Nine Reasons to identify
Frigg with Jord:
1)
Frigg is also known by the name Hlin (Volupsa 53). Jord is known by
the names Fjörgynn (Harbardsljod 56) and Hlodyn (Volupsa 56, and
Skaldskaparmal). It is natural for the poets to use several names for
a single character. Odin has 49 names, Freyja has several including
Syr, Mardoll, and Vanadis. Heimdall is called Righ, etc. Thus it is
should be expected that Frigg too has other names.
Only twice is Thor called
a child of Fjörgynn and only twice a child of Jord, and only once
a child of Hlodyn in the existing poems. The existing poems do not favor
the term "child of Jord" for Thor, as the common wisdom holds.
The Earth goddess clearly has many names. However, in the poems Jord
is a non-entity, only named as the relative of others and never characterized
or portrayed, even in Lokasenna, where her relationship with Odin could
have easily been scandalized by the poet. Thus we may suspect that Jord
is simply a byname of a better known goddess.
Frigg has a prominent and
active role.
2)
In the Younger Edda, written 200 years after his country's conversion
to Christianity, Snorri clearly portrays Frigg and Hlin as distinct
goddesses. Hlin is a handmaid of Frigg. However, in Volupsa, one of
Snorri's sources, and by all accounts composed in the heathen era, Hlin
is simply a byname of Frigg herself.
In Völuspá 53,
the poet, speaking of Frigg, says "Then comes Hlin's second grief,
*when* Odin goes to fight the wolf *and* Beli's bright slayer (i.e.
Frey) against Surt." The verse concludes with the phrase: *Then*
Frigg's "beloved" shall fall.
All commentator's agree
that Hlin is a name of Frigg, and often simply say "Frigg"
in translation rather than use the name "Hlin" of the original
poem. For example, see Carolyn Larrington's translation of Voluspa 53.
The word used for "beloved"
(angan) is rare, and no doubt chosen on purpose. It is ambiguous and
can apply equally to Odin or Frey, the subjects of the verse. Because
Odin is Frigg's wife, and because there is no known relationship between
Frigg and Frey, angan is taken to mean only Odin.
Interestingly, Frigg's (Hlin's)
"first grief" is typically taken to mean the death of her
son Baldur. IF we accept Frigg as Njord's sister, and the mother of
Frey, we see that the poet may allude to the death of another of Frigg's
sons: Frey. If this is not the case, Frey's presence in this verse is
superfluous, and unexplainable.
3)
In stanza 13 of Hávarðar saga ísfirðings, we also
find Hlin as a name, not for Frigg, but for Jord, the earth goddess.
Lines 5-6 read:
þann vissak mér
manna
mest alls á Hlín fallinn
Loosely:
"No man fell upon Hlin
(i.e. fell to earth = died) to a greater advantage for me, than this
man."
Here Hlin is a poetic name
of the earth, Jord. In Voluspa, it is a byname of Frigg. Couple this
with the fact that earth is often referred to as "Odin's wife"
at least 18 times in the fragments of skaldic poetry preserved to our
day, and only 3 timnes as Thor's mother. Yet in all of our mythic account,
Odin's only lawful wife is Frigg.
Snorri portrays Jord, Frigg,
and Hlin as distinct goddesses.
This is not supported by the older poetry, which is his acknowledged
source. He twice lists them all as Asynjes. Yet modern scholars, citing
Snorri's account of Jord's birth from the giantess Nat (Night), consider
Jord to be a giantess, not an Asynje. This need not be the case. Odin's
mother Bestla is also a giantess, and he is not a giant.
Ursula Dronke, and others,
have recognized that the earth goddess is named several times in the
Voluspa verses before the earth sinks into the sea during Ragnarok.
Her name is repeated for poetic effect before her death. In the same
series of verses Hlin and Frigg are named (i.e. Hlin's second grief
occurs when Frigg's beloved falls). If Frigg is identical to Jord, as
the above kenning ("fall to Hlin" suggests), then we can add
the names Frigg and Hlin to the pattern of repetition of earth names
in Voluspa's sequence leading up to the destruction of earth, already
recognized by scholars.
4)
Nerthus, called Terra Mater (Mother Earth) by Tacitus in his
Germania ch. 40 is worshipped by the Longobardians and their neighbors
in 100 AD, and is thought by them to intervene in human affairs. In
650 AD, the anonymous historian of the Lombards (Paulus Diaconus' predecessor)
says that there is an ancient tale among them that gives Godan's (Odin's)
wife, Frea (Frigg), credit for helping them win a battle. The fact that
a Christian historian preserves the heathen myth speaks to its age &
importance to the people themselves. He calls it "a silly tale
told by old men".
Nerthus may also be the
feminine equivilant of the name Njord.
5)
Frigg's father is named Fjörgynnr (Lokasenna 26) and an alternate
name for Jord is Fjörgynn (Harbardsljod 56). Like Frey and Freyja,
Fjörgynr and Fjörgynn are male and female counterparts of
the same name. Several scholars have commented on this. Njord and Nerthus
may be as well, although this is debatable-- the name is imperfectly
preserved, and the sources in question are 900 years apart.
6)
Njord was once married to his sister and had the child Frey and by extension
Freyja (Lokasenna 26). The sister is unnamed, and basically ignored
by scholarship. Neither Lokasenna nor Snorri have any direct information
regarding her.
