Johanne Hildebrandt - Saga från Valhalla

Saga från Valhalla is the third book in Sagan från Valhalla series (All entries can be found here.) and the last one of the books set in the Bronze Age. The title character is Saga, daughter of Idun and Ull and granddaughter of Freja and Tor. She does not have her powers yet, but Freja is sure she will get them in time.

Alfhild, queen of Alfheim, is not as comfortable with the vanírs as she is in earlier books and you can glimpse a theme of xenophobia which is probably more on the agenda today than it was back when the book was published in 2004. There is also the matter of death that has been quite a consistent theme in the books already from the start, but I felt a need to talk about the Norse goddesses, not least Freja.

The goddesses seldom get a good portrayal in books about Norse mythology. Generally they are lumped together into one paragraph with only one sentence describing their character for each one of them. This when each and everyone of the male deities often get whole chapters telling everything about them and their home, animals and relationships to the other deities.

There are a lot of goddesses in Norse mythology and the ones I will talk about here are mainly Freja since Johanne Hildebrandt's books are mostly about her and there is much more information about her than all the rest.

Saga was a present from my mother
for my 20th birthday. Signed by
Johanne Hildebrandt.

Freja is often the exception to the "tradition" of lumping all the together. She mostly gets her own paragraph at least. However, she is still often reduced to "love goddess". She is much more interesting though.

She lives in Folkvang and travels around in a chariot driven by the cats Hogní and Þófnir (Tovner). Like her brother Frej, she is also associated with pigs. She owns one called Hildesvin and one of her many names is Syr which means sow.

Freja belongs to the Vanír family of deities and therefore got the nickname Vanadis. She represents female fertility and female sexuality, which is why the Christians did not look upon her fondly. She however seems to have been a particular favourite of the völvur, best described as Pre-Christian priestesses.

Her husband is called Od, but he disappears and there have been lots of speculations about it being one of the god Odín's many shapes. There are also speculations about her also marrying Frej and the giants always desire her.

Gabriel Hildebrand SHMM 2011-11-08

One of the aspects I enjoy most about Hildebrandt's Freja is how varied she is. Hildebrandt actually explores a lot of the goddess' different roles in her three books about her and her family. As a goddess of death, Freja is generally over-shadowed by Odín in popular culture. Britt-Mari Näsström talks about the problem Freja appeared to the male scholars, authors and artists during the 19th century in her book Nordiska gudinnor. Nytolkningar av den förkristna mytologin (2009). They thought they had been given the task of interpreting the Old Norse Literature for the less educated population. Richard Wagner, Esaias Tegnér and Viktor Rydberg for example either reduce her to a weak character or she is depicted as a fallen woman. This portrayal is more fitting as an example of the ideal woman in the 19th century than as a depiction of what Freja is like in the Old Norse sources.

Freja is so much more than a lovesick fertility goddess. She may be guardian of pregnant women, but she also takes an interest in warfare and death. All three of these subjects are big themes in Johanne Hildebrandt's books. I find it mostly intriguing how Hildebrandt looks upon her with much more interest than Odín in this case, letting her becoming the priestess of Hel (the goddess of the Underworld) in Idun. A role she seems much more comfortable with in Saga. Hildebrandt's books also accentuate how similar Freja is to Odín. Both of them takes care of fallen warriors at the battle field. Odín also has a connection to Saga, however. Odín is the god of poetry and Saga is connected with storytelling.

Because Freja is such a wonderful goddess I find it both strange and sad that Marvel comics wanted to make Thor a woman instead of using Freja as a whole new comic franchise.

Update 2016-09-01: I realised I forgot to include an archaeological find in this post like in the first two. This one is not from the Bronze Age, but from the Viking Age. It is a pendant depicting a woman with a swollen abdomen (due to a pregnancy). She was found in the ancient remain given the name Hagebyhöga 36:1 in Aska in Östergötland, Sweden. It has been interpreted as a portrayal of Freja.