InNorse mythology, thesister-wife of Njörðr is the twin sister and unnamed first wife of the godNjörðr, and together with him had the deitiesFreyr andFreyja. This shadowy goddess is attested to in thePoetic Edda poemLokasenna, recorded in the 13th century by an unknown source, and theHeimskringla bookYnglinga saga, aeuhemerized account of the Norse gods composed bySnorri Sturluson also in the 13th century but based on earlier traditional material. The figure receives no further mention inOld Norse texts.
The situation is further complicated in that narratives describing the birth of Freyr and Freyja contradictorily cite the birth of the siblings occurring either after or before Njörðr leftVanaheimr to live among theÆsir. In addition, Freyr is referred to as the "son" of Njörðr and the goddessSkaði in thePoetic Edda poemSkírnismál.
In his first-century workGermania,Tacitus describes rituals surrounding a goddess by the name ofNerthus, a theonym that isetymologically ancestral to Old NorseNjörðr. However, the figure described by Tacitus is female. Based on this scholars have suggested a Proto-Germanic hermaphroditic deity or a gender aspectual pair (similar to Freyja and Freyr), identified the obscure Old Norse goddess nameNjörun as a potential name for the otherwise unnamed goddess, and in some cases identified a potential reflex of a narrative about Njörðr and his sister-wife inSaxo Grammaticus's 12th-century workGesta Danorum.
In aeuhemerized account of the gods inYnglinga saga chapter 4,Snorri Sturluson characterizes Freyr and Freyja as the children of Njörðr by his unnamed sister, to whom he was married by Vanir custom:
Old Norse
- Þá er Njǫrðr var með Vǫnum, þá hafði hann átta systur sína, því at þat váru þar lǫg; váru þeira bǫrn Freyr ok Freyja.[1]
Lee M. Hollander translation (1992)
- While Njorth lived with the Vanir he had his sister as wife, because that was the custom among them. Their children were Freyr and Freyja.[2]
In theEddic poemLokasenna,Loki also states that Njörðr had Freyr by his sister:
Old Norse
- við systor þinni
- gaztu slíkan mǫg
Ursula Dronke translation (1997)
- on your sister
- you begot such a son[3]
In contrast, in theGylfaginning section of hisProse Edda, after telling the story of Njörðr's unhappy marriage toSkaði that occurred after he came to live among the Æsir, Snorri states that Freyr and Freyja were born after that; Freyr is also presented as the son of Njörðr and Skaði in the Eddic poemSkírnismál.[4] However, inYnglinga saga Freyr, and presumably Freyja, accompanies Njörðr when he comes to live with the Æsir as a hostage after theÆsir–Vanir War;[5] andLokasenna alludes to Freyja having been "surprised" in Vanic incest with her brother.[6]
Scholars sinceJacob Grimm have regarded the chronology inYnglinga saga as more likely to be original and taken Freyr and Freyja as having been therefore born to Njörðr by an unmentioned Vanic wife.[7][8]Jan de Vries suggested a remnant of ancient Indo-European custom.[9] SinceNerthus in Tacitus' late-1st centuryGermania is an earth goddess,terra mater (mother earth), but her name is etymologically identical to his, the suggestion is that there was originally ahermaphroditic deity, or more likely that they were a married twin pair, parallel to Freyr and Freyja.[10]Georges Dumézil pointed out that inSaxo Grammaticus'Gesta Danorum, the heroHadingus' life closely parallels Njörðr's, including a relationship with his foster-sister Harthgrepa followed by marriage to a princess who chooses him by his feet, as Skaði does inGylfaginning.[11] Grimm suggested that Freyja was thought of as the daughter of the female Nerthus and Freyr as the son of the male Njörðr.[12] It is possible that the goddess' name survives in the uncharacterizedNjörun who appears in some skaldickennings and in theNafnaþulur that were later appended to theProse Edda; other divine pairs with similarly differentiated names in the Old Norse corpus are Freyr and Freyja,Fjörgynn andFjörgyn orUllr andUllinn in theOld High German.[13]