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Shanghai Immortal

Publisher’s Description

Half vampire. Half fox-spirit. All trouble.

Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell as a child, Lady Jing is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and all sasshole. As the King’s ward, she has spent the past ninety years running errands, dodging the taunts of the spiteful hulijing courtiers, and trying to control her explosive temper – with varying levels of success.

So when Jing overhears the courtiers plotting to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she seizes her chance to expose them, once and for all.

With the help of a gentle mortal tasked with setting up the Central Bank of Hell, Jing embarks on a wild chase for intel, first through Hell and then mortal Shanghai. But when her hijinks put the mortal in danger, she must decide which is more important: avenging her loss of face, or letting go of her half-empty approach to life for a chance to experience tenderness – and maybe even love.


Summary

I read the alternate history and dark fantasy Shanghai Immortal by UK based author A.Y. Chao.

Lady Jing is the protagonist, a half-vampire, half-hulijing fox -spirit and heir to the throne of the Hulijing Court. Disliked for her irreverence, feistiness and half-vampire/ half-hulijing, her place in the immortal realm is secured only by her mother placing her as the ward of the formidable Lord of the Hell in exchange for a rare, precious and powerful Dragon Pearl.

Jing wants more from life than the constrains and proprietary of the Hulijing Court ruled by her grandmother. Attempts by the hulijing to remove Jing from Hell and the protection of the Lord of Hell are a constant threat and annoyance.

After discovering her grandmother sndvtgr Court of the hulijing intend to steal the precious Dragon Pearl her mother traded to the Lord of Hell, Jing takes chance to finally bring down the Court of the Hulijing and expose their treachery.

To solve the mystery of her own fate and the Dragon Pearl, Jing falls in love with a mortal the Lord of Hell has recruited to set up the Central Bank of Hell in keeping with mortal 1930s Shanghai and currencies. Jing’s plans to use the mortal to learn the secrets of her past are threatened when the chance of love forces her to decide between vengeance against her grandmother and the Hulijing Court and the mortal she loves.

Review

A.Y. Chao has written a spell-binding novel. Shanghai Immortal is a witty and irreverent in its exploration of 1930s Shanghai and Chinese mythology. Written in a fresh and engaging style, this is a fascinating adventure through the Chinese Immortal realms and massive social changes in 1930s Shanghai. Utterly magical!

Conclusion

An adventure-packed, dark fantasy with unique 1930s Shanghai alternate history. Great for fans of urban fantasy, myths and legends, paranormal romance. Highly recommend!


** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **

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The Void

Publisher’s Description

A dark tale of self-discovery that will sweep you into a world of swords, secrets, snark, and sapphic love.

Kiera never fit in. Not on her aunt’s farm, not at her boring job, not with her ex-girlfriends. But she hasn’t given up hope of finding that elusive place to belong.

A freak storm leaves her stranded, alone in the office.

When something flashes past the upstairs window, the sarcastic voice in her head, Jiminy, insists it’s a figment of her imagination. But Kiera knows she didn’t imagine the flying pirate ship.

Or the dragon.

If she jumps on board—into a hidden world above the clouds—there’ll be no coming back. Is she ready for the quest of a lifetime, and the dark secrets beginning to unfurl?

Void is the first book in a dark steampunk fantasy series that skillfully blends thrilling adventure, snarky humour, and a sapphic slow-burn romance.


Summary

I recently read The Void (The Fang Ripper Series, #1) a steampunk fantasy novella by Australian author Neen Cohen.

The Void follows protagonist Kiera who lives in present-day Brisbane with allusions made early to her mental instability or repressed memories and self. Kiera lives a ‘normal’ life but the arrival of an otherworldly storm pulls Kiera from what she’d imagined was reality and into a new one of Skyan. Is this the strange connection she’d always felt was wrong with her?

Kiera’s journey into learning her true past begins when Blue crashes his sky ship to earth and the attractive but feminine Zarzy is injured battling an earth-magic dragon. To save Zarzy and prevent the darkly powerful Void from drvouring everything, Kiera must learn quickly as Blue takes the sky ship into Skyran with its floating cities, war and dangerous political machinations that threaten not just Blue and Zarzy who Kiera is undeniably attracted to. Into this complex battles of dragons and opposing invested interests, Kiera begins to learns her own truth.

