FREY.
Frey, or Fro, as he was called in Germany, was the son of Niörd and
Nerthus, or of Niörd and Skadi, and was born in Vana-heim. He therefore
belonged to the race of the Vanas, the divinities of water and air, but
was warmly welcomed in Asgard when he came thither as hostage with his
father. As it was customary among the Northern nations to bestow some
valuable gift upon a child when he cut his first tooth, the Æsir gave
the infant Frey the beautiful realm of Alf-heim or Fairyland, the home
of all the Light Elves.
“Alf-heim the gods to Frey
Gave in days of yore
For a tooth gift.”
SÆMUND’S EDDA (Thorpe’s tr.).
[Sidenote: The god of fairyland.]
Here Frey, the god of the golden sunshine and the warm summer showers,
took up his abode, charmed with the company of the elves and fairies,
who implicitly obeyed his every order, and at a sign from him
flitted to and fro, doing all the good in their power, for they were
preëminently beneficent spirits.
[Illustration: FREY.]
Frey received from the gods a marvelous sword (an emblem of the
sunbeams), which had the power of fighting successfully, and of its own
accord, as soon as it was drawn from its sheath. Because he carried
this glittering weapon, Frey has sometimes been confounded with the
sword-god Tyr or Saxnot, although he wielded it principally against
the frost giants, whom he hated almost as much as did Thor.
“With a short-shafted hammer fights conquering Thor;
Frey’s own sword but an ell long is made.”
VIKING TALES OF THE NORTH (R. B. Anderson).
The dwarfs from Svart-alfa-heim gave Frey the golden-bristled boar
Gullin-bursti (the golden-bristled), a personification of the sun. The
radiant bristles of this animal were considered symbolical either of
the solar rays, of the golden grain, which at his bidding waved over
the harvest fields of Midgard, or of agriculture, for the boar (by
tearing up the ground with his sharp tusk) was supposed to have first
taught mankind how to plow.
“There was Frey, and sat
On the gold-bristled boar, who first, they say,
Plowed the brown earth, and made it green for Frey.”
LOVERS OF GUDRUN (William Morris).
Frey sometimes rode astride of this marvelous boar, whose celerity was
very great, and at other times harnessed him to his golden chariot,
which was said to contain the fruits and flowers which he lavishly
scattered abroad over the face of the earth.
Frey was, moreover, the proud possessor, not only of the dauntless
steed Blodug-hofi, which dashed through fire and water at his command,
but also of the magic ship Skidbladnir, a personification of the
clouds. This vessel, navigating over land and sea, was always wafted
along by favorable winds, and was so elastic that, while it could
assume large enough proportions to carry the gods, their steeds, and
all their equipments, it could also be folded up like a napkin and
thrust out of sight.
“Ivaldi’s sons
Went in days of old
Skidbladnir to form,
Of ships the best,
For the bright Frey,
Niörd’s benign son.”
LAY OF GRIMNIR (Thorpe’s tr.).
It is related in one of the lays of the Edda that Frey once ventured
to ascend Odin’s throne Hlidskialf, and from this exalted seat cast a
glance over all the wide earth. Gazing towards the frozen North, he saw
a beautiful young maiden enter the house of the frost giant Gymir, and
as she raised her hand to lift the latch her radiant beauty illuminated
sea and sky.
[Sidenote: The wooing of Gerda.]
A moment later, this lovely creature, whose name was Gerda, and who
is considered as a personification of the flashing Northern lights,
vanished within her father’s house, and Frey pensively wended his
way back to Alf-heim, his heart oppressed with longing to make this
fair maiden his wife. Being deeply in love, he was melancholy and
absent-minded in the extreme, and began to behave so strangely that his
father, Niörd, became greatly alarmed about his health, and bade his
favorite servant, Skirnir, discover the cause of this sudden change.
