Freya or Freyja is the goddess of fertility, love, and beauty, also known as the Great Mother. She wears a magical necklace called Brisingamen and is principally worshipped by the people of the Skellige Islands. There is a Temple of Freya on the island of Hindarsfjall. Sigrdrifa is the priestess at that temple.
A great statue depicts the goddess as a heavily pregnant woman in long robes. According to legend, Freya travels the area disguised as a cat. She most cherishes attachment to the land, family life, and caring for animals, but also love and fertility. Observing these values is the greatest tribute to the goddess.
Quick Answers
What is the significance of Freya's necklace Brisingamen?
How is Freya depicted in the Skellige Islands?
Why is Freya associated with cats in legends?
Who is the priestess at the Temple of Freya?
What role does Freya play in the Skellige culture?
There is a custom in the Caingorn royal family whereby any aspiring ruler, prior to assuming the throne, must spend a day among the duchy's simple folk, execute a series of menial tasks, and pray in the Temple of Freya in the evening.
For Deidre Ademeyn, the heir to the Caingorn throne in the module, the problem was that she had displeased the simple folk in the past. And though she most probably could bribe a few prominents, the priestesses of Freya would not accept her. Reportedly Deidre caused a huge wolf to suddenly emerge from behind a house and before it could be stopped, the beast shredded Isildura's throat.
The goddess Freya is only mentioned in this module, there is no mention of Freya in The Witcher.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
On the islands of Skellige, you'll find priestesses still worshipping the old goddess Freya.
Clergy
Beliefs of Skellige: Freya entry
- As is true of most realms, the predominant religion in the Skellige Isles has its roots in the prehistoric cult of the Great Mother, Mother Nature. On the Continent, such worship has taken as its object and namesake Melitele. In Skellige, her counterpart is Freya.
- Like Melitele, Freya is represented in three aspects - virgin, mother and old crone. That of mother is most common, and sculptors chose to depict her thus in her greatest sanctuary in the Isles. There she stands, a pregnant woman draped in loose robes, her face partially revealed, her head bent and her hands folded across her breast. A golden necklace hangs around her neck, and on it a large, pure diamond (Brisingamen) shines like a clear summer sky.
- Freyja Modron, or Freya the Great Mother, is the goddess of fertility, love, beauty and abundance. She is also the patron of oracles, soothsayers and telepaths. Warriors pray to her before setting out on sea raids, and the wives they leave behind pray to her for their husbands' safe return. Only priestesses serve the goddess – men may worship Freya, but only women may do her work. Freya's priestesses, like the clerics of other cults, treat mages and sorceresses with great reserve.
- The center of Freya's worship is her temple on the isle of Hindarsfjall, in the sacred grove called Hindar. Worshippers place offerings to the goddess before her statue, on an altar that incorporates a great stone basin surrounded by figurines of cats and falcons - her sacred animals. In addition to this temple, sprinkled throughout the isles are other, smaller places where one can worship the goddess and make offerings to her (...).
The Cult of Freya entry
- Freya Modron, the Great Mother, teaches us to put our faith in her no matter what life brings. Thus warriors pray to her before setting off for battle, and the women they leave behind pray for their menfolk's safe return. Freya, as a mother and a goddess, understands all the trials of mankind, she sooths our pains and provides comfort. Yet woe to him who acts against her and violates her eternal laws, handed down for the good of men and the world. Condemnation awaits such men – they will be cut off from the life-giving source of motherly love, and if they repair not their ways and, renouncing evil, return to the mother-goddess' bosom, they shall be cursed for all eternity – they and all their line (...)
Associated places
Trivia
- Freya shares an enormous similarity with the Norse goddess Freya (or Freyja). Both of them represent the same things, and their overall depictions are very similar. Freya's ability to take on the form of a cat can be likened to the Norse Freyja's method of transportation; a cart pulled by cats. Freya in The Witcher is also closely connected to the people Skellige, who in turn share large similarities with the historical Norse people.
- "Freya" is also the name of Mousesack's date to Geralt and Yennefer's wedding in the short story "Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna". She is described as being a full head taller than the druid and a couple of hundred years younger. She also is apparently nigh immune to the effects of alcohol.
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