Episode 338: Freya
/It’s time for Freya, a goddess that contains multitudes. We discuss why amber is the coolest material for jewelry, Freya’s BATTLE SWINE, and the best drink ever: The Beer of Memory.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of sex, violence, war, death, transphobia, toxic masculinity, slut shaming, and bestiality.
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends the Jacques in the Garden YouTube channel
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
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Sponsors
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About Us
Spirits was created by Julia Schifini, Amanda McLoughlin and Eric Schneider. We are founding members of Multitude, an independent podcast collective and production studio. Our music is "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0.
Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia.
AMANDA: And this is episode 338, all about your mother goddess and mine, Freya.
JULIA: Uh, Freya. Well, everyone welcome to once again, It's Norse, Of Course [trumpet sound]
AMANDA: Weee!
JULIA: So as Amanda already told us, we are going to be talking about the goddess Freya today, who we've mentioned a couple of times at this point, but I'm very, very excited to kind of dig deeper into her whole background and lore because I think that she is fascinating. And as always Amanda just keep in mind as we're going through this, what title you want to give Freya at the end of this episode. You've been on the ball with all these so far, I've been very, very happy with them.
AMANDA: Thank you, you got it.
JULIA: So, Freya, is the goddess of blessings, love, lust, and fertility.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Which at least in my mind, I feel like I'm somewhat colored by our understanding of like other love and lust goddesses and particular goddesses like Aphrodite. That's when we talk about love and lust, the first that comes to my mind. But Freya is really interesting, while not an exception, she's a very interesting flavor of love goddess. And I think you'll see a little bit more of what I'm talking about as we dig deeper into her.
AMANDA: You know, a lot of my assumptions or the kind of Greco-Roman tradition of mythology that you know, you and I read books about in elementary school, lead me to false assumptions about Norse mythology. They, you know, because it's a whole mythology and worldview and Cosmos have their own understandings of dualities that I expect to be, you know, competing, but are actually complementary. Like so often we're taught in you know, puritanical US society, that love and lust are opposites or competing, or are a choice or a binary. And sounds like Freya doesn't think that, so I'm excited to learn.
JULIA: Yeah, and I think it's really interesting just to go on a little aside before we get into the episode. I think it's really interesting now that we've done a bunch of these It's Norse, Of Course episodes and how they kind of compare to our It's All Greek To Me episodes. I think a lot of times we tend to assume like, oh, all Western mythology and all Western folklore is going to look basically the same, right? Because I think and we'll talk about this later on the episode, Christianity kind of whitewashed everything. And so we truly kind of look at it like, okay, well, you know, that God fits that archetype, that God fits that archetype and that's it, like, there's no real differences. But I'm sure there are and this is more of a historian thing than a mythology thing, but mythology reflects history a lot of the times. There are big societal differences between what was happening with the Norse and Germanic people versus what was happening in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. So I think that as we go through these episodes, keeping that in mind really does help us understand like, oh, these were very different cultures. They valued different things, and we see that in the gods that they have in their stories.
AMANDA: Yeah, and any version of world history or folkloric study that claims that all of the past has led to right now has an agenda, you know?
JULIA: That's true.
AMANDA: And untangling the nuance of people who came before us and the fact that all mythologies are in a you know, feedback loop with their time, is why I love this stuff so much.
JULIA: I know that's why we're still doing after 338 episodes, wooo.
AMANDA: Woo.
JULIA: Now before we go into an existential crisis, and talk a little bit about what makes Freya a bit different than the other love goddesses we've talked about in the show, let's talk about her epithets. Which I think shed a little more light on what her whole vibe is in general.
AMANDA: Yes, please.
JULIA: I know you love an epithet, Amanda.
AMANDA: Mmmm.
JULIA: So firstly, the name Freya translates directly to Lady which gives her a real kind of royalty vibe right off the bat.
AMANDA: Yes, just like that one dog with a good hair.
JULIA: Amanda, what? [laughs]
AMANDA: Lady and the Tramp.
JULIA: Oh, okay. For some reason in my brain, the first thing that came up when I said lady was Sansa Stark's, direwolf—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: —from Games of Thrones, RIP.
AMANDA: Also an iconic Lady.