After much persuasion, Skirnir finally won from Frey an account of his
ascent of Hlidskialf, and of the fair vision he had seen. He confessed
his love and especially his utter despair, for as Gerda was the
daughter of Gymir and Angur-boda, and a relative of the murdered giant
Thiassi, he feared she would never view his suit with favor.
“In Gymer’s court I saw her move,
The maid who fires my breast with love;
Her snow-white arms and bosom fair
Shone lovely, kindling sea and air.
Dear is she to my wishes, more
Than e’er was maid to youth before;
But gods and elves, I wot it well,
Forbid that we together dwell.”
SKIRNER’S LAY (Herbert’s tr.).
Skirnir, however, consolingly replied that he could see no reason
why his master should take such a despondent view of the matter, and
proposed to go and woo the maiden in his name, providing Frey would
lend him his steed for the journey, and give him his glittering sword
in reward.
Overjoyed at the mere prospect of winning the beautiful Gerda, Frey
handed Skirnir the flashing sword, and bade him use his horse, ere he
resumed his interrupted day-dream; for ever since he had fallen in love
he had frequently indulged in revery. In his absorption he did not even
notice that Skirnir was still hovering near him, and did not perceive
him cunningly steal the reflection of his face from the surface of
the brook near which he was seated, and imprison it in his drinking
horn, intending “to pour it out in Gerda’s cup, and by its beauty
win the heart of the giantess for the lord” for whom he was about to
go a-wooing. Provided with this portrait, with eleven golden apples,
and with the magic ring Draupnir, Skirnir now rode off to Jötun-heim,
to fulfill his embassy. As soon as he came near Gymir’s dwelling he
heard the loud and persistent howling of his watch dogs, which were
personifications of the wintry winds. A shepherd, guarding his flock
in the vicinity, told him, in answer to his inquiry, that it would be
impossible for him to approach the house, on account of the flaming
barrier which surrounded it; but Skirnir, knowing that Blodug-hofi
would dash through any fire, merely set spurs to his steed, and, riding
up to the giant’s door, soon found himself ushered into the presence of
the lovely Gerda.
To induce this fair maiden to lend a favorable ear to his master’s
proposals, Skirnir showed her the purloined portrait, and proffered the
golden apples and magic ring, which she haughtily refused to accept,
declaring that her father had gold enough and to spare.
“I take not, I, that wondrous ring,
Though it from Balder’s pile you bring.
Gold lack not I, in Gymer’s bower;
Enough for me my father’s dower.”
SKIRNER’S LAY (Herbert’s tr.).
Indignant at her scorn, Skirnir now threatened to use his magic sword
to cut off her head; but as this threat did not in the least frighten
the maiden, and she calmly defied him, he had recourse to magic arts.
Cutting runes in his stick, he told her that unless she yielded ere the
spell was ended, she would be condemned either to eternal celibacy, or
to marry some hideous old frost giant whom she could never love.
Terrified into submission by the frightful description he gave of her
cheerless future in case she persisted in her refusal, Gerda finally
consented to become Frey’s wife, and dismissed Skirnir, promising to
meet her future spouse on the ninth night, in the land of Buri, the
green grove, where she would dispel his sadness and make him happy.
“Burri is hight the seat of love;
Nine nights elapsed, in that known grove
Shall brave Niorder’s gallant boy
From Gerda take the kiss of joy.”
SKIRNER’S LAY (Herbert’s tr.).
Delighted with his success, Skirnir hurried back to Alf-heim, where
Frey eagerly came to meet him, and insisted upon knowing the result of
his journey. When he learned that Gerda had consented to become his
wife, his face grew radiant with joy; but when Skirnir further informed
him that he would have to wait nine nights ere he could behold his
promised bride, he turned sadly away, declaring the time would appear
interminable.
“Long is one night, and longer twain;
But how for three endure my pain?
A month of rapture sooner flies
Than half one night of wishful sighs.”
SKIRNER’S LAY (Herbert’s tr.).
