Freyr the origins and history
Like Thor, Freyr was associated with a plentiful annual harvest. The name Freyr stems from the same Proto-Germanic word as Freya, meaning ‘Lord’. Freyr is attested in many sources, including Runic inscriptions, the Prose and Poetic Edda’s as well as numerous written texts, e.g. from northern German Chronicist Adam of Bremen, who claimed to have witnessed to have witnessed rituals in regards to the veneration of Freyr at the Temple of Uppsala in Sweden:
‘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. The other, Woden—that is, the Furious—carries on war and imparts to man strength against his enemies. The third is Frikko, who bestows peace and pleasure on mortals. His likeness, too, they fashion with an immense phallus. Gesta Hammaburgensis 26 (Francis J. Tschahn, 2002 in ‘History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen’).
Norse God Freyr
The word Freyr appears at numerous sites throughout Scandinavia, in particular Norway and Sweden, often linked to local forests, homesteads and acreages. As such, it becomes apparent that Freyr’s function was that of a God that bestows prosperity and wealth. In the Prose Edda in the Gylfaginning, we learn that Freyr is a son of Njördr, who derives from the (female) Continental Germanic Nerthus; although the change of sex is still widely debated among scholars today, and Skaði who is a Jötunn (Jan De Fries, 1962) .
In a Skaldic Poem called the Húsdrápa, he is revered as ‘battle-bold’ and a leader of the people. Freyr meets Surtr during Ragnarök and is slain by Surtr’s sword. This is attested in the Völuspá of the Poetic Edda.
Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus mention that Germanic tribes tell that they ultimately descend from Freyr as their ancestor. He writes that ‘”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. To Mannus they assign three sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are called Ingaevones; those of the interior, Herminones; all the rest, Istaevones”.
