Goddess of love, yes – but also mistress of death, magic and battle-fortune. Freyja is one of the mightiest figures in the Norse pantheon.
Anyone who sees in Freyja only the goddess of love vastly underestimates her. The best-known goddess of the North belongs to the Vanir, the gods of fertility, and unites in herself love and desire as well as war, death and magic.
Odin is usually imagined as the sole lord of the dead – but the Grímnismál tell otherwise: half of those fallen on the battlefield go to Freyja’s hall Sessrúmnir in the field Fólkvangr, only the other half to Odin. Freyja is thus a goddess of the dead of high rank.
Freyja is regarded as the mistress of seidr, a form of magic and divination that, according to tradition, she first taught to the Æsir. This magic was closely tied to fate and shamanism and was considered powerful yet perilous.
Her chariot is drawn by two cats; with her falcon-cloak she can fly through the air. Her most precious possession is the necklace Brísingamen, a work of the dwarves. Freyja is often confused with Odin’s wife Frigg – both are distinct figures, yet their features already blurred in the Middle Ages. Friday probably bears her name or Frigg’s.
We are continually gathering more about the individual gods in our Library.