Seiðr Loom

Æsir

Frigg

Odin's wife and the foremost of the goddesses: she knows the fates of all but never speaks them, and her failed attempt to protect her son Baldr is the hinge of Norse myth.

FriggSpinning
FriggSpinning, John Charles Dollman (1909). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Frigg is Odin's wife and the first of the goddesses. Snorri calls her "the foremost" of the Ásynjur, with the glorious hall Fensalir Gylfaginning 35. Her defining trait is knowledge she does not use in speech: she "knows all the fates of men, though she speaks no prophecy" Gylfaginning 20. In Lokasenna, Freyja says the same: "The fate of all does Frigg know well, though herself she says it not" Lokasenna 29.

Wife of Odin

Frigg sits with Odin in Hliðskjálf, the seat from which the whole world can be seen Grímnismál, prose 2. The prose opening of Grímnismál shows her as his equal in cunning. The two have each fostered a boy; Odin boasts that his has become a king, and Frigg says that king is so stingy he tortures his guests. They wager, and Frigg sends her maid Fulla ahead to warn the king against a sorcerer, which leads to Odin being tortured between two fires Grímnismál, prose 2. In Vafþrúðnismál she tries to talk Odin out of visiting the giant, then wishes him a safe journey Vafþrúðnismál 2 Vafþrúðnismál 4.

Snorri gives her a household of goddesses: Fulla carries her casket and knows her secrets; Gná runs her errands; Hlín protects those Frigg wishes to save Gylfaginning 35. In Lokasenna Loki accuses her of sleeping with Odin's brothers Vili and Vé Lokasenna 26.

Mother of Baldr

Frigg's great story is the death of her son Baldr. When Baldr had ominous dreams, she took oaths from fire, water, metals, stones, trees, sickness, beasts, birds and poisons that they would not harm him Gylfaginning 49. Disguised as a woman, Loki asked her whether everything had sworn. She told him about one shoot west of Valhöll, the mistletoe, which seemed "too young to ask the oath of" Gylfaginning 49. It killed Baldr.

After his death she asked who would ride to Hel to ransom him, and promised her love and favour to the volunteer, Hermóðr Gylfaginning 49. Völuspá gives a briefer picture: Frigg weeping in Fensalir "for Valhall's need" Völuspá 34. At Ragnarök she suffers "another hurt", when Odin goes to fight the wolf Völuspá 53.

Loki's last taunt to her in Lokasenna is the cruellest: "Mine is the blame that Baldr no more thou seest ride home to the hall" Lokasenna 28.

Outside the Eddas

Snorri's Prologue makes her Frígídá, the human wife of a king named Vóden, gifted like him with second sight Prose Edda, Prologue. Paul the Deacon's history of the Lombards preserves a story in which Frea, Wodan's wife, tricks her husband into granting the Lombards victory, a close parallel to the wager in Grímnismál.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

Frigg is his wife, and she knows all the fates of men, though she speaks no prophecy
Gylfaginning 20 Snorri's description: she has foreknowledge but keeps it to herself.
The fate of all does Frigg know well, Though herself she says it not.
Lokasenna 29 Freyja says the same of Frigg in the poem Snorri quotes.
And Frigg took oaths to this purport, that fire and water should spare Baldr, likewise iron and metal of all kinds
Gylfaginning 49 Frigg makes everything swear not to harm Baldr, except the mistletoe.
But in Fensalir did Frigg weep sore For Valhall's need
Völuspá 34 Völuspá's one image of Frigg: weeping in her hall after Baldr's death.
Othin and Frigg sat in Hlithskjolf and looked over all the worlds.
Grímnismál, prose 2 Frigg shares Odin's high seat and matches wits with him in a wager over their foster-sons.
Call her Daughter of Fjörgynn, Wife of Odin, Mother of Baldr, Co-Wife of Jörd and Rindr and Gunnlöd and Grídr
Skáldskaparmál 19 Snorri's kennings list her family, and Odin's other partners.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Völuspá 53 calls Frigg 'Hlin' when Odin goes to fight the wolf; Snorri, quoting the same stanza, lists Hlín as a separate goddess who guards people Frigg wishes to protect (Gylfaginning 35).
  • Her father: Snorri says Fjörgvinn (Gylfaginning 9) or Fjörgynn (Skáldskaparmál 19); Bellows's Lokasenna 26 calls her 'Fjorgyn's wife', where the Old Norse word can also mean 'maiden' or 'daughter'. A Fjörgyn is also named as Thor's mother (Völuspá 56).
  • Whether Sága, who drinks daily with Odin at Sökkvabekkr (Grímnismál 7), is another name for Frigg, as some scholars think, or a separate goddess, as Snorri lists her (Gylfaginning 35).