JULIA: Also an iconic Lady. So, Freya, Lady, we love it. She also is known as Gefn, or giver, Horn which means flaxen which is a reference to her flax and blonde hair. She is also known as Syr, which means Sow as an a female pig, which is a reference to her association with fertility as well as a reference to something I'll tell you a little bit about later.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: She is also called Valfreyja or Lady of the Slain. And my personal favorite, Mardoll or Sea Shaker.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: Which God if someone could give me an epithet, let it be Sea Shaker that would be cool as hell.
AMANDA: Fuck yeah, man.
JULIA: So these are all like very good vibes altogether. And as you could probably guess our word Friday, the word Friday that we associate with the day of the week now is likely named after Freya or Freya's Day, right? However, Amanda, you might be saying, hey, Julia, didn't you say in a previous episode that another goddess was attributed to the day Friday?
AMANDA: Yeah, Frigga who is not Freya, and I totally thought they were different even before we did that episode.
JULIA: Amanda, great memories always I appreciate that. There's a reason behind this.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: So as I mentioned in our Frigga episode, there is often a bit of confusion between Frigga and Freya. A lot of this is due to in part, linguistic differences were some interpretations of Norse Mythology believed that Freya was synonymous with Frigga, who you might remember was Odin's wife, right? So as you can imagine, who Friday is named after can be basically just a matter of interpretation. However, the biggest obvious difference between these two goddesses in any of the tellings is Frigga is part of the Aesir and Freya is of the Vanir. So with that in mind, let's learn a little bit about the specifics of Freya, right?
AMANDA: Hell yeah.
JULIA: So Freya is typically shown to be a bit more gentle and more agreeable compared to the other Norse deities, which from what we've learned of them in the It's Norse, Of Course series is not all that surprising. Like we know from our previous episodes that Thor would accomplish most of his goals by aggression.
AMANDA: Mmm.
JULIA: Odin is constantly doing it through knowledge and trickery. And Loki is of course all about the tricks, no treats.
AMANDA: Depends how you define a treat.
JULIA: Well, treats for him certainly.
AMANDA: Treats for him exactly.
JULIA: But Freya displays again and again, in her stories that persuasion through gifts, beauty and sex are often much more reliable for getting what you want.
AMANDA: Fascinating.
JULIA: A lot of times people talk about Feminine Wiles and kind of use that as a negative connotation, but for Freya, it is a highlight of her domain.
AMANDA: And you know, we don't often have like standalone stories from mythology where the takeaway is like, offered a nice thing they said yes, and everyone was fine. So I'm excited to hear some of these.
JULIA: And everyone was happy about it. So she is often shown as well to be very like unselfish, helpful to others. But that doesn't mean that she's also like all just sunshine and rainbows, which that would be Baldur, as we learned from Baldur's episode. So she does not shy away from battle and has a bit of a taste for blood, which is relevant to her home and Hall, which we'll get to next so—
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Freya was said to have a palace called Sessrumnir or the seat room, or the Hall of many seats.
AMANDA: Cool. I mean, seem—sounds just logical for a hall.
JULIA: You would think so, right? And it's interesting, and you'll see why she needs all those seats in just a second. but this hall was located in Folkvangr, which is the field of the host, right? So clearly, hospitality is a big thing for Freya here.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Now this hall is considered the companion to Odin's hall Valhalla because it was said that half of the dead slain in battle were sent to Folkvangr to spend eternity. So that's kind of a big deal, because, you know, there's a real stress for Valhalla, and going to Odin's Hall if you are a worthy warrior who died in battle, right? But the fact that half of them are going to Freya's Hall as well is like, not something that we should, you know, kind of glance over here.
AMANDA: Yeah, I mean, it's to be sort of held in the same regard as Odin's Hall, is a pretty big thing.
JULIA: Yes. So according the— so according to the Poetic Edda, quote, “the ninth is a Folkvangr where Freya decrees who shall have seats in the hall.” The half of the dead each day does she choose, and half does Odin have. So it almost implies that she chooses and then the rest show up to Odin's Valhalla instead?
AMANDA: Yeah, she— she gets the does she choose and he gets the half.
JULIA: Yes. So I really like the idea of she gets first picks and then the rest of them end up in Valhalla because again, it just stresses kind of the importance that Freya has not only over the circle of life, which as a fertility goddess makes a lot of sense for her to have a focus on but also the halls of the dead which is a big deal.
AMANDA: Indeed.
JULIA: So it also says in the Poetic Edda, that while yes, Freya did take warriors, she specifically chose women who died a noble death to join her Hall as well.
AMANDA: Hell yeah. Wow.
