Fólkvangur is used in modern Iceland as a “legal” term. It’s defined as natural reserve close to populated places. Specially reserved for public use.

I'm so glad to get a new mythology video. Jackson Crawford is the absolute best source for neutral, accurate information on Norse mythology and the Eddas.

The audio quality is much improved since your earlier videos. The volume is nice and loud and even though you stand in a wind tunnel I hear almost no wind! I'm glad, because now I can understand your lectures much better!

This is new knowledge to me. Fólkvangur is a common word in modern Icelandic, meaning an outdoor space where people get together for pleasant gathering. Thank you Dr. Crawford for your explanation. Greetings from Iceland. EK

This makes a lot of sense. It doesn't say, "Freyja is in Folkvangr with half, and Odin is in Valhalla with half", it is talking about both Freyja and Odin when referring to Folkvangr. So maybe Valhalla is Odin's hall which located in Folkvangr.

As someone who converted to Norse Paganism several years ago, your channel has been invaluable to my education. Thank you for your work, Dr. Crawford!

I get from this stanza that: On the Battlefield(Folkwagnr) that Freya presides over, She chooses half (the dead) to take away, and half live to fight under the watchful eye of Odin.

There are variations of belief even in modern religions. So I imagine that this was the same in N. Europe and Scandinavia. Some may have believed Frigg and Freyja were one in tbe same, some may have believed differently. Just as some may have tbought Vaholl and Folksvangr were different places, or one in the same. With so little information surviving we are often times left to speculate. Off subject but, when I lived in Wyoming, it seemed the whole state was a wind tunnel.

Could we interpret Folkvangr as “battlefield”? If she’s the chief Valkyrie, it would be reasonable to say that the battlefield is her domain, and her choice of half of the fallen perhaps the fallen of the winning side, as they died for the victory?

I'll be honest he looks cool, sounds cool, talks about cool stuff like a real life sage

A wonderful treat! Thank you.

One thing more, Grimismal also describes Valholl. Now looking at the verse itself, what Dr. Crawford explains is quite sensible. But why would the same poem speak of Folkvangr and Valholl as distinct places?

The last 45 seconds are so good. In fact, they're why you're the best.

Brilliant video! Old Norse research really requires a dedicated education

It seems to me like "army" + "plain" would likely mean "Battlefield."

This is my own wild internet speculation, but this almost sounds like Folkvangr is a term to describe the battlefield itself, and not any holy other-place. It reflects the sacredness of the battlefield. Likewise, in the interpretation of Freyja-Frigg, would she not then be a goddess to appease? Valholl might be honorable to enter, but not everyone would want young men to go into it at a given time. Could F/F be a goddess to whom mothers and wives pray to spare their sons? She chooses who is ready for Valholl and whom shall be sent back to their loved ones. Again wild internet speculation.

Not only is this video very interesting and compelling, but so are many of these comments. As the Freyja of KZfaq comments, I'm going to take half of these comments with me to Folkvangr! I love all the different interpretations folks have come up with (no pun intended). Even if Folkvangr is only mentioned once (which one or two commenters disagreed with), there's another thing to take into consideration: that the stories of women and goddesses may just have been less likely to be written down. Let's not forget that Christian society was even more patriarchal than Old Norse society. The Christian men writing down these sagas may have favored tales of men and gods over women and goddesses. Furthermore, we do know that Norse mythology was not actually a monolith and that different villages likely worshipped different primary gods or goddesses. The tales from the villages that primarily worshipped goddesses may not have made it as far in formal sagas, even in the oral tradition. As we know, skalds composed these poems for kings. But they didn't single-handedly invent these stories. They got them from somewhere. With the skalds and the kings being male, there's another male bias. The local folklore may have been forgotten soon after the forced conversion to Christianity, while those epic sagas that had been formed into memorable poems lasted through the next few centuries until they were written down. In addition, as one commenter noted, Freya was more popular in eastern Scandinavia. These sagas were written down by Icelanders - western Scandinavians. That's yet another reason why Freya and her realm may have taken a less prominent role in the sagas. It's easy to concentrate our attention on what we DO know for certain, which is perfectly valid, yet at the same time, a huge part of what's so fascinating about Norse mythology is how mysterious it is due to everything we don't know. When you start thinking purposefully about what we know about women in Norse society, it's a reminder of how little we really know. Also, when you think of the incredible diversity and evolution of human languages, it shouldn't surprise how much diversity there would've been in the mythology. There's a great academic book on women in Norse mythology/society by an Icelandic scholar that you should check out if you haven't already. It's called Valkyrie.

