*''Fraujaz'' or *''Frauwaz'' (

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old Hig ...

''frô'' for earlier ''frôjo, frouwo'',

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). I ...

''frao, frōio'',

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

''frauja'',

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

''frēa'',

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

''freyr''), feminine *''Frawjōn'' (OHG ''frouwa'', Old Saxon ''frūa'', Old English ''frōwe'', Goth. *''fraujō'',

''freyja'') is a

Common Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bra ...

honorific An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...

meaning "

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage ...

", "

lady The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Inf ...

", especially of

deities A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

. The epithet came to be used as a proper name of two separate deities in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern per ...

Freyr Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, and weather. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden an ...

and

Freyja In Norse paganism, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chario ...

Etymology

The term's etymology is ultimately from a

PIE A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweete ...

''*pro-w-(y)o-s'', containing ''*pro-'' "in front" (c.f. '' first'', ''

Fürst ' (, female form ', plural '; from Old High German ', "the first", a translation of the Latin ') is a German word for a ruler and is also a princely title. ' were, since the Middle Ages, members of the highest nobility who ruled over states of ...

'' and Sanskrit ''

purohita Purohita ( sa, पुरोहित), in the Hindu context, means ''chaplain'' or ''family priest'' within the Vedic priesthood. In Thailand and Cambodia, it refers to the royal chaplains. Etymology The word ''purohita'' derives from the ...

'' "high priest", lit. "placed foremost or in front"). Variants indicate ''n''-stems ''*fraujan-'', ''*frōwōn-''. The feminine *''frawjōn'' "lady, ''domina''" in Old English is attested only in a single isolated occurrence as ''frēo'' "woman" in the translation of the fragmentary

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

'' poem, in the alliterating phrase ''frēo fægroste'' "fairest of women". The stem was confused from early times with ''* frīj-'', which has variants ''frēo-, frīo-, frēa-'' (a contraction of ''*īj-'' and a following back vowel) beside a less frequent ''frīg-'' (/fri:j-/), by development of a glide between ''ī'' and a following front vowel. The two forms would originally have figured in complementary distribution within the same paradigm (e.g. masculine nominative singular ''frēo'', masculine genitive singular ''frīges''), but in attested Old English analogical forms are already present and the distribution is no longer complementary

Direct use

In both Old Norse and Old High German the female epithet became a female honorific "

", in German ''

Frau ''Honorifics'' are words that connote esteem or respect when used in addressing or referring to a person. In the German language, honorifics distinguish people by age, sex, profession, academic achievement, and rank. In the past, a distinction was ...

'' further weakened to the standard address "Mrs." and further to the normal word for "

woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

", replacing earlier ''wîp'' (English ''

wife A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...

'') and ''qinô'' (English ''

queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

'') "woman". Just like Norse ''Freyja'' is usually interpreted as a hypostasis of ''*

Frijjō ''*Frijjō'' ("Frigg-Frija") is the reconstructed name or epithet of a hypothetical Common Germanic love goddess, the most prominent female member of the ''* Ansiwiz'' (gods), and often identified as the spouse of the chief god, *''Wōdanaz'' (' ...

'' (

Frigg Frigg (; Old Norse: ) is a goddess, one of the Æsir, in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about her, she is associated with marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance and motherhood, and dwells in the wet ...

), Norse ''Freyr'' is associated with '' Ingwaz'' (

Yngvi Old Norse Yngvi , Old High German Ing/Ingwi and Old English Ingƿine are names that relate to a theonym which appears to have been the older name for the god Freyr. Proto-Germanic *Ingwaz was the legendary ancestor of the Ingaevones, or more acc ...

) based on the Ynglingasaga which names ''Yngvi-Freyr'' as the ancestor of the

kings of Sweden This is a list of Swedish kings, queens, regents and viceroys of the Kalmar Union. History The earliest record of what is generally considered to be a Swedish king appears in Tacitus' work ''Germania'', c. 100 AD (the king of the Suiones). Howe ...

, which as Common Germanic ''*Ingwia-fraujaz'' would have designated the "lord of the Ingvaeones. The epithet came to be used as the proper name of two separate deities in

and

. Both Freyr and Freyja are represented zoomorphically by the pig: Freyr has '' Gullinbursti'' ("golden bristles") while Freyja has ''

Hildisvíni Hildisvíni (Old Norse: , “battle swine”) is Freyja's boar In Norse mythology. The story of Hildisvíni appears in Hyndluljóð, an Old Norse poem found in Flateyjarbok but often considered a part of the Poetic Edda. In the poem, Freyja is ...