JULIA: Now, this is a really interesting role that Freya, therefore, plays with the dead. So, scholar Britt-Mari- Nasstrom, points out that the description in the Poetic Edda where Freya is said to whenever she rides into battle, she takes half of the slain. She interprets phrase Hall Folkvangr as the field of the warriors. Which kind of again implies this idea that it is similar or in companion to Valhalla. She also raises the question quote, “we must ask why there are two heroic paradises in the Old Norse view of afterlife. It might possibly be a consequence of different forms of initiation of warriors, where one part seemed to belong to Odin and the other to Freya. These examples indicate that Freya was a war goddess and even appears as a Valkyrie literally the one who chooses the slain. So again, just stressing kind of this importance that is often overlooked with Freya, that she was, in a lot of regards, a war goddess was associated with death and the ideal which we've talked about in past episodes, that the best thing the paradise that one can have is a warrior who dies heroically in battle. And so in Norse Culture, this is putting Freya at the like, tippy top of the importance of the gods.
AMANDA: Yeah, she's not like doing catering in Valhalla, you know? She's not sort of providing hospitality in Odin's Hall, she is one of her own which sounds pretty significant to me.
JULIA: Yes. And again, I like that you're like, she's not providing catering. But again, like the translations of her Hall and her land are very much like, this is the host. This is the person who has seats at her table and is inviting you to join her.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And I really like that imagery a whole lot.
AMANDA: Yeah, she's not a servant, she is a host of her own.
JULIA: Damn Right. And again, a lot of times we kind of dismiss domestic—quote-unquote, “domestic labor” as being unimportant. But again, this is a woman who is leading her own Hall, who is helping to serve the mead, who is inviting these people into her home and saying, sit, enjoy your—your burden is done in battle until Ragnarok comes at least.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: So Freya, being an occasional warrior does not often go into battle with the sort of like melee weapons that we would associate with the other gods like Thor Mjolnir, right? However, that does not mean that she does not have some dope ass items that assist her in battle. Because all Gods should have fun magical accessories, that's my hot take.
AMANDA: 100%. That's why I become a god. I mean, come on.
JULIA: Amanda, If you had a cool magical accessory as a goddess what would you want that cool magical accessory to be?
AMANDA: You know, I'm in my—my agriculture era right now Julia, I'm doing a lot of rooftop gardening, semi-illegally in my apartment building and I may have to move soon, don't ask about it's annoying. But I think that mine would be a watering can that made all plants immediately ripen. So if my little baby cucumbers could like spring up to be you know, six-foot-long vines making precious pickling cucumbers right now, that'd be pretty sick.
JULIA: I love that for you. That is not an item that Freya has in her collection.
AMANDA: You know different items for different Goddesses, you know?
JULIA: Exactly. My personal favorite item of Freya's is her cloak of Falcon Feathers, which gives the gift of flight to anyone who wears it.
AMANDA: Hell yeah.
JULIA: Just incredible, right? So while Freya is often portrayed as wearing this, in many stories, she actually loans it out to others in order to either assist them or to help them do her bidding which I love the vibe, we love a generous goddess who knows how to share. She also has a necklace which is known as a torque, which basically a torque is kind of like a twisted metal neckpiece. Not like a very traditional like change necklace or anything like that but rather like a ornate solid piece of metal that has been twisted into a artistic shape, right?
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: This is known as Brisingamen, or the gleaming or amber torque, which is gorgeous sounding. Right?
AMANDA: Very cool. I went to a museum of amber once in Copenhagen. I was there in like November, which is why the flight was so cheap, but also it was so cold outside and wet. And the Museum of Amber like I get why they chose this for Jurassic Park because you look at pieces of amber with like a bug inside and you're like, holy shit, I am nothing, the world is amazing, I can't believe that. And Amber really like shines with an ethereal light that makes this a really beautiful image.
JULIA: Yeah it's very often in mythology kind of associated with fire because it does seem like it is glowing from within even though—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: — it's just a trick of the light, but it's wild that it's—it's just SAP. It's—
AMANDA: I know.
JULIA: — it's just old SAP.
AMANDA: You know in our house Julia we put maple syrup in are coffee, iced and hot. And no matter how well you store your maple syrup there's going to be some like buildup of essentially maple syrup hardened or calcified on—on the bottle and I'm going to start thinking of that as juvenile Amber because it is essentially maple candy that I simply lick off the bottle like I am a lethal dog.
