FREYA

And Freya came nigh, with golden tears;

The loveliest Goddess she in heaven, by all

Most honour'd after Frigg, Odin's wife.

Her long ago the wandering Odur took

To mate, but left her to roam distant lands;

Since then she seeks him, and weeps tears of gold.

Names she hath many; Vanadis on earth

They call her, Freya is her name in heaven.

Matthew Arnold [Baldur Dead]

Freya simply means "Lady" or " Mistress". She is the sister of Frey ["Lord"] and the daughter of Njord and Nerthus, descended from a race of elder gods called the Vanir; she is known as Vanadis, the goddess of the Vanas, or as Vanabride. She gave her name to the sixth day of the week, Friday. She is usually depicted in a flowing gown, and sometimes a feathered cloak and shining jewelled necklace.

When she reached Asgard, the gods were enchanted by her beauty, and bestowed upon her the realm of Folkvang ['Field of Folk']. As Valfreya she is Queen of the Valkyries, also called Freya of the Black Swordhand, and chooses half the slain on the battlefield to dwell with her in her feasting hall Sessrumnir ['Rich in Seats']. Odin gets the half she leaves. As a battle goddess, she rides on a boar called Hildisvini ['Battle-Boar'], actually one of her mortal lovers, Ottar, and is depicted with breastplate, helmet, shield and spear. In her hall, where love songs are always sung, she entertains the fallen warriors, along with all pure maidens and the faithful wives of the men so that they might be reunited after death.

She is the goddess of love, and lends a favourable ear to the prayers of lovers. Love songs were always composed in her honour, and in Germany, her name became the verb which meant 'to woo'. Freya is a goddess of lust; Loki accused her of sleeping with all the gods in turn, and she seems to have bedded Odin and her brother Frey. She even mated with Loki in the form of a flea. She enjoys sexual freedom, taking her choice of lovers among gods and mortals at will.

She is married to the god Odur, who is a marvellous lover, and represents passion and the pleasures of sexual love. He also symbolises the summer sun. When he is with her, she is happy and content, but he once disappeared and she was forced to hunt for him in a story reminiscent of the search of Demeter for Persephone, and Ishtar for Tammuz. Freya wept tears of gold and amber as she wandered around the world seeking news of his whereabouts. Without the god and goddess, icy winter gripped the earth. Eventually she found Odur beneath a myrtle tree in the southern lands. They were reunited and Freya became as happy as a bride, which is why brides in the northern lands wear myrtle in preference to orange blossom. As they journeyed home, the grass grew green again, the flowers blossomed and nature rejoiced.

As a goddess of fertility and fruitfulness, she sometimes joins her brother Frey in his chariot, which is drawn by a golden boar. Together they scatter flowers and fruits to humankind.

Her prize possession is her necklace Brisingamen [the Norse word for the Milky Way], which she bought from four dwarves at the price of four nights of her love. The four dwarfs represented the four directions, north, south, east and west, and the four elements earth, fire, air and water, drawn together by Freya into her circle. The necklace has been the emblem of earth and sky goddesses since the earliest times. It recalls the goddess Frigg's bejewelled spinning wheel, which symbolises the revolving stars, leading some to think that Frigg and Freya may be aspects of the same goddess, though while Frigg is the goddess of marriage, Freya is the goddess of sexual love. Orion's belt was sometimes called "Freya's Distaff".

Freya is a goddess of riches. When her tears fall on land, they fall as golden droplets, when they fall in the sea, they become pieces of amber. Her daughters are Gersemi ['Jewel'] and Hnoss ['Treasure'], of whom it is said that she "Is so beautiful that whatever is valuable and lovely is named treasure after her."

Freya was also known as the goddess of magic and divination, skilled in a form of shamanic magic called seidhr, a way of travelling the Nine Worlds of the World Tree. This was a form of magic that belonged to the female Volva, or seeress, who travelled around from village to village, undertaking shamanic journeys to answer the questions of the villagers.

Disguised as Gullveig ["Gold-Drunkenness"] the witch, Freya once tried to cause trouble among the Aesir [the gods]. She was stabbed and burnt three times. Each time she rose from the flames and was eventually transformed into Heith ["the Glorious"]. This may be a metaphor for some gold refining process, but it also seems to represent a shamanic initiation that echoes the alchemist's desire to turn base metal into gold, and along with it, his base nature into spiritual gold. Freya also owned a feather cloak which she could use to fly between the worlds. She used it when she went in search of her husband, and lent it to the mischievous Loki on two occasions.

Freya drives a wagon drawn by two cats. After serving Freya for seven years, the cats are rewarded by being turned into witches. She is often depicted with cats played around her feet. With the coming of Christianity, Freya was demoted to an evil spirit, and the leader of the witches of the north. One story tells of how she appeared to a coven of twelve and gave them one of her cats to make the numbers up to thirteen.  Freya is an enchantress who travels the Nine Realms of the World Tree and leads the northern witches in their rites.

NB: This short article is not from my more comprehensive Goddess Encyclopaedia