ORIGIN: Nordic [Icelandic] or Germanic.
TYPE: Mother Goddess
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: Viking period (circa CE 700) and earlier, until after Christianization (circal CE 1100).
SYNONYMS: Frija (Germanic)
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Various around Nordic region
ART REFERENCES: Stone carvings
LITERARY SOURCES: Icelandic codices: Prose; Edda (Snorri); Historia Danica (Saxo); inscriptions; place names.
INFORMATION: The senior of Aesir goddesses living in Asgard; consort of Othin and mother of Balder. Saxo implies that she had been the unfaithful spouse but generally she was revered as a regal consort and "queen of heaven". The Germanic version of her name Frija is the origin of Friday. She is though to have been closely concerned with childbirth and midwifery. She may also have headed a group of shadowy female deities to whom carved stones were often erected in pre-Christian Europe (Roman matrones) associated with fertility and protection of the household. Such stones are generally found in the Rhineland. A weeping goddess occasionally described as taking the shape of a falcon (see Freyja).