Category: Paganism

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Vanaheim (Old Norse Vanaheimr, “Homeland of the Vanir“) is one of the Nine Worlds that are situated around the world-tree Yggdrasil. As the name implies, it’s the home of the Vanir tribe of deities, who tend to be somewhat more associated with fertility and what we today would call “nature” than the other tribe of Norse deities, the Aesir, who have their home in Asgard.

The surviving sources for our information on Norse mythology and religion, as fragmentary as they are, don’t contain any explicit mention of where exactly Vanaheim is located.  The sole clue we have comes from the Lokasenna (“The Taunting of Loki“), one of the poems in the Poetic Edda, which states that the Vanir god Njord went eastward when he went to Asgard as a hostage at the conclusion of the Aesir-Vanir War.  Presumably, then, Vanaheim lies somewhere to the west of Asgard.

Some scholars have gone so far as to claim that Vanaheim was invented by the thirteenth-century Icelandic Christian historian and poet Snorri Sturluson. However, there is one authentic and reliable Old Norse poem that mentions Vanaheim by name, so we can be reasonably certain that it was a genuine element of pre-Christian Norse religion.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the sources are completely silent as to what kind of world Vanaheim is. However, its name may contain an indication of the place’s character. One of the primary ways the pre-Christian Norse and other Germanic peoples classified geographical spaces (as well as psychological states) was with reference to their concept of the distinction between the innangard and utangard. That which is innangard (“inside the fence”) is orderly, law-abiding, and civilized, while that which is utangard (“beyond the fence”) is chaotic, anarchic, and wild. This psychogeography found its natural expression in agrarian land-use patterns, where the fence separated pastures and fields of crops from the wilderness beyond them. Of the Nine Worlds, two are innangard spaces: Asgard and Midgard, the world of human civilization. Both of these contain -gard in their names and are depicted as having a fence or fortification surrounding them. The rest of the Nine Worlds’ names end in -heim, and there’s no reference to their being enclosed in any way, which seems to indicate that they’re essentially utangard places. Such a designation is certainly in keeping with the way these places are described in Old Norse literature. Thus, we can infer that Vanaheim, like the Vanir themselves, is somewhat more wild or “natural,” and less “cultural,” than the world of the Vanir’s Aesir counterparts, or even that of humanity.

Sources: Sons of Vikings, norse-mythology.org

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Frigga’s Handmaidens:

Eir

She is known as a healer. That said, Eir’s name translates roughly to the word “mercy,” and in addition to being one of Frigga’s handmaidens, she is listed among Odin’s Valkyries. This has led some modern heathens to speculate that, in addition to her healing skills, she was the source of “mercy on the battlefield,” which, depending on the circumstances, could mean a clean death for those already dying from their wounds.

Fulla

Not much is known about Fulla. She is called a virgin and goes about with her hair unbound and flowing. She wears a gold band around her head. She carries Frigga’s casket, a small chest, and also cares for Frigga’s shoes. She is considered someone with whom Frigga shares her secrets. Fulla may be the Volla listed in the Second Meresburg Charm, Frigga’s sister, or, potentially, Frigga herself.

Gefjon

Gefjon has four sons, whom she changed into oxen in order to carve land for herself out of Denmark; folklore has it that Zealand is Gefjon’s property. Her name means “giver,” and this has caused her to be confused with Freyja, whose byname, Gefn, means the same thing. However, as Frigga’s handmaiden, she protects maidens and unmarried women. This, taken along with the myth about Zealand, is enough evidence to suggest that she is a goddess in her own right.

Lofn

Lofn is the handmaiden who clears the way for permission to be granted for marriages, particularly those marriages which would otherwise be seen as forbidden.

Sága

Sága is an interesting character. Her hall, Sökkvabekk, refers to sunken benches, the implication being a bog or fen. Frigga’s hall is Fensalir, which also involves a fen. Frigga is married to Odin; Sága is known to sit with Odin in her hall and drink mead with him. In fact, there are so many similarities between Sága and Frigga that many scholars contend that they are one and the same, and that Sága is one of Frigga’s bynames. The Prose Edda mentions her as one of Frigga’s handmaidens.

Sjofn

Sjofn helps turn the minds of men and women to love.

Snotra

Snotra is known to be wise and courteous.

Syn

Syn is known as the handmaiden who bars the doors to the hall and guards against those who are forbidden to enter. It is also said that she can stand in assembly as a party for the defense, in cases that involve her.

Var

Var is most concerned with hearing the oaths people make, particularly the marriage oath.

Vor

Vor is also known to be wise, but she asks questions, and nothing can be concealed from her. Vor is the last of Frigga’s handmaidens that we have record of.