Frey/Frøy and Ing

maitri

Hi!

In your asatru/åsatru thread you wrote about Frey/Frøy:

"Frey is the God of Yule [jól] (born on the Winter Solstice, typically December 21). He is a God of peace and plenty who brings fertility and prosperity. His father was Njord."

What I would like to know is: Are Frøy and Ing (Ingui) the same god? Some of my sources claim that Frøy and Ing are just two different names for the same god, also called Yngve-Frøy (Frøy meaning "Lord") while other sources claim that they are two distinct peace and fertility (love?) deities.
Do any of you know what is true?

Regards,

Ingrid

Nevyn

well this is a puzzle.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jordsvin/Paths%20To%20The%20Gods/Freyr%20Article.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingwaz
http://www.homestead.com/englishheathenism/textingui.html
http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fr/freyr.htm
http://en.allexperts.com/e/y/yn/Yngvi.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyr

Hmmm maybe the Heatens that post here will b able to shed more light on this.
The Usurping of titles and fucntions was done a lot to gods over the years and it can leave quiet a muddle to figure out unless you have a strong enough connection spiritually to ask them yourself.

maitri

Thank you for those interesting links, Thaedyal! I especially liked the definition of Frey (Ing?) as veraldar goð, that is: "god of the here and now" . I think I will adopt that meaning (even though I'm not heathen);) . Also the warnings about abusing or rejecting Freyr´s gifts were cool!:D

Maybe Ing and Frey started out as separate deities but became one for the believers after some time? I've heard that is the case with a lot of gods from different mythologies. Or maybe Ing was Freyr's real name, as some of the sources suggest? I'll still be happy to learn more about this if somebody here has some information about it.

hairyheretic

I'm afraid I can't really offer any more than you already know. I've heard both theories put forwards before.

Tabnabs

Hi Ingrid,

To the best of my knowledge (and that's not saying much!;) ) I have always considered Ing and Freyr to be one and the same. They may have been two distinct deities at some point but the mists of time have obscured the origins of many deities and so some will, for simplicities sake, get lumped together. I think it would be next to impossible to "prove" the theory one way or the other but you could always try asking Freyr what he has to say on the subject?

Out of interest, what are the sources you are using?

maitri

Thanks for answers everybody!

Hi Dyflin,

Dyflin wrote:

To the best of my knowledge (and that's not saying much!;) ) I have always considered Ing and Freyr to be one and the same. They may have been two distinct deities at some point but the mists of time have obscured the origins of many deities and so some will, for simplicities sake, get lumped together.

That's more or less what I thought too.

Dyflin wrote:

I think it would be next to impossible to "prove" the theory one way or the other but you could always try asking Freyr what he has to say on the subject?

I'll remember to ask if I ever meet him.

Dyflin wrote:

Out of interest, what are the sources you are using?

Just Norwegian and English internet sources. I have been studying Norse religion at the University of Oslo, though, as part of my bachelor in history of religions, and I have some books on the subject. Was specially interested in the siðaskípti – the change of religion from Åsatru to Christianity.

Með bestu kveðju - med beste hilsener - Kind regards,

Ingrid