Review

Cohen introduces a new take on urban fantasy with energetic prose and a mild sapphic romance. There’s a lot to unpack in this first novella and the word-building is fascinating and much more detail to follow. This is a genre-blending series of urban fantasy, steampunk and adventure. Cohen keeps it fast-paced with intriguing characters and innovative concepts.

Conclusion

A recommended new dark fantasy with mild sapphic romance, dragons, airships in a fresh take on urban fantasy!

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Egyptian Myth: Hathor

Hathor was known as “the Great One of Many Names” and her titles and attributes are so numerous that she was important in nearly every aspect of ancient Egyptian life and death. Her widespread worship in the Predynastic period is indicated by her depiction on the Narmer palette.

During the Old Kingdom period, her worship was well established. Hathor symbolically represents Upper Egypt while the god Bast represents Lower Egypt and both are depicted in The Valley Temple of Khafre at Giza.

Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way which was considered to be the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow, which links her to the goddess Nut and Bat. But over time, Hathor absorbed the attributes of many other goddesses to become more closely associated with Isis. In turn, Isis usurped Hathor’s position as the most popular and more powerful goddess. But, Hathor remained popular throughout Ancient Egyptian worship.

Festivals were dedicated to Hathor and her worship extended beyond Egypt and Nubia. She was worshipped throughout Semitic West Asia, Ethiopia, Somalia and Libya and she was particularly worshipped in the city of Byblos.

Hathor was among the goddesses that carried the Eye of Ra – a symbolic representation as the female opposite of Ra in which she had an avenging character protection g her from her opposites.

In her feminine aspect, Hathor represented the musical arts, dance, joy, love, sexuality, and maternal care. These were the properties of the goddess and represented ancient Egyptian femininity.
As the goddess of music and dance, her ministry was formed by dancers, singers, actors and even acrobats.

Hathor crossed the boundaries between the worlds to learn from the dead as they transitioned to an afterlife.

She was entrusted to receive the dead to enter the afterlife and when they went to her in an adequate manner, their petitions would be were heard. The goddess Hathor herself would lead them over to the room of the dead. To some, Hathor was a cow goddess that suckled babies with her sacred milk, or was associated with the wild lioness that lived in the desert capable of extinguishing all life.

Hathor was often personified as a cow – or the symbol of a woman with a crown of cow horns and a solar disk. She could also be symbolized as a lioness – the protective emblem used by the pharaohs. She was also associated with a sycamore tree – the yellow trunk of resistant, durable wood.

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor also was the defender of the drunkards, ruled the celebration of drunkenness, which was celebrated in Dendera, twenty days after the overflowing of the Nile. She was named “The lady of joys” for to her cheerful, festive and game-related personality and “The lady of the garlands” for her beauty

Many shrines were consecrated to Hathor with the most famous at Dendera in Upper Egypt where she also enjoyed being worshipped in the temples of her male companions.

By the New kingdom era, the goddesses Nut and Isis took the place of Hathor, but she continued to represent one of the most revered goddesses. At the end of the New Empire, Hathor was overshadowed by the goddess Isis.

During the Ptolemaic era, a rite arose based on Hathor and Horus forming a marriage saw “The Good Gathering” celebrated in the month of Epiphany according to the Egyptian calendar.

Hathor appears as a woman with a cow’s head, or a human head with the ears and horns of a cow.

She can also appear as a lioness associated with Sekhmet or the cat.

In the late period tale, Ra transformed Hathor into Sekhmet who was the eye of her father. He sent her to devastate humankind for not obeying him, but later, in remorse, Sekhmet was so drunk so that Ra transformed her back into Hathor – the goddess who represents love and veneration

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor is the “mother of mothers”, a goddess of women, maturity, children, and work. Her enigmatic energy connected her with women.

In the Book of the Dead from the 13th century B.C., Hathor was one of the goddesses associated with the souls in the afterlife. Among those deities, there was Amentit, a deity of the west, who represented Necropolis or sarcophagi on the western banks of the Nile and the kingdom of life after death.

Hathor’s associates:
Women, musicians, dancers, singers, perfumers, aroMatherapists, cosmeticians, brewers, vintners, magicians, fortune-tellers, diviners, and henna artists

Manifestations:
Hathor is most often depicted as a cow with the solar disk and plumes between her horns or as a woman whose crown is a solar disk held between a pair of cow horns.