According to Snorri, Jord
is said to have a brother named Aud (Rich)or Unnr (Wave). Njord is a
god of sea commerce and in an Old Norse proverb quoted by Jakob Grimm
a rich man is said to be "as rich as Njord" (sem audigr Njord).
In terms of simple symbolism,
the earth (Frigg-Jord) marries the sea (Njord) and produces fertility
(Frey and Freyja). Later the earth (Frigg-Jord) marries the sky (Odin)
and produces the thunderbolt(Thor). This is not said to reduce the gods
to simple personifications of nature, but only to show the inherent
symbolism in our mythology which is much concerned, unlike Christian
mythology, with the cycles of Nature.
And not strangely we find
Njord associated with Frigg twice in Eddic poetry. In Lokasenna (They
appear in close connection and both are accused of sexual misconduct--
Frigg with her husband Odin's brothers and Njord with his sister. Frey
and Freyja face similar allegations.)
In Solarljod 77-79 "Odin's
wife" (the word for legal wife is used here) is said "to row
in the ship of earth". In the following verses Njord and Njord's
daughters are named, and images invoked that conjure Frey. As in Lokasenna,
they seem to be invoked as a family unit. Solarljod is a poem written
in Eddic meter containing both heathen and Christian images. In other
verses, it speaks of the dead man's journey to Hel, passing through
the Hel-gate, and "sitting on Norn's seats". It was probably
written early within the Christian era when heathen images were still
fresh in people's minds.
If Frigg is the sister of
Njord in question, the episode in Lokasenna is deepened and made more
viciously humorous. The fact that the poet names Frigg's father with
a name suggestive of the earth goddess points in this direction. A heathen
audience would have been expected to know this connection, and need
not have it spelled out for them--- as some insist must be done before
they can accept it.
7) Hilda Davidson recognizes that Frigg
has the appearance of a Van. Like the Vanir she is prescient. In Lokasenna
she is said to see the future well. In Thyrmskvida, Heimdall is said
to be able to see the future, like "all the wise Vanir".
8)
Frigg's home is named Fensalir, meaning "Marsh hall", a strange
place-name for a sky-goddess, but a logical place for an earth goddess.
9)
In Snorri's account of Baldur's death, Frigg has the appearance of an
earth goddess. She extracts oaths from all plants, rocks, trees, etc
to do Baldur no harm. The things she extracts oaths from are earthly
things. She thus has some authority over earthly things.
When Hermod seeks Baldur
and Nanna in Hel. Nanna gives Hermod a veil to beautify Frigg. This
may be a symbol of the spring vegetation that beautifies the earth mother
in the spring. Baldur gives Hermod the ring Draupnir, a symbol of fertility
(the same gift refused by Gerd, when wooed by Frey).
When considering this argument
we must remember that the evidence we have of the Norse gods is very
fragmentary. We must also remember that Snorri lived more than 200 years
after the Christian conversion of Iceland, and opens his work with the
Christian account of creation. He calls the gods men, and no where deviates
from this
view. It extends from the introduction to the conclusion of Gylfaginning.
He only seeks to explain the poetic forms, which were already being
forgotten in his day. In several instances, his explanation of a verse
contradicts the words of the poems he quotes, and in some instances
the verses he "quotes" deviate significantly from the same
verse preserved in another source. His understanding of the older poetry
is at times questionable, and is questioned in many places by modern
scholars.
The poems are older than
Snorri and are the basis of his account of the Norse gods and mythology.
There is no guarantee that he understood them in the manner his heathen
ancestors did. Over two centuries separate Snorri from the heathen era.
Since the poems themselves are much older than Snorri, and mostly composed
by heathen skalds (and recently converted skalds), they naturally are
a more accurate reflection of heathen concepts and beliefs. Current
scholarship in this field started sparodically in the late 1700s. Since
that time, views regarding the poems have altered drastically. In the
early 1800's and throughout most of the century the poems were regarded
as derived from the "true" history of the Bible. Snorri's
Christianized account was used to "prove" that. Another school
held that the gods were simple personifications of natural phenomenea.
In the 19th century, this view began to change and was seriously challenged
by many scholars who proposed an Indo-European origin, independant of
Bibilical roots, and much more developed than simple nature interpretations.
By centuries end, they had won their case. In the 20th century, the
poems were looked upon as literary creations and begun to be analyzed
as written works, sometimes deconstructed to the point of absurdity.
Mere ideas were presented as theories, and based on little more than
a single passage.
However, throughout, Snorri's
work, being easy to read and informative, has been used as a control
to interpret the older poems. Inconsistancies between the poems and
Snorri are explained as variations. No one has seriously questioned
the overall authority of Snorri's interpretations, although many scholars
have questioned individual points. The common wisdom holds that Snorri
had many Eddaic poems we do not have, but the evidence indicates that
we possess more than he knew. His main sources in Gylfaginning are Voluspa,
Vafthrudnismal, and Grimnismal, with references and citations to Fafnismal
and Alvismal. Today, roughly 35 Eddaic poems are available to us for
study.
My contention is that Snorri
did not necessarily understand his sources in the manner they were meant
by those who composed them (and scholars agree to a point), and that
the Eddic and Skaldic poems themselves should be seen as a more reliable
source of heathen belief rather than the other way around. This recognition
alone will help us get more meaning out of the poems, than is possible
if we take Snorri as more relaiable than his heathen sources. A more
fruitful approach would be for us to study the evidence of the Eddaic
poems independantly, and then compare it to Snorri's text, not the other
way around.