'' has ("battle-pig"), and one of Freyja's many names is ''Syr'', i.e. "sow". For Old Norse, Snorri says that ''freyja'' is a ''tignarnafn'' (name of honour) derived from the goddess, that grand ladies, ''rîkiskonur'', are ''freyjur''. The goddess should be in Swed. ''Fröa'', Dan. ''Frøe''; the Swed. folk-song of Thor's hammer calls Freyja ''Froijenborg'' (the Dan. ''Fridlefsborg''), a Danish one has already the foreign ''Fru''. The

Second Merseburg Charm The Merseburg charms or Merseburg incantations (german: die Merseburger Zaubersprüche) are two medieval magic spells, charms or incantations, written in Old High German. They are the only known examples of Germanic pagan belief preserved in t ...

may have ''Frûa'' = ''Frôwa'' as the proper name of the goddess, although the word in question is difficult to read. Although Saxo is silent about this goddess (and her father) scholars expect that he would have called her ''Fröa''. In

Germanic Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global populati ...

, the epithet became a name of

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

, translating , ' (Gothic ''frauja'', Old English ''frēa'', Old High German ''frô''). Grimm attaches significance to the avoidance and the grammatical peculiarities of the lexeme in OHG: :"the reference to a higher being is unmistakable, and in the Middle ages there still seems to hang about the compounds with ''vrôn'' something weird, unearthly, a sense of old sacredness; this may account for the rare occurrence and the early disappearance of the OHG. ''frô'', and even for the grammatical immobility of ''frôno''; it is as though an echo of heathenism could still be detected in them."

Other cognates and derivatives

Old Norse ''Freyr'' would correspond to a Gothic *''fráus'' or *''fravis'', instead of which Ulfila has ''fráuja'' (gen. ''fráujins'') to translate , pointing to a proto-form ''*frawjaz'' in North Germanic, but a ''*frauwaz'' in West Germanic and Gothic. In Old High German, the full form *''frouwo'' was already lost, the writers preferring '' truhtîn'' and '' hêrro'' "lord". In Old Low German it survives in the vocative, as ''frô mîn!'' "my lord!". The Heliand has ''frô mîn the gôdo'', ''waldand frô mîn'', ''drohtîn frô mîn'', besides ''frôho'' (gen. ''frôhon'') and ''frâho'' (gen. ''frâhon''). Old English ''freá'' (gen. ''freán'', for ''freâan'', ''freâwan'') is more common in

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meani ...

, as in ''freá ælmihtig'' (

Cædmon Cædmon (; ''fl. c.'' 657 – 684) is the earliest English poet whose name is known. A Northumbrian cowherd who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (now known as Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of St. Hilda, he w ...

1.9; 10.1), and it also forms compounds: ''âgendfreá'', ''aldorfreá'', ''folcfreá'' and even combines with ''dryhten'' (''freádryhten'', Cædm. 54.29, gen. ''freahdrihtnes'', Beowulf 1585, dat. ''freodryhtne'' 5150). Along with OHG ''frô'', there is also found an indeclinable adjective ''frôno'', which is placed before or after substantives, to impart the notion of lordly, high, and holy. For example in ''der frône bote'' "the angel of the Lord", conspicuously avoiding the genitive singular (*''frôin bote''). It survives in Modern German as ''Fron-'' in compounds such as ''Frondienst'' "

socage Socage () was one of the feudal duties and land tenure forms in the English feudal system. It eventually evolved into the freehold tenure called "free and common socage", which did not involve feudal duties. Farmers held land in exchange for cle ...

", whence also a verb ''frönen''. The word occurs in

given names A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

, such as Gothic Fráuja or Fráujila, OHG Frewilo, AS Wûscfreápossibly an old epithet of Woden; Grimm. "seems suitable to Wôden the god or lord of wishing" Old English ''freáwine'' in

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. ...

is an epithet of divine or god-loved heroes and kings, but Freáwine (Saxo's ''Frowinus'') is also attested as a personal name, reflected also as OHG ''Frôwin'', while the Edda has uses ''Freys vinr'' of

Sigurðr Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovin ...

and Saxo says of the Swedish heroes in the Bråvalla fight that they were ''Frö dei necessarii''. Skaldic fiörnis freyr, myrðifreyr'' ( Kormakssaga) means "hero" or "man". In the same way the Kormakssaga uses fem. ''freyja'' in the sense "woman, lady".

In popular culture

In Total War: Rome II, Fraujaz is one of the six principal deities of the

Suebi The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own name ...

, along with Thunaraz,

, Teiwaz,

Wōdanaz Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, ...

and Austo.

References

Sources

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of t ...

, '' Teutonic Mythology''
ch. 10
*

, ''

Deutsches Wörterbuch The ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (; "The German Dictionary"), abbreviated ''DWB'', is the largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the German language in existence.Fron
*
Frau