Norse Mythology: Freyja Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lady

The goddess's name translates to lady, the lady or mistress. Freyja is a Norse goddess of love, sex, sorcery, beauty, war and death. She is the female equivalent of the Norse god, Freyr, who was a Norse god of rain, sunshine, peace and fertility. Freyr is her brother and his name is an Old Norse word meaning lord.

"Frau", the modern German word for a married woman, is derived from "Freyja". The word Friday is also suggested to have come from "Freyja".

Answer: Njord

Spelled "Njǫrðr" in Old Norse, and also known as Njoerd, Njor or Njorth, Njord was a god of the wind, sea, fishing, agriculture and sailing. He had Freyja and Freyr with his sister, whose name is unknown.

Njord was part of the Vanir, a tribe/race of gods involved with wealth, trade and fertility. Tradition states that the Vanir handed Njord over as a hostage to a rival tribe, the Aesir, where he became the husband of a giant called Skadi. The marriage was unsuccessful as Njord had a preference to live by the sea, whereas Skadi was happier living in the mountains.

Answer: Necklace

Created by the dwarves, Brísingamen likely gets the "brísingr" part of its name from the Old Norse for amber or fire, suggesting that the necklace was gleaming; the "men" roughly means a neck-ring of precious metal. Also, "brísingr" could be referring to the Brísinga tribe of Norse mythology, leading to suggestions that dwarves who constructed this necklace belong to that tribe.

In a poem in the Poetic Edda named "Þrymskviða" (which can be anglicized to Thrymskvidha, Thrymskvitha, etc) Freyja becomes so enraged with Loki that her surroundings shake violently, to the point of the necklace breaking and falling from her neck. Thor later borrows this to impersonate Freyja.

The necklace is again mentioned in the poem "Húsdrápa" where Loki steals it from Freyja before disguising himself as a seal. Heimdall is enlisted by Freyja to help get the Brísingamen returned, and Heimdall also transforms into a seal to fight Loki for it.

The "Sörla þáttr", which was written in the 14th century by Christian priests, retells how Freyja came into the possession of Brísingamen. The retelling describes Freyja as a wanton concubine of Odin, who was willing to take part in group-sex with the dwarves in order to gain the necklace. Despite Loki accusing Freyja of promiscuity in earlier works, such as the "Lokasenna" from the Poetic Edda, she was not the only goddess whom he teasingly accused of this. The Sörla þáttr, however, actively accuses her of promiscuity, and is thought to be an attempt by Christianity to smear Freyja and Old Norse mythology's reputation.

Answer: Fólkvangr

Fólkvangr is in Ásgarðr (Asgard) or Vanaheimr, where half of all those who died in battle will spend the afterlife. The other half ascend to Valhǫll (Valhalla), the domain of Odin. "Grímnismál" is a poem from the Poetic Edda where Odin (disguised as Grímnir, the masked one) asserted to young Agnar that this is how those who die in battle will be housed in the afterlife.

Fólkvangr is also mentioned in the poem "Gylfaginning", also of the Poetic Edda, which states, "whenever she rides to battle she gets half of the slain, and the other half Odin."

Answer: Odr

Óðr (anglicized as Odr or Od) is often away from Freyja in order to explore the nine realms in Norse mythology. This upsets Freyja, who will look for him while crying tears of red gold. Due to the similarities between Óðinn (Odin) and Óðr, some scholars have speculated that they could be the same deity. Depending on how Odin's name is spelled and written, his name has different meanings, and one of these meanings is almost identical to the meaning of Óðr's name.

Similarly, Freyja has been described as possibly being the same Norse deity as Frigg.

Answer: Sessrúmnir

Old Norse for "seat room", Sessrúmnir is the hall in Fólkvangr, the field where Freyja hosts half of the dead who have died on the battlefield. The ship of the same name and the hall are mentioned in the "Gylfaginning" (Old Norse for "Deluding of Gylfi"), which is part of the Prose Edda.

Answer: Magic

Seidr, or "seiðr" is a form of Norse magic which was most commonly practiced around the Late Scandinavian Iron Age. Seidr is magic which is aimed at predicting and changing the future. Freyja was one of the Vanir, gods of wisdom, fertility and the telling of the future, which was where she accumulated the knowledge of seidr.

Answer: Pig

"Hildisvíni" is Old Norse for battle swine or battle boar. According to the poem "Hyndluljóð" (which is part of the Icelandic "Flateyjarbok", an ancient manuscript, but often considered a part of the Poetic Edda), Dáinn and Nabbi were the two dwarves that made Hildisvíni. Freyja's boar is described as golden-bristled or "gullinbursti", which explains why her brother, Freyr, has a boar named "Gullinbursti".

Freyja also rode a chariot pulled by two black or grey cats, Bygul and Trjegul. They are mentioned in both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. Thor found the cats after falling asleep while fishing one day. He awoke to a commotion, seeing Cat Bayun, a magical cat who had been left as a single father with two kittens. He asked Thor for help, who then gave the kittens to Freyja.

Answer: Hnoss and Gersemi

Hnoss and Gersemi are the daughters of Freyja and Odr. Snorri's Prose Edda from the 13th century is a surviving source that mentions them, as is Einarr Skúlason's 12th century description of Hnoss, with very little information surviving about the two daughters.

Answer: Thrym

In Norse mythology, Thrym (or "Þrymr") is a jötunn (a supernatural being from Jötunheimr). Thrym was infatuated with Freyja and was willing to steal Thor's hammer to blackmail the gods for Freyja's hand in marriage. He hides the hammer eight leagues under ground to prevent the gods from discovering it.

Thor disguised himself as Freyja using Freyja's cloak made from falcon feathers (allowing whoever wears it to fly) and Brísingamen, and retrieved Mjölnir with Loki's assistance.