, ggleaming torque h or gsunny torque. h but who the brisings might be remains an unanswered question. the brising of haustlong is not found elsewhere, although the thulur refer to a norwegian island of that name. the simplest explanation might be to regard the brisings as dwarfs, the ones who, according to sorla thattr, made freyja fs precious necklace. references and further reading: perhaps the most famous treatment of the brisinga men is an essay by karl mullenhoff, gfrija und der halsbandmythus, h zeitschrift fur deutsches altertumn 30 (1886: 217.260, which argues for a kind of solar myth that, as f. klaeber put it, gcompels admiration rather than acceptance h (beowulf and the fight at finnsburg: edited with intro

he disir. snorri uses the singular form, dis, in connection with two figures in gylfaginning. after recounting the story of the failed marriage between njord and skadi, snorri says that skadi moved to the mountains and lived at thrymhrim, gand she goes about much on skis and with a bow and shoots animals; she is called esnow-shoe god f or esnow-shoe dis. f h snorri says later in gylfaginning that freyja gis also called vanadis, h that is, dis of the vanir. the text in which disir play the greatest role is thidranda thattr ok thorhalls, which is found in late-fourteenth-century manuscripts of the great saga of olaf tryggvason but is believed by some observers to have been included in the late-twelfth-century latin life of olaf tryggvason, now lost, by the icelandic monk gunnlaug leifsson. i

ys that some of the norns are of the family of the asir, some are of the elves, and some are the daughters of dvalin, it seems apparent that the dwarfs are what is meant. the skalds often used gdvalin fs drink h or something similar as a kenning for poetry, clearly because the mead of poetry had at one time been in the possession of dwarfs. finally, dvalin is the name of one of the dwarfs to whom freyja gave herself in sorla thattr in exchange for a golden necklace, presumably the brisinga men. dvalin is, then, one of the most common of the dwarf names. why he should be gdelayed h is not clear. as for the hart, the thulur list gdvalar h as a hart name, but not gdvalin, h and some observers think that the hart who gnaws at yggdrasil should be dvalar. see also dwarfs dwarfs mythological bein

e gold-bristled boar, gullinborsti. it may be worth noting that each god gets one object of gold and one of iron or wood. furthermore, odin commissioned the dwarfs to make the fetter gleipnir, which he used to bind fenrir. and when odin, hoenir, and loki needed gold to compensate hreidmar for the death of his son otr in skaldskaparmal, it was to the dwarfs that odin sent loki. like the male gods, freyja also had precious objects fashioned by the dwarfs: she had her own gold-bristled boar (hyndluljod, stanza 7) and obtained a necklace (sorla thattr, which is probably a rather late text, perhaps the brisinga men. besides making precious objects for the gods, the dwarfs may also have supported them with magic. according to havamal, stanza 160, 100 norse mythology odin learned a charm first su

hat of the giants than to some kind of allies of the gods. the flow of goods is always from the dwarfs to the gods, never the reverse, and sometimes hostilities are involved, as when loki gets gold from andvari to compensate hreidmar for the death of otr. alviss wishes to marry thor fs daughter and winds up dead for this presumption (alvissmal, just as did the giants thrym and thjazi, who coveted freyja and idun (freyja did, however, apparently sleep with some dwarfs to get her necklace in sorla thattr. the poet thjodolf of hvin said in his ynglinga tal (stanza 5) that a dwarf tricked the swedish king sveigdir, when the king jumped into the rock after the dwarf, and gthe bright hall of sokmimir and his people, inhabited by giants [jotnar, gaped open. h paraphrasing the poem in ynglinga sag

th gylfaginning and skaldskaparmal. lokasenna, stanza 26, appears to give the same information. loki is responding to frigg: shut up, frigg! you are fjorgyn fs daughter and have ever been most eager for men, when ve and vili you allowed, wife of vidrir, to embrace you. there is a small measure of ambiguity here, since the word i have rendered gdaughter h is used in the kenning god fs maiden h for freyja, who is the wife of deities, themes, and concepts 117 od. but if we accept snorri, who says in both gylfaginning and skaldskaparmal that frigg is fjorgyn fs daughter, we must assume that the information about fjorgyn is purely genealogical and has nothing to do with the charge of sexual insatiability that follows. see also jord references and further reading: those who can read dutch may wi

lso jord references and further reading: those who can read dutch may wish to read jan de vries, gstudien over germaansche mythologie, i: fjorgyn en fjorgynn, h tijdschrift voor nederlandsche taal- en letterkunde 50 (1931: 1.25, which finds that the masculine form of the name is late and that the name originally meant something like glife h or gvital power. h folkvang (people-field or army-field) freyja fs abode. odin fs vision of the dwelling places of the gods in grimnismal includes folkvang, in stanza 14: folkvang is the ninth, and there freyja rules the choice of seats in the hall. half the dead she chooses each day, and odin has half. according to snorri fs gylfaginning, the hall itself at folkvang is called sessrumnir (seat-roomy, but this information is not found elsewhere. if we un

PHILIP NEIL MYTHS LEGENDS EXPLAINED

entwined with the image of the christian devil. although he was brought up as odin s foster-brother, he was actually a giant. he was accepted among the gods because of his lively wit, but it is perhaps his outsider status that is at the root of his later bitterness and vengefulness. he plays tricks on the gods, stealing or hiding treasures such as the apples of youth (causing the gods to age, or freyja s precious necklace, brisingamen; but he always rescues the situation. however, he becomes increasingly malicious after he causes the death of balder, odin s son, the handsomest of the gods. for this, the gods catch him and bind him to a rock with the entrails of one of his sons, and a snake drops poison in his face, which his wife catches in a cup. when splashed, his writhings made the ent

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

ence often left the older religions with much smaller followings. werner forman/corbis. world religions: almanac 377 neo-paganism frey is the god of yuletide (a celebration of the winter solstice) because he was born on that day, which usually falls on december 21. frey is the god of plenty and of peace. he provides prosperity and fertility. the goddess of love, sexuality, and beauty is freya, or freyja. she is the leader of the valkyries, the maidens of odin who choose the greatest warriors slain in battle and conduct them to odin s hall, valhalla. frigg, or frigga, as odin s wife, is the patroness of married women and of the household and hearth. skadi is the goddess of skiing, hunting, death, and independence. ostara is the goddess of fertility who is honored at the spring equinox. a va

THE GOLDEN ESSENCE

ecently proven the connection in the classical world between venus and the queen of the underworld. as one of the daughter s signs is the rose, she is also connected to the rose queen of the afterlife. it is very, very important to realize that this daughter is a mythological re-emergence of her mother into a very active hypostasis. tara de rosilea is very much seen as a survival of the figure of freyja or freya, from northern paganism. if you read the myths, you will see that freya was also a child of the earth mother, and bore all the attributes of the daughter, up to and including a shared rulership over half the dead, along with queen hel (a figure that is cognate with dame hyldor) and freya was the queen of wanahame- the home/spiritual dimension of the wans, the land spirits or elder

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