"Frigg's/Frija's Day" or "Friggsdagur"
in Old Norse (Friday), represents harmony pleasure,
beauty and the arts.
This day belongs to Frigg/Frija the equal and consort to
Woden/Odin. She is also known
as the Queen of the Witches and is well known for her expertise with the distaff and
weaving. She is psychic, knows all and is Woden's/Odin's confidant and not to be
confused with Freyja!
The Norse warrior Goddess, Freyja, had the power to decide
who would die in battle and
which men and women should be brought together in fertility. She had the power of
giving or taking life. Her twin brother and consort is Freyr also a fertility god of
agriculture, peace, and prosperity of mankind.
Friday used to be the preferred day for couples to marry.
Fridays tend to be better days for
most people. There is anticipation of the "free weekend," if your work week goes that
way. Sometimes people equate Friday with "Free day." This is also a popular payday
followed by Saturday as the most popular day for payday. Also, many people anticipate
travel and pleasure of all kinds on this day!
The Rune to use on this day belongs to the God, Ing. Ing
was also a God of fertility making
sure that the crops grew and the harvest was successful. The Rune Ing aids in
relationships of romance, family, and friends. It assures harmony and pleasant
interactions. It can also be a rune indicating renewal and new growth.
Frigg, foremost
of the Norse Goddesses and wife of Odin, has been much ignored in the
revival of Norse heathenism. Magic and runes are very much the flavour of the century and non-
magically orientated deities are being left by the wayside. In a magical context Frigg falls into
shadow besides the sorceress goddess Freyja whose role as the fount of all magical knowledge
attracts rune enthusiasts like iron filings to a magnet.
The most familiar
of all the myths of Frigg is the story of Balder's death recorded in the
Icelandic Eddas. Learning her son is about to die, Frigg entreats all things on Earth to swear an
oath not to harm Balder but this is not successful. She overlooks the mistletoe, Balder is slain
and Frigg weeps for the loss of her son. This image of an incompetent snivelling female is not an
enticement to the worship of Frigg.
The whole situation
is also inconsistent with all the other surviving myths of the goddess. The
myth of Balder seems to be a very late addition to the Norse religion, probably added after the
conversion and inspired by the death and resurrection of Christ. The dubious nature of this
myth is confirmed by the mediaeval historian Saxo Grammaticus who recorded the story in
great detail, but with Balder's slayer as the hero who rescues his lover from Balder.
In the older myths
Frigg is the divine noble woman and housewife. The minor goddesses serve
her and run her errands. She is the embodiment of womanhood and following Germanic
tradition she is fiercely equal in authority to her husband. In no less than three of the myths she
pits her cunning against Odin, and on each occasion she gets her way.
Frigg is credited
with the ability to see the fate of all mankind, but in her wisdom she is also
silent, preventing others from meddling. She seems to act on this knowledge because she sends
out the goddess Hlin to protect her followers. One of her names is Saga (the 'sayer') suggesting
the role of a seeress, a talent apparently shared by Thor's wife Sif. Saga's name was recorded
in the late mediaeval period as an separate goddess, but her attributes make it clear that Frigg
and Saga are identical.
Frigg's natural
ability to see the future is a very marked contrast to Odin's ceaseless attempts to
uncover the future for himself by self sacrifice and questioning giants and wise spirits. Here the
traditional roles of the sexes in Germanic religion becomes clear. Men wield physical power,
while women take naturally to magical skills and are closer to the divine.
Role swapping between
the sexes is unusual and not without cost. Warrior women become
'unfeminine' and normally impossible to live with. Male sorcerers take on effeminate traits and
by the late Viking Age male magic was considered a perversion. Even Odin is accused of
effeminate behaviour in some of the myths. The goddesses represent this ancient and protected
female knowledge.
Freyja, being of
the Vanir household is concerned with magic rather than fate. She recites
charms and brews potions to mould the future to her own desires. Frigg following Aesir
tradition has the more straightforward knowledge of the future. She advises her followers to
prevent disaster befalling them.