JULIA: Millions of years in the future Amanda someone will be able to—
AMANDA: Yes!
JULIA: —clone you and recreate you.
AMANDA: Were with little earrings. Oh yeah, yeah.
JULIA: I love that.
AMANDA: Great.
JULIA: So Brisingamen is actually really interesting because it was made by dwarves specifically for Freya and she is fiercely protective of it, extremely so. As far as I can tell the necklace itself doesn't have any sort of magical powers or anything like that, though some modern adaptations do give it magical properties for fantasy purposes. But as far as I can tell, in the original stories, it's just like beautiful and magical in the sense that it was created by dwarves for a goddess but not like any properties that really make it magical.
AMANDA: You and I both know Julia that in the right outfit with the right accessories, you feel magical.
JULIA: That's true.
AMANDA: Right. It—it makes you feel like you have more powers than normal.
JULIA: And it's always nice to have like a signature accessory that people—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: —recognize is like oh, that's the thing that this person always wears.
AMANDA: Exactly.
JULIA: Freya is rocking that, she knows exactly what's up. She also, of course, had some animal companions much like the other gods did.
AMANDA: Yay!
JULIA: Now remember how I mentioned earlier that Freya had that epithet which referred to her as a sow?
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: Well, part of that reason was she had an animal familiar Hildisvini, whose name literally translates to battle swine.
AMANDA: [trumpet sound] Battle swine! Battle swine, ready to go take you into battle. Battle, look really cute, cute little nose. Maybe some tusks, battle swine!
JULIA: I'm picturing that as like a you know how a lot of Japanese toys had animated tie-ins like—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: It's something like that where it's like, you know, the little balls that rolled out that became robots.
AMANDA: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
JULIA: What is that Baku—Bakugan or something like that?
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: Yeah, I'm picturing that. What you just did as a commercial for those where it's like Beyblades, battle your friend!
AMANDA: Exactly.
JULIA: So as you can imagine, he accompanies her into battle, but she does not ride upon him which would be very cool. You know, riding a sweet battle swine to battle would be awesome. Instead Amanda, Freya has a gleaming chariot that she rides into battle which is pulled by, I want you to guess.
AMANDA: Oh. Two— two big seabirds?
JULIA: You gotta—you gotta write that it's two animals.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: You're on—you're on the ball there. It's cat.
AMANDA: Ah, even better!
JULIA: And like domestic cats, not like big jumbo cats or anything like that. Just domestic cats.
AMANDA: Damn, I shouldn't you know—I shouldn't guess it'd be something a little more hearth oriented. I—you know, I imagine the kitties just kind of napping with the spirits of you know, slain soldiers in the hall after they take Freya on a good run.
JULIA: Isn't it—isn't it cute? I love it so much.
AMANDA: Do they have names?
JULIA: They don't have names. I think like a modern scholar has proposed names for them, but I couldn't find anything in the actual texts that suggested that they had names.
AMANDA: Fair.
JULIA: They are described as being either black or blue-gray.
AMANDA: Ooh.
JULIA: And we know that they were a gift from Thor to Freya at some point. Now, I've seen this a lot on the internet. I don't know how true it is, but I want to bring it up because I know it is a very popular theory. But it's said that oftentimes a bride as a wedding gift in Norse culture is given a cat. Because again, Freya as a love and marriage, and lust goddess, and fertility is associated with cats. And cats typically are associated with fertility in a lot of various cultures. So that as a bridal gift, is said to be a super common thing.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: But I think that's really cute and the idea of just cats pulling you into—first off, it makes me think of one episode of Community, where a guy is trying to create a renewable resource which is a cat-based chariot, but he simply can't figure out how to make the cats pull the chariot. And I was like, of course, you can't because their cats. So imagine Freya is so cool she can literally herd cats.
AMANDA: Listen, if that's not an organizational you know, minded person's dream, I don't know what is. What power.
JULIA: So besides her wonderful animals, Freya's family life is a bit interesting as well. And also like knowing her relations is going to help us kind of tell some of her stories later on in this episode, right?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So Freya is the daughter of Njord, who is the Vanir God associated with the sea, sailing, fishing, wealth, and the fertility of crops.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: So you can kind of see how he is associated with what Freya would eventually become, right?
AMANDA: Right.
