Frigga

Frigga the wife of Odin, and supreme goddess of the race of the Asir (or Ases), the celestial gods of the Scandinavian mythology, was a daughter of the giant Fjorgym, presided over marriages and in the assemblies of the goddesses, which were always held in her palace, was prescient of, but never revealed, the fate of men, knew the language of plants and animals, and through her great wisdom aided Odin by her counsels. Her abode was said to be "the magnificent mansion of Fensalir (the marshy halls), which denotes the deep, moist earth," and from her relation to Odin, the sun in this mythology, she may be regarded as typifying the earth, which, drawing from him the generative principles of light and warmth, gives growth and fruitfulness to living things. She is closely related to, and frequently confounded with Freva (q.v.), and is generally represented (see pl. 12, fig.

1, Mythology and Religious Rites in Icon. Encyclop.) seated in a golden chariot drawn by two white cats, her tresses and veil floating in the wind, with two attendants, with veils and tresses likewise floating, flying near her. — English Cyclopaedia, s.v.; Icon. Encyclop. 4:277-8 (N.Y. 1851); Thorpe, Northern Mythology. (J.W.M.)