Freyr - Other Icelandic Sources

Other Icelandic Sources

Worship of Freyr is alluded to in several Icelanders' sagas.

The protagonist of Hrafnkels saga is a priest of Freyr. He dedicates a horse to the god and kills a man for riding it, setting in motion a chain of fateful events.

In Gísla saga a chieftain named Þorgrímr Freysgoði is an ardent worshipper of Freyr. When he dies he is buried in a howe.

Varð og sá hlutur einn er nýnæmum þótti gegna að aldrei festi snæ utan og sunnan á haugi Þorgríms og eigi fraus; og gátu menn þess til að hann myndi Frey svo ávarður fyrir blótin að hann myndi eigi vilja að freri á milli þeirra.

And now, too, a thing happened which seemed strange and new. No snow lodged on the south side of Thorgrim's howe, nor did it freeze there. And men guessed it was because Thorgrim had been so dear to Frey for his worship's sake that the god would not suffer the frost to come between them. -

Hallfreðar saga, Víga-Glúms saga and Vatnsdœla saga also mention Freyr.

Other Icelandic sources referring to Freyr include Íslendingabók, Landnámabók, and Hervarar saga.

Íslendingabók, written around 1125, is the oldest Icelandic source to mention Freyr, including him in a genealogy of Swedish kings. Landnámabók includes a heathen oath to be sworn at an assembly where Freyr, Njörðr, and "the almighty áss" are invoked. Hervarar saga mentions a Yuletide sacrifice of a boar to Freyr.

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