page_title: Freyja
section_title: Modern influence
hierarchical_section_title: Freyja / Modern influence
caption_attribution_description: English: The goddess Freia stands under a tree of apples with her cats by her feet. Note that Wagner's Freia merges the Norse goddesses Freyja and Iðunn. Illustration by Arthur Rackham (1867 - 1939) to Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold
context_page_description: In Norse mythology, Freyja is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr. Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, is accompanied by the boar Hildisvíni, and possesses a cloak of falcon feathers. By her husband Óðr, she is the mother of two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. Along with her brother Freyr, her father Njörðr, and her mother, she is a member of the Vanir. Stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Freyia, and Freja.
  Freyja rules over her heavenly field, Fólkvangr, where she receives half of those who die in battle. The other half go to the god Odin's hall, Valhalla. Within Fólkvangr lies her hall, Sessrúmnir. Freyja assists other deities by allowing them to use her feathered cloak, is invoked in matters of fertility and love, and is frequently sought after by powerful jötnar who wish to make her their wife. Freyja's husband, the god Óðr, is frequently absent. She cries tears of red gold for him, and searches for him under assumed names. Freyja has numerous names, including Gefn, Hörn, Mardöll, Sýr, Valfreyja, and Vanadís.
context_section_description: Into the modern period, Freyja was treated as a Scandinavian counterpart to the Roman Venus in, for example, Swedish literature, where the goddess may be associated with romantic love or, conversely, simply as a synonym for "lust and potency". In the 18th century, Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman referred to Stockholm prostitutes in his Fredman's Epistles as "the children of Fröja". In the 19th century, Britt-Mari Näsström observes, Swedish Romanticism focused less on Freyja's erotic qualities and more on the image of "the pining goddess, weeping for her husband".
  Freyja is mentioned in the first stanza ("it is called old Denmark and it is Freja's hall") of the civil national anthem of Denmark, Der er et yndigt land, written by 19th century Danish poet Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger in 1819. In addition, Oehlenschläger wrote a comedy entitled Freyjas alter (1818) and a poem Freais sal featuring the goddess.
  The 19th century German composer Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle features Freia, the goddess Freyja combined with the apple-bearing goddess Iðunn.
  In late 19th century and early 20th century Northern Europe, Freyja was the subject of numerous works of art, including Freyja by H. E. Freund (statue, 1821–1822), Freja sökande sin make (painting, 1852) by Nils Blommér, Freyjas Aufnahme uner den Göttern (charcoal drawing, 1881), and Frigg; Freyja (drawing, 1883) by Carl Ehrenberg (illustrator), Freyja (1901) by Carl Emil Doepler d. J., and Freyja and the Brisingamen by J. Doyle Penrose (painting, 1862–1932). Like other Norse goddesses, her name was applied widely in Scandinavia to, for example, "sweetmeats or to stout carthorses". Vanadís, one of Freyja's names, is the source of the name of the chemical element vanadium, so named because of its many colored compounds.
  Starting in the early 1990s, derivatives of Freyja began to appear as a given name for girls. According to the Norwegian name database from the Central Statistics Bureau, around 500 women are listed with the first name Frøya (the modern Norwegian spelling of the goddess's name) in the country. There are also several similar names, such as the first element of the dithematic personal name Frøydis.
  Freya is also referenced in God of War as a Vanir Goddess, the mother of the antagonist Norse god, Baldur. She was also known as the former wife of Odin, and Queen of Asgard, but is now currently known as the Witch of the Woods.
caption: Freia—a combination of Freyja and the goddess Iðunn—from Richard Wagner's opera Der Ring des Nibelungen as illustrated (1910) by Arthur Rackham
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