As written by Kevin Crossley-Holland in “Norse Myths,” Freya was closely connected to the kingdom of the dead. For that reason, people perceived her as a shaman and a seer, being able to move between the worlds of the dead and living. As Crossley-Holland notes, the women of the sagas had the ability to fall into a trance to “obtain hidden knowledge” for the benefit of their community. Freya was the first who taught the Aesir people these powers, so her influence is reflected in these stories.

According to Mythopedia, Freya held the sacred knowledge of seiðr, a special magic ritual that allowed seers to foretell and even change the future. As explained further by Eldar Heide, seiðr was a practice that involved sending out energy with the mind to obtain “desired objects, persons, or resources.” This energy could manifest in visible form as well, called gandr, such as in animal or some other form.

Archaeologist Neil Price writes that the ritual was popular all across Scandinavian countries during the late Iron Age period. Many cultures perceived the ritual as sorcery or cult practices (via Yale), since god Odin was deemed to be the “supreme master” and Freya his teacher. As Yale explains, “it is true to say that the corpus of Icelandic sagas, skaldic verse and Eddie poetry is saturated with references to sorcery in general, and seiðr in particular.”

Freya was a busy woman, being a warrior and a shaman, so it stands to reason her mode of transportation would be just as fantastical as she is. Legend has it that she traveled with her own glittering carriage, pulled by two male cats.

As written by William P. Reaves for Germanic Mythology, there is a lot of mystery surrounding Freya’s cats, and the idea that Freya drove around in a carriage pulled by cats was not accepted easily by the male scholars of the 19th century. A reason for this is that Freya’s means of transport isn’t mentioned in the Poetic Edda, the original source of these legends. The first time her chariot is mentioned is in Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson’s version of the stories. While the writer uses the word köttum on one occasion, meaning cats, he uses fressa on another one. Because the word fressa could be translated as a bear, confusion arises. 

It should be noted that by the time these scholars tried to unravel this cat enigma, the idea that cats were evil and connected to witchcraft was already firmly planted, Reaves notes. Because Freya was associated with sorcery, cats seem the most likely to pull her carriage. 

Cats often represent femininity, divinity, secrecy, capriciousness, and independence, according to researcher and therapist Ae-kyu Par – all things associated with Freya’s nature.

Initially, Freya was known as the goddess of war. According to “The Norse Myths,” by Kevin Crossley-Holland, Freya often rode to battle on her cat carriage, as written in the poem “Grímnismál.” The end of the poem notes her warrior face, full of victory and courage. Other references to her warrior status include her association with Hildisvini, a battle boar, as mentioned by Crossley-Holland. 

In the Prose Edda, she’s commended for accompanying warriors after they die heroically in battle. Only those who are chosen by Freya can enter paradise to enjoy their afterlife:  “Folkvang it is called, and there rules Freyja. For the seats in the hall half of the slain she chooses each day; the other half is Odin’s.”

As written in the Ynglinga saga, Freya also played an important part in the war between the Aesir and Vanir people. As a main deity of the Venir people, when peace was finally achieved, she brought harmony to the nations by guiding sacrifices, which helped maintain fertility cycles and life in general (via Mythopedia).

There are many debates among academics whether there are two goddesses or only one. The reason for this confusion may be dependent on the area and time period of research.

According to Norse scholar Daniel McCoy, the two goddesses are more than likely the same, with their distinction as two separate characters basically attributed to “the Norse [being] in the process of splitting into Freya and Frigg sometime shortly before the conversion of Scandinavia and Iceland to Christianity (around the year 1000 C.E.).” He goes on to argue that both are often associated with love and desire, are known for their infidelities, possess magic, and own a falcon feather cloak. In his discussion, McCoy takes a firm stance that they are “ultimately the same goddess.”

Stephan Grundy in “The Concept of the Goddess” takes a bit more of a pragmatic approach, stating it may be difficult to discern due to the “scantiness of pre-Viking Age references to Germanic goddesses, and the diverse quality of the sources.” He notes some of the same similarities as McCoy, also identifying the story of Freya/Frigg cashing in their bodies in exchange for a beautiful necklace. Of their differences, he writes that while Freya is wild and free, Frigg is known for her virtue, as a mother figure, and keeper of the home. Grundy also details that Frigg is connected to the Aesir people, while Freya is firmly rooted among the Vanir. “This firmly rooted distinction of race between Freya and Frigg would seem to establish them as basically different in kind as well as in person,” he writes. 

According to “The Stories of Months and Days,” by Reginald C. Couzens (via Sacred Texts), while it is not clear whether Friday is named after Freya or Frigg, it was definitely named after one of those two. Similarly, Romans named Friday after Venus, goddess of love and beauty — both also attributes of Freya. In pagan times, people saw fertility as something extremely important. And, with Freya associated with fertility, as the Huffington Post notes, it make sense that she would be celebrated with a day of the week.

As per “Panati’s Origins of Everyday Things,” by Charles Panati, there are some theories that superstition around Friday the 13ts originates in Nordic myths. After Christians colonized Scandinavian countries, they converted Freya from being a goddess into a witch and believed that she, the devil, and 11 other witches met every Friday to plot the evils for upcoming week. 

The Huffington Post also notes that the number 13 itself was also closely connected to feminine goddess energy in pagan times, since the average woman has 13 menstrual cycles in a year, which relates to 13 moon cycles. Astrologer Tanaaz Chubb (via Forever Conscious) notes that Friday the 13th was known as the “day of the goddess,” a bridge between death and life itself. However, patriarchal religions erased this from the society, and as Vice reports, made women feel ashamed, thus perpetuating the notion of bad luck.