There is a few places here in Norway thats caleld Folkvang and some busineses aswell haha Never thought about it coming from Norse myths

Speaking of places, for me, just the scenery of your outdoor videos make click that like button ... Part of the reason being that it reminds me about the mountains in Eastern Norway ... Think the mountains around the valley Gudbrandsdalen ...

It seems odd that Valhǫll is mentioned as (being in) the fifth land and Fólkvangr in the ninth, and various halls that are apparently not Valhǫll are mentioned in the other lands (e.g. Þrúðvangr). In a listing like this, why would they include both if they were the same?

What if Folkvangr is a "kenning" for the Earth - which would be the place of the human race, where they live, like contrary to where the Deities live, or the mysterious "place of the inhabitants of the realms of the already dead"? Isn't old Norse literature full of poetic peculiar ways to describe things indirectly and poetically, in images, alliteration, rhymes, etc. So that the elaborate forms make the expressions and stanzas memorable, like hwæl-weg (the wales' way = the sea) and similar.

In my native language Folk: People Vangr: Catcher/Grouper Excellent video

Army field = battlefield?

If Folkvangr is something like "battlefield" it could mean that Freja/Fröja/Frigga is the Lady of the Battlefields. (Lady as Jane Ellen Harrison uses "Lady of", as Lady of the Wild Things, or as Finnish mythology uses the ending -tar, like in Ilmatar - the Lady of the Air. Lady s in "protectress".) Dying in battle was a condition for getting access to Valhall, right? Frigg and Freja/Frigga were perhaps the primordial god-goddess pair, like Uranos and Gaia, the two deities of what people could see and be keenly aware of and very dependent on. They again were a more nuanced and elaborated version of the Great Mother, Mother Nature, the Lady of All Things, or in Finnish "Luonnotar". It seems to me that everything in the Old Norröna worldview and cosmology was already more sophisticated and thorougly poeticized than some really early ways of comprehending the human being in her context. I'm thinking of what Marija Gimbutas has written about the Copper Age. Maybe the poem shared in the video has its roots in the epoch when the time had come to move from the Great Mother-based world-view to one where we see gods with androgyn presentation and more personified deities, because earlier Mother might have been more of a way to say the "first causal power", the first condition without nothing can exist, everything must start with something which can give life to something = a mother of course. Mater-ia.

Bellows translated Folkvong as "field of the folk". It's not a hall. It a place where the warriors collect after battle where Freyja chooses from.

Interesting that we might be seeing the result of a confused transmission, possibly making Freyja Odin's wife. If so, one thing I wonder about is how Freyja would be Odin's wife, the chief valkyrie, and still the sorceress who taught Odin seiðr. Could this have been all the same deity at one time, or do the chief valkyrie/teacher of seiðr mark a likely split in identity?

Interesting and entirely plausible interpretation.

Your explanation of Fólkvangr sharpens the focus on Varangian, as in Varangian Guard. Varangian (in a number of variations) has usually been described as a name used in the east to refer to Russian Riparian Vikings circa the turn of the last millennium. It must have been based on a bit of self advertisement.

I wonder if it would be possible that in saying Othinn owns half of the dead warriors that it would mean he gets to take that half to his final battle in Ragnarok.

If the old Norse were to mean “Odin owns/has THAT half” would it be written differently. Is there an article in old Norse like there is in modern English that would specify the the half being referred to is the same as the previously mentioned half?

Just in passing.....The meaning of hell in Jewish and early Christian understanding was simply "The Place Where the Dead Go." It wasn't necessarily a place of punishment, but it wasn't in the presence of God, which is believed to be painful to the soul. In Christian understanding, when Jesus was crucified and died, his soul descended into hell. There's a painting titled _The Harrowing of Hell_. depicting Jesus separating the damned from the saved. He then brought the saved with him into paradise, i.e. the presence of God the Father.

I kind of always pictured Fólkvangr as life inside a country song.

This is random, but would you happen to have a video or would ever make a video on the translation of the dwarven names listed in the Voluspa?

Just discovered your channel, i was wondering have you noticed that scottish, mainly the dooric dialects uses norse/scaninavian words in their vocabulary ?

What if Folkvangr was similar to Glaðsheimr. What if it's just the field around Freyja's actual hall (Sessrúmnir), just like Glaðsheimr is the plain around Valhalla.

