Handmaidens Project Introduction

My process of working on this project: reading, writing and contemplation. Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Over the last weeks and months I have been working on (and will doubtless continue to work on over the coming weeks and months) a primer and devotional to the group of twelve Goddesses known sometimes in Norse Heathenry as Frigga’s Handmaidens. As I finish segments of this, I will be posting them here, and plan eventually to collate them into a downloadable format. As such, I want to begin with an introduction to these Goddesses, what this project is about, and why I embarked on it.

Frigga’s Handmaidens – the Twelve – sēo Seostorcipe

In Norse Heathenry, there are twelve Goddesses, known sometimes as Frigga’s Handmaidens: Fulla, Gefjon, Hlín, Syn, Eir, Sága, Gná, Vár or Vór, Snotra, Vör, Lofn and Sjöfn. They are all listed in the Prose Edda as Ásynjur after Frigga (and along with Freyja), and for several of Them this brief description is the only attestation in the surviving sources, though others have more.

While several of these Goddeses are mentioned to explicitly serve Frigga, They are never in the Prose Edda or any other historical source (so far as I know) referred to as Frigga’s Handmaidens. I’m unsure as to where this term originated, but at this point the idea of these Goddesses as serving Frigga and forming Her court or council is widely shared personal gnosis within the Norse Heathen community.

I have honoured and worshipped these Goddesses for a number of years, and personally find the “Handmaidens” framing a little uncomfortable and potentially inaccurate. I find the connotations of hierarchy, servitude, and being of “lesser” power or import troubling and misleading, though I do use the term as it is widely recognised, and I understand and respect those who use this term. I personally prefer to refer to these Goddesses simply as the Twelve, or to use the Old English sēo Seostorscipe – meaning the Sisterhood. (Pronounced roughly “say-oh see-uh-ster-ship-uh”)

Aims of this project

This project consists of a couple of parts. One is a series of essays covering my more in-depth ponderings, esoteric aspects, or devotional thoughts relating to the Twelve. The other, and the core of the project is a set of primers on each of the Twelve.

One important note is that I now honour and worship the Twelve within the context of a broadly Old English Heathen practice (of which more below). I see Them as the court or council of Frīg, and use Old English names for Them. In this sense, I aimed to set out both the attestations of the Norse Twelve, and lay out my framework for worshipping the Old English Twelve.

For each Goddess, I cover Their attestations in historical sources, a discussion on Their names, reflections on my personal experiences worshipping Them, and some example prayers and Old English epithets for Them. My aim in this project was to provide a resource for people interested in the Twelve and in honouring Them, and I wanted to ensure this clearly delineated what is attested (and can be taken on by any reader) and what is personal (and may or may not be applicable or useful for any given reader). I also endeavour to provide accurate citations, so readers can reverse-engineer and verify my work.

On so-called “minor” Goddesses

Due to the paucity of Their attestations, the Twelve are often referred to as “minor” Goddesses. Perhaps seeking to “tidy up loose ends” within Norse mythology, academics (and even some heathens) even propose that They were never regarded as separate Goddesses unto Themselves, but are simply heiti for Frigga. I fully reject both these framings.

My approach to poly-centric polytheism is completely comfortable with there being an uncountable number of Gods, Who may have overlapping domains and apparently contradictory myths and yet all exist, distinct and with agency. Further, with the relative dearth of surviving written sources on Norse mythology and religious belief overall – none written by pre-Christian heathens – to say a God has little surviving attestation is emphatically not evidence that They were considered “minor” or not a God in Their own right at all. The key word in “little surviving attestation” is surviving.

Additionally, I personally reject the framing of any God as “minor”. A God Who is, for example, considered a patron of a particular area, may be of supreme and encompassing importance to people who live in that area. It is my experience after years of honouring and contemplating and building relationship with so-called “minor” Gods with minimal surviving attestation, that They are every bit as multi-faceted, complex, and powerful as Gods like Wōden.

Devotion and close personal relationship with a God tends over time to lead to the devotee having an ever broader and deeper understanding of that God’s domain. To the point that I truly believe that, for a worshipper with a sincere and longstanding and loving relationship with a particular God, that God can be turned to for anything. In my view, there are therefore no “minor” Gods, only Gods that play a minimal or minor role in an individual’s personal practice.

A word on syncretism and reconstruction

As I alluded to earlier, I practice heathenry that is broadly Old English in focus. (It is perhaps more apt to describe my heathenry as Danelaw Heathenry – I am content to be influenced by Norse Heathenry, to syncretise Norse Gods. I am also content to be influenced by the Celtic cultures of these islands, by Romano-British practices, and by the living folklore and folk practices of these islands.)

It is within this context that I worship and write about the Twelve. I refer to the Goddesses I call by Old English names as “counterparts” of the Norse Twelve. If you were to ask me, “Grim, are these the same Goddesses, or syncretisations, or separate Goddesses?” I would answer, “Yes.” The nature of the Divine, infinitely multifaceted, multifunctional and multifarious as it is, is beyond my ken.

I believe my thoughts and insights may have value for heathens who worship the Twelve with Their Norse names and in a Norse context – or indeed for Continental heathens who are interested in worshipping Them in such a context. But I leave it to every reader to determine for themselves how they see the interrelation of Old-Norse-Fulla, Old-English-Fulla, and Old-High-German Volla.

With regards to reconstruction – I make no claim that my beliefs about the Twelve, or my ways of worshipping Them, correspond exactly to the beliefs or practices of any pre-Christian people. In the strictest sense it is in fact impossible to know positively that the Twelve were worshipped at all. Nonetheless, I take the approach as outlined above that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

The attestations we do have for the Twelve list for several of Them domains that on their face seem likely to have been important in pre-Christian Norse or Old English societies – for instance witnessing oaths, providing healing, and providing protection. All my thinking and writing takes the assumption that They were fully fledged Gods with roles and functions that were (at least for some people) important and meaningful.

This project invites the reader to honour and worship the Twelve, if they feel interested in doing so. I would also like the reader to consider taking the plunge and honouring and worshipping and building relationship and cultus with any other God they may feel interested in or attracted or called to. No matter how much or how little surviving information there is about Them. Even if there is only Their name. In my experience such work is infinitely beautiful and infinitely rewarding, just as the Gods are infinitely beautiful and infinitely powerful.