Frigg, Queen of Heaven

FRIGG was the direct daughter of Fjorgyn, the Goddess of Earth. She kept her own hall, called Fensalir. She was wife to Odin, All-Father, and is herself an All-Mother. Women prayed to her for children and prayed again for safe labour and delivery. Frigg gave birth to the perfectly good and beautiful Baldr, and tried to protect her son from death itself by requesting a pledge from every thing in the world not to harm him. She neglected however to ask the mistletoe, and it was with a small dart of this symbol of Winter resurrection that Baldr was felled. She is thus the Sorrowing Mother as well as the lusty bed companion. But when Frigg wept, her tears were of pure gold.

Gréta, an Icelandic corespondent, informs me that in Faroese (the language of the Faroe Islands) “‘friggja’ means to woo (as in ask someone for a wife) which makes sense, since Frigg is the protector of marriage”. Here we see the linkage between the Goddess of Marriage and marital delights.

As Woden/Odin gave his name to Wednesday, and Thunor/Thor to Thursday, so Frigg is remembered in Friday. Frige-daeg, Friday, is further equated with dies veneris, the day of Venus, the love-goddess so revered by the Romans.