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

English Friday is usually traced to Frīg, the Old English form of her name (Old High German Frīja); the overlap with Freyja in later folklore makes the link debated. Marvel's films call her Frigga, Thor's mother, which the Eddas do not: there Thor's mother is Jörð.

Myths with Frigg

Baldr's dreams and death Baldr dreams of his own death; Odin rides to Hel to question a dead seeress; and, in Snorri's telling, Loki puts a sprig of mistletoe into blind Höðr's hand. The gods lose their brightest member and the slide toward Ragnarök begins. Hermóðr's ride to Hel After Baldr's death Hermóðr rides Sleipnir nine nights down to Hel to ransom his brother. Hel agrees to let Baldr go if everything in the world weeps for him; one giantess in a cave will not. Loki's flyting at Ægir's feast Thrown out of the sea-giant Ægir's feast for killing a servant, Loki walks back in and insults every god and goddess in turn, until Thor comes home and threatens him with the hammer. Odin as Grímnir between the fires To win a wager with Frigg, Odin visits his foster-son King Geirröðr in disguise and is tortured between two fires for eight nights. Given a drink by the king's young son, he pours out a vision of the gods' halls and the world-tree, then reveals himself, and the king falls on his own sword. Odin's contest of wisdom with Vafþrúðnir Against Frigg's advice, Odin goes in disguise to the wisest of the giants and stakes his head on a contest of questions about the creation, the gods and the end of the world. He wins with a question only he can answer. Ragnarök: the doom of the gods The end of the Norse world as told in Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál and Snorri's Gylfaginning: winter and war, the wolf and the serpent loose, the gods killed one by one, and Surtr's fire over the earth. Thor in the hall of Geirröðr To save his own life Loki promises to bring Thor, unarmed, to the giant Geirröðr. A friendly giantess lends Thor a belt, gloves and staff; he survives a flooding river, a rising chair and a red-hot iron bar, and kills Geirröðr and his daughters.

Related

Odin Óðinn Chief of the Æsir: a one-eyed god of wisdom, poetry, magic, war and the dead, who gave an eye and hanged himself on a tree for knowledge, and who dies at Ragnarök. Baldr Odin and Frigg's son, the brightest and best-loved of the gods. His death by a mistletoe dart, thrown by his blind brother Höðr, is the first great loss on the road to Ragnarök. Fensalir Frigg's hall, 'most glorious' in Snorri's words; there she wept for Baldr, and there Loki tricked her into naming the mistletoe. Hlín In Snorri, a goddess who guards the people Frigg wishes to save; in Völuspá, Hlín seems to be another name for Frigg herself. Fulla Frigg's maidservant and confidante, who carries her mistress's coffer, minds her shoes and knows her secrets; poets called gold 'Fulla's snood'. Gná Frigg's messenger, who rides through sky and sea on the horse Hófvarpnir; some of the Vanir once saw her flying overhead. Sága A goddess who drinks with Odin every day from golden cups at Sökkvabekkr, a hall among cool waves; Snorri ranks her second among the Ásynjur. Loki The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök. Hliðskjálf Odin's high seat, from which he can see over all the worlds; Frigg shares it with him, and Freyr's one forbidden turn in it costs him his sword.