"How Goddess Freyja Gained Her Golden Necklace," by Padraic Colum...

Freyja had looked upon the wonders that Loki, the Trickster god, had brought into Asgard, the magnificent dwelling of the gods, — the golden threads that were Sif’s hair, and Freyj’s boar that shed light from its bristles as it flew. The gleam of these golden things dazzled her, and made her dream in the day time and the night time of the golden wonders that she herself might possess.

And often she thought, What wonderful things the three Giant women would give me if I could only bring myself to go to them on their mountaintop!

Long ere this, when the wall around their city was not yet built, and when the gods had set up only the court with their twelve seats and the Hall that was for Odin and the Hall that was for the goddesses, there had come into Asgard the three Giant women.

They came after the gods had set up a forge and had begun to work metal for their buildings.

The metal they worked was pure gold. With gold they built Gladsheim, the Hall of Odin, and with gold they made all their dishes and household ware. Then was the Age of Gold, and the gods did not begrudge gold to anyone. Happy were the gods then, and no shadow, nor any foreboding lay on Asgard.

But after three greedy giantesses came the gods began to greatly value gold in the wrong way and even to jealously hoard it. They played joyously with gold no more. And the happy innocence of their first golden days departed from them.

At last the three giantesses were banished from Asgard. The gods turned their thoughts from the hoarding of gold, and they started built up their city, and they made themselves very strong.

And now Freyja, the extremely lovely Vanir bride, thought upon the giantesses and on the wonderful things of gold they had flashed through their hands. But not to Odur, her very handsome husband, did she speak her thoughts; for Odur, more than any of the other dwellers in Asgard, tended to think on the days of happy innocence, before gold came to be hoarded and greatly valued.

Odur would not have Freyja go near the mountaintop where the three had their high seat.

But Freyja did not cease to think upon them and upon the glorious things of gold they had. “Why should Odur know I went to them?” she said to herself. “No one will ever tell him. So what difference will it make if I go to them and gain some lovely golden thing for myself? I shall not love Odur the less because I go my own way for just this once.”

Then one day she left their palace, leaving Odur, her husband, playing with their little child Hnossa. She left the palace and went down to the Earth. There she stayed for a while, tending the flowers that were her charge. After a while she asked the Elves to tell her where the mountain was on which the three giantesses stayed.

The Elves were frightened and would not tell her, although she was queen over them. She left them and stole down into the caves of the Dwarves. It was they who showed her the way to the seat of the giantesses, but before they showed her the way they made her feel shame and misery.

“We will show you the way if you stay a while with us here,” said one of the Dwarves.

“For how long would you have me stay?” said Freyja.

“Just until the cocks in Svartheim crow,” said the Dwarfs, closing round her. “We want to know what the sweet company of one of the Vanir is like.” “I will stay,” Freyja said.

Then one of the Dwarfs reached up and put his arms round her neck and kissed her with his big ugly mouth. Then Freyja was repulsed and she tried to break away from them, but the Dwarves held her fast. “You cannot go away from us now until the cocks of Svartheim crow,” they said. "You promised."

Then one and then another of the Dwarfs pressed up against her and kissed her. They made her sit down beside them on the heaps of skins they had. When she wept at their intimacy they screamed at her and beat her. One, when she rejected him, bit her hands. So Freyja stayed with the Dwarves until the cocks of Svartheim crowed.

Then they showed her the mountain on the top of which the three banished from Asgard had their abode. The giantesses sat overlooking the World of Men. “What would you have from us, wife of Odur?” one who was called Gulveig said to her.

“Alas, now that I have found you I know that I should ask you for nought!,” Freyja said.

“Speak, Vana,” said the second of the giantesses.

The third said nothing, but she held up in her hands a huge necklace of gold most curiously fashioned. “How beautifully bright it is!” Freyja said. “There is shadow where you sit, women, but the necklace you hold makes it all brightness now. Oh, how I should feel such great joy to wear it!”

“It is the necklace Brisingamen,” said the one who was called Gulveig.

“It is your's to wear, wife of Odur, and even your's to keep if you wish,” said the one who held it in her hands.