In spite of this loverlike despondency, however, the time of waiting
came to an end, and Frey joyfully hastened to the green grove, where he
met Gerda, who became his happy wife, and proudly sat upon his throne
beside him.
“Frey to wife had Gerd;
She was Gymir’s daughter,
From Jötuns sprung.”
SÆMUND’S EDDA (Thorpe’s tr.).
According to some mythologists, Gerda is not a personification of the
aurora borealis, but of the earth, which, hard, cold, and unyielding,
resists the spring-god’s proffers of adornment and fruitfulness (the
apples and ring), defies the flashing sunbeams (Frey’s sword), and only
consents to receive his kiss when it learns that it will else be doomed
to perpetual barrenness, or given over entirely into the power of the
giants (ice and snow). The nine nights of waiting are typical of the
nine winter months, at the end of which the earth becomes the bride of
the sun, in the groves where the trees are budding forth into leaf and
blossom.
Frey and Gerda, we are told, became the parents of a son called
Fiolnir, whose birth consoled Gerda for the loss of her brother Beli.
The latter had attacked Frey and had been slain by him, although the
sun-god, deprived of his matchless sword, had been obliged to defend
himself with a stag horn which he hastily snatched from the wall of his
dwelling.
Besides the faithful Skirnir, Frey had two other attendants, a
married couple, Beyggvir and Beyla, the personifications of mill
refuse and manure, which two ingredients, being used in agriculture
for fertilizing purposes, were therefore considered Frey’s faithful
servants, in spite of their unpleasing qualities.
[Sidenote: The historical Frey.]
Snorro-Sturleson, in his “Heimskringla,” or chronicle of the ancient
kings of Norway, states that Frey was an historical personage who bore
the name of Ingvi-Frey, and ruled in Upsala after the death of the
semi-historical Odin and Niörd. Under his reign the people enjoyed such
prosperity and peace that they declared their king must be a god. They
therefore began to invoke him as such, carrying their enthusiastic
admiration for him to such lengths that when he died the priests, not
daring to reveal the fact, laid him in a great mound instead of burning
his body, as had been customary until then. They then informed the
people that Frey--whose name was the Northern synonym for “master”--had
“gone into the mound,” an expression which eventually became the
Northern phrase for death.
Only three years later the people, who had continued paying their taxes
to the king by pouring the gold, silver, and copper coin into the mound
by three different openings, discovered that Frey was dead. As their
peace and prosperity had remained undisturbed, they decreed that his
corpse should never be burned, and thus inaugurated the custom of mound
burial, which in due time supplanted the funeral pyre in many places.
One of the three mounds near Gamla Upsala still bears this god’s name.
His statues were placed in the great temple there, and his name was
duly mentioned in all solemn oaths, of which the usual formula was, “So
help me Frey, Niörd, and the Almighty Asa” (Odin).
[Sidenote: Worship of Frey.]
No weapons were ever admitted in Frey’s temples, the most celebrated
of which were at Throndhjeim, and at Thvera in Iceland where oxen or
horses were offered up in sacrifice to him, and where a heavy gold
ring was dipped in the victim’s blood ere the above-mentioned oath was
solemnly taken upon it.
Frey’s statues, like those of all the other Northern divinities, were
roughly hewn blocks of wood, and the last of these sacred images seems
to have been destroyed by Olaf the Saint, who forcibly converted many
of his subjects. Besides being god of sunshine, fruitfulness, peace,
and prosperity, Frey was considered the patron of horses and horsemen,
and the deliverer of all captives.
“Frey is the best
Of all the chiefs
Among the gods.
He causes not tears
To maids or mothers:
His desire is to loosen the fetters
Of those enchained.”
NORSE MYTHOLOGY (R. B. Anderson).
[Sidenote: The Yule feast.]