Iconography:
Hathor is symbolised as tree with a woman’s breast, with which she nourishes pharaohs.

Attributes:
Mirror, frame drum, and sistrum: the sistrum, a percussion instrument, is sometimes decorated with Hathor’s image, as are Egyptian hand mirrors.

Animals:
Cow, gazelle, cat, goose

Plants:
Myrrh tree, date palm, sycomore fig, papyrus, and henna

Stones:
Malachite, turquoise

Metal:
Gold, copper

Color:
Red

Planet:
Moon. Hathor also has associations with the Dog Star, or Sirius which the ancient Egyptians called Sothis, the Great Provider or the Womb of Hathor.

Places:
Hathor’s principal sanctuary was at Dendera, on the edge of the desert between Luxor and Abydos, where it is believed her cult first began. Dendera was a healing center, the Egyptians considered it the Navel of the Universe, or Earth’s spiritual center. The mountain range to the west of the Nile River and marshes were sacred to Hathor.

Time:
An annual festival of appeasement corresponded with the rising of Sothis (Sirius) or approximately 20 July by our calendar. Hathor was offered copious amounts of beer and pomegranate juice shared by celebrating devotees.

Offerings:
A gift of two mirrors is her traditional votive offering. Hathor is the spirit of alcohol and beer or wine were used as offerings. Other traditional votive offerings include fabrics, scarabs, and other amulets; images of cats and cows; jewelry; and ex-votos (milagros) in the form of eyes or ears to encourage Hathor to see or hear petitioners.

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Diversity Grants & Awards

I’m really excited to announce I’ve been nominated for the Ditmar Awards for Best New Talent and Best Novella for Bluebells – an LGBTQI, disability dystopian alternate history horror.

I’m a recipient of the 2023 Horror Writers Association Diversity Grants to allow me to continue research for my HWA mentorship project with Lee Murray. The final piece will be an alternate history, gothic horror, GBTQI, disability with Fae versus gangsters in 1920s Sydney.

It’s a great time to be writing with my heart, soul and passion. Very excited to see where diversity in horror and dark fantasy can take us!

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Anoka

Publisher’s Description

Welcome to Anoka, Minnesota, a small city just outside of the Twin Cities dubbed “The Halloween Capital of the World” since 1937. Here before you lie several tales involving bone collectors, pagan witches, werewolves, skeletal bison, and cloned children. It is up to you to decipher between fact and fiction as the author has woven historical facts into his narratives. With his debut horror collection, Cheyenne and Arapaho author Shane Hawk explores themes of family, grief, loneliness, and identity through the lens of indigenous life.


Summary

I was recently recommended to read Anoka: A Collection of Indigenous Horror from US author Shane Hawk.

While it is hard to choose favourites from this collection which spans so many real-world themes, societal marginalisation, stigma and indigenous horror themes, there were several stories that really resonated with me.

The opening story ‘Soilborne’ was dark tale that really plunged its claws into me. ‘Wounded’ was a journey into the darkness of a mind and family. ‘Transfigured’ was a striking Halloween story that proved the perfect ending to this collection of the dark, haunting and macabre.

Review

Anoka was a fantastic collection of indigenous horror where Hawk delivered a host of genuine characters, masterful storytelling and a series of dark, weird and haunting horror in a well-written psychological horror collection.

Conclusion

Highly recommended read for fans of horror, dark fiction and psychological horror. A must read!


** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **

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Arthurian Lore: Merlin

Merlin is the archetypal wizard from Arthurian lore. Merlin is a Latinized version of the Welsh Myrddin. His exact origins are lost in myth and there is no concrete evidence, but there was possibly several individuals who were guardians to kings, prophets and bards existed toward in the late fifth century. What we have today has become the basis for the Arthurian lore about Merlin.

Merlin’s first appearances in the Latin works of Geoffrey of Monmouth, a 12th-century Welsh cleric. The Prophecies of Merlin written in the early 1130s and are verses apparently made by the fifth century prophet, Merlin. Monmouth did invent many of the prophecies himself which stretched beyond the 12th century. In the History of the Kings of Britain, Monmouth formed the foundations for the Arthurian legends where Merlin becomes a key character. Monmouth confuses the chronology placing Merlín in both the fifth and sixth centuries. He is allegedly a magical child born from a union between a mortal woman and a spirit (a daemon, which later Christian writers interpreted as the Devil) but he has great magical abilities with prophecy and matures quickly like many demi-gods from Classical mythology.