I haven´t read the whole thread, but in Freyas Folksvangr is the Sessrumnir... the same as the space with a lot of seats... it could be a viking ship. But as long as it is a land- word, it is easy to think about the ship burrials... Isn´t it?

Yes

Key hole glimpses into a dark room lit by moonlight

Got slightly confused by the intro music that's the same as Drachnifel uses.

Gun (Gunn) was one of the valkyria that chose which of champions that would die in battles. Maybe that is what is meant by ”choosing”/”picking” in this poem?

I was researching this because I'd heard Freyja and Folkvang mentioned with Odin and Valhalla. One thing I read/heard was there was an association between Freyja and warriors of the ships in various paintings or writings. This made me wonder if it was legit or something made up for the more modern tech/mech warriors, like men in tanks, sailors, and airmen. Land ships, sea ships, air ships. A lore for the rest of us military men and women, an alternate Valhalla.

Is there some old connection between the word kyrja and curae/curator? They sound similar and the meanings of the word are, vaguely, similar in meaning or concept.

What about in Egils saga where Thorgerdr refuses to eat until she dines with Freyja, in support of her father who will soon die in battle? That makes sense if Freyja oversees a form of afterlife, not if she simply chooses people for Odin.

Yet Odin owns only half. Who owns the rest? Odin only employs the Valkyries. He does not get to choose. Froyja does not have her own valkyries, does she?

how clear (or not) is it that "Fólkvangr" is something that I might think of as a proper noun, rather than merely one "fólkvangr" among possibly many?

Since Frigg is in fact Freyja. Freyja is Odin's wife so i feel naturally it must mean they both share the fallen warriors equally

What happens to those that don't or couldn't fight? Where do they go?

It just sounds like folkvangr means battlefield, and Freyja is the chief valkyrie.

First I want to thank you again for your meticolous and careful treatment of the sources that exist. Your point is well taken. You have stated before that the sources we have are written down after christianity took over, even the poetic Edda. Then the sources we have are like a couple hundred puzzle pieces of a puzzle of at least 1000 pieces. Wast areas of the full picture we have no pieces to fill in. So many take ownership to this puzzle and each fill in their own personal agenda in the missing areas. A autodidact experts create 100 versions of the full picture. So, is there any remedy for this? Is it possible to gain a satisfyingly complete picture in an authoriative interpretation? It does not seem likely, and even christianity with much more extensive sources still create different interpretations, seemingly to suit different needs, or an evolving culture, so how can it ever be possible to get any any type of satisfying completeness in the norse mythology? In that regard I would like to ask a question. How is it that everywhere in the world people have imagined that there are gods? How come such ideas occur at all anywhere? And how come that a cosmology of gods can be replaced in the population with totally new imagination? The gods that were imagined so real once, suddenly sieze to exist and sieze to have any impact on the world where they used to be so powerful? Is the only power a god can have be derived from humans stating that they are actually real? In such case their power is not very impressive. Or are they still working their dees on reality, only we don't realize it, because we don't believe they are real anymore? The existensial perceptions of "reality" are communicated with different terminology in different ages. At the time when people thought the norse gods were real, similar practice could be found all over the world in different so called "pantheons". What is it about humans that they form such ideas about the world? I think it is impossible to fill in the cosmology of the norse without some cross contamination, founded on a trust that the human mind is physically constructed the same for all humans, and that mythology is a reflection of the mind of humans. Otherwise you sort of have to believe that there are thousands of gods that are actually real as external "beings" that the mythologers are just objectively describing. If that is true, then no monoteistic religion can be right. If mythology is rather an attempt to describe what it is to be human, then comparative studies may be a way to go to fill in the blanks, right? Then we start talking about eqvivalents around the world, if that is at all possible. To me this all comes down to the starting point and what you believe about how mythologies come into existence.

August 2022!

