Odin’s wives are Jord (Fjorgyn, Hlodyn), Rind and Frigg. Heaven is
married to earth. This we find in all mythologies (Uranos and Gaia, Zeus
and Demeter, etc.) Among the Norsemen also the ruler of heaven and earth
(Odin) enters into marriage relations with his own handiwork. This
relation is expressed in three ways: Odin is married to Jord, to Frigg,
and to Rind. Jord is the original, uninhabited earth, or the earth
without reference to man; Frigg is the inhabited, cultivated earth, the
abode of man, and Rind is the earth when it has again become unfruitful,
when the white flakes of winter have covered its crust; it is in this
latter condition that she long resists the loving embraces of her
husband. These three relations are expressed still more clearly by their
children. With Jord Odin begets Thor, with Frigg Balder, and with Rind
Vale. Jord is the Greek Gaia, Frigg is Demeter, but the fortunate Greeks
had no goddess corresponding to Rind; they knew not the severe Norse
winter.
Jord is sometimes called Fjorgyn and Hlodyn, but neither of these names
occur many times in the Eddas. There are only found occasional allusions
to her, such as the flesh of Ymer, the daughter of Annar, sister of Dag,
mother of Thor, etc.
Frigg is the daughter of Fjorgyn and the first among the goddesses, the
queen of the asas and asynjes. Odin is her dearly beloved husband. She
sits with him in Hlidskjalf and looks out upon all the worlds, and for
the death of their son, the light Balder, they mourn together with all
nature. Frigg knows the fate of men, but she never says or prophesies
anything about it herself. She possesses a falcon-disguise, which Loke
once borrowed of her. She possesses a magnificent mansion Fensal, where
she sat weeping over Valhal’s misfortune after the death of Balder. It
is not certain whether Friday is named after Frigg or Freyja or after
Frey, but the probabilities are that it is Freyja’s day (_dies
Veneris_). While Frigg and Freyja are by many authors confounded, they
are nevertheless wholly different characters. Frigg is _asa_queen,
Freyja is _vana_dis. Frigg is a _mother’s_ love; Freyja is the love of
the _youth_ or _maiden_. The asas are land deities, the vans are
divinities of the water. The vana-goddess Freyja represents the surging,
billowy, unsettled love; the asynje Frigg represents love in its nobler
and more constant form.