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FeatherGoblinglimmer
September 8th, 2003, 11:32 AM
Hey, I am trying to find some more in depth info on Frigg, the norse goddess, wife of Odin. I have searched the whole of Mystic Wicks and i havn't really turned much up. I have been doing research both online and from books and i seem to have got to a point where I am reading the same thing over and over again. I shall share what i do know and if people can help me find more i would be grateful.

The chief of Aesir goddess. She is associated with love, marriage, and motherhood. She is the patron of marriage and motherhood, and the goddess of love and fertility. In that aspect she shows many similarities with Freya, of whom she possibly is a different form.

She has a reputation of knowing every person's destiny, but never unveils it.

She is frequently pictured as being very beautiful, wearing a girdle with household keys and weaving clouds on her spinning wheel. She sometimes dressed in the plumage of falcons and hawks, and she could also travel in the form of these birds.

She participated in the Asgardreid ( hunt) along with her husband.

Frigg's messenger is Gna, who rides through the sky on the horse Hofvarpnir. In some myths she was rumored to have had love affairs with Odin's brothers Ve and Vili.

With her husband, she was the mother of Bragi and Hermod.

After her son Balder began to have dreams that he was in great peril, Frigg traveled everywhere on Earth, asking everything in the world not to harm her son. Once these pledges were made, the gods began to amuse themselves by throwing weapons and shooting arrows at him for sport, since anything they hurled at him would simply be deflected. But Loki, the trickster-fire god, deceived Frigg into confiding that she had excepted a young sprig of mistletoe from taking the vow. Loki immediately went out and gathered a shaft of mistletoe, took it back to the assembly where the gods were still entertaining themselves by hurling things at Balder, and tricked the blind god Hod into hurling it at Balder, who was immediately killed.

Eir, a goddess of healing, was one of her constant companions.

She may have had an affair with Vei and Vili, Odin's brothers. .

She had three attendants, Hlin, Gna and Fulla, all of whom may have been the same deity in a different aspect as Frigg.

hlin.Her name means "protector", and Frigg gave her the duty to protect men and to console grieving mortals.

Fulla. She is the one who takes care of Frigg's coffer and shoes.

In a kenning(poem,) gold is said "Fulla's ribbon".

Her name is related to the adjective fullr that means full.

Volla is probably another spelling of Fulla.


Gna. She is the one who takes care of Frigg's matters around the world. Probably for this reason she owns a horse called Hofvarpnir, who is able to move through air and water.

This is what i have found. I am hoping there is a little more out there. I would like to find out some more info on her handmaidens,more about her hall in Asgard, and maybe even some pictures of Frigg and the handmaidens as so far I have seen none.

I hope people out there can help. :)

aefentid
September 8th, 2003, 01:50 PM
It looks like you've already found most of what's known about Frigg and her handmaids.You might want to read the Edda's ,particularly the Prose Edda.

You might want to go to yahho groups and find a group called asynjur under Asatru groups,they're devoted to scholarly discussion of Northern Goddesses and they have a huge archive.

www.anglo-saxon.demon.co.uk/goddesses/index.html (http://www.anglo-saxon.demon.co.uk/goddesses/index.html) This is an excellent website it has pages on many Northern Goddesses including primary source material on many of them.

Rick
September 8th, 2003, 06:58 PM
Frigg & Freya are not different aspects of the same Goddess; they are two distinct individuals. Frigg might be another aspect of Dame Holda, but personally I have my doubts on that one, too...

Frigg is associated with the Norns, probably due to her knowing the all men's wyrd, & because she was a weaver. In some accounts, she's also associated with the Valkyries, but I can't recall the connection at the moment.

Mnemosyne
September 8th, 2003, 08:24 PM
True, Frigg and Freyja are two distinct goddesses. However, it's possible though that both Frigg and Freyja derived from a single earth mother goddess. Also, the two goddesses do have some similarities. For example, some people think that Friday is named for Frigg while others think that it is for Freyja.

cydira
September 8th, 2003, 08:26 PM
Frigga's association with the Valkaries is due to the fact that she is mistress of Folkvang. It's basically another Valhalla. She and Odin agreed that each would host half of the fallen heros, thus her association with the Choosers of the Slain.


