The Norse goddess Freya in her chariot pulled by two blue
cats
© Patrimonio | Dreamstime.com - FreyaNorse Goddess Photonamed Bygul and Trjegul. |
The goddess Freya and her cats
Freya (or Freyja) was a fertility goddess and was associated
with domesticity, womanhood, and female sexuality. She was also associated with
sorcery and magic, as well as war and death. It was said that after a battle,
Freya would lead a band of Valkyries to gather the fallen warriors—or half of
them, at least. She would take her share of the dead to Folkvang, her hall in
the home of the gods, while the other half went to Odin, god of wisdom and war.
Freya might also have been the goddess on hand to greet women after death.
Freya’s chariot was pulled not by horses but by two male cats.
Both cats were described as being blue or gray and had been a gift from Thor. Their names (bestowed upon them not by the ancient Norse but by a modern author, according to the Viking Answer Lady) were Bygul and Trjegul.
Why cats? Well, cats have been associated with femininity
and fertility since ancient Egypt, so it isn’t surprising that cats would be
associated with Freya in Norse mythology. But if Freya was the goddess of the
feminine, why were her cats male? It may be that the association of Freya and
these male cats represented a combination of female and male sexuality (Prehal,
p. 16).
Thor gives Freya two blue kittens
1981 Sweden stamp shows Freya in her chariot pulled by three…cats? Stock image via AdobeStock. |
One day while Thor was fishing, he heard a beautiful singing
that lulled him to sleep. Soon enough, though, he was awakened by a horrible
noise. Irritated, he went in search of the noise and came upon the magic Cat
Bayun and two blue kittens. The kittens were asleep, and the cat, a male, was
singing to them.
Thor asked if Cat Bayun was the kittens’ father, and the cat
replied that he was. He’d met a pretty female in the spring and together they’d
had these kittens, but now their mother had left him and he was stuck as a
single father. He asked for Thor’s help, and Thor got the idea to give the
kittens to Freya.
Bayun then turned
into a bird and flew away, and Thor gathered up the kittens and took them to
Freya. Those kittens grew into the cats that pulled Freya’s
chariot.
Sources
Prehal, Brenda. Freyja’s
Cats: Perspectives on Recent Viking Age Finds in Þegjandadalur North Iceland. Master’s
thesis. Hunter College of the City University of New York. 2011.
The Encyclopedia of
Ancient Myth and Culture. London: Quantum Books, 2003.
The Facts on File
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend. 2nd ed. Vol. I. New York: Facts
on File, 2004.
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