Freya’s Family Tree

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Relationships & Genealogy(18 connections)

About Freya

Family
  • Odr(spouse),Gersemi(child),Hnoss(child)Marriage

    Freya and Óðr are husband and wife, but Óðr wanders far from home on endless journeys. Freya searches the world for him, weeping tears of red gold in his absence. Their daughters are Hnoss and Gersemi, whose names both mean "treasure."

  • Njord(parent),Freyr(sibling)

    Njörðr fathered the twin Vanir deities Freyr and Freyja, who came with him to dwell among the Aesir as hostages after the Aesir-Vanir War.

    Lokasenna 36 implies Njörðr begat Freyr and Freyja with his own sister, a union permitted by Vanir custom. No surviving source names the mother.

Guards
  • Óttar is a mortal devotee of Freya who built a hörg (stone altar) and made frequent sacrifices to her. In return, Freya protects him and helps establish his noble lineage in the Hyndluljóð.

Rules over
  • Freya rules Fólkvangr, the 'field of the host,' where she receives half of all warriors slain in battle. Her hall Sessrúmnir stands within this realm.

Member of
  • The Æsir are the principal tribe of Norse gods who dwell in Asgard, including both native members and Vanir hostages received after the Æsir-Vanir War, as catalogued in Gylfaginning.

  • The Vanir, the gods of fertility and wealth, sent Njörðr, Freyr, and Freya to dwell among the Æsir as hostages after the Æsir-Vanir War.

Associated with
  • Freya obtained Brísingamen from four dwarf craftsmen, the Brísingar, each of whom demanded a night with her as the price for their share of the forging.

  • Heimdall recovered the Brísingamen from Loki for Freya after the trickster stole it. Heimdall and Loki fought as seals near Singasteinn in one of the earliest recorded conflicts between the two fated enemies.

  • Hildisvíni is Freya's battle boar, which she rides to the cave of Hyndla in the Hyndluljóð. The boar is actually Freya's protégé Óttar, whom she has disguised to learn his ancestry.

  • In the Hyndluljóð, Freya visits the giantess Hyndla to compel her to recite the genealogy of Óttar. Hyndla complies but accuses Freya of bringing her lover disguised as a boar.

  • Loki used Freya's falcon cloak to fly to Þjazi's hall in Jötunheim and rescue Iðunn and her apples of immortality, after Loki himself had engineered her abduction.

  • In the Lokasenna, Loki publicly accuses Freya of having lain with every god and elf in the hall, including her own brother — insults that Freya dismisses but that expose the tension between the trickster and the Vanir goddess.

  • Freya taught Odin the art of seiðr magic according to the Ynglinga saga. Despite seiðr being considered unmanly (ergi), Odin accepted this knowledge from her for the power it granted.

  • When Þrymr stole Mjölnir and demanded Freyja as his bride, Freyja refused so furiously that the halls of the Æsir shook. Thor then disguised himself as Freyja, veiled and adorned, and traveled to Þrymr’s hall to recover his hammer.

  • In the Þrymskviða, the giant Þrymr steals Thor's hammer and demands Freya as his bride in return. Freya refuses in such fury that the Brísingamen bursts from her neck, forcing Thor to disguise himself as the bride instead.

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