Frigg is also the
heavenly spinner. The star constellation Orion is named 'Friggjar Rockr',
'Frigg's distaff', in her honour. In this role Frigg is again linked to fate as spinning is employed
by the Norns to dispense destiny to mankind. The spindle is a powerful symbol representing
female wisdom, virtue and industry. Viking age housewives spun and wove cloth which was
often the major source of income for their families, emphasising the power of women in pagan
tradition. In the hands of Frigg and the Norns, the spindle becomes a powerful weapon of
magic.
Freyja was also
hailed as a spinner, which again may have been considered an attribute of
magical ability. Every woman in the Dark Ages would have owned a spindle and used it at
every spare moment to provide the endless quantity of yarn required for weaving.
As a goddess of
women, Frigg is also patron of marriage and child birth. Very much the ideal
housewife, she comes across as a keeper of peace and an upholder of moral codes. The details
of Frigg's worship have been lost in the din of battles and family feuding. She is mentioned
occasionally in the sagas in marriage toasts and in prayers from barren wives but that is about it.
To fill in the rest of Frigg's cult we must turn to the records of German folklore, where the
housewife's patron has survived as Frau Holda.
The strength of
Frigg's cult in ancient Germany is attested by the tale of Frikka and the
Lombards. Frikka and Wotan were supporting opposite sides in a battle, but only Wotan, as
god of war, could grant them victory. Frikka tricked her husband by turning his bed and telling
the Lombard womenfolk to come to Wotan's beside at dawn with their hair drawn over their
faces. When Wotan awoke he exclaimed 'Who are these Long Beards?', thus renaming the
tribe and granting them his protection. The goddess's insight has served her again. No magic is
required, she simply has to exercise her powers as house keeper and move her husband's bed
to change the course of history!
The goddesses of
German folklore Holda, Percht and Berchte are very similar to Frigg. They
are especially concerned with spinning and domestic order. It is possible that their names were
cult names for Frigg which were substituted during the conversion to avoid persecution.
The existence of
Holda's counterpart Freke adds weight to this argument. Holda appears as a
noble woman or a witch wife and has many roles. Her duties as provider of fertility are
particularly evident, she wakens fruit trees in spring, grants fertility to women and protects the
spirits of unborn children. Any child that dies unchristened returns to her care. Holda also
controls the weather, snow is produced when she shakes her bed, fog is the smoke from her
fire and thunder is heard when she works her flax.
Even as a sky goddess
Holda retains the role of the housewife. Most of the lore concerning the
goddess shows her interest in womens' work. She travels around peering in windows,
rewarding the hardworking and punishing the idle. She teaches the skills of flax growing to men
and cloth making to women. She draws maidens to her hidden land to test their housekeeping
skills. Holda is highly protective of sacred holy days and punished woman who span during the
twelve days of Christmas (the time of Holda's greatest influence) and on Sundays.
Both Frigg and
Holda are patrons of woman, childbirth, housework, spinning and moral codes.
Holda's power over fertility is almost certainly shared by Frigg, but has been poorly recorded.
The early German tribes worshipped the Earth goddess. This role has been adapted to produce
Frigg, goddess of motherhood and female wisdom and Freyja, goddess of human love and
magic, both a far cry from a fertility goddess. The old Teutonic Earth goddess survives in the
Norse Eddas as Jord (Earth). She is titled as the first wife of Odin, Frigg's rival and the mother
of Thor.
It is interesting
that Frigg is shown as displacing the old Earth goddess and they may have very
strong connections. Spinning is not only a means to provide wealth and work magic, it is a
creative power. The fertility of a woman producing children, and her exclusive role in the
production of cloth was compared across Europe. The fates of Classical, Teutonic and Baltic
mythology all spin to produce life, thus life and fate are in the hands of women. Frigg's control
over nature is clearly shown when she asks all of creation to swear not to harm Balder.
