The Frigg and Freyja common origin hypothesis holds that the

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

goddesses

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 ...

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 char ...

descend from a common

Proto-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 bran ...

figure, as suggested by the numerous similarities found between the two deities. Scholar

Stephan Grundy Stephan Scott Grundy (June 28, 1967 – September 29, 2021),
''The Wild Hunt'', October 5, 20 ...

comments that "the problem of whether Frigg or Freyja may have been a single goddess originally is a difficult one, made more so by the scantiness of pre-

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period The ...

references to

Germanic goddesses Germanic may refer to: * Germanic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group identified by their use of the Germanic languages ** List of ancient Germanic peoples and tribes * Germanic languages :* Proto-Germanic language, a reconstructed proto-language o ...

, and the diverse quality of the sources. The best that can be done is to survey the arguments for and against their identity, and to see how well each can be supported." The names ''Freyja'' and ''

Vanir In Norse mythology, the Vanir (; Old Norse: , singular Vanr ) are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods (the other being the Æsir) and are the namesake of the ...

'' (the group of gods to which Freyja belongs) are not attested outside of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

, as opposed to the name of the goddess ''

'', who is mentioned as ''Frīg'' in Old English and as ''Frīja'' in

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 High ...

, all stemming from

*''

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

''. Although there is no similar evidence for the existence of a common Germanic goddess from which ''Freyja'' descends, some scholars have argued that this may simply be due to the scarcity of records outside of the North Germanic tradition.

Etymology

It has also been suggested that the names ''Freyja'' and ''Frigg'' may stem from a common linguistic source. This theory, however, is rejected by most linguists in the field, who interpret the name ''Frigg'' as related to the

verb ''*frijōn'' ('to love') and stemming from a

substantivized In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation is the use of a word that is not a noun (e.g., a verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun, or as the head of a noun phrase. This change in functional category can occur through morphological tra ...

feminine of the adjective *''frijaz'' ('free'), whereas ''Freyja'' is regarded as descending from a feminine form of *''frawjōn'' ('lord'). On the other hand, the names ''Freyja'' ('lady, mistress') and ''

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 ...

'' ('lord') are

cognates In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...

stemming from the common root *''frawjōn'', which does not necessarily imply further relation.

Common mythological traits

Both Frigg and Freyja are associated with

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudin ...

, combining the aspects of a love goddess and a domestic goddess. In Sweden and some parts of Germany, the asterism of

Orion's Belt Orion's Belt or the Belt of Orion, also known as the Three Kings or Three Sisters, is an asterism in the constellation Orion. It consists of the three bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Looking for Orion's Belt is the easiest way to lo ...

is known as her

distaff A distaff (, , also called a rock"Rock." ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989.), is a tool used in spinning. It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly use ...

spindle Spindle may refer to: Textiles and manufacturing * Spindle (textiles), a straight spike to spin fibers into yarn * Spindle (tool), a rotating axis of a machine tool Biology * Common spindle and other species of shrubs and trees in genus '' Euony ...

.Edwardes and Spence (1913); in Swedish both ''Friggerock'' "Frigg's distaff" and ''Frejerock'' "Freyja's Distaff", see Schön, Ebbe. (2004). ''Asa-Tors hammare, Gudar och jättar i tro och tradition''. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo. p. 228.

Notes

References

* * *

Etymology

Common mythological traits

Notes

References

Further reading