Freyja took the wonderful shining necklace and clasped it around her throat. She could not bring herself to thank the giantesses, for she saw that there was evil barely hidden their small squinting eyes. She made a bow of reverence to them, however, and she went down from the mountain on which they sat overlooking the World of Men.

In a while she dipped her chin and saw the Brisingamen lying on her chest and her former misery at the hands of the Dwarves and her nervousness in the presence of the giantesses went from her. The necklace was the most splendid thing ever made by hands. None of the Asyniur and none other of the Vanir possessed a thing even half so gorgeous. It made her much more lovely, and Odur, she thought, would certainly forgive her when he saw how beautiful and how happy the Brisingamen had made her.

She rose up from amongst the flowers and took leave of the Elves and she made her way into Asgard. All who greeted her looked long and with wonder upon the necklace that she wore. And into the eyes of the goddesses there came a look of deep longing when they saw the Brisingamen.

But Freyja hardly stopped to speak to anyone. As swiftly as she could she made her way to her own palace. She would show herself to Odur and win his forgiveness. Yes, yes, yes... She entered her shining palace and called to him. No answer came. She called and called and called him. Her child, the little Hnossa, was on the floor, playing. Her mother took her in her arms, but the child, when she looked on the Brisingamen, turned away crying bitterly.

Freyja left Hnossa down and searched again for Odur. He was not in any part of their palace. She went into the houses of all who dwelt in Asgard, asking for tidings of him. None knew where he had gone to. At last Freyja went back to their palace and waited and waited for Odur to return. But Odur did not come.

One came to her. It was a goddess, Odin’s wife, the queenly Frigga.

“You are waiting for Odur, your husband,” Frigga said. “Ah, let me tell you Odur will not come to you here. He went, when for the sake of a shining thing you did what would make him unhappy. Odur has gone from Asgard and no one knows where to search for him.”

“I will seek him outside of Asgard,” Freyja said. She wept no more, but she took the little child Hnossa and put her in Frigga’s arms. Then she mounted her chariot that was drawn by her two cats, Beegold and Treegold, and journeyed down from Asgard to Midgard, the Earth, to search for Odur her beloved husband.

Year in and year out, and over all the Earth, Freyja went searching and calling for the lost Odur. She went as far as the bounds of the Earth, where she could look over to Jötunheim, where dwelt the giant who would have carried her off with the Sun and the Moon as payment for the building of the wall around Asgard. But in no place, from the end of the Rainbow Bifröst, that stretched from Asgard to the Earth, to the boundary of Jötunheim, did she find a trace of her husband Odur.

At last she turned her chariot toward Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge that stretched from Midgard, the Earth, to Asgard. Heimdall, the Watcher for the gods, guarded the Rainbow Bridge. To him Freyja went with a half hope fluttering in her heart.

“O Heimdall,” she cried, “O Heimdall, Watcher for the gods, speak and tell me if you know where Odur is.”

“Odur is in every place where the searcher has not come; Odur is in every place that the searcher has left; those who seek him will never find Odur,” said Heimdall, the Watcher for the gods.

Then Freyja stood on Bifröst and wept. Frigga, the queenly Goddess, heard the sound of her weeping, and came out of Asgard to comfort her.

“Ah, what comfort can you give me, Frigga?” cried Freyja. “What comfort can you give me when Odur will never be found by one who searches for him?”

“Behold how your daughter, the child Hnossa, has grown,” said Frigga. Freyja looked up and saw a beautiful maiden standing on Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge. She was young, more youthful than any of the Vanir or the Asyniur, and her face and her form were so lovely that all hearts became melted when they looked upon her.

And Freyja was comforted in her loss. She followed Frigga across Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge, and came once again into the Dwelling of the gods. In her own palace in Asgard Freyja dwelt with Hnossa, her child.

Still she wore round her neck the Brisingamen, the glorious necklace that lost her Odur. But now she wore it, not for its splendor, but as a sign of the terrible wrong she had done. She weeps continually, and her tears become golden drops as they fall on the earth. And by poets who know her story she is called, "The Beautiful Lady In Tears".