Although the context
of the tale may be relatively recent Frigg's authority over the Earth is very
evident and is probably from an older source. The Eddas refer to both Frigg and Saga living in
low lying halls surrounded by lakes. Frigg's hall is called Fensalir 'marsh hall' and here she
spends each day with Odin talking and drinking from golden cups. Frigg's residence is
somewhat at odds with her role as queen of heaven and suggests a more ancient tradition of an
Earth Goddess living by her sacred lake.
Holda is also connected
to water. Women bathe in her sacred pool as a cure for infertility.
Spinners punished by Holda throw bobbins of yarn into streams to appease her. One
wonderful tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm (Frau Holda) recounts the fate of an unloved
daughter who span each day by a well outside her mother's cottage. She pricked her hand on
the spindle and dipped the spindle into the well to remove the blood. The spindle dropped from
her hand and disappeared from sight. The girl was horrified knowing her mother would be
furious and she jumped into the well to end her miserable life. At the bottom she found herself
in Holda's land where she was given tests to determine her kindness and skill in housekeeping.
Holda was impressed by the girl's industry and sent her back covered in gold.
This story also
survives in Scandinavia and such tests could easily have been attributed to Frigg.
The magical journey to meet the goddess is especially interesting. Blood sacrifice, the spindle as
a symbol of the goddess, and the fall into the well which can only be a metaphor for a ritual
induced trance to contact the divine!
Holda is a winter
goddess, honoured especially over Christmas. This period is also sacred to
the female protective spirits of Scandinavia known as the Disir, who were invoked on the first
day of winter. No mention is made of Frigg holding more power in the winter time, but her star
constellation is only clearly visible during the winter months.
Winters in the
north are hard and illness and starvation would have been a continuous worry.
The importance of the minor goddesses as protectors of the household would have been
enhanced by such fears. Trapped indoors by heavy snows with little farm work to distract them
women would have concentrated all their energies on spinning with Friggjar Rockr shining
brightly above them.
Prudence Jones
believes that the constellation Orion's Girdle represents a distaff, a long rod to
which the fibres were tied to keep them tidy for spinning. However, the mythological
significance of the distaff is minor compared to the spindle with which the spinner creates the
thread. The stars of Orion's Girdle are too closely spaced to imply a long staff. If the nearby
stars Rigel and Betelgeuse are included, the constellation resembles a spindle, with a whorl
formed along Orion's Girdle, and its upright shaft between the other two stars. This produces a
constellation of a very respectable size, equal in height to Orion.
There has been
a lot of confusion between the roles of Frigg and Freyja. They are often
merged in over zealous attempts to tidy up the myths. This attitude is very wrong for the Viking
period as there are several references to the goddesses being worshipped side by side.
The divine households,
the Aesir and Vanir, reflect very different views on life. The choice
between the two goddesses would have been a matter for personal preference. Myths were
shared between them, which has added to the confusion. Frigg's role of celestial spinner is
borrowed by Freyja. Freyja's cloak of falcon feathers is borrowed by Frigg. They both have an
equal claim on the ancient Earth Mother myths. This role sharing, so prevalent in the Norse
religion, caused the merging of pagan and Christian ideas during the conversion period, the
death and rebirth of the innocent god Balder, the apocalyptical monsters of Ragnarok, the
terrors of Hel, are all disturbingly Christian and products of the same merging of beliefs.
In conclusion,
Frigg is the patron of women. She gives guidance and knowledge to maidens as
they learn the skills required for adult life, inspiration and protection to mothers and
housewives, and peace to the elderly. As a goddess of fertility she is a patron of farmers. The
man who is taught to grow flax by Holda, is welcomed to her land when he reaches old age
after a long and prosperous life. She protects her worshipers by bending fate and her spinning
represents the life force of mankind.
1. Thor's Day
