Freya- A warrior of love

         

                                              Freya- A warrior of love

Sister to Frey, god of Fairyland. A daughter to The almighty God of Summer, Niord, and to the goddess of winter Skadi. The most beautiful and best beloved of goddesses Freya Was the fair Northern goddess of beauty, passion, and naturally, love. She was the belle of Asgard and this golden-haired and blue-eyed goddess seemed to charm every god who encountered her.

As I  described Freya, who is also considered the goddess of beauty, an image must have formed in your mind. An image of a soft, pleasure-loving female who is charming but frail. I am here to tell you that's as far from the truth as it can get. The Ancient Northern races believed that Freya had very martial tastes and that as Valfreya she often led the battle maidens, Valkyrs to war. She was responsible for slaying more than half of the heroes on the battlefield. Because Freya wasn’t only a goddess of beauty and love, she was the Queen of Valkyrs. 

In Fact, Freya has been represented in Norse/Scandinavian mythology with a corselet and a helmet, shield, and spear.I believe this is open to many interpretations. I believe the fact that the goddess of love has been represented as a warrior and a very strong deity means that the Scandanavians at that time believed that Love was a symbol of strength. Today most people connect love with vulnerability, weakness, and the shattering of the heart. People believe love makes one frail. In fact upon knowing that Freya was the goddess of love most people get a visual of not a warrior but a soft and feeble woman. But Freya has been represented as a very strong goddess, which means that people believed that love was truly the most powerful force in the world and that anyone who has a grip on love can change the world. But at the same time, it can also be used as a lethal weapon.

“Love is the most powerful emotion, and that's what makes it most dangerous”

            -Sara Lance

                                             

Another thing I appreciate about Norse mythology is that it exhibits quite a few strong female characters. Valkyrs or battle maidens were daughters of mortal kings and maidens who were privileged to remain immortal and invulnerable. They have been pictured wearing silver and golden helmets and blood-red corselets and with glittering shields as spears and mettlesome white steeds. 

Freya has been invoked by people not only for success in love, prosperity but also for aid and protection. Freya was shown to be kind, giving, sweet, and caring but at the same time fierce, strong killer warrior who owned the battlefield. As a woman what I really appreciate is how albeit the fact that she was a character written in the olden times, Freya is shown as a complex, two-sided character and has a lot more to her than just beauty. 

She is the same warrior who took down armies with just the flick of her hand and has transported the chosen slain to Folkvang but at the same time she was ready to give up her life for her husband and to protect her kids.

At last, I would just like to end by saying Freya was indeed the goddess of love and fertility but remember she was also the goddess of Battle and Death. For she had both a good and a bad side.

Today, Freya is barely known to a few as with the coming of Christianity she was merely degraded to an image of a witch. But Freya will hold a special place in my heart for she is the warrior of love and one of the most dynamic female characters to have been written in a time so old and oppressive.