Freyja is a Norse goddess of love, fertility, war and women’s magic.

In her gentler aspect, Freyja is the goddess of love poetry and was often called on to aid in affairs of the heart. Freyja’s day, Friday, was considered to be the best day for weddings.

Freyja as a Patroness of Warrior Women

In her fiercer warrior aspect, Freyja was said to be the leader of the Valkyries, who picked up the warrior dead and took them to Valhalla. Half of those who died in battle were taken to Freyja, the other half to Odin. As a warrior goddess, Freyja was fiercely masculine, and some say she even sported a beard. There was a saying, “Freyja’s sword is short,” which meant that much can be accomplished even with a short sword.

Freyja is the sister of Freyr. The two gods were part of the Vanir, an ancient race of deities long ago defeated by the Aesir, the gods of Asgard. Freyja and her brother joined the company of Asgard after the war was lost. Freyja had a great dwelling-place of her own in the sky called Folkvang. This was where she received dead heroes and assigned them their seats in her banquet hall.

Freyja as a Patroness of Women’s Magic and Genderfluidity

Freyja’s role in dealing with death can also be seen as having aspects of the shaman. The goddess was able to take on the shape of a bird, as were Odin and Loki, a shamanic ability. She is also said to be able to change into a horse, a power often associated with more sinister magic. As a warrior goddess, she likely shared prophetic powers associated with Norse and Celtic warrior women.

Indeed, Freyja was considered to have been a priestess of the Vanir and brought with her special knowledge of a type of feminine magic called seidr. It was she who taught this magic to the other deities of Asgard, including Odin himself. Loki’s attempted theft of her necklace on Odin’s behalf may be a metaphorical attempt to steal some of her magic. Later stories suggest Loki went on to become a practitioner of seidr himself.

Another example of women’s magic practiced by genderfluid men can be found in the Welsh legend of the Fisher King’s son.

There is a good deal of historical data about the practice of seidr in pagan Northern Europe, which gives us some sense of Freyja’s cult. Evidence indicates her cult was apparently widespread. Snorri claimed in his tales of Asgard that Freyja was the only one of the gods that still lived in his time. That this was true is evidenced by the large number of places still given her name in Southwestern Norway and Southern Sweden.

In the practice of seidr, a platform or lofty seat was constructed in which the leader, usually a woman, would sit. During the ceremony, the leader or volva would fall into an ecstatic state. Afterwards she would act as seer and prophet, answering whatever questions were put to her. These women seers might travel the land, presiding over feasts and ceremonies. Several sources suggest that groups of such women would travel about the countryside in groups.

It was said that the volva dressed in a costume of animal skins with gloves made of cat-skin and boots from the hide of calves. A sacrificial meal was made in the volva’s honor, comprised of hearts from as many creatures obtainable. The practice of eating the heart of animals or opponents as a way of obtaining their specific powers is an ancient one.

Freyja and Loki

It appears that genderfluid men called seidrmen served as priests of Freyja. Such men were often feminine in manner and were accused of being ergi or passive male homosexuals. Loki appears to have served as something of a model for these priests. In support of this interpretation is how Freyja freely loaned her feathered falcon cloak to Loki, saying “I’d give it to you even if it were made of gold, lend it to you even if it were made of silver.”

(This from “Thyrm’s Poem” in The Poetic Edda. The passage is a bit unclear, Thor, accompanied by Loki, asks to borrow the feathered cloak but it is Loki who dons it and flies off.)

Clearly this would have been during a period when Freyja and Loki were on better terms. Later, towards the twilight of the gods, the trickster claimed that Freyja had slept with her brother, and indeed, sibling marriages were said to be practiced among the Vanir. Loki also accused the goddess of taking all the gods and elves as lovers. One tale told of her obtaining her magical rainbow necklace by sleeping in turn with the four dwarves who made it.

Though a number of references are made to Freyja’s necklace, little is known of its nature. Some scholars suggest Freyja’s necklace is actually a torque. It can be a seen as a vaginal symbol of fertility and also as choker with which Frejya the war goddess slays fallen warriors. This idea was pursued in greater depth by Randy P. Conner.

One clue to the meaning of the Freyja’s torque is that a torque was also worn by gender-variant women called foerdoeda, who adopted masculine social roles and were also believed to have the power to turn men into ergi. One of the various praise-names for Freyja was Foerdoeda, all of which makes the notion of Loki as representative of ergi-priests of Freyja all the more credible.

As for Freyja being gender-variant herself, she has been described as a bearded woman in her fiercer warlike aspect, and in her fertility aspect has been described as two-sexed. In this second capacity, Freyja or Frigga (the two were often conflated in Germany) was represented as having the sexual organs of both sexes, standing with a sword in her right hand and a bow in her left. Frejya’s predominant image, however, is as a beautiful and feminine goddess.

The questions posed to the seer or volva most often revolved around bounty and love, precisely the domains over which Freyja was said to preside. The gloves of catskin are consistent with accounts of Freyja traveling in a carriage drawn by two cats. Cats were among the animal spirits that aided volvas in their supernatural journeys through cold and darkness into the “other world.” All of these details are consistent with shamanic practice.          

Summing Up Freyja’s Wonderful Complexity

Freyja is clearly a goddess of fascinating complexity. She seems to hold profound meaning for both men and women, those conventional in their gender-identification and those gender-variant. Warriors of either sex, women seeking husbands, and feminine men yearning for a diva all had reason to give thanks to the goddess of the torque, the falcon cloak and catskin gloves.

For another powerful woman who links sensuality and spirituality, see Yeshe Tsogyal, a legendary figure considered to be the mother of Tibetan Buddhism.

Mark Carlson-Ghost

References

Conner, Randy P. (1993). Blossom of Bone: Reclaiming the Connections between Homoeroticism and the Sacred. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, pp. 164-65

Davidson, H.R. Ellis (1964). Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. Harmondsworth, pp. 114-24.

Larrington, Carolyne, trans. (2014). The Poetic Edda. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 93.

Salmonson, Jessica Amanda (1991). The Encyclopedia of Amazons. New York: Paragon House, pp. 92-93.

Snorri Sturluson (1954). The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp. 52-53, 59, 66-67, 82, 97.