Ancient To Modern: Borrowed Gods (2)

Continuing on in our series, let’s take a look at…

Credit: Marvel Comics
Credit: Marvel Comics

Freya

Actually, this goddess has a number of appellations and spellings as can be seen in some of my image captions. Also called Frigga in the Marvel Universe, she is the goddess of love, sex, fertility, beauty, war, death, etc. As you can see, their is some redundancy of function between the members of the Norse pantheon. Freya is the wife of Odin and the mother of Thor. Below is a depiction of her flyting with the god Loki. Flyting would have been called “playing the dozens” in the not too distant past of the American inner city. In the 1970s, my friends and I called it “firing” on each other when we were in high school. As this picture suggests, this is a fairly widespread sport throughout history.

Freya and Loki flyte (exchange insults) in this illustration by Lorenz Frolich (1895).
Freya and Loki flyte (exchange insults) in this illustration by Lorenz Frolich (1895).

Here is another representation by John Bauer.

Freja by John Bauer (1882-1918).
Freja by John Bauer (1882-1918).

Moving on to the comics, a prominent expression of modern mythology…

Credit: Marvel Comics
Credit: Marvel Comics
Credit: Marvel Comics
Credit: Marvel Comics

… we finally arrive at the movies of the Disney Marvel Franchise, where Freya is played by Renee Russo.

Freya (Renee Russo) from Thor (2011), directed by Kenneth Branaugh
Freya (Renee Russo) from Thor (2011), directed by Kenneth Branaugh
From Thor: The Dark World (2013), directed by Alan Taylor.
From Thor: The Dark World (2013), directed by Alan Taylor.

(to be continued)

2 thoughts on “Ancient To Modern: Borrowed Gods (2)”

  1. I always thought Freya and Fricka were two different people, with Freya being the goddess of beauty and Fricka as Odin’s wife. I’m guessing the screen writers decided to substitute Freya for Fricka and the alternate spelling, Frigga, considering how much they both sound like a substitute for a certain curse word.

    Liked by 1 person

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