Freyja

   In Nordic myth one of the Asynjor and wife of Odin and mother of Hnossa. She appears to have been originally a moon goddess and to have travelled in a chariot drawn by two cats, and also to have been priestess of a clan having a hawk totem. This element of confusion may have arisen from the fact that by the time she was taken over by the Aesir her cult was so ancient that it had already acquired certain portions of other cults. She lived in Folkvangr, and received half the dead slain in battle.

   Her marriage to Odin was a purely mythological one. Her personality tended to become merged with that of Frigg, who may well have been a different entity. In the later stages of Scandinavian religion she was the goddess of love, of marriage, and of fertility. Her necklace Brisingamen and her feather cloak, Valhamr, are included in the treasures of the Aesir. On two occassions the giants tried to get her away from the Aesir; on the first she was demanded as payment for the building of the wall of Asgard and was saved by Loki, and on the second her hand in marriage was asked for by Thrym, and on this occasion she was saved by Loki and Thor. The word Freyja means lady in the same way as Freyr means lord. Freyja was also known as Gefjon, Horn, Mardoll, Menglad or Menglod, and Vanadis. Her partial supersession by Freyr was probably a stage in the replacing of the early fertility goddesses by gods.