Odin's Wedding to Freya

The marriage of Odin and Freya was a peace treaty that ended the Aesir-Vanir War, joining the king of the Aesir to the leader of the Vanir. Proposed by Mimir, it brought a fragile harmony to the realms, but the Vanir saw it as a betrayal, and in the end it brought Freya only banishment.

Prelude#

For a very long age the Aesir and the Vanir were at odds. Seeking peace, the Vanir god Freyr had once traveled to Asgard to teach the Aesir to raise bountiful crops with magic, but the Aesir were too impatient and undisciplined and got everything wrong. Blaming Freyr, they burned him, though he survived and escaped home. Outraged, the Vanir swore revenge, and the long war between the two peoples broke out.

When neither side could break the other, Mimir, Odin's advisor and arbiter among the gods, settled on a single solution. Odin would marry his deadliest enemy, Freya, renowned both for her beauty and for the magic the All-Father had long desired to master. Freya remained resentful of Odin for the suffering inflicted on her people and on her brother, yet she agreed to the marriage in the belief that it would bring peace to the nine realms.

The wedding#

The ceremony was held at a shrine in Vanaheim, attended by all the Aesir and Vanir, among them Odin's sons Thor, Tyr, and Heimdall, and his grandsons Magni and Modi. Some Vanir had etched the word Traitor onto one of the shrine's walls, for they had been tricked into believing that Freya had betrayed and abandoned them. She was hated and denounced by her own people, even her worshippers, who in their rage vandalized a temple they had raised in her honor. Freyr regarded his sister's marriage as selfish and spoke harsh words to her.

That night Odin and Freya drank from a chalice called the Lover's Chalice until they could no longer stand. Odin fashioned a beautiful circlet crown for his bride as a symbol of his commitment, the first of many he would make for her, each finer than the last. To mark their union the couple thrust a sword into a stone, which would serve as Freya's final tie to Asgard. A great feast followed, filled with delicacies and mead prepared by both peoples, and the celebration ran late into the night.

Peace and its end#

With the wedding the realms fell at peace. While Freya dwelt in Asgard, her people sent her gifts so that she would not miss her home, though they stopped after her son Baldur was born. For a time she and Odin were genuinely happy, and Mimir later recalled seeing in Odin the same joy he had held for Fjorgyn, the mother of Thor. Freya taught her husband to master Vanir magic, but refused to teach him the Old Magic, and Odin granted many of her wishes, including a measure of freedom for the Valkyries. Yet for all his love, he had wed her only to learn her magic in secret, which he achieved.

The peace did not last. Odin became consumed by the Jotnar prophecy of Ragnarok. After the Huldra brothers Brok and Sindri forged the hammer Mjolnir, Odin gave it to Thor and ordered him to slay every giant he could find, punishing the Jotnar for expelling the All-Father from Jotunheim after they caught him spying and stealing their secrets. Freya came to loathe the Aesir for their crimes.

Freya's banishment#

At last Odin revealed his true nature and demanded that Freya grant him the same invulnerability spell she had placed on Baldur. Knowing the consequences such a gift had already brought, she refused. Odin flew into a rage, and Freya left him. In answer the All-Father stripped her of her Valkyrie wings and her warrior spirit, rendering her unable to fight even in her own defense, and banished her from Asgard to be trapped in Midgard. To ensure she could never escape, he tied several branches of Yggdrasil into a knot that would drag her back to Midgard should she travel to any realm but Asgard, making the dragon Nidhogg, caretaker of the world tree, his unwitting pawn.

The marriage left scars beyond Asgard. Freyr abandoned Alfheim and its Light Elves in response, leaving the realm to be overrun by the Dark Elves and their king. Vanaheim suffered worst of all, as the Einherjar established a military foothold there and scattered the Vanir, forcing Freyr to raise a resistance of his friends and allies. For centuries afterward Freya was haunted by the marriage and its consequences, until, before the onset of Ragnarok, she journeyed with Kratos to Vanaheim and freed herself at last of her bonds to Asgard.