Overview: Pagan Portals - Freya: Meeting the Norse Goddess of Magic is an introduction to the mysterious and intriguing goddess Freya, from esteemed author Morgan Daimler.

Verdict: The most popular of the Norse goddesses is the Vanic deity Freya, found across the Norse myths and into modern mass media, yet often obscured by contradictory tales and external moral coding. Freya is an alluring deity of magic and fertility, a being so important in the mythology that gods and giants fought over her, yet she is never shown as a passive prize to be won only as a forceful being with agency and will of her own.

Who is this powerful goddess who has left such a profound mark across not only Norse culture but also wider Western culture? Pagan Portals - Freya is a basic introduction to the Norse Goddess Freya that covers her history, mythology, associations, and modern appearances, and offers readers suggestions for how to begin connecting to Freya in their own lives.

Growing up, I was introduced to one of the principal deities of the Norse pantheon, the lovely and enchanting Freya, very early on in my growth, by my grandmother’s neighbor, of all people, and I was thus taught that she was a goddess of blessings, love, lust, and fertility.

A member of the Vanir tribe of deities, Freya shared her people’s penchant for the magical arts of divination. Indeed, it was Freya who introduced the gods to seidr, a form of magic that allowed practitioners to know and change the future.

As is shown throughout this highly informative new book from Morgan, Freya was gentler and more agreeable than the other Norse deities. Where Thor accomplished his goals through aggression and Odin and Loki resorted to trickery, Freya achieved her ends with the gentler persuasions of gifts, beauty, and sex.

While Freya was often unselfish and helpful, it should also be known that she did have a darker side. Like the male gods, Freya had a taste for blood and fought fiercely in battle. It was said she took the lives of half the warriors ever slain in battle.

Freya was known by a number of epithets, and the variants of her name (Freja, Freyia, Freyja, Fröja, Frøya, Frøjya, and Frua, among others) were as different as the Germanic languages and dialects of her many worshippers. Thanks in part to these linguistic differences, some interpretations of Norse mythology believed Freya to be synonymous with Frigg, Odin’s wife, and sometimes Gullveig, the völva narrator of the Völuspá who recounted the Aesir-Vanir War and predicted the fate of the gods during Ragnarök.

But I digress, as here in Pagan Portals - Freya: Meeting the Norse Goddess of Magic, Morgan (herself a witch, and priestess of the Daoine Maithe) cements her prolific pagan writing once again. Having published more than a dozen books under Moon Books alone, here she doesn’t delve too deeply into the subject matter of freya, moreover provides a solid introduction to another great spirit (and one close to her heart).

About the Author - Morgan Daimler is a blogger, poet, teacher of esoteric subjects, witch, and priestess of the Daoine Maithe. Morgan is a prolific pagan writer, having published more than a dozen books under Moon Books alone, and she is one of the world’s foremost experts on all things Fairy. She lives in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, US.

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