Odin often visits Freyja at her Folksvang home after she returns to Asgard from her futile search for Odr - although he knows Frigga does not like it, when he is out gallivanting. But he feels closer to her than all the other Æsir, because - like him - she has madness in her blood (in my opinion, this also means the striving for the new, a restlessness and search for the unknown, which has brought us here and still resides in us). On Folkvang, Odin and Freyja talk confidentially about important matters. Hel, who has attained such great power that all the dead who did not die in battle but died of old age or illness, must go to her realm, is what occupies them most. But even Odin can, if he wants, summon the dead to him, and he thinks about putting up an army of the dead. One day the two are walking across the large meadow (=Folkvang) and Odin tells Freyja about his secret mission with which he has sent Heimdal to Earth (to create a new courageous human race for the final battle). All brave men who fall in battle shall join the army. They’ll be fewer than Hel’s army, but bolder. Then he shows her Valhall, the great harborage he had built for these warriors - to accommodate Heimdal’s sons. Then Odin assembles a council of war in the final battle, gathers the Æsir around him and explains to them what has happened and what needs to be done. Odin wants to share responsibility with one of the Æsir. All Æsir are excited, hold their breath and think of Thor, Tyr or Heimdal! He says: “One half shall stay with me in Vallhall”, he decides, “the other half shall command Freyja on Folkvang.” (quoted by Tor Åge Bringsværd)

When I read the text for the first time I interpreted it like following; 50 % of the fallen warriors have to go to Valhalla to fight alongside Oden in Ragnarök. That’s Odens right, he owns them. Freja, like the Valkyrie she is, observes the warriors in the battlefield and then chooses the best half of them. Her job is to make sure that the warriors who is chosen to fight in Odens army are the very best. She then delivers them to the one that owns them; Oden. I didn’t interpret it like Oden and Freja split the warriors 50-50 amongst themselves. I interpreted it like only the top half of the warriors were actually offered a place in Odens hall. I still think that would be the most logical. I don’t think it’s likely that every man that was killed with weapons in his hand was a brave fierce warrior. I’m pretto sure there were also a bunch of not so skilled men in a viking army. Perhaps even som spoiled wannabe brats who got a place simply due to their heritage. Why would such a wise God as Oden want them to fight in the most important battle of all times?

1/2 the slain warriors go to Folksvangr with the remaining 1/2 to Valhalla? Who does the choosing? Freyja or Odin? why are the vikings always concerned about dying honorably when they could just as well be taken by Freyja? What do they do in this meadow? If memory serves, with Odin they feast & fight until Ragnorok [this never appealed to me]. I do however think hanging out in a meadow sounds very nice.

Fólkvangr sounds like the Elysian Fields. Think it’s the Greek equivalent?

as always great info Doc, I really appreciate your time given to us. were did the images in the beginning come from, they would make great tattoos to go with the rest i have. I have others in the same style, they would match well.

I know absolutely nothing about anything, but I always heard it ‘and Odin had half’ as ‘and [so] Odin Had Half’

Only now did I notice how it was spelled, and that it is not "folkvagn" like the car 😂 Volkswagen the people wagon

Had to remind myself you were saying Frig and Freyja and not Frigging Freyja

May Goddess Freyja accept my bravery. She has seen my worth! I am no coward. She has seen me take on men twice my size. Odin's hall of the slain isn't the only desired afterlife. Let me not fall into the corpse-strand

I really like your channel and follow you. Thank you for your effort. Yet here I do not agree with everything. Let me explain my thoughts on this matter. (1.) Freyjas Hall is named Sessrimir, meaning somthing like hall with the many seats. Freyja also is in charge of Fólkvangr. (2.) Fólk has the meaning of people, in today's German Menschen. Fólk includes people of all sorts, also warriors, but not only. Only later the meaning of today's German Volk was added in Old English, in Old Friesisch, Old Saxon, Icelandic, Danish, etc. It's used as plural of MAN. So FOLKVANGR must be understood as Volkswiese (German) or people's meadow. (3.) As I understand the old text, the second passage is not an addition to Fólkvagr, but to Freyja's other duties. Very often the old texts do that.These other duties are to choose her half of the dead warriors, before Odin gets to own the other half. This of course also means, that the Valkyrias get to choose among Odin's half which warriors they accompany to Valhalla. I actually have the understanding, that the heroic dead warriors either go to Sessrimnir, or to Walhalla. All other people first go to Fólkvangr and from there either to Sessrimnir or to Hel - the latter NOT being hell in the monotheistic sense, just another place to dwell in afterlife. .

Interesting that "kyss" is pronounced more like "chyss" in modern Norwegian, and so it resembles modern English "choose" in pronouciantion. Don't know if this is just a coincidence, though. (Btw Norwegians don't use "kyss" for "choose" anymore, now it means "to kiss")

I wonder how Snorri would feel about how much of a famous and important historical figure he's come to be, not many people's names are remembered for ~1000 years and all he did was write down some old stories his grandma told him so he could teach some whippersnappers how to write poems the right way

The modern swedish word for "vangr"" is "vång" .

