Freya’s Tears

“Freyja is most gently born (together with Frigg): she is wedded to the man named Ódr… [who] went away on long journeys, and Freyja weeps for him, and her tears are red gold. Freyja has many names, and this is the cause thereof: that she gave herself sundry names, when she went out among unknown peoples seeking Ódr: she is called Mardöll and Hörn, Gefn, Sýr.”

– Gylfaginning, Brodeur Translation

The legend of Freya and her tears of gold has inspired people for many an age. One particularly famous rendition is by Gustav Klimt as apart of the Art Nouveau movement of the early 1900s. But the tale is an old one, going back over a thousand years into the Migration Period, or as it is more romantically called, the Viking Age.

What is it about a woman so beautiful, yet so sad that she cries tears of gold, that resonates so deeply. We have all experienced sadness, and you can probably think of a time or two when that sadness has struck you down at your core. Freya weeps for her lost lover, something you to have likely experienced.

Perhaps that is the core of it, one of the most human experiences is love and loss, and if we could only cry golden tears as the Norse goddess Freya does, then perhaps we would feel more justified. Or maybe Freya represents all of our collective human loss and when she divinely weeps on our behalf how could so much love be anything but gold?

The original painting was done in oil and measures 11" x 14".