In Norse mythology, Freyja (/'freI@/; Old Norse for "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, sexuality, beauty, fertility, gold, seidr, war, and death. Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brisingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, keeps the boar Hildisvini by her side, possesses a cloak of falcon feathers, and, by her husband Odr, is the mother of two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. Along with her brother Freyr (Old Norse the "Lord"), her father Njordr, and her mother (Njordr's sister, unnamed in sources), she is a member of the Vanir. Stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Freija, Frejya, Freyia, Froja, Froya, Frojya, Freia, Freja, Frua and Freiya.
Freyja rules over her heavenly afterlife field Folkvangr and there receives half of those that die in battle, whereas the other half go to the god Odin's hall, Valhalla. Within Folkvangr is her hall, Sessrumnir. Freyja assists other deities by allowing them to use her feathered cloak, is invoked in matters of fertility and love, and is frequently sought after by powerful jotnar who wish to make her their wife. Freyja's husband, the god Odr, is frequently absent. She cries tears of red gold for him, and searches for him under assumed names. Freyja has numerous names, including Gefn, Horn, Mardoll, Syr, Valfreyja, and Vanadis.
Freyja is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; in the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, the two latter written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century; in several Sagas of Icelanders; in the short story Sorla thattr; in the poetry of skalds; and into the modern age in Scandinavian folklore, as well as the name for Friday in many Germanic languages.
Scholars have theorized about whether Freyja and the goddess Frigg ultimately stem from a single goddess common among the Germanic peoples; about her connection to the valkyries, female battlefield choosers of the slain; and her relation to other goddesses and figures in Germanic mythology, including the thrice-burnt and thrice-reborn Gullveig/Heidr, the goddesses Gefjon, Skadi, Thorgerdr Holgabrudr and Irpa, Menglod, and the 1st century CE "Isis" of the Suebi. Freyja's name appears in numerous place names in Scandinavia, with a high concentration in southern Sweden. Various plants in Scandinavia once bore her name, but it was replaced with the name of the Virgin Mary during the process of Christianization. Rural Scandinavians continued to acknowledge Freyja as a supernatural figure into the 19th century, and Freyja has inspired various works of art.


== EtymologyEdit ==

The name Freyja is transparently "lady" and ultimately derives from Proto-Germanic *fraw(j)on. Freyja is cognate with, for example, Old Saxon frua "lady, mistress" and Old High German frouwa (compare modern German Frau "lady"). The theonym Freyja is thus considered to have been an epithet in origin, replacing a personal name that is now unattested. As a result, either the original name became entirely taboo or another process occurred in which the goddess is a duplicate or hypostasis of another known goddess; see "Relation to Frigg and other goddesses and figures" below.


== AttestationsEdit ==


=== Poetic EddaEdit ===
In the Poetic Edda, Freyja is mentioned or appears in the poems Voluspa Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Thrymskvida, Oddrunargratr, and Hyndluljod.
Voluspa contains a stanza that mentions Freyja, referring to her as "Od's girl"; Freyja being the wife of her husband, Odr. The stanza recounts that Freyja was once promised to an unnamed builder, later revealed to be a jotunn and subsequently killed by Thor (recounted in detail in Gylfaginning chapter 42; see Prose Edda section below). In the poem Grimnismal, Odin (disguised as Grimnir) tells the young Agnar that every day Freyja allots seats to half of those that are slain in her hall Folkvangr, while Odin owns the other half.

