In Norse mythology, Brísingamen ( from Old Norse brisinga " flaming, glowing " and men " jewellery, ornament ") is the necklace of the goddess Freyja.

Freyja is so wrathful that all the Æsir ’ s halls beneath her are shaken and the necklace Brísingamen breaks off from her neck.

This myth is also recorded in an 18th-century Swedish folksong called Hammar-Hemtningen ( the taking of the hammer ), where Freyja is called Miss Frojenborg, " den väna solen " ( the fair sun ).

In the Icelandic books the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr is presented as one of the Vanir, the son of the sea god Njörðr, brother of the goddess Freyja.

In Norse mythology, Freyja ( Old Norse the " Lady ") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death.

Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, owns the boar Hildisvíni, possesses a cloak of falcon feathers, and, by her husband Óðr, is the mother of two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi.

Freyja assists other deities by allowing them to use her feathered cloak, is invoked in matters of fertility and love, and is frequently sought after by powerful jötnar who wish to make her their wife.

The name Freyja is in fact a title meaning " lady ", from Proto-Germanic * frawjōn, cognate with West Frisian frou, Dutch vrouw, Low German Fro, Fru, German Frau.

The theonym Freyja was thus an epithet in origin, replacing a personal name that is now unattested.

The connection with and possible earlier identification of Freyja with Frigg in the Proto-Germanic period ( Frigg and Freyja origin hypothesis ) is a matter of scholarly debate.

Like the name of the group of gods to which Freyja belongs, the Vanir, the name Freyja is not attested outside of Scandinavia, as opposed to the name of the goddess Frigg, who is attested as a goddess common among all Germanic peoples, and whose name is reconstructed as Proto-Germanic * Frijjō.

Regarding a Freyja-Frigg origin hypothesis, scholar Stephan Grundy comments that " the problem of whether Frigg or Freyja may have been a single goddess originally is a difficult one, made more so by the scantiness of pre-Viking Age references to Germanic goddesses, and the diverse quality of the sources.

In the Poetic Edda, Freyja is mentioned or appears in the poems Völuspá Grímnismál, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Oddrúnargrátr, and Hyndluljóð.

In verse, after Loki has flyted with the goddess Frigg, Freyja interjects, telling Loki that he is insane for dredging up his terrible deeds, and that Frigg knows the fate of everyone, though she does not tell it.

Loki tells her to be silent, and says that he knows all about her — that Freyja is not lacking in blame, for each of the gods and elves in the hall have been her lover.

Examples of goddesses attested in Norse mythology include Frigg ( wife of Odin, and the Anglo-Saxon version of whom is namesake of the modern English weekday Friday ), Skaði ( one time wife of Njörðr ), Njerda ( Scandinavian name of Nerthus ), that also was married to Njörðr during Bronze Age, Freyja ( wife of Óðr ), Sif ( wife of Thor ), Gerðr ( wife of Freyr ), and personifications such as Jörð ( earth ), Sól ( the sun ), and Nótt ( night ).

Both Freyja and Freyr are attested as accompanied by boars.

Like the Vanr goddess Freyja, the Vanir as a group are not attested outside Scandinavia.

Valhalla is referenced at length in the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál, and Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, while Valhalla receives lesser direct references in stanza 33 of the Völuspá, where the god Baldr's death is referred to as the " woe of Valhalla ", and in stanzas 1 to 3 of Hyndluljóð, where the goddess Freyja states her intention of riding to Valhalla with Hyndla, in an effort to help Óttar, as well as in stanzas 6 through 7, where Valhalla is mentioned again during a dispute between the two.

In the Poetic Edda poem Þrymskviða, the blessed of Vár is invoked by the jötunn Þrymr after his " bride " ( who is actually the god Thor disguised as the goddess Freyja ) is hallowed with the stolen hammer of Thor, Mjöllnir, at their wedding:

In the poem Grímnismál collected in the Poetic Edda, Odin ( disguised as Grímnir ) tells the young Agnar that Freyja allots seats to half of those that die in her hall Fólkvangr, while Odin receives the other half ( Fólkvangr is here anglicized to Fôlkvang and Folkvang ):

The stanza recounts that Freyja was once promised to an unnamed builder, later revealed to be a jötunn and so killed by Thor ( recounted in detail in Gylfaginning chapter 42 — see Prose Edda section below ).

In the Prose Edda, Njord was introduced as " the third among the Æsir ", and among the Asynjur, Freyja is always listed second only to Frigg.

In chapter 42 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, High tells a story set " right at the beginning of the gods ' settlement, when the gods at established Midgard and built Val-Hall " about an unnamed builder who has offered to build a fortification for the gods that will keep out invaders in exchange for the goddess Freyja, the sun, and the moon.

The dialog between the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood has its analogies to the Norse Þrymskviða from the Elder Edda ; the giant Þrymr had stolen Mjölner, Thor's hammer, and demanded Freyja as his bride for its return.