Now if I recall correctly, there's a whole host of myths surrounding the Wolf-father's pulling pranks on her. (I simply will not mention the Wolf-father by his proper name because nothing but chaos results from doing so, or at least that's been my results. :wtf )

Now, the little bit that I've been able to find out, Frigga was the leader of the Vanir. She was the one that brokered peace between them and the Aseir, which just happened to include her marriage to Odin. Freya was Frigga's right hand in the Vanir, along with Frey.

From what I can recall of the myths that I was raised with, Frigga is described as having a tiny bit of a greedy streak. The whole incident with the golden statue of Odin is where there's been reference to that. I suspect however, that it was a mistranslation. Aside from that, Frigga's connection with knowing the wyrd of all people is probably something that was lost with the myths surrounding the Vanir.

I do recall that the Vanir was closely attached to the elves, much like how the Aseir have a lot of dealings with the dwarves. But... I'm not sure because nothing has really survived pertaining to the myths attached to the Vanir. All that's really left states that there once was a war between the Vanir and the Aseir. This war was ended due to a hostage exchange and then a peace brokering. Now if I remember correctly, Freya was hostage to the Aseir and Odin was hostage to the Vanir. I'd be inclined to argue that Odin and Frigga probably fell in love with each other as Odin was being held hostage by the Vanir.

But... I'm incredibly rusty on my Teutonic and Viking myth. <shrugs>

cydira
September 8th, 2003, 08:35 PM
Dame Holda could possibly be a later manifestation of Aldhumba.

Though I know that some would be offended by this idea, let me explain. Aside from the obvous linguistic similarity of the names, Aldhumba was associated with the cold. In fact, she was the one that revealed the Yimir and Burri with the aid of the Sun. Granted, Aldhumba was a cow, but if the Gods can take on different forms as they desire, then perhaps Aldhumba was Dame Holda in a different form.

Both are associated with the cold and winter. They're both givers of nourishment and they reveal things.

I, however, am also very rusty on my myth. For which I know that my mother and grandmother will probably not forgive me. :blush

On the matter of whom Friday is named after, I think that you'd need to do a little more checking on that. I don't know if the name for the Teutonic counterpart of either of these goddesses is the same as the Nordic ones, which we've been using.

It is possible that the differences between the names is like those of Odin vs. Wotan or Thor vs. Donar. If we knew, then I think we could probably track down the origin of the word. :) I know that most of the English language is based in the Anglo-Saxon roots. The Angles and the Saxons didn't come from the same region as the Norse though. They were from the Germanic region and the region that was settled by the Germanic tribes in the southernmost portions of the area of Denmark and Norway, if I recall correctly.

But I'm now way off topic. :P I hope this helps, if not, I hope it doesnt' confuse you too much. :D

aefentid
September 8th, 2003, 10:06 PM
Frigg & Freya are not different aspects of the same Goddess; they are two distinct individuals. Frigg might be another aspect of Dame Holda, but personally I have my doubts on that one, too...

Frigg is associated with the Norns, probably due to her knowing the all men's wyrd, & because she was a weaver. In some accounts, she's also associated with the Valkyries, but I can't recall the connection at the moment.

I missed the Frigg and Freyja are aspects of the same goddess part of the first post,and I agree with what you said. Personally I see the gods as individual and separate from each other ,although and this is upg I do sometimes wonder if Idhun and Eostre might be the same goddess.

aefentid
September 8th, 2003, 10:20 PM
I think you might have Frigg and Freyja confused. Folkvangr is Freyja's hall. Frigg is not a Van .The Vanir hostages were Njord,Freyr,and Freyja.The Aesir hostages were Hoenir and Mimir.

Mnemosyne
September 8th, 2003, 10:57 PM
Correct. Frigg is not part of the Vanir. She's part of the Aesir whereas Freya is a Vanir. Like many of you have said, they are seperate deites, but many people often confuse them.

And as for the Friday debate, some people say that it's Freya's day. http://www.crowl.org/Lawrence/time/days.html#Friday

Some say that Friday is Frigg's day.
http://www.octavia.net/vikings/frigg.htm