This video really made me rethink how I interpret Frigga and Freya. It really makes sense that they were originally the same goddess, but then separated over time.
- the falcon cloak thing
- Freya has a backstory but Frigga doesn’t, so it’s probably the same story
- the similarity of their names (as explained by Crawford)
- Odr = Odin
- Valhalla and Folkvangr being the same place
I appreciate being able to look at the historical roots of what we know to understand deity. For now, I am thinking about these goddesses as sisters and separate deities altogether. It’s clear to me that deities change over time and I feel pretty ok about making distinctions about who they were then and who they are now.
I’m also pondering this idea that both goddesses are married to Odin. Perhaps Freya/Frigg married Odin as a part of the hostage exchange and then the goddesses grew and split from there. Alternatively, you could interpret them as sisters who both married Odin. Certainly Shiva and Vishnu have goddess-wives with many faces, so why can’t Freya/Frigg (or Freya and Frigg)? (One day, there should be a myth about a goddess with multiple husbands, rather than a god with multiple wives.)
I had a lot of feelings about this topic last night, so before bed, I wrote a poem:
A single perfect step towards you
is all the Goddess needs
to teach you. Praise be.
A Long Hall Bench 