Accordingly, Merlin moves great stones from Ireland to the Salisbury Plain to construct Stonehenge (which actually much older than the fifth or sixth centuries CE). It is Merlín who organises for king Uther Pendragon to seduce Igraine. From the union is a son – the infant Arthur. Here, Monmouth’s story leaves Arthur and he doesn’t reappear until a third poetic work where The Life of Merlin continues the tale of Artur but instead focuses on Merlin sister- Ganieda. Vita Merlini written by Monmouth in about 1150, is a biography of sorts about the adult Merlin but it a written account of twelfth century oral lore, mythology, cosmography, cosmology and natural history.

In Vita Merlini, Merlin fights at the Battle of Camlann. Unlike many Arthurian stories and romantic poems, instead of glorifying war, the horrifying effects of trauma on individuals and their families are made plain. Merlin rules South Wales. Peredur of North Wales argues with Gwenddoleu, the King of Scotland and Merlin and King Rhydderch of Cumbria join with Peredur against the Scots in a savage battle. Arthur is wounded and taken from the battlefield to Avalon for healing.

The Britons finally rally their troops and force the Scots to retreat. Seeing victory ahead, Merlin instructs on the correct burial rites for all the dead before the trauma of war overwhelms him and he flees into the forest. There he exists as a hermit – naked and mad, he hunts animals and harvested nuts and wild fruit. He observes the animals and birds learning their ways and studying all the natural world around him.

After the Battle of Camlann and Merlín has fled to the woods, Queen Ganeida, Merlin’s sister and the wife of King Rhydderc worries for her brother’s well-being. She sends searchers into the woods to look for Merlin in hope of bringing him out of his madness. One of the searchers comes to a fountain hidden by hazel thickets. There he finds Merlin, naked and unkempt, talking to himself. The searcher doesn’t want to alarm Merlin with his presence so instead he softly plays the lyre and sings about the mourning of Guendoloena for her beloved husband, Metlin and of the worry of Ganieda for her brother.

The music was enough to sooth Merlin’s soul and he remembered who he was, and what he had been, and everyone he had set aside in his madness. He asks the searcher to take him to the court of his old friend King Rhydderch. There, Metlin walks through the city gates, and his sister Ganieda and wife Guenedolena run to meet him. In their love and joy at his return, they lead him to the royal court where King Rhydderch receives him with great honour. Suddenly surrounded by the vast crowd which he’s been unaccustomed to such human company, his madness returns and desperately, he tries to escape to the sanctuary of the woods.

Rhydderch refused to let his old friend go, fearing for his safety in the wild, he has Merlin chained whereupon he falls silent and morose, refusing to speak or acknowledge anyone.

Merlin bowed his head for a moment as if softening, but then the madness in him spoke, “I will be free of her, free of you, free of love and its binding chains, therefore it is right that she be allowed her chance of happiness and marry a man of her own choosing, but beware should that man ever come near! On her wedding day, I will come to her and give her my gifts.”

Metlin explained King Rhydderch’s wife – Merlín’s own sister- is having an affair. He prophecies three different deaths for the son. The king laughs at so many different prophesied deaths for the same boy and apologies for doubting his wife’s fidelity. Queen Ganieda is greatly relieved to have her secret affair kept hidden as a jest.

Merlin is granted freedom but neither his sister Ganieda or his wife can entreat him to stay in the city. Merlin’s sister and wife watch him leave for the solitude of the forest. Both were convinced his derangement had no truth to the three different predicted for the death of the queen’s son.

The boy in question grew into a young man, and one during a hunting expedition with friends and his horse throws him over the cliff but his boot snags a tree the branch suspending his body in the air while his head is submerged beneath the water and he drowns. This fulfils the three deaths for the son according to Merlin’s prophecy.

Merlin was freed and made his way the gates. His sister caught up with him there, telling of her love and begged him to at least see out the winter in comfort with her.