Although Snorri Sturluson does not mention the dísir in the Prose Edda, he does list Vanadís —' dís of the Vanir '— as a name for Freyja, and öndurdís —' snow-shoe dís '— as a name for Skaði.

In chapter 35 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, the enthroned figure of High says that the goddess Freyja " was married to someone named " Óðr.

In chapter 20 of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, poetic names for the goddess Freyja are listed, including " wife of Óðr ".

In chapter 75, Óðr is mentioned a final time in the Prose Edda, where Freyja is cited as having " wept gold " for Óðr.

" Simek notes that these issues have resulted in sometimes very different explanations ; Sophus Bugge and Hjalmar Falk saw a reflection of the Greek god Adonis in Óðr, Rudolf Much saw a reflection in the god Attis, and Lee Hollander theorizes a reflection of the folktale of Amor and Psyche in Snorri's Prose Edda account of Óðr and Freyja.

The dialogue between the mean wolf and Little Red Riding Hood has its analogies to the Norse Þrymskviða from the Elder Edda ; the giant Þrymr had stolen Mjölner, Thor's hammer, and demanded Freyja as his bride for its return.

Scholars have theorized about whether or not Freyja and the goddess Frigg ultimately stem from a single goddess common among the Germanic peoples ; about her connection to the valkyries, female battlefield choosers of the slain ; and her relation to other goddesses and figures in Germanic mythology, including the thrice-burnt and thrice-reborn Gullveig / Heiðr, the goddesses Gefjon, Skaði, Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr and Irpa, Menglöð, and the 1st century BCE " Isis " of the Suebi.

Rural Scandinavians continued to acknowledge Freyja as a supernatural figure into the 19th century, and Freyja has inspired various works of art.

In chapter 37, Freyja is again referred to as Njörðr's daughter in a verse by the 12th century skald Einarr Skúlason.

In the Sörla þáttr, an Icelandic short story written by two Christian Priests in 15th century, Dvalin is the name of one of the four dwarves ( including Alfrigg, Berling and Grer ) who fashioned a necklace which was later acquired by a woman called Freyja, who is King Odin's concubine, after she agreed to spend a night with each of them.

Since the 19th century, following Jacob Grimm, Menglöð has been identified with the goddess Freyja in most scholarship.

Stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Freja, Freyia, Frøya, Frejya and Freia, Frejya.

Finally, there is an argument that Frigg and Freyja are similar goddesses from different pantheons who were first conflated into each other and then later seen as separate goddesses again ( see also Frige ).

Þrymr says that he has hidden Mjöllnir eight leagues beneath the earth, from which it will be retrieved, if Freyja is brought to him as his wife.

Freyja, indignant and angry, goes into a rage, causing all of the halls of the Æsir to tremble in her anger, and her necklace, the famed Brísingamen, falls from her.

The " wretched sister " of the jötnar appears, asks for a bridal gift from " Freyja ", and the jötnar bring out Mjöllnir to " sanctify the bride ", to lay it on her lap, and marry the two by " the hand " of the goddess Vár.

In the saga, Njörðr is described as having once wed his unnamed sister while he was still among the Vanir, and the couple produced their children Freyr and Freyja from this union, though this custom was forbidden among the Æsir.

Some claim " Friar's Heel " is a corruption of " Freyja's He-ol " from the Nordic goddess Freyja and the Welsh word for track.

In contrast, continuing the same journal thread, Leszek P. Słupecki argues that the Vanir remained distinct from the Æsir — except for Freyja and Freyr, whom he follows Snorri in seeing as having been born after Njörðr became a hostage among the Æsir, and thus regards as Æsic — and therefore that Ragnarök " no importance for their world ".

Loki borrowed a magical coat from Freyja that would allow him to take the shape of a falcon, then flew to Jotunheim until he reached the hall of Þjazi.

The myth relates that the giant, Þrymr, steals Mjölnir from Thor and then demands the goddess Freyja in exchange.

Grundy theorizes that the goddesses Frigg and Freyja did not stem from a single goddess.

If they did not, Grundy says, the question of explaining the relationship between Freyja and Óðr becomes central, which has been one of the strongest points made in favor of the descent of Frigg and Freyja from a common goddess.

Frigg does not deny the charge from Loki, and in this story Freyja intervenes, warning Loki that Frigg has powers of prophecy.

* Hugo Junger argues that place-names in Scandinavia seem to link cult sites for Freyja with names derived from Frigg.

However the internal tension of the character led to a duplication in Scandinavian religion: Frigg resulted into a merely sovereign goddess, the spouse of wizard god Óðinn, while from the name of Freyr, typical god of the third function, was extracted a second character, Freyja, confined as a Vani to the sphere of pleasure and wealth.

Two important gods, the brother and sister, Freyr and Freyja, are citizens of Ásgarðr but actually exchange-hostages from Vanaheimr.

Beowulf gives her three horses and a magnificent torc ( the Brosing, i. e. Brisingamen, the necklace of the goddess Freyja ) that he received from Wealhþeow.