In the poem Lokasenna, where Loki accuses nearly every female in attendance of promiscuity and/or unfaithfulness, an aggressive exchange occurs between Loki and Freyja. The introduction to the poem notes that among other gods and goddesses, Freyja attends a celebration held by AEgir. In verse, after Loki has flyted with the goddess Frigg, Freyja interjects, telling Loki that he is insane for dredging up his terrible deeds, and that Frigg knows the fate of everyone, though she does not tell it. Loki tells her to be silent, and says that he knows all about her--that Freyja is not lacking in blame, for each of the gods and elves in the hall have been her lover. Freyja objects. She says that Loki is lying, that he is just looking to blather about misdeeds, and since the gods and goddesses are furious at him, he can expect to go home defeated. Loki tells Freyja to be silent, calls her a malicious witch, and conjures a scenario where Freyja was once astride her brother when all of the gods, laughing, surprised the two. Njordr interjects--he says that a woman having a lover other than her husband is harmless, and he points out that Loki has borne children, and calls Loki a pervert. The poem continues in turn.
The poem Thrymskvida features Loki borrowing Freyja's cloak of feathers and Thor dressing up as Freyja to fool the lusty jotunn Thrymr. In the poem, Thor wakes up to find that his powerful hammer, Mjollnir, is missing. Thor tells Loki of his missing hammer, and the two go to the beautiful court of Freyja. Thor asks Freyja if she will lend him her cloak of feathers, so that he may try to find his hammer. Freyja agrees:

Loki flies away in the whirring feather cloak, arriving in the land of Jotunheimr. He spies Thrymr sitting on top of a mound. Thrymr reveals that he has hidden Thor's hammer deep within the earth and that no one will ever know where the hammer is unless Freyja is brought to him as his wife. Loki flies back, the cloak whistling, and returns to the courts of the gods. Loki tells Thor of Thrymr's conditions.
The two go to see the beautiful Freyja. The first thing that Thor says to Freyja is that she should dress herself and put on a bride's head-dress, for they shall drive to Jotunheimr. At that, Freyja is furious--the halls of the gods shake, she snorts in anger, and from the goddess the necklace Brisingamen falls. Indignant, Freyja responds:

The gods and goddesses assemble at a thing and debate how to solve the problem. The god Heimdallr proposes to dress Thor up as a bride, complete with bridal dress, head-dress, jingling keys, jewelry, and the famous Brisingamen. Thor objects but is hushed by Loki, reminding him that the new owners of the hammer will soon be settling in the land of the gods if the hammer isn't returned. Thor is dressed as planned and Loki is dressed as his maid. Thor and Loki go to Jotunheimr.
In the meantime, Thrym tells his servants to prepare for the arrival of the daughter of Njordr. When "Freyja" arrives in the morning, Thrym is taken aback by her behavior; her immense appetite for food and mead is far more than what he expected, and when Thrym goes in for a kiss beneath "Freyja's" veil, he finds "her" eyes to be terrifying, and he jumps down the hall. The disguised Loki makes excuses for the bride's odd behavior, claiming that she simply has not eaten or slept for eight days. In the end, the disguises successfully fool the jotnar and, upon sight of it, Thor regains his hammer by force.
In the poem Oddrunargratr, Oddrun helps Borgny give birth to twins. In thanks, Borgny invokes vaettir, Frigg, Freyja, and other unspecified deities.

Freyja is a main character in the poem Hyndluljod, where she assists her faithful servant Ottar in finding information about his ancestry so that he may claim his inheritance. In doing so, Freyja turns Ottar into her boar, Hildisvini, and, by means of flattery and threats of death by fire, Freyja successfully pries the information that Ottar needs from the jotunn Hyndla. Freyja speaks throughout the poem, and at one point praises Ottar for constructing a horgr (an altar of stones) and frequently making blot (sacrifices) to her:


