Freyja – also known as Freja and Freya
Freyja was the goddess of love, lust, beauty, sorcery and death. Freyja was the daughter of the wealthy sea god named Njord. She was the twin sister of Freyr.
Njord, Freyr and Freyja were originally members of the older branch of gods, the Vanir.
When the war between the Vanir and the Aesir ended, these three Vanir were sent to the Aesir as a token of truce. In return the Aesir sent Honir and Mimir to the Vanir branch.
At Asgard the three Vanir were accepted as equals and soon had a powerful position among the gods. The meaning of the name Freyja is “Lady”. The German title “frau” comes from the name Freyja.
Freyja’s Husband went missing
Freyja was married to Od. Her husband somehow disappeared. Tales were told that Freyja cried tears of gold whenever she longed for her missing husband. Nobody was able to say where he had gone off to. Freyja rode in a carriage drawn by two cats.
As her brother, she also had a boar. The name of her boar was Hildisvini. She also possessed a cloak of falcon feathers which came to be quite handy and she willingly lent these feathers to other gods when they needed to fly quickly to the land of the giants.
Freyja was the most gorgeous of all the goddesses at Asgard. Her stunning beauty was the reason many of the giants went to extremes to try to have Freyja as their wife. None of them ever succeed.
Even though Freyja longed for her husband, it was rumored that she was not a faithful wife. Many would gossip about affairs she might have had. Freyja was the goddess of love as well as of lust.
Freyja received half of all the slain Vikings
Freyja resided in a mansion called Folkvangr. When brave Vikings died in battles many of them would come to live in the hall inside Folkvangr called Sessrumnir with Freyja in their afterlife.
Freyja received half of all the chosen slain Vikings and Odin received the other half.
The dead Vikings who came to belong to Odin were sent to Valhalla. Freyja was always given first choice. After she had picked the ones she wanted, the rest were sent to Odin.
The brave dead Vikings were fetched by the Valkyries and were taken either to live with Freyja or with Odin in their afterlife.
The Valkyries are women figures who are fully armed and rode their horses over the battlefields and brought dead Vikings to the afterlife at Valhalla.
Freyja loved jewelry
Freyja was especially fond of jewelry. She owned a famous necklace named Brisingamen. How this necklace got to be her possession was a rather devious affaire and she herself would not speak of it.
It all started one day when she was out for a stroll. She passed by an open cave and wandered in. Inside her eye caught the sight of the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen.
Four dwarfs living inside this cave were just putting their finishing touches to the magnificent piece of jewelry. The dwarfs were truly masters of craftsmanship.
Freyja begged and pleaded to have the necklace. She told the dwarfs she would pay any amount of gold for it. The dwarfs refused to sell it.
They did however make a proposition; if Freyja would give each of the four dwarfs one night of lovemaking she could keep the necklace. Freyja agreed and spent the next four nights with the dwarfs. She then walked back to her home as if nothing had happened wearing the beautiful Brisingamen.
Freyja had two daughters
Freyja had two daughters. Their names were Hnoss (treasure or jewel) and Gersemi (gem). It was told they had inherited their mother’s great beauty.
Freyja – Goddess of Sorcery
Freyja was the master of seid. Seid was what the Old Norse called sorcery or witchcraft. Seid was quite common among the Vanir. Freyja introduced seid to the Aesir when she came to live with them. She was the one who taught Odin how to practice seid.
Seid could be used both for doing good as well as doing evil. It could be used innocently to find lost items or to drive someone mad. Seid could be used to obtain most things in life as well as being used to predict the future. It was very powerful, indeed.
In Viking times there were some women who could master seid. These women were highly respected and feared in society.