ORIGIN: Nordic [Germanic] or Swedish but extending throughout the Nordic region with lowest popularity in Iceland
TYPE: Fertility God
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: Viking period (circa CE 700) and earlier, until after Christianization (circal CE 1100).
SYNONYMS: None confirmed, but possibly including Frodi (Denmark); Yng or Ing; Lytir (Sweden)
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Uppsala (Sweden), Thrandheim (Norway) and various temples and shrines throughout the Nordic countries (None surviving)
ART REFERENCES: Stone carvings
LITERARY SOURCES: Icelandic codices: Prose; Edda (Snorri); Historia Danica (Saxo); Adam of Bremen; inscriptions; place names.
INFORMATION: One of the Vanir gods inhabiting Asgard, and concerned with the fertility, prosperity and peace of the world. The twin of Freyja and one of the children of Njord. Married to the giantess Gerd, a liaison interpreted by some as representing the marriage of a sky god with the earth resulting in the harvest. He was, according to the writer Adam of Bremen, represented in the cult temple at Uppsala by a dramatically ithyphallic statue. The Freyr cult was possibly accompanied by a sacred marriage and he was regarded as the progenitor of the royal Swedish Ynglinge dynasty. According to the Flateyjarbok (Icelandic), the statue of Freyr was carried around the countryside in a covered wagon with an attendant priestess to bless the seasons. Other festivals may have included a ritual drama in which male attendants dressed in effeminate costumes.
Freyr enjoys very ancient links with the boar, considered to possess protective powers, and he had a sacred animal with golden bristles called Gullinborsti. A sacred stable is described at Thrandheim, one of hte centers of a horse cult with which he was also strongly identified. Freyr is also associated with a ship cult based on the notion of a phantom vessel, Skidbladnir or Skioblaonir, large enough to hold all the gods but small enough to fold into man's pocket.