=== Prose EddaEdit ===

Freyja appears in the Prose Edda books Gylfaginning and Skaldskaparmal. In chapter 24 of Gylfaginning, the enthroned figure of High says that after the god Njordr split with the goddess Skadi, he had two beautiful and mighty children (no partner is mentioned); a son, Freyr, and a daughter, Freyja. Freyr is "the most glorious" of the gods, and Freyja "the most glorious" of the goddesses. Freyja has a dwelling in the heavens, Folkvangr, and that whenever Freyja "rides into battle she gets half the slain, and the other half to Odin [...]." In support, High quotes the Grimnismal stanza mentioned in the Poetic Edda section above.
High adds that Freyja has a large, beautiful hall called Sessrumnir, and that when Freyja travels she sits in a chariot and drives two cats, and that Freyja is "the most approachable one for people to pray to, and from her name is derived the honorific title whereby noble ladies are called fruvor [noble ladies]." High adds that Freyja has a particular fondness for love songs, and that "it is good to pray to her concerning love affairs."
In chapter 29, High recounts the names and features of various goddesses, including Freyja. Regarding Freyja, High says that, next to Frigg, Freyja is highest in rank among them and that she owns the necklace Brisingamen. Freyja is married to Odr, who goes on long travels, and the two have a very fair daughter by the name of Hnoss. While Odr is absent, Freyja stays behind and in her sorrow she weeps tears of red gold. High notes that Freyja has many names, and explains that this is because Freyja adopted them when looking for Odr and traveling "among strange peoples." These names include Gefn, Horn, Mardoll, Syr, and Vanadis.
Freyja plays a part in the events leading to the birth of Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse. In chapter 42, High recounts that, soon after the gods built the hall Valhalla, a builder (unnamed) came to them and offered to build for them in three seasons a fortification so solid that no jotunn would be able to come in over from Midgard. In exchange, the builder wants Freyja for his bride, and the sun and the moon. After some debate the gods agree, but with added conditions. In time, just as he is about to complete his work, it is revealed that the builder is, in fact, himself a jotunn, and he is killed by Thor. In the mean time, Loki, in the form of a mare, has been impregnated by the jotunn's horse, Svadilfari, and so gives birth to Sleipnir. In support, High quotes the Voluspa stanza that mentions Freyja. In chapter 49, High recalls the funeral of Baldr and says that Freyja attended the funeral and there drover her cat-chariot, the final reference to the goddess in Gylfaginning.
At the beginning of the book Skaldskaparmal, Freyja is mentioned among eight goddesses attending a banquet held for AEgir. Chapter 56 details the abduction of the goddess Idunn by the jotunn Thjazi in the form of an eagle. Terrified at the prospect of death and torture due to his involvement in the abduction of Idunn, Loki asks if he may use Freyja's "falcon shape" to fly north to Jotunheimr and retrieve the missing goddess. Freyja allows it, and using her "falcon shape" and a furious chase by eagle-Thjazi, Loki successfully returns her.

In chapter 6, a means of referring to Njordr is provided that refers to Frejya ("father of Freyr and Freyja"). In chapter 7, a means of referring to Freyr is provided that refers to the goddess ("brother of Freyja"). In chapter 8, ways of referring to the god Heimdallr are provided, including "Loki's enemy, recoverer of Freyja's necklace", inferring a myth involving Heimdallr recovering Freyja's necklace from Loki.
In chapter 17, the jotunn Hrungnir finds himself in Asgard, the realm of the gods, and becomes very drunk. Hrungnir boasts that he will move Valhalla to Jotunheimr, bury Asgard, and kill all of the gods--with the exception of the goddesses Freyja and Sif, who he says he will take home with him. Freyja is the only one of them that dares to bring him more to drink. Hrungnir says that he will drink all of their ale. After a while, the gods grow bored of Hrungnir's antics and invoke the name of Thor. Thor immediately enters the hall, hammer raised. Thor is furious and demands to know who is responsible for letting a jotunn in to Asgard, who guaranteed Hrungnir safety, and why Freyja "should be serving him drink as if at the AEsir's banquet."
In chapter 18, verses from the 10th century skald's composition Thorsdrapa are quoted. A kenning used in the poem refers to Freyja. In chapter 20, poetic ways to refer to Freyja are provided; "daughter of Njordr", "sister of Freyr", "wife of Odr", "mother of Hnoss", "possessor of the fallen slain and of Sessrumnir and tom-cats", possessor of Brisingamen, "Van-deity", Vanadis, and "fair-tear deity". In chapter 32, poetic ways to refer to gold are provided, including "Freyja's weeping" and "rain or shower [...] from Freyja's eyes".
Chapter 33 tells that once the gods journeyed to visit AEgir, one of whom was Freyja. In chapter 49, a quote from a work by the skald Einarr Skulason employs the kenning "Odr's bedfellow's eye-rain", which refers to Freyja and means "gold".
Chapter 36 explains again that gold can be referring to as Freyja's weeping due to her red gold tears. In support, works by the skalds Skuli Thorsteinsson and Einarr Skulason are cited that use "Freyja's tears" or "Freyja's weepings" to represent "gold". The chapter features additional quotes from poetry by Einarr Skulason that references the goddess and her child Hnoss. Freyja receives a final mention in the Prose Edda in chapter 75, where a list of goddesses is provided that includes Freyja.


