Freyja is probably the best known goddess, her title Freyja means Lady, but her original name is not known. Freyja is the wildest of the goddesses, free with her sexual favours, mistress of Odin and several gods and men, though she refused marriage when the gods proposed to her. She was skilled at the form of ecstatic, consciousness altering and sometimes-malicious magic called seidhr. Freyja is also the chooser of half the slain on the battlefield (Odin chooses the other half).

Freyja is the most beautiful and princely of the goddesses. Freyja is the twin sister of Frey (and possibly originally his spouse), daughter of Njord and his sister. Freyja is married to a man called Odur, with whom she had the daughter which in Snorris-Edda is called Hnoss and in Ynglinga-saga Gersemi, both those names mean the same thing, "dear, bijou". Odur departed a long time ago and has never since been seen and Freyja has traveled to distant countries to look for him.

Freyja is like Odin often a stirrer of strife. She came among the Aesir to cause trouble as Gullveig (Gold-Drunkenness). She was stabbed and burnt three times, but arose from the flame each time, through this torment she transformed herself into Heith (the-Glorious), mistress of magic, in a typical shamanic initiation. This also seems to have started the war between the Aesir and the Vanir.

Freyja lives in a lodge, in heaven, called Folkvangur. She also has a palace called Sessrumnir, which is big and beautiful. Freyja, just as her brother Frey is though to have originally been a fertility goddess, but there are no sources suggesting that she was called on to bring fruitfulness to fields or wombs. She is rather a goddess of riches, whose tears are gold and whose daughters are precious objects. Freyja taught the gods to use seidr, magic.

When she travels she drives a wagon drawn by two cats, perhaps large forest-cats such as lynxes but some believe they are weasels. When traveling Freyja often changed her name, using names like Mardoll, Horn, Gefin and Syr. Those names suggest that she was the guardian of homes, and the name Syr suggests that she sometimes rode the boar Hildisvini (Battle-Swine). Freyja has also (like Frigg), a gray falcon coat, which she uses when she needs to fly.

Freyja's chief attribute is the necklace called Brisingamen, which she bought from four dwarfs at the price of four nights of her love. This necklace is sometimes seen today as embodying her power over the material world, but this necklace has been the emblem of the earth-goddess since the earliest times.

The Jotuns are always trying to take her away from the gods, and it is clear if that happened it would be a great disaster. She was obviously known to be the embodiment of the holy life force on some levels.