Freyja is the most famous of the Norse deities of the fairer sex. She was associated with beauty and love. But this definition doesn’t begin to describe this complex goddess who was worshipped widely in the Viking Age.
Freyja was also associated with fertility and abundance, war and death, and magic and sorcery. In many of these areas, she parallels Odin the All-Father, and seems even more powerful than he is.
In retellings of Norse mythology, Freyja is often mentioned alongside the famous Aesir gods such as Thor and Odin as one of the most important deities. But unlike Odin and Thor, Freyja was not actually an Aesir. She was a member of a different tribe of gods called the Vanir but lived in Asgard among the Aesir following the Aesir-Vanir war.
According to legend, while the Aesir live in Asgard and have a culture organized around legal codes and kingship, the Vanir live in Vanaheim and are more closely linked to nature. They could be considered the hippies of the Norse cosmos.
Freyja, and her bother Freyr, were born among the Vanir. They are the children of Njord and his wife, who also happened to be his sister. Sibling marriage was a common practice among the Vanir, and Freyr and Freyja were also married.
The Aesir do not seem to have been able to accept this cultural practice, leading the two clans to war. While the sources suggest that the Vanir may actually have won, the two clans eventually decided on a truce. As part of the negotiations, hostages were exchanged, and Njord, Freyr, and Freyja were sent to live among the Aesir.
While the three Vanir were immediately accepted by the Aesir and counted among their number, the marriage between Freyr and Freyja was dissolved. Freyja was instead married to an Aesir god named Odr. The couple had two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi, who rivaled their mother in beauty.
The magic practiced in the Viking world was known as seidr. According to legend, the Volva witches that practiced seidr learned the art from Freyja. This type of magic, which was closely linked to divination, seems to have been considered a Vanir art.
This may be why Odin appointed Njord, Freyr, and Freyja as the priests and priestesses of ritual sacrifices when they arrived in Asgard. Their knowledge may have made them suitable for the role. However, some scholars have also suggested that one of the causes of the Aesir-Vanir war was disagreement over which gods should receive sacrifices from mankind. Therefore, this appointment may have been part of the truce agreement.
In either case, Freyja brought knowledge of the seidr magic with her to Asgard. It was more closely linked with her than her male kin because seidr was considered a feminine art. Among the Vikings, it was unmanly to practice seidr. Some women were Volva witches, while men were more likely to practice rune magic.