=== HeimskringlaEdit ===

The Heimskringla book Ynglinga saga provides an euhemerized account of the origin of the gods, including Freyja. In chapter 4, Freyja is introduced as a member of the Vanir, the sister of Freyr, and the daughter of Njordr and his sister (whose name is not provided). After the AEsir-Vanir War ends in a stalemate, Odin appoints Freyr and Njordr as priests over sacrifices. Freyja becomes the priestess of sacrificial offerings and it was she who introduced the practice of seidr to the AEsir, previously only practiced by the Vanir.
In chapter 10, Freyja's brother Freyr dies, and Freyja is the last survivor among the AEsir and Vanir. Freyja keeps up the sacrifices and becomes famous. The saga explains that, due to Freyja's fame, all women of rank become known by her name--fruvor ("ladies"), a woman who is the mistress of her property is referred to as freyja, and husfreyja ("lady of the house") for a woman who owns an estate.
The chapter adds that not only was Freyja very clever, but that she and her husband Odr had two immensely beautiful daughters, Gersemi and Hnoss, "who gave their names to our most precious possessions."


=== OtherEdit ===
Freyja is mentioned in the sagas Egils saga, Njals saga, Halfs saga ok Halfsrekka, and in Sorla thattr.
Egils saga
In Egils saga, when Egill Skallagrimsson refuses to eat, his daughter Thorgerdr (here anglicized as "Thorgerd") says she will go without food and thus starve to death, and in doing so will meet the goddess Freyja:

Thorgerd replied in a loud voice, "I have had no evening meal, nor will I do so until I join Freyja. I know no better course of action than my father's. I do not want to live after my father and brother are dead."

Halfs saga ok Halfsrekka
In the first chapter of the 14th century legendary saga Halfs saga ok Halfsrekka, King Alrek has two wives, Geirhild and Signy, and cannot keep them both. He tells the two women that he would keep whichever of them that brews the better ale for him by the time he has returned home in the summer. The two compete and during the brewing process Signy prays to Freyja and Geirhild to Hott ("hood"), a man she had met earlier (earlier in the saga revealed to be Odin in disguise). Hott answers her prayer and spits on her yeast. Signy's brew wins the contest.

Sorla thattr
In Sorla thattr, a short, late 14th century narrative from a later and extended version of the Olafs saga Tryggvasonar found in the Flateyjarbok manuscript, an euhmerized account of the gods is provided. In the account, Freyja is described as having been a concubine of Odin, who bartered sex to four dwarfs for a golden necklace. In the work, the AEsir once lived in a city called Asgard, located in a region called "Asialand or Asiahome". Odin was the king of the realm, and made Njordr and Freyr temple priests. Freyja was the daughter of Njordr, and was Odin's concubine. Odin deeply loved Freyja, and she was "the fairest of woman of that day." Freyja had a beautiful bower, and when the door was shut no one could enter without Freyja's permission.
Chapter 1 records that one day Freyja passed by an open stone where dwarfs lived. Four dwarfs were smithying a golden necklace, and it was nearly done. Looking at the necklace, the dwarfs thought Freyja to be most fair, and she the necklace. Freyja offered to buy the collar from them with silver and gold and other items of value. The dwarfs said that they had no lack of money, and that for the necklace the only thing she could offer them would be a night with each of them. "Whether she liked it better or worse", Freyja agreed to the conditions, and so spent a night with each of the four dwarfs. The conditions were fulfilled and the necklace was hers. Freyja went home to her bower as if nothing happened.
As related in chapter 2, Loki, under the service of Odin, found out about Freyja's actions and told Odin. Odin told Loki to get the necklace and bring it to him. Loki said that since no one could enter Freyja's bower against her will, this wouldn't be an easy task, yet Odin told him not to come back until he had found a way to get the necklace. Howling, Loki turned away and went to Freyja's bower but found it locked, and that he couldn't enter. So Loki transformed himself into a fly, and after having trouble finding even the tiniest of entrances, he managed to find a tiny hole at the gable-top, yet even here he had to squeeze through to enter.
Having made his way into Freyja's chambers, Loki looked around to be sure that no one was awake, and found that Freyja was asleep. He landed on her bed and noticed that she was wearing the necklace, the clasp turned downward. Loki turned into a flea and jumped onto Freyja's cheek and there bit her. Freyja stirred, turning about, and then fell asleep again. Loki removed his flea's shape and undid her collar, opened the bower, and returned to Odin.
The next morning Freyja woke and saw that the doors to her bower were open, yet unbroken, and that her precious necklace was gone. Freyja had an idea of who was responsible. She got dressed and went to Odin. She told Odin of the malice he had allowed against her and of the theft of her necklace, and that he should give her back her jewelry.
Odin said that, given how she obtained it, she would never get it back. That is, with one exception: she could have it back if she could make two kings, themselves ruling twenty kings each, battle one another, and cast a spell so that each time one of their numbers falls in battle, they will again spring up and fight again. And that this must go on eternally, unless a Christian man of a particular stature goes into the battle and smites them, only then will they stay dead. Freyja agreed.


