Here's an interesting blog post about the Vanir and Aesir and their war:

http://celto-germanic.blogspot.com/2009/07/aryan-invasion-theory-and-celto.html

7. The exchange of hostages to end of the war was done in good faith by both parties.

In the Ynglinga Saga we read this:

They tired of this at last, and on both sides appointed a meeting for establishing peace, made a truce, and exchanged hostages. The Vanaland people sent their best men, Njord the Rich, and his son Frey. The people of Asaland sent a ( Read more... )

5. The Vanir instigated the first war

This misconception holds hands with the one about Freyja deserving the violence inflicted on her by Odin and his cohorts. (Neo) Heathens and scholars read into the myth of the war between the Vanir and the Aesir that the Vanir sent Gullveig to Odin and the Aesir to corrupt them and incite them to lust for gold. ( Read more... )

4. The violence against Freyja as Gullveig was an initiation like Odin’s.

The first poem of the Poetic Edda, the Voluspa, declares that the first war, the primary war, began when the Aesir “Gullveig gashed with their spears”. After being gashed with spears, she was burned to death three times…and yet she lives. It is reasonable to conclude, as many ( Read more... )

3. Freyja as Gullveig deserved the violence done against her by the Aesir.

“A sorceress, she [Gullveig/Freyja] sows corruption [among the Aesir], particularly among women.” (Dumezil, p. 8)

“Gullveig’s name translates as “gold-intoxication,” and it is believed that Her presence among the Aesir so disrupted the structure and the order of their society ( Read more... )

I just finished reading Galina Krasskova’s book Exploring the Northern Tradition. While she uncritically parrots the claims that Freyja forced the Aesir to run her through with their spears and burn her and that her burning was an initiation akin to Odin’s hanging on the tree (what irresponsible BS), I was pleasantly surprised when I read her ( Read more... )

The Volva of the Voluspá is the one who tells us about Gullveig. While there is some dispute, most scholars agree that it is reasonable to conclude that Gullveig and Freyja are one and the same. My personal experience goes along with what the scholars conclude, that Gullveig is Freyja.

“Gullveig” has many meanings. I see no reason to say that only ( Read more... )

Freyja is well-known as the Goddess of sex and magic. In my opinion, we would do well to also regard her as the Goddess of the sexually abused. Here’s why:

The Voluspa

The first poem of the Poetic Edda, the Voluspa, declares that the first war, the primary war, began when the Aesir “Gullveig gashed with their spears”. It is reasonable to conclude, as ( Read more... )