One month of every year, the Yule month, or Thor’s month, was
considered sacred to Frey as well as to Thor, and began on the longest
night of the year, which bore the name of Mother Night. This month was
a time of feasting and rejoicing, for it heralded the return of the
sun. The festival was called Yule (wheel) because the sun was supposed
to resemble a wheel rapidly revolving across the sky. This resemblance
gave rise to a singular custom in England, Germany, and along the
banks of the Moselle. Until within late years, the people were wont to
assemble yearly upon a mountain, to set fire to a huge wooden wheel,
twined with straw, which, all ablaze, was then sent rolling down the
hill and plunged with a hiss into the water.
“Some others get a rotten Wheele, all worn and cast aside,
Which, covered round about with strawe and tow, they closely hide;
And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire light,
They hurle it down with violence, when darke appears the night;
Resembling much the sunne, that from the Heavens down should fal,
A strange and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearful to them all;
But they suppose their mischiefs are all likewise throwne to hell,
And that, from harmes and dangers now, in safetie here they dwell.”
NAOGEORGUS.
All the Northern races considered the Yule feast the greatest of the
year, and were wont to celebrate it with dance, feasting, and drinking,
each god being pledged by name. The missionaries, perceiving the
extreme popularity of this feast, thought best to encourage drinking to
the health of the Lord and his twelve apostles when they first began to
convert the Northern heathens. In honor of Frey, boar’s flesh was eaten
on this occasion. Crowned with laurel and rosemary, the animal’s head
was brought into the banquet hall with much ceremony--a custom long
after observed at Oxford, where the following lines were sung:
“Caput apri defero
Reddens laude Domino.
The boar’s head in hand bring I,
With garlands gay and rosemary.
I pray you all sing merrily
Qui estis in convivio.”
QUEEN’S COLLEGE CAROL, OXFORD.
The father of the family then laid his hand on this dish, which was
called “the boar of atonement,” swearing he would be faithful to his
family, and would fulfill all his obligations--an example which was
followed by all present, from the highest to the lowest. This dish
could be carved only by a man of unblemished reputation and tried
courage, for the boar’s head was a sacred emblem which was supposed
to inspire every one with fear. For that reason a boar’s head was
frequently used as ornament for the helmets of Northern kings and
heroes whose bravery was unquestioned.
[Sidenote: God of conjugal happiness.]
As Frey’s name of Fro is phonetically the same as the word used in
German for gladness, he was considered the patron of every joy, and was
invariably invoked by married couples who wished to live in harmony.
Those who succeeded in doing so for a certain length of time were
publicly rewarded by the gift of a piece of boar’s flesh, for which, in
later times, the English and Viennese substituted a flitch of bacon or
a ham.
“You shall swear, by custom of confession,
If ever you made nuptial transgression,
Be you either married man or wife:
If you have brawls or contentious strife;
Or otherwise, at bed or at board,
Offended each other in deed or word;
Or, since the parish clerk said Amen,
You wish’d yourselves unmarried again;
Or, in a twelvemonth and a day
Repented not in thought any way,
But continued true in thought and desire
As when you join’d hands in the quire.
If to these conditions, with all feare,
Of your own accord you will freely sweare,
A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive,
And bear it hence with love and good leave:
For this our custom at Dunmow well known--
Though the pleasure be ours, the bacon’s your own.”
BRAND’S POPULAR ANTIQUITIES.
At Dunmow, England, and in Vienna, Austria, this custom was kept up
very long indeed, the ham or flitch of bacon being hung over the city
gate, whence the successful candidate was expected to bring it down,
after he had satisfied the judges that he lived in peace with his
wife, but was not under petticoat rule. It is said that in Vienna
this ham once remained for a long time unclaimed until at last a
worthy burgher presented himself before the judges, bearing his wife’s
written affidavit that they had been married twelve years and had never
disagreed--a statement which was confirmed by all their neighbors. The
judges, satisfied with the proofs laid before them, told the candidate
that the prize was his, and that he only need climb the ladder placed
beneath it and bring it down. Rejoicing at having secured such a fine
ham, the man obeyed; but as he was about to reach upwards, he noticed
that the ham, exposed to the noonday sun, was beginning to melt, and
that a drop of fat threatened to fall upon and stain his Sunday coat.