== Post-Christianization and Scandinavian folkloreEdit ==

Although the Christianization of Scandinavia beheld a new institution in Scandinavia, the church, that sought to demonize the native gods, belief and reverence in the gods, including Freyja, remained into the modern period and melded into Scandinavian folklore. Britt-Mari Nasstrom comments that Freyja became a particular target under Christianization:

Freyja's erotic qualities became an easy target for the new religion, in which an asexual virgin was the ideal woman [...] Freyja is called "a whore" and "a harlot" by the holy men and missionaries, whereas many of her functions in the everyday lives of men and women, such as protecting the vegetation and supplying assistance in childbirth were transferred to the Virgin Mary.

However, Freyja did not disappear. In Iceland, Freyja was called upon for assistance by way of Icelandic magical staves as late as the 18th century, and as late as the 19th century, Freyja is recorded as retaining elements of her role as a fertility goddess among rural Swedes.
The Old Norse poem Thrymskvida (or its source) continued into Scandinavian folk song tradition, where it was euhemerized and otherwise transformed over time. In Iceland, the poem became known as Thrylur, whereas in Denmark the poem became Thor af Havsgaard and in Sweden it became Torvisan or Hammarhamtningen. A section of the Swedish Torvisan, in which Freyja has been transformed into "the fair" (den vana) Frojenborg, reads as follows:

In the province of Smaland, Sweden, an account is recorded connecting Freyja with sheet lightning in this respect. Writer Johan Alfred Goth recalled a Sunday in 1880 where men were walking in fields and looking at nearly ripened rye, where Mans in Karryd said: "Now Freyja is out watching if the rye is ripe". Along with this, Goth recalls another mention of Freyja in the countryside:

When as a boy I was visiting the old Proud-Katrina, I was afraid of lightning like all boys in those days. When the sheet lightning flared at the night, Katrina said: "Don't be afraid little child, it is only Freyja who is out making fire with steel and flintstone to see if the rye is ripe. She is kind to people and she is only doing it to be of service, she is not like Thor, he slays both people and livestock, when he is in the mood" [...] I later heard several old folks talk of the same thing in the same way.

In Varend, Sweden, Freyja could also arrive at Christmas night and she used to shake the apple trees for the sake of a good harvest and consequently people left some apples in the trees for her sake. However, it was dangerous to leave the plough outdoors, because if Freyja sat on it, it would no longer be of any use.


