Freya

Freya is the most important goddess in Norse mythology, and she is far more than a goddess of love. She is beautiful and she knows it, but she also rides to battle, claims half of the dead for herself and practises a kind of magic that even he had to learn from her. Every giant in the stories wants to marry her, and none of them comes close.

What Freya is the goddess of

Love, desire, fertility and beauty come first, and people prayed to her in matters of the heart. She is also linked with gold and wealth. Alongside these she is a goddess of war and of death, and of seidr, a form of magic concerned with seeing and shaping the future.

One of the Vanir

Freya belongs to the Vanir, the family of gods associated with fertility and prosperity. She is the daughter of the sea god Njord and the sister of Frey. The three of them came to live in Asgard when the war between the Vanir and the Aesir ended in an exchange of hostages. Her name is a title that means lady, just as her brother's means lord.

Half of the dead

Most people know that warriors who die in battle go to Odin's hall, Valhalla. Fewer know that only half of them do. According to the old poems, Freya chooses half of the slain each day and takes them to her own field, Folkvang, where her hall stands. The sources do not say how the choice is made, only that the dead are shared between the two of them.

Cats, a boar and a cloak of feathers

Freya travels in a chariot pulled by two cats, which has made her the favourite goddess of cat owners ever since. She also rides a boar with golden bristles named Hildisvini, which means battle swine. Her most useful possession is a cloak of falcon feathers that turns the wearer into a bird. She lends it out more than once, usually to Loki, when the gods need something fetched from the land of the giants.

The necklace Brisingamen

Freya owns the most famous piece of jewellery in the myths, a necklace or collar called Brisingamen, made by dwarves. When the giant Thrym demands her as his bride in exchange for Thor's stolen hammer, she is so angry that the halls of the gods shake and the necklace bursts from her neck. Thor ends up borrowing it, along with a wedding dress, to go in her place. The full story is in our guide to Thor.

Tears of gold

Freya's husband is a shadowy figure named Od, who went away on long journeys and did not return. She wandered the world looking for him under many different names, and the tears she wept for him turned to red gold. For that reason Norse poets called gold Freya's tears. She has a daughter named Hnoss, a word that means treasure.

The magic of seidr

Seidr was a kind of sorcery practised mostly by women, who travelled from farm to farm and were paid to foretell the future. Freya is said to have brought this art to the Aesir and to have taught it to Odin. The sagas describe such seeresses in some detail, with their staffs, their special seats and their songs, and graves containing iron staffs suggest that they were real and respected figures.

Freya and Frigg

Freya is easily confused with Frigg, the wife of Odin. Both are linked with love and marriage, both own a falcon cloak, and Freya's husband Od has a name that looks like a short form of Odin. Many scholars think the two goddesses grew from a single older figure. That overlap is why Friday is sometimes credited to Freya, although the English name comes from Frigg, as we explain in our guide to Norse gods and the days of the week.

Freya today

Freya was a goddess's name in the Viking age and not one given to children. That changed in modern times, and it has been among the most popular girls' names in England and Wales in recent years. You can find more names with a Norse past in our list of female Viking names.

Last reviewed 12 November 2026