Fólkvangr
In Norse mythology, Fólkvangr ("field of the host"[1] or "people-field or army-field"[2]) is a location ruled over by the goddess Freyja where half of those that die in combat go upon death, while the other half go to the god Odin in Valhalla. Fólkvangr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. According to the Prose Edda, within Fólkvangr is Freyja's hall Sessrúmnir. Scholarly theories have been proposed about the implications of the location.
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Attestations
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):
- Fôlkvang is the ninth, there Freyia directs
- the sittings in the hall.
- She half the fallen chooses each day,
- but Odin th' other half.[3]
In chapter 24 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, High tells Gangleri (described as king Gylfi in disguise) that Freyja is "the most glorious of the ásynjur", that Freyja has a dwelling in the heavens called Fólkvangr, and that "whenever she rides to battle she gets half of the slain, and the other half Odin, as it says here: [the stanza above from Grímnismál is then quoted]). High then continues with a description of Freyja's hall Sessrúmnir.[4]
Theories
Egils saga
In Egils saga, when Egill Skallagrímsson refuses to eat, his daughter Þorgerðr (here anglicized as "Thorgerd") says she will go without food and thus starve to death, and in doing so will meet the goddess Freyja:
- Thorgerd replied in a loud voice, 'I have had no evening meal, nor will I do so until I join Freyja. I know no better course of action than my father's. I do not want to live after my father and brother are dead.'[5]
Britt-Mari Näsström says that "as a receiver of the dead her [Freyja's] abode is also open for women who have suffered a noble death." Näsström cites the above passage from Egils saga as an example, and points to a potential additional connection in the saga Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, where the a queen hangs herself in the dísarsalr (Old Norse "the Hall of the Dís") after discovering that her husband has betrayed both her father and brother. Näsström comments that "this Dís could hardly be anyone but Freyja herself, the natural leader of the collective female deities called dísir, and the place of the queen's suicide seems thus to be connected with Freyja."[6]
Implications
Referencing Eugen Mogk, Henry Adams Bellows says that "Freyja represents a confusion between two originally distinct divinities: the wife of Othin (Frigg) and the northern goddess of love. This passage appears to have in mind her attributes as Othin's wife. Snorri has this same confusion, but there is no reason why the Freyja who was Freyr's sister should share the slain with Othin [Odin]."[7] John Lindow says that if the Fólk- element of Fólkvangr is to be understood as "army", then Fólkvangr appears as an alternative to Valhalla. Lindow adds that, like Odin, Freyja has an association with warriors in that she presides over the eternal combat of Hjaðningavíg.[2]
Rudolf Simek theorizes that the name Fólkvangr is "surely not much older than Grímnismál itself", and adds that the Gylfaginning description keeps close to the Grímnismál description, yet that the Gylfaginning descriptions adds that Sessrúmnir is located within Fólkvangr.[8] According to Hilda Ellis Davidson, Valhalla "is well known because it plays so large a part in images of warfare and death," yet the significance of other halls in Norse mythology such as Ýdalir, where the god Ullr dwells, and Freyja's Fólkvangr have been lost.[9]
Britt-Mari Näsström places emphasis on that Gylfaginning relates that "whenever she rides into battle she takes half of the slain," and interprets Fólkvangr as "the field of the Warriors." Näsström comments that:
"Freyja receives the slain heroes of the battlefield quite respectfully as Óðinn does. Her house is called Sessrumnir, 'filled with many seats', and it probably fills the same function as Valhöll, 'the hall of the slain', where the warriors eat and drink beer after the fighting. Still, we must ask why there are two heroic paradises in the Old Norse View of afterlife. It might possibly be a consequence of different forms of initiation of warriors, where one part seemed to have belonged to Óðinn and the other to Freyja. These examples indicate that Freyja was a war-goddess, and she even appears as a valkyrie, literally 'the one who chooses the slain'."[10]
Siegfried Andres Dobat comments that "in her mythological role as the chooser of half the fallen warriors for her death realm Fólkvangr, the goddess Freyja, however, emerges as the mythological role model for the Valkyrjar and the dísir."[11]
Modern influence
Early in the 20th century, Karl Ernst Osthaus developed the "Folkwang-Gedanke" or "Folkwang-Konzept", that art and life can be reconciled. Several cultural institutions bearing the name Folkwang (the German spelling of Fólkvangr) were founded on this concept.
- Museum Folkwang, Essen, opened 1902
- Folkwang-Verlag (publishing house), founded 1919
- Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, founded 1958
- Folkwang-Musikschule of the city of Essen, founded 1974
- Folkwang University for music, theater, dance, design and academic studies
Notes
References
- Bellows, Henry Adams (1936). The Poetic Edda: Translated from the Icelandic with an Introduction and Notes. Princeton University Press. American Scandinavian Foundation.
- Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis (1993). The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (illustrated edition). Routledge. ISBN 0415049377
- Dobat, Siegfried Andres (2006). "Bridging Mythology and Belief: Viking Age Functional Culture as a Reflection of the Belief in Divine Intervention" as collected in Andren, A. Jennbert, K. Raudvere, C. Old Norse Religion in Long Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes and Interactions, an International Conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3-7, 2004. Nordic Academic Press. ISBN 918911681X
- Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). Edda. Everyman. ISBN 0-4608-7616-3
- Lindow, John (2001). Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515382-0
- Näsström, Britt-Mari (1999). "Freyja - The Trivalent Goddess" as collected in Sand, Reenberg Erik. Sørensen, Jørgen Podemann (1999). Comparative Studies in History of Religions: Their Aim, Scrope and Validity. Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 8772895330
- Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 0 304 34520 2
- Scudder, Bernard (Trans.) (2001). "Egils saga" as collected in various (2001). The Sagas of Icelanders. Penguin Group. ISBN 0 14 10.0003 1
- Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0859915131
- Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1907). The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Norrœna Society.
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