It seems to have an equivalent in Norwegian: kjøter. Here in Russia we have a tranquilizator for cats named “Cat Bayun” , Pingback: Do Dogs Sense Death in a Loved One? Some have traced this imagery back to the Potnia Theron, or Mistress of the Beasts, a figure from prehistoric religion.

(Although a chariot drawn by two goats (Thor) or a boar (Freyr) also seems unlikely.) The Cat/Bear Controversy Later, in the Skaldskaparmal section, Snorri tells us: How shall Freyja be referred to?

This is a full-screen carousel of images and or videos of this pet. As well as having a twin brother who was also a famous god, Freya had an interesting family life. Unlike bears, you can actualy see this one, since they’re all about the same size, and if cats were mainly feral or only semi-domesticated, it’s easy to see how the word became a catch-all term for agile medium-sized animals with fur. Artists have always struggled with Freyja’s cats. This led Freya to cry tears of golden amber, which became precious stones!

Makes me ponder the size and power of what cats were once seen to be. As well as her chariot, Freya was also known for riding a boar called Hildisvini. If you think you might be interested in meeting me, please SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT TO VISIT BY CLICKING HERE. She can be seen by appointment with an approved application.

(Faulkes: 50). At any rate, modern commentators on Norse myth seem to have settled that they’re cats, at least until proved otherwise.1.

It is the art of telling the future, and changing things that might happen in the future. This is an inline carousel of images and or videos of this pet.

If you check out the picture gallery I linked to in the first sentence, you’ll notice how the cats are always much larger than ordinary cats, like the ones in the picture above.

While Frey is said to be an ancestor of Swedish royalty with many places named after him. The Hittite king Hattusilus considered her his patron deity, and with the royal boost her cult grew, untiil she was takng on the attributes of the mother-goddess Hebat and the Sun-Goddess of Arinna, including their lions.

The story tells of how Freya once found a group of dwarves making the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen. Males typically weigh 40-66 lbs (larger in the modern Siberian population, up to 99 lbs), height range is 24-30″ at shoulder, body-only length range is 31-51″. Cats as pets in medieval Scandinavia

And when she travels, she drives two cats and sits in a chariot. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

These powerful predators with their courageous nature & fierce aspect seem natural contenders for the cats who drew the chariot of the Goddess of the fallen slain. The second solution has the advantage of coming straight from the lore, although it does seem to suggest that Freyja’s cats and daughters are interchangeable, which I’m sure was not the idea. She is a goddess of the highest order, having powers comparable to the Norse ruler of the gods, Odin. This meant that Freya had the power to control the fortune and desires of others, and she taught the god Odin how to predict the future just like her!

| For All Your Dog Needs. This pet is currently housed: AT THE SHELTER Because this pet is located AT THE SHELTER, they are able to be met in person. (Faulkes: 24), …Freyr drove in a chariot with a boar called Gullinbursti or Slidrugtanni. - DogVills, Do Dogs Sense Death in a Loved One? She also had a twin brother Frey who was another famous Viking god of fertility. You will have noticed that in the second quote, Freyr’s boar and Heimdall’s horse have names, but Freyja’s cats don’t.

So skogkatts, being bigger than normal cats, are one solution.

https://thenortherngate.com/brisingamen-a-necklace-of-destiny/. She would use it to fly across the different worlds and spread her power.

Which means that we don’t know them either. The Cat Bayun appears in Russian folktales, but not in Norse myths, and it seems that the author, John Halsted, made up this tale. Most of the main Viking gods come from the Aesir family. If you poke around the net, however, you will see that some pages, mainly cat-themed ones, say that Thor gave them to her. I am the author of five books on mythology, including one on sun-goddesses. Norse mythology states that Freya was married to the god Odr and they had two children, Hnoss and Gersimi. I had to laugh at the idea of cats pulling a chariot, and the expression “like herding cats” came to mind.

This long-legged, tufted-ear cat is an impressive hunter, unlike most cat species this lynx commonly takes prey larger than itself in the winter (ungulates primarily.)

Bears, you may remember, were the third option for Freyja’s transport.

This may be a little hard to imagine, but Snorri Sturluson mentions it twice in the Gylfaginning section of the Prose Edda, once when he is describing the goddess, and later when he tells how the deities came to Baldr’s funeral: Sessrumir, her hall, is large and beautiful. The problem is, we know how big cats are, and how likely anyone is to harness them.

It is because of this that pigs were said to be sacred to Freya. Athena PN (below) suggests lynxs, which would be interesting. Let’s watch a quick video about Freya, before we move on to our other interesting facts about her.

More on Cat Bayun, Thanks for summarizing this exciting riddle!

It is derived most probably from Kate, a cottage in lower German. Thank you. Freya was a popular goddess due to her beauty and kind-heartedness, and her name translates to “the Lady”. She enjoys playing with humans who hold toys for her and adores the dog in her foster home (one of the pictures in her profile is of Freya taking a nap with her foster dog friend!). It is easier to imagine Skadi with bears or martins as her animals, although she’s usually associated with wolves.↩, The Linguistics of Old Norse “cat” (or assorted furry creatures) But the sources are as silent about how she got them as what their names were. The first comes from the writer Diana Paxson, whose ingenious solution appeared in her fantasy novel Brisingamen: Freyja is associated… with the cat (the lore does not give us the names of the cats who draw her cart– in Brisingamen I assigned them the names “Tregul” (Tree-gold, or Amber) and “Bygul” (Bee-gold, or Honey)… (Paxson), Some people like to give them the names of her daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi (both names meaning “treasure”). The Norse gods have different ways of getting around: Odin and Heimdall have horses, Freyr has a boar, and Thor has two goats to pull his wagon. Freya has silky-soft medium-length fur and a fluffy tail. (Gustav Neckel connected the two in the early 20th century.). By calling her daughter of Niord, sister of Freyr, wife of Od, mother of Hnoss, possessor of the fallen slain and of Sessrumir and tom-cats… (Faulkes: 86). The following diseases have been seen in the breed: Glycogen Storage Disease IV, a rare heritable condition that affects metabolism of glucose. The source seems to be a book called Tiivistelma, which mixes the story of how Thor fished up the Midgard Serpent with the Russian story of the Cat Bayun, who lies in wait for travellers and sings them to sleep before robbing them. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The word köttr, used in the other two mentions of Freyja’s cats, could also mean a martin or weasel.

To be entirely accurate, Freyja’s cats would have been the ancestors of this breed, black and white cats brought by Viking seafarers from Britain to Norway, longhairs brought back by Crusaders and traders in the Middle East, and local cats on farms. However, these grey and white colour patterns are not from a single cat breed. Freya’s father was the sea god Njord, although no one is quite sure who her mother was!

One famous story from Viking mythology is the story of how Freya got her hands on this special necklace.

Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Size is one question, the other is, how would you get two cats to do anything you want them to do — in unison?

She is usually shown as standing between two animals, often grasping them, although one from Çatalhöyük (in Turkey) shows her enthroned with two large felines flanking her. “They have a dense double coat — the first coat is made of straight guard hairs that are blue up the shaft, then end in a silver tip,” says Keiger.“This tipping is …

The Cybele connection is indeed fascinating, although I’d like to posit another contender for the Cats of Freyja.

As well as her chariot, Freya was also known for riding a boar called Hildisvini. So either 1) the cats never had names, which seems unlikely given the number of things that do have names in Norse myth (right down to the squirrel that runs up and down the world-tree) or 2) Snorri Sturluson didn’t know them.

Have a look at Norse Mythology, which has a cool guide on Freya, And you can watch the BBC cartoon, Freya and the Goblins.