The Norse harvest god who gave away his self-fighting sword for love
Freyr owned a sword that battled by itself in wise hands, and he handed it over to win the giantess Gerðr. The trade came at a steep price: myth says that at Ragnarök, weaponless, he will face the fire-giant Surtr and fall, having earlier killed the giant Beli with a mere antler.
His name simply means lord in Old Norse, from a Proto-Germanic word that also gave Gothic frauja and Old English frēa. He presided over kingship, peace, fertility, prosperity, fair weather and good harvests, and was tied especially to Sweden, where he was treated as a forebear of the royal house under the alternative name Yngvi-Freyr.
In the Icelandic Eddas he belongs to the Vanir, a son of Njörðr and brother to the goddess Freyja. As a teething gift the gods handed him Álfheimr, realm of the elves. Dwarves crafted his two treasures: the boar Gullinbursti, whose glowing mane lights the road, and the ship Skíðblaðnir, which always catches a helpful wind yet folds away like a napkin into a pouch. He also kept sacred horses at a sanctuary in Trondheim, and a skaldic poem names his steed Blóðughófi, or Bloody Hoof.
The fullest tale concerns Gerðr. Glimpsing her, Freyr sinks into silent gloom, convinced he will die unless she is his, until he finally confides in his foot-page Skírnir and sends him off to woo her. The sword becomes Skírnir's reward, sealing the god's fate.
Two writers shape what survives, and they disagree. Around 1080 Adam of Bremen, claiming first-hand reports from Sweden, called the god Fricco, described a phallic statue in the temple at Uppsala and noted libations to it at weddings. Snorri Sturluson, writing in 13th-century Iceland long after open worship ended, gave Freyr the weather and the crops that Adam had assigned to Thor, and left out anything sexual. Historians still argue over whose account to trust. The modern Heathenry movement has revived his veneration.
Source: Freyr
