The gate of the year

Statue reproducing the goddess Frejya on the Djurgården Bridge (Djurgårdsbron), in Stockholm, Sweden.
The goddess Frejya belonged, together with her brother Freyr, to the divine stock of the Vanir, opposed to that of the Æsir, the main group of Germanic gods. The Vanir, whose name was related to the Indo-European root *wen-, “to be inclined”, “to desire”, “to love”, from which derives also the Latin term Venus, were above all divinities of fertility, owners of a magic knowledge which allowed them to see into the future. The conflict opposing the Æsir and Vanir at the origins of the world took the form of a fight between two cosmic principles: the earth powers (represented by the Vanir) and the sky powers (personified by the Æsir). Freyja, whose name means “Lady”, was admitted among the Æsir because she brought them the knowledge of magical arts, the seiðr, a special kind of magic which permitted the goddess to see into the future and to do harm to hostile people, which seemed to entail a sort of spirit possession. Her dwelling was called Folkvangr, “field of the people” or “battle field”, because she gathered every day one half of those died in battle, while the other half pertained to Odin. But aside from these associations with the warrior world and the dead, Freyja was above all related with fertility, with love and with sexual desire. She shows how these aspects of reality were strictly interrelated in the thought of the ancient Germans. She was associated with animals characterized by prolificacy and intense sexual activity, like goats, boars and she-dogs. But her preferred animals were the cats: two of these animals pulled her cart, mainly because of the magical qualities attributed to them. However, their role recalls also the lions associated with the great female goddesses of Asia Minor, like Cybele, and emphasize Freyja’s function as fertility goddess. One of her name was Gefn, deriving from the verbal root for “to give”, with reference to her function as provider of wealth, fecundity and wellbeing (Polomé-Rowe 2005).
As a goddess of vegetation and giver of life, Freyja was invoked by women in childbirth. In mythology she was often desired by the giants. The giant Thrym, for example, after having stolen Thor’s hammer, asked, as the only condition for giving back the object, to have Freyja as his wife. Instead, it is Thor himself who went to the giant, disguised as a bride, and, as soon as he can seize again his invincible hammer, he killed him. The attempts, on the part of the giants, to subtract Freyja from the divine world could be interpreted as evidence of the fact that the goddess was not able, for a certain period, to exercise her function as provider of fertility. The tale seems to indicate that the goddess of fecundity, fallen during the winter, under the power of demons (represented by the giants who lived in a world of ice), could be retrieved at the beginning of springtime, to the benefit of humankind (Mastrelli 1971).

[Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djurg%C3%A5rdsbron]




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Statue reproducing the goddess Frejya on the Djurgården Bridge (Djurgårdsbron), in Stockholm, Sweden. The goddess Frejya belonged, together with her brother Freyr, to the divine stock of the Vanir, opposed to that of the Æsir, the main group of Germanic gods. The Vanir, whose name was related to the Indo-European root *wen-, “to be inclined”, “to desire”, “to love”, from which derives also the Latin term Venus, were above all divinities of fertility, owners of a magic knowledge which allowed them to see into the future. The conflict opposing the Æsir and Vanir at the origins of the world took the form of a fight between two cosmic principles: the earth powers (represented by the Vanir) and the sky powers (personified by the Æsir). Freyja, whose name means “Lady”, was admitted among the Æsir because she brought them the knowledge of magical arts, the seiðr, a special kind of magic which permitted the goddess to see into the future and to do harm to hostile people, which seemed to entail a sort of spirit possession. Her dwelling was called Folkvangr, “field of the people” or “battle field”, because she gathered every day one half of those died in battle, while the other half pertained to Odin. But aside from these associations with the warrior world and the dead, Freyja was above all related with fertility, with love and with sexual desire. She shows how these aspects of reality were strictly interrelated in the thought of the ancient Germans. She was associated with animals characterized by prolificacy and intense sexual activity, like goats, boars and she-dogs. But her preferred animals were the cats: two of these animals pulled her cart, mainly because of the magical qualities attributed to them. However, their role recalls also the lions associated with the great female goddesses of Asia Minor, like Cybele, and emphasize Freyja’s function as fertility goddess. One of her name was Gefn, deriving from the verbal root for “to give”, with reference to her function as provider of wealth, fecundity and wellbeing (Polomé-Rowe 2005). As a goddess of vegetation and giver of life, Freyja was invoked by women in childbirth. In mythology she was often desired by the giants. The giant Thrym, for example, after having stolen Thor’s hammer, asked, as the only condition for giving back the object, to have Freyja as his wife. Instead, it is Thor himself who went to the giant, disguised as a bride, and, as soon as he can seize again his invincible hammer, he killed him. The attempts, on the part of the giants, to subtract Freyja from the divine world could be interpreted as evidence of the fact that the goddess was not able, for a certain period, to exercise her function as provider of fertility. The tale seems to indicate that the goddess of fecundity, fallen during the winter, under the power of demons (represented by the giants who lived in a world of ice), could be retrieved at the beginning of springtime, to the benefit of humankind (Mastrelli 1971). [Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djurg%C3%A5rdsbron]