Seiðr Loom

place

Fensalir

Frigg's hall, 'most glorious' in Snorri's words; there she wept for Baldr, and there Loki tricked her into naming the mistletoe.

Fensalir, "the fen-halls", is Frigg's home. Snorri names it as her estate and calls it "most glorious" Gylfaginning 35, and skalds could call Frigg "Mistress ... of Fensalir" Skáldskaparmál 19. Strikingly, it is missing from the list of divine halls in Grímnismál.

The hall matters in the story of Baldr's death. In Snorri's telling, Loki came "to Fensalir to Frigg" disguised as a woman and got her to say that one thing had not sworn to spare Baldr: the mistletoe growing west of Valhall Gylfaginning 49. Völuspá gives the other side: after Baldr's death, "in Fensalir did Frigg weep sore / For Valhall's need" Völuspá 34. That stanza is the only mention of Fensalir in the poems.

Why the queen of the gods lives in a marsh is never explained. Scholars have connected the watery name with Sökkvabekkr, the hall of Sága among the waves, and suggested the two goddesses may be one. That is an interpretation, not something the texts say.

See Baldr's dreams and death.

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 the foremost: she has that estate which is called Fensalir, and it is most glorious.
Gylfaginning 35 Snorri names Fensalir as Frigg's estate.
But in Fensalir did Frigg weep sore For Valhall's need: would you know yet more?
Völuspá 34 The only mention in the poems: Frigg weeping for Baldr's death.
He went to Fensalir to Frigg, and made himself into the likeness of a woman.
Gylfaginning 49 Loki visits Frigg's hall in disguise to learn Baldr's weakness.

Myths with Fensalir

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.

Related

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. 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. 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. Sökkvabekkr The hall of the goddess Sága, set among cool, murmuring waves, where she and Odin drink together every day from golden cups. 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. 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'.