Hastily beating a retreat, he pulled off his coat, jocosely remarking
that his wife would scold him roundly were he to stain it, a confession
which made the bystanders roar with laughter, and which cost him his
ham.
Another Yule-tide custom was the burning of a huge log, which had
to last all night or it was considered of very bad omen indeed. The
charred remains of this log were carefully collected, and treasured up
to set fire to the log of the following year.
“With the last yeeres brand
Light the new block, and
For good successe in his spending,
On your psaltries play,
That sweet luck may
Come while the log is a-tending.”
HESPERIDES (Herrick).
This festival was so popular in Scandinavia, where it was celebrated in
January, that King Olaf, seeing how dear it was to the Northern heart,
transferred most of its observances to Christmas day, thereby doing
much to reconcile the ignorant people to their change of religion.
As god of peace and prosperity, Frey is supposed to have reappeared
upon earth many times, and to have ruled the Swedes under the name
of Ingvi-Frey, whence his descendants were called Inglings. He also
governed the Danes under the name of Fridleef. In Denmark he is said to
have married the beautiful maiden Freygerda, whom he had rescued from
a dragon. By her he had a son named Frodi, who, in due time, succeeded
him as king.
This Frodi ruled Denmark in the days when there was “peace throughout
all the world,” that is to say, just at the time when Christ was born
in Bethlehem of Judea; and because all his subjects lived in amity, he
was generally known as Peace Frodi.
[Sidenote: How the sea became salt.]
This king once received from Hengi-kiaptr a pair of magic millstones,
called Grotti, which were so ponderous that none of his servants nor
even his strongest warriors could turn them. As Peace Frodi knew that
the mill was enchanted and would grind anything he wished, he was
very anxious indeed to set it to work, and, during a visit to Sweden,
saw and purchased as slaves the two giantesses Menia and Fenia, whose
powerful muscles and frames had attracted his attention.
On his return home, Peace Frodi led these women to the mill, and bade
them turn the grindstones and grind out gold, peace, and prosperity--a
wish which was immediately fulfilled. Cheerfully the women worked on,
hour after hour, until the king’s coffers were overflowing with gold
and his land with prosperity and peace.
“Let us grind riches to Frothi!
Let us grind him, happy
In plenty of substance,
On our gladdening Quern.”
GROTTA-SAVNGR (Longfellow’s tr.).
But when Menia and Fenia would fain have rested awhile, the king, whose
greed had been excited, bade them work on. In spite of their cries and
entreaties he forced them to labor hour after hour, allowing them only
as much time to rest as was required for the singing of a verse in a
song, until, exasperated by his cruelty, the giantesses resolved to
have their revenge. Once while Frodi slept they changed their song, and
grimly began to grind an armed host, instead of prosperity and peace.
By their spells they induced the Viking Mysinger to land with his
troops, surprise the Danes, who were wrapped in slumber, and slay them
all.
“An army must come
Hither forthwith,
And burn the town
For the prince.”
GROTTA-SAVNGR (Longfellow’s tr.).
This Viking then placed the magic millstones Grotti and the two
slaves on board his vessel, and bade the women grind for him, saying
that he wanted salt, as it was a very valuable staple of commerce
at that time. The women obeyed; the millstones went round, grinding
salt in abundance; but the Viking, as cruel as Frodi, kept the women
persistently at work, until they ground such an immense quantity of
salt that its weight sunk the ship and all on board.
The ponderous millstones sank straight down into the sea in the
Pentland Firth, or off the northwestern coast of Norway, making a
deep round hole. The waters, rushing into the vortex and gurgling in
the holes in the center of the stones, produced the great whirlpool,
which is known as the Maelstrom. As for the salt, it soon melted; but
such was the quantity ground by the giantesses that it tainted all the
waters of the sea, which have ever since been very salt indeed.