Freyr
Freyr was the Norse god of fertility, good harvests and peace, the god Snorri says it is good to call on “for fruitful seasons and peace”. His attributes are the golden boar Gullinbursti, the folding ship Skidbladnir and the sword he gave away for love, and the gold foils stamped with an embracing couple are often read as Freyr and his bride Gerd.
Meaning
Freyr, spelled Frey in English dictionaries and said fray (Dictionary.com), was one of the Vanir, the son of Njord and brother of Freyja. Store norske leksikon calls him the god of fertility, erotic love, peace and wealth, and the Danish encyclopedia Lex says he was the god of the growth of the fields and of the fertility of animals and people, called on for peace as well. In Snorri’s Prose Edda he rules over the rain, the shining of the sun and the fruit of the earth, and governs the prosperity of men. The National Museum of Denmark points out that Snorri’s book and the Eddic poems were both written by Christian writers at the start of the Middle Ages, so they show how Christians saw the gods as much as how the Vikings did. Freyr is worshipped today: Ásatrúarfélagið, Iceland’s Heathen religious association, dedicates its spring blót to Freyr and Freyja, and the Troth, an American Heathen organisation, writes that his great gift is ár ok friðr, “peace and plenty”.
Origin and history
The images are older than the books. Small stamped gold foils, guldgubber, 1–2 cm high and made between about 550 and 750, often show a man and a woman standing face to face, sometimes touching or embracing. Lex says some scholars read the pair as the wedding of Freyr and Gerd, while others see a betrothal or a wedding in general, and Store norske leksikon pictures one found at Vingrom in Norway. A bronze statuette from Rällinge in Södermanland, now in the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, shows a seated man with a long beard and an erect penis; Lex dates it to the 1000s and says its plainly phallic character is the reason it is read as Freyr. Both encyclopedias set it beside the account of the missionary Adam of Bremen, who wrote around 1070 that the temple at Uppsala held an image of Freyr with a great phallus, one of three gods there with Odin and Thor.
Place names show where he was worshipped. Lex finds his name most often in Sweden, above all around Lake Mälaren (Fröslunda, Frösvi), less often in Norway and only a little in Denmark (Frøsmose, Frøslund); Store norske leksikon adds Frøyshov and Frøysland in Norway.
The boar, the ship and the sword
Snorri gives Freyr three treasures. The dwarfs forged a boar “with mane and bristles of gold”, and it went to Freyr: it could run through air and water better than any horse, and no night was so dark that its bristles did not give light. At Baldr’s funeral Freyr drives his chariot with the boar, called Gold-Mane in Brodeur’s translation and Gullinborsti by the National Museum of Denmark. Lex suggests that the golden boar may be a poetic memory of the boar sacrificed in Freyr’s cult, and the museum asks whether Viking farmers sacrificed pigs to him. The ship Skidbladnir, made by the sons of Ivaldi, could be folded up and kept in a pouch when it was not in use, Store norske leksikon says. The sword fought by itself, and Freyr gave it away, so that he killed the giant Beli with a hart’s horn and, Lex says, will die fighting the fire giant Surt without it at Ragnarök.
Freyr and Gerd
His one long story is in the Eddic poem Skírnismál, Skirnismol in Bellows’s translation. Freyr sat in Odin’s seat Hlithskjolf, looked into Jotunheim, saw “a fair maiden” and fell into a love-sickness. She was Gerd, a giant’s daughter. His servant Skirnir goes to woo her and takes Freyr’s sword as his price, and in Lokasenna Loki throws the bargain back at Freyr: “The daughter of Gymir | with gold didst thou buy, And sold thy sword to boot.” The poem ends with Freyr counting the nights until they meet: “Long is one night, | longer are two.” Lex reports that historians of religion have seen in the myth a holy wedding of the sky god of fertility with Gerd as the power of growth in the earth, while other scholars read it as part of the endless struggle between gods and giants. The Troth notes that some Heathens today follow the courtship as a story cycle for the holidays from Yule to Ostara.
The best of the gods at the feast
In Lokasenna, after Loki has insulted Njord, Tyr answers for Freyr: “Of the heroes brave | is Freyr the best”, “He harms not maids | nor the wives of men, And the bound from their fetters he frees.” The Troth points out that the Skírnismál story, in which Gerd gives way only to curses, contradicts that praise.
Yngvi-Freyr and the kings of Uppsala
In Old Norse texts, the Troth notes, he is sometimes called Yngvi-Freyr or Ingunar-Freyr. Under the name Yngve-Frej, Lex says, Snorri’s Ynglinga saga makes him the ancestor of the Swedish royal house, the Ynglings. Store norske leksikon gives Ing, the name behind the rune ingwaz, as a Norse god’s name.
Freyr in Heathenry today
The Troth opens its page on him by saying that although he is sometimes described as a “fertility god”, he is far more than that. In Iceland, Ásatrúarfélagið holds Sigurblót on the first day of summer and dedicates this spring blót especially to Freyr and Freyja, the Vanir, gods of life and of the fertility of the earth. At its midwinter Jólablót the offering is made for a good year, for Freyr’s favour, for plenty and peace. The National Museum of Denmark describes modern believers drinking toasts to Njord and Freyr for prosperity and a good harvest.
Read next
- Next in Norse gods and their symbolsFreyjaFreyja was the foremost goddess of Norse myth, a goddess of love and fertility who also chose half of the slain for her hall and taught Odin the magic called seiðr. Her attributes are the necklace Brísingamen, a chariot drawn by two cats, a feather cloak for flying and the golden boar Hildisvini.
- The rune is named for Ing, a Norse god’s name; the Troth gives Yngvi and Ing among Freyr’s namesIngwazThe Elder Futhark rune for the “ng” sound. It is named for Ing, a god or hero whom the English rune poem places among the East Danes.
See also
Njord, Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr, Tyr.
Sources
- Frøy – i norrøn mytologi (Store norske leksikon), Ellen Næss, Store norske leksikon, whole article and picture captions
- Frej (Lex), Finn Stefánsson, Claus Jensen, Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon, whole article and picture caption
- Guldgubber (Lex), Sofie Laurine Albris, Margrethe Watt, Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon, whole article
- The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation), Henry Adams Bellows (trans.), 1923, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Project Gutenberg), Skirnismol, introductory prose and stanza 43; Lokasenna, stanzas 37 and 42
- The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation), Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (trans.), 1916, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Internet Archive), Gylfaginning, chapters XXIV and XXXVII; Skáldskaparmál (“The Poesy of Skalds”), chapter XXXV
- The Viking gods, National Museum of Denmark, Frey and Freyja
- The old religion, National Museum of Denmark, Written sources
- Freyr Yngve (The Troth), Our Troth, vol. 2 (edited for the web), The Troth, Summary; Yngve; The Tale of Freyr and Gerd
- Blót (Ásatrúarfélagið), Ásatrúarfélagið, Sigurblót; Jólablót
- Runer (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon, Runenavn (table of rune names)
- The old Nordic religion today, National Museum of Denmark, main text
- Frey (Dictionary.com), Dictionary.com, American entry
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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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