== EponymsEdit ==

Several plants were named after Freyja, such as Freyja's tears and Freyja's hair (Polygala vulgaris), but during the process of Christianization, the name of the goddess was replaced with that of the Virgin Mary. In the pre-Christian period, the Orion constellation was called either Frigg's distaff or Freyja's distaff (Swedish Frejerock).
Place names in Norway and Sweden reflect devotion to the goddess, including the Norwegian place name Froihov (originally *Freyjuhof, literally "Freyja's hof") and Swedish place names such as Frovi (from *Freyjuve, literally "Freyja's ve"). In a survey of toponyms in Norway, M. Olsen tallies at least 20 to 30 location names compounded with Freyja. Three of these place names appear to derive from *Freyjuhof ('Freyja's hof'), whereas the goddess's name is frequently otherwise compounded with words for 'meadow' (such as -thveit, -land) and similar land formations. These toponyms are attested most commonly on the west coast though a high frequency is found in the southeast.
Place names containing Freyja are yet more numerous and varied in Sweden, where they are widely distributed. A particular concentration is recorded in Uppland, among which a number derive from the above-mentioned *Freyjuve and also *Freyjulundr ('Freyja's sacred grove'), place names that indicate public worship of Freyja. In addition, a variety of place names (such as Froal and Froale) have been seen as containing an element cognate to Gothic alhs and Old English ealh ("temple"), although these place names may be otherwise interpreted. In addition, Frejya appears as a compound element with a variety of words for geographic features such as fields, meadows, lakes, and natural objects such as rocks.
The Freyja name Horn appears in the Swedish place names Harnevi and Jarnevi, stemming from the reconstructed Old Norse place name *Hornar-ve (meaning "Horn's ve").


== Archaeological record and historic depictionsEdit ==
A 7th-century phalara found in a "warrior grave" in what is now Eschwege in northwestern Germany features a female figure with two large braids flanked by two "cat-like" beings and holding a staff-like object. This figure has been interpreted as Freyja. This image may be connected to various B-type bracteates, referred to as the Furstenberg-type, that may also depict the goddess; they "show a female figure, in a short skirt and double-looped hair, holding a stave or sceptre in her right hand and a double-cross feature in the left".
A 12th century depiction of a cloaked but otherwise nude woman riding a large cat appears on a wall in the Schleswig Cathedral in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany. Beside her is similarly a cloaked yet otherwise nude woman riding a distaff. Due to iconographic similarities to the literary record, these figures have been theorized as depictions of Freyja and Frigg respectively.


== TheoriesEdit ==


=== Relation to Frigg and other goddesses and figuresEdit ===
Due to numerous similarities, scholars have frequently connected Freyja with the goddess Frigg. The connection with Frigg and question of possible earlier identification of Freyja with Frigg in the Proto-Germanic period (Frigg and Freyja origin hypothesis) remains a matter of scholarly discourse. Regarding a Freyja-Frigg common origin hypothesis, scholar Stephan Grundy comments that "the problem of whether Frigg or Freyja may have been a single goddess originally is a difficult one, made more so by the scantiness of pre-Viking Age references to Germanic goddesses, and the diverse quality of the sources. The best that can be done is to survey the arguments for and against their identity, and to see how well each can be supported."
Like the name of the group of gods to which Freyja belongs, the Vanir, the name Freyja is not attested outside of Scandinavia, as opposed to the name of the goddess Frigg, who is attested as a goddess common among the Germanic peoples, and whose name is reconstructed as Proto-Germanic *Frijjo. Similar proof for the existence of a common Germanic goddess from which Freyja descends does not exist, but scholars have commented that this may simply be due to lack of evidence.
In the Poetic Edda poem Voluspa, a figure by the name of Gullveig is burnt three times yet is three times reborn. After her third rebirth, she is known as Heidr. This event is generally accepted as precipitating the AEsir-Vanir War. Starting with scholar Gabriel Turville-Petre, scholars such as Rudolf Simek, Andy Orchard, and John Lindow have theorized that Gullveig/Heidr is the same figure as Freyja, and that her involvement with the AEsir somehow led to the events of the AEsir-Vanir War.
Outside of theories connecting Freyja with the goddess Frigg, some scholars, such Hilda Ellis Davidson and Britt-Mari Nasstrom, have theorized that other goddesses in Norse mythology, such as Gefjon, Gerdr, and Skadi, may be forms of Freyja in different roles and/or ages.