Merlin left and Ganieda built a lodge for him, where she brought him food and drink. Merlin thanked her for that and for her company. On one occasion, Merlín forts the death of the king she must to return quickly to court. He asks that when she return to him, she must bring Taliesin, who lord recently arrived after visiting Gildas in Brittany.

Ganieda returns to Merlín with Taliesin. Merlin explains how they’d taken the badly wounded King Arthur to the Avalon after the battle of Camlann, leaving him in the healing care of Morgan le Fay. He explains events from Vortigern to King Arthur and long period of Saxon domination which would eventually lead to a return to British ruler after a prolonged and bloody conflict.

Perhaps the best-known portrayal of Merlin comes from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur written in 1485. This is romanticised tale of how the infant Arthur was raised in a stewardship until after on the death of his father, Uther Pendragon, Merlin presents the youth, Arthur to the knights of the land. Merlin sets a task to prove Arthur is Uthet’s true heir by if he can withdraw the sword Excalibur from the stone in which Merlín has embedded, he is the rightful ruler of Britain. Here, Merlin acts as Arthur’s adviser but disappears from the story early in Arthur’s reign. An unrequited passion for Nimue (or Viviane) the lady of the lake tricks Merlín into revealing how to construct a magical tower of hidden by mist which she then uses to imprison him.

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Celtic Myth: Danu

Danu is one of the oldest Celtic goddess. She is represented by the earth and its abundance. Many place names in Ireland are associated with her, most notable the Paps of Anu in Kerry, which resemble the breasts of a large supine female, part of the land.

Danu is known as the ‘beantuathach’ (farmer) associating her with fertility. Rivers are also associated with her and in general, the fertility and abundance of the land.

Not many stories involving the Danu survive, but she appears is one story about Bile, the god of light and healing. Bile was represented as a sacred oak tree that was fed and nurtured by Danu resulting in the birth of Daghdha.

Danu is associated with the Tuatha Dé Danaan, the people of the goddess Danu. These were a group of people, descended from Nemed, who had been exiled from Ireland and scattered. Danu offered them her patronage allowing them to reunite, learning new magical skills and return to Ireland in a magical mist. The mist is Danu’s symbolic embrace. The Tuatha Dé Danaan are the clearest representatives in Irish myth of the powers of light and knowledge. The Tuatha Dé Danaan were associated with Craftsmanship, music, poetry and magic, as was Danu herself.

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The Bridge

Publisher’s Description

Meera and her twin sister Kai are Mades—part human and part not—bred in the Blood Temple cult, which only the teenage Meera will survive. Racked with grief and guilt, she lives in hiding with her mysterious rescuer, Narn—part witch and part not—who has lost a sister too, a connection that follows them to Meera’s enrollment years later in a college Redress Program. There she is recruited by Regulars for a starring role in a notorious reading series and is soon the darling of the lit set, finally whole, finally free of the idea that she should have died so Kai could have lived. Maybe Meera can be re-made after all, her life redressed. But the Regulars are not all they seem and there is a price to pay for belonging to something that you don’t understand. Time is closing in on all Meera holds dear—she stands afraid, not just for but of herself, on the bridge between worlds—fearful of what waits on the other side and of the cost of knowing what she truly is.


Summary

The Bridge by J.S. Breukelaar is an dystopian alternate future – in a world like Australia and not. Similar to the protagonist Meera – part human and not. She is bereaved after the death of her twin sister Kai and suffers survivors guilt. In meeting the mysterious witch figure Narn, who knows more than she says about Meera but shares the loss of her own sister, a strong connection to forged.

Encouraged by the future offered placement in the Redress Program. Meera finally sees this chance to belong to the Regulars as an opportunity to set aside her past, the grief of losing Kai and finally start living her own life. But be careful what you wish for because all transformations come at a cost and this one might be higher than Meera is willing to pay.

Review

In The Bridge, Breukelaar writes a stunning combination of the fantastic, futuristic and the metaphorical. The division between fate and desire, hope and reality are twisted and spun into an elegant futuristic dystopian fairy tale.

Conclusion

For fans of modern and futuristic fairy tale and folklore retellings and reimagining, contemporary dark fantasy and dystopian settings. A highly recommended read!


** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **

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The Salt-Black Tree

** I received an ARC for an honest review **

Publisher’s Description

Nat Drozdova has crossed half the continent in search of the stolen Dead God’s Heart, the only thing powerful enough to trade for her beautiful, voracious, dying mother’s life. Yet now she knows the secret of her own birth—and that she’s been lied to all her young life.

The road to the Heart ends at the Salt-Black Tree, but to find it Nat must pay a deadly price. Pursued by mouthless shadows hungry for the blood of new divinity as well as the razor-wielding god of thieves, Nat is on her own. Her journey leads through a wilderness of gods old and new, across a country as restless as its mortal inhabitants, and it’s too late to back out now.

…or accept the consequences of her own.


Summary

Blood may not always prevail. Magic might not always work. And the young Drozdova is faced with an impossible choice: Save her mother’s very existence…

I recently read The Salt-Black Tree(Dead God’s Heart, #2) by US dark fantasy and urban fantasy author Lilith Saintcrow.

The journey of Nat Drozdova continues but she now possesses Spring’s Arcana and is coming into her own Divinity. While she battles internally with the reality her mother has lied to her throughout her entire life, and that she was born simply to allow her mother to assume to divinity on American soil, Nat comes into her own power and makes her own decisions as she travels towards the Salt-Black Tree and whatever ending awaits her there.

She seeks the Dead God’s Heart but what she intends to do with it once she possesses it, she is yet to be sure. One thing she does know-Nat Drozdova is her own Divinity, and if that means battling her mother and Baba Yaga, she will do so.

Review

The Salt-Black Tree is the final instalment in the Dead God’s Heart duology.

Saintcrow’s writing is superb and she provides a thrilling and satisfying ending to her series. The plot is fast-paced while still being insightful to characters development and the detailed world-building. The comparisons to Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods, while relevant on the surface, Saintcrow’s duology blows them away with a darkness and ruthlessness in development and immigration of divinities and human belief which is fresh and bold. This finale is a masterpiece of talented writing while maintaining the integrity of the characters and the world building at the core of in this urban fantasy duology.

Conclusion

A highly recommended read for fans of urban fantasy, Russian folklore and world mythology. A thriller of an urban fantasy and a read!


** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **

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Norse Mythology: Frigg

Frigg (Old Norse Frigg, “Beloved”) is the highest-ranking of the Aesir goddesses. She’s the wife of Odin, and the mother of Baldur.

Frigg is depicted as a völva – a Viking Age practitioner of the form of Norse magic known as seidr. Seidr was a shamanic discerning fate and working within that structure to bring about changes – often weaving new events into being. In this way, Frigg and the Vanir goddess Freya are confused or by the Viking Age – combined into the same figure.

In the Viking Age, the völva was an itinerant seeress and sorceress who traveled from town to town performing commissioned acts of seidr in exchange for lodging, food, and often other forms of compensation as well. Similar to other northern Eurasian shamans, her social status was highly ambiguous – she was exalted, feared, longed for, propitiated, celebrated, and even scorned. This seems a very unlikely practice for a woman in Frigg’s position as the wife of a Chieftain and leader of the gods, Odín.

The Vanir goddesses Freya is often confused with Frigg in later writings – so much so that they are often the same figure. Freyja means “Lady” which is a title rather than an actual name. In the Viking Age, Scandinavian and Icelandic aristocratic women were sometimes called freyjur, the plural of freyja.

Odin’s has frequent absences from Asgard when he assumes the role of The Wanderer donning a ragged black cape and hat and walking among the mortals in Midgard. During Odin’s absences, Frigg assumes control of Asgard and the gods and she is the only other than Odín who may sit on Hliðskjálf – the high seat that enables sight anywhere in the Nine Worlds.

Frigg’s had a significantly elevated position among the Aesir but was treated cautiously because her weaving included not just fate but also the weather and her clothing was known to change appearance based on her moods.

Favoured people: Women; especially wives and mothers

Manifestation: She wears a belt which keys hang as common for the Viking Age ruler of the household

Attribute: Distaff from a loom

Element: Water

Constellation: In Norse cosmology, the constellation now known as Orion’s belt was called Frigg’s distaff or spindle

Runes: Mannaz, Pertho, Wunjo

Bird: Stork

Hall: Fensalir (“Marsh Hall”) is the after-death destination for happily married couples who can spend eternity together.