Folkvagn is what we call old Volkswagen beetles here in Sweden lol

🙃

PS. I agree that Fryja is the chief Valkyrie. She who choose who is ready and honorable enough to die. As the worm in Mother earth... transformate the dead material to new life. It is an "ideologic" place. Methaforic. Psykologic. AND Fysical... In Scandinavia You see Ships burials all over - all thoug that a lot of them is destroyed. And "battle" ... what about thinking "battle" as the daily struckel to make a day. - ? You know "the backing group" to the heroes? ... Women? The old ones... and all the others... :)

I wonder what it would be like to hear such thoughts with a preconceived notion, hearing this for the first time it feels sensical and unbiased, and even very logical,but I hesitate praising the interpretation because I have nothing to compare it to. This stands simply unchallenged and how I accept it as being. "Odin and Freya sitting in a tree..." 😉

This is just my own imagination, but the image I have in my head is a massive plain covered in tents, with a hall in the middle. All of the warriors there were killed in battle, but the best of them live in the hall, and are chosen by the lord and lady of that hall. Again, just one way to interpret what we've been given in the sources.

I always thought fòlk was similar or another form of valk

It is hard to not unintentionally build opinions on the supposition that there was ever a canon. If there is good logical evidence for any possibility, it likely was the case in some region at some time. If there is good logical evidence that Freyja is Frigg and if there is good logical evidence that she is not, than the truth is probably both depending on place and time. In one area at one time, they were the same, in a different area or time, they were not the same. From a heathen standpoint, both are equally legit. The people of the late Nordic Iron Age and early viking age killed lots of people for lots of crazy reasons, but not for reasons of religion or "the versions of the story my tribe believes is the only right version and we will fight you if you disagree". If it were like that, there would be a canon and it would be the version of the story that the most dominant group believed. Think about the Christian Bible. It is a collection of ancient religious books that all tell the same version of their story. There are dozens of other ancient religious books that tell the same basic story, but different versions. The Council of Rome was not initiated to decrease Roman power. Their version would be the only one. And so we have the canon that we abide by today.

Woman warriors die too why only say the men or chosen to go to Valhalla or Folkvang.

#1 Movies: Every Viking who dies with a weapon in his hand AUTOMATICALLY goes to Valhalla #2 Many myths : Odhinn needs the very BEST warriors for Ragnarok. Valkyries only choose the best. Something about Valhollr has120 gates and 1200 warriors march through each gate, therefore seating is limited. #3 This poem, ME: of the chosen War-dead, half stay with Freyja in Folkwangr, half stay with Odhinn in Valhollr, therefore 2 regiments #4 This poem, Jackson: Freyja chooses exactly half of the War-dead and all of them stay with Odhinn in Valhollr #5 My interpretation is better because: we get TWO regiments of Warriors at Ragnarokr rather than just one. Likewise, the number of seats in Valhollr is defined. If half of ALL War-dead go there, OK it fills up half as quickly as the Movie interpretation, but it still fills up very quickly

I don't think Freyja & Frigga are the same. Take all the stories that mention either, and change their names to Jane & Carol. They just don't seem like the same personalities- if Carol is Jane, she's schizo. Then consider if they are the same, would Loki have done a flyting on Odin's wife? Would Odin's wife sleep with dwarves for a bit of bling? If Freyja is also Gullveig, as many propose, would the Aesir have killed her three times right in front of Odin? Then consider the Aesir/Vanir war- If Freyja is Odin's wife, then he's conducting war against his brother in law. All total speculation of course, but I think valid arguments?

In Germany we have a whole town that has dedicated itself to Folkvangr, Essen, which used to be a heavily industrialised city in one of the main coal and steel producing areas. This year it is even calling itself the Folkwangstadt. The city's main museum is named such, the University of Arts takes the name, and there's an institute for learning for the general public also bearing that name. I wonder though, could it be an alliteration for Valhöll? Everything in the Eddas and the Sagas seems to have such, so why not Valhöll, the Hall of the Slain, Folkvangr, the Field of the Warriors is not that far removed? Addendum - the ending of words with s and r, ᛫ᛋ᛫ and ᛫ᚱ᛫, is it possible that this connection came to be because they almost mirror each other? And it was a regular thing to write both from left to right and right to left. Could it have been that it crept in through that?