Freyr

The Old Norse name Freyr ('lord') is generally thought to descend from a Proto-Norse form reconstructed as *frawjaʀ, stemming from the Proto-Germanic noun *frawjaz ~ *fraw(j)ōn ('lord'), and cognate with Gothic frauja, Old English frēa, or Old High German frō, all meaning 'lord, master'.

[3] Recently, however, an etymology deriving the name of the god from a nominalized form of the Proto-Scandinavian adjective *fraiw(i)a- ('fruitful, generative') has also been proposed.

In this temple, entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor, occupies a throne in the middle of the chamber; Woden and Frikko have places on either side.

The significance of these gods is as follows: Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and lightning, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops.

Gylfaginning 24, EB's edition Njördr in Nóatún begot afterward two children: the son was called Freyr, and the daughter Freyja; they were fair of face and mighty.

En er hann leit í norðrætt, þá sá hann á einum bœ mikit hús ok fagrt, ok til þess húss gekk kona, ok er hon tók upp höndum ok lauk hurð fyrir sér þá lýsti af höndum hennar bæði í lopt ok á lög, ok allir heimar birtusk af henni.

Gylfaginning 37, EB's edition It chanced one day that Freyr had gone to Hlidskjálf, and gazed over all the world; but when he looked over into the northern region, he saw on an estate a house great and fair.

Snorri Sturluson starts his epic history of the kings of Norway with Ynglinga saga, a euhemerized account of the Norse gods.

Ynglinga saga 4, Schultz's edition Archived 31 December 2005 at Bibliotheca Alexandrina While Njord was with the Vanaland people he had taken his own sister in marriage, for that was allowed by their law; and their children were Frey and Freya.

Á hans dögum hófst Fróða friðr, þá var ok ár um öll lönd; kendu Svíar þat Frey.

Ynglinga saga 12, Schultz's edition Archived 31 December 2005 at Bibliotheca Alexandrina Frey took the kingdom after Njord, and was called drot by the Swedes, and they paid taxes to him.

Ynglinga saga 12, Laing's translation Þá er allir Svíar vissu, at Freyr var dauðr, en hélzt ár ok friðr, þá trúðu þeir, at svá mundi vera, meðan Freyr væri á Svíþjóð, ok vildu eigi brenna hann, ok kölluðu hann veraldar goð ok blótuðu mest til árs ok friðar alla ævi síðan.

Ynglinga saga 13, Schultz's edition Archived 31 December 2005 at Bibliotheca Alexandrina When it became known to the Swedes that Frey was dead, and yet peace and good seasons continued, they believed that it must be so as long as Frey remained in Sweden; and therefore they would not burn his remains, but called him the god of this world, and afterwards offered continually blood-sacrifices to him, principally for peace and good seasons.

Ynglinga saga 13, Laing's translation Freyr had a son named Fjölnir, who succeeds him as king and rules during the continuing period of peace and good seasons.

Frø quoque deorum satrapa sedem haud procul Upsala cepit, ubi veterem litationis morem tot gentibus ac saeculis usurpatum tristi infandoque piaculo mutavit.

Gesta Danorum 3, Olrik's edition There was also a viceroy of the gods, Frø, who took up residence not far from Uppsala and altered the ancient system of sacrifice practised for centuries among many peoples to a morbid and unspeakable form of expiation.

Gesta Danorum 1, Olrik's edition [I]n order to mollify the divinities he did indeed make a holy sacrifice of dark-coloured victims to the god Frø.

Mortuo autem Bemono, Starcatherus ab athletis Biarmensibus ob virtutem accitus, cum plurima apud eos memoratu digna edidisset facinora, Sueonum fines ingreditur.

Ubi cum filiis Frø septennio feriatus ab his tandem ad Haconem Daniae tyrannum se contulit, quod apud Upsalam sacrificiorum tempore constitutus effeminatos corporum motus scaenicosque mimorum plausus ac mollia nolarum crepitacula fastidiret.

Unde patet, quam remotum a lascivia animum habuerit, qui ne eius quidem spectator esse sustinuit.

Gesta Danorum 6, Olrik's edition After Bemoni's death Starkather, because of his valour, was summoned by the Biarmian champions and there performed many feats worthy of the tellings.

Then he entered Swedish territory where he spent seven years in a leisurely stay with the sons of Frø, after which he departed to join Haki, the lord of Denmark, for, living at Uppsala in the period of sacrifices, he had become disgusted with the womanish body movements, the clatter of actors on the stage and the soft tinkling of bells.

Gesta Danorum 6, Fisher's translation A strophe of the Anglo-Saxon rune poem (c. 1100) records that: This may refer to the origins of the worship of Ingui in the tribal areas that Tacitus mentions in his Germania as being populated by the Inguieonnic tribes.

Ingui is mentioned also in some later Anglo-Saxon literature under varying forms of his name, such as "For what doth Ingeld have to do with Christ" and the variants used in Beowulf to designate the kings as 'leader of the friends of Ing'.

The compound Ingui-Frea (OE) and Yngvi-Freyr (ON) likely refer to the connection between the god and the Germanic kings' role as priests during the sacrifices in the pagan period, as Frea and Freyr are titles meaning 'Lord'.

This is supported by Tacitus, who wrote about the Germans: "In their ancient songs, their only way of remembering or recording the past they celebrate an earth-born god Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their race, as their founders.

[16] A part of the Swedish Skog tapestry depicts three figures that have been interpreted as allusions to Odin, Thor, and Freyr,[17] but also as the three Scandinavian holy kings Canute, Eric and Olaf.

The figures coincide with 11th century descriptions of statue arrangements recorded by Adam of Bremen at the Temple at Uppsala and written accounts of the gods during the late Viking Age.

Small pieces of gold foil featuring engravings dating from the Migration Period into the early Viking Age (known as gullgubber) have been discovered in various locations in Scandinavia, at one site almost 2,500.

Scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson says that it has been suggested that the figures are taking part in a dance, and that they may have been connected with weddings, as well as linked to the Vanir group of gods, representing the notion of a divine marriage, such as in the Poetic Edda poem Skírnismál; the coming together of Gerðr and Freyr.