=== Receiver of the slainEdit ===
Freyja and her afterlife field Folkvangr, where she receives half of the slain, has been theorized as connected to the valkyries. Scholar Britt-Mari Nasstrom points out the description in Gylfaginning where it is said of Freyja that "whenever she rides into battle she takes half of the slain," and interprets Folkvangr as "the field of the Warriors". Nasstrom notes that, just like Odin, Freyja receives slain heroes who have died on the battlefield, and that her house is Sessrumnir (which she translates as "filled with many seats"), a dwelling that Nasstrom posits likely fills the same function as Valhalla. Nasstrom comments that "still, we must ask why there are two heroic paradises in the Old Norse view of afterlife. It might possibly be a consequence of different forms of initiation of warriors, where one part seemed to have belonged to Odinn and the other to Freyja. These examples indicate that Freyja was a war-goddess, and she even appears as a valkyrie, literally 'the one who chooses the slain'."
Siegfried Andres Dobat comments that "in her mythological role as the chooser of half the fallen warriors for her death realm Folkvangr, the goddess Freyja, however, emerges as the mythological role model for the Valkyrjar  [sic] and the disir."


=== The "Oriental" hypothesisEdit ===
Gustav Neckel, writing in 1920, connects Freyja to the Phrygian goddess Cybele. According to Neckel, both goddesses can be interpreted as "fertility goddesses" and other potential resemblances have been noted. Some scholars have suggested that the image of Cybele subsequently influenced the iconography of Freyja, the lions drawing the former's chariot becoming large cats. These observation became an extremely common observation in works regarding Old Norse religion until at least the early 1990s. In her book-length study of scholarship on the topic of Freyja, Britt-Mari Nasstrom (1995) is highly critical of this deduction; Nasstrom says that "these 'parallels' are due to sheer ignorance about the characteristics of Cybele; scholars have not troubled to look into the resemblances and differences between the two goddesses, if any, in support for their arguments for a common origin."


== Modern influenceEdit ==

Into the modern period, Freyja was treated as a Scandinavian counterpart to the Roman Venus in, for example, Swedish literature, where the goddess may be associated with romantic love or, conversely, simply as a synonym for "lust and potency". In the 18th century, Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman referred to Stockholm prostitutes as "the children of Froja". In the 19th century, Britt-Mari Nasstrom observes, Swedish Romanticism focused less on Freyja's erotic qualities and more on the image of "the pining goddess, weeping for her husband".
Freyja is mentioned in the first stanza ("it is called old Denmark and it is Freja's hall") of the civil national anthem of Denmark, Der er et yndigt land, written by 19th century Danish poet Adam Gottlob Oehlenschlager in 1819. In addition, Oehlenschlager wrote a comedy entitled Freyjas alter (1818) and a poem Freais sal featuring the goddess.
The 19th century German composer Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle features Freia, the goddess Freyja combined with the apple-bearing goddess Idunn.
In late 19th century and early 20th century Northern Europe, Freyja was the subject of numerous works of art, including Freyja by H. E. Freund (statue, 1821-1822), Freja sokande sin make (painting, 1852) by Nils Blommer, Freyjas Aufnahme uner den Gottern (charcoal drawing, 1881), and Frigg; Freyja (drawing, 1883) by Carl Ehrenberg, Freyja (1901) by Carl Emil Doepler d. J., and Freyja and the Brisingamen by J. Doyle Penrose (painting, 1862-1932). Like other Norse goddesses, her name was applied widely in Scandinavia to, for example, "sweetmeats or to stout carthorses". Vanadis, one of Freyja's names, is the source of the name of the chemical element vanadium, so named because of its many colored compounds.
Starting in the early 1990s, derivatives of Freyja began to appear as a given name for girls. According to the Norwegian name database from the Central Statistics Bureau, around 500 women have Froya (the modern, Norwegian spelling of the goddess's name) as a first name in the country. There are several similar names that likely have the same origin, such as the more widespread Froydis.
Freyja is one of the incarnated goddesses in the New Zealand comedy/drama "The Almighty Johnsons". The part of "Agnetha/Freyja" is played by Alison Bruce


== See alsoEdit ==
List of Germanic deities
Frigg


== NotesEdit ==


== ReferencesEdit ==


== External linksEdit ==
 Media related to Freyja at Wikimedia Commons