JULIA: Now Freya's mother's identity is a bit of a mystery, though some scholars speculate that she might have been the daughter of Nerthus, who was a dramatic deity associated with peace and plenty, and also the laying down of arms after battle and like finding peace that way, which I think is very nice. And again, something that while Freya herself is kind of a war goddess, the fact that she is also associated with peace through her supposed mother is very interesting.
AMANDA: Yes, I feel like a sly thing to say, but like, in theory, you do war to get peace, right? So like it, it makes sense that those two things are closely aligned.
JULIA: That is—no, that's a total thing and something that a lot of times I feel like people forget is like, oh, yeah, the reason you had war is to settle those differences so that you could have peace.
AMANDA: Right.
JULIA: And while that's not ideal in a world where you know, we don't want mass deaths all around, it is very much true history.
AMANDA: It makes sense why these are bedfellows, even if often the pieces fictional or likesomeone else's expense, or a cover for some other political move.
JULIA: So while we think it might be Nerthus is her mother, we're not entirely sure. However, we do know that Freya has a brother who is aptly named Freyr.
AMANDA: No, that must be confusing.
JULIA: In some stories, they are twins which would make sense with the association of their names. But Freyr is a god associated with wealth, prosperity, healthful weather, which I love that phrase is—
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: —like the weather that makes you feel healthy.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: And male virility.
AMANDA: Sure. I'm gonna—yes, that's totally fine. I am not gonna lie to you though, I am mostly thinking about like tuberculosis springs, and like, you know, different retreats people can go to for the good air.
JULIA: Oh, yeah.
AMANDA: As Freyr for it.
JULIA: There you go. Since it's male virility makes a lot of sense since his sister is associated with fertility. He is also associated with the image of the phallus, which is very typical to associate with fertility and virility Gods.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Now, Freya is said to be married to a god named Odr, who we don't know a ton about. He's a very mysterious kind of character. His name is said to mean both furious and passionate, as well as mind and cents, which are very kind of not at odds necessarily, but not two concepts that you would really put together.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Usually when someone is furious and passionate, you think that like they don't have a lot of sense, or that they're not like very focused mind-wise, I guess?
AMANDA: Yeah, I think you're totally right. But this— this feels like one of those things that I would assume is diametrically opposed that maybe there is a reason why you know, this—this is a little closer than I expected. So I'm reserving judgment.
JULIA: Okay, fair enough. So in many of the stories that have survived of Norse mythology, Odr is often referenced as being like a way on long journeys, which is why he doesn't show up in a lot of the stories, which is honestly kind of a great way to write out a character where you're like, Freya's married, don't worry about it. That's why she has these daughters that I'm about to tell you about.
AMANDA: Ohh.
JULIA: But he's never around.
AMANDA: Alright, sure. Yeah, what else.
JULIA: It is said that however, in his absence, Freya would shed tears of gold, which, as I'll mention later, are a reference to a plant.
AMANDA: Oh good.
JULIA: With Odr when he was around, Freya gave birth to two daughters, whose names were Hnoss, and Gersemi, whose names both translate literally, to treasure.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: So they were according to the Edda's quote, “so very beautiful that afterwards, the most precious jewels were called by their names.”
AMANDA: That is pretty good, to have a beautiful jewel be like fuck that name. We used to call it Diamond, now we're calling it Bethany or whatever.
JULIA: I love the idea. It's like you know what, this person is so good.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So beautiful and so fair.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: We're gonna name all the nice things after them.
AMANDA: Yeah, Amber, forget it. Her name is Keisha now.
JULIA: Oh, I love it, it's so good.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Oh, man, I— if I choose to have children, I only hope that they're as awesome as we could rename some nouns after them.
AMANDA: Yeah, exactly.
JULIA: So Freya is considered the leader of the Vanir gods which lends herself well to an art that is not often practiced by the Aesir but rather the Vanir which is Seidr. We mentioned Seidr in earlier episodes, but this is basically a form of magic, which allows practitioners to know and potentially change the future. We mentioned it in the Frigga episode, we vaguely mentioned it in the Odin episode. But practitioners are sometimes known as vulva, and vulva can attempt to alter the events that they see through Seidr, which in many stories leads to their enemy's doom or helps deliver friends from impending disaster. Like very like kind of, oh, I see this image in my head. It's very— in my mind, it's X-Men.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: You know, where it's like, uh, I've had this premonition or charmed. I grew up with charms and accidents, so that's what I think of when I think premonitions. So it's like, oh, I saw this image, I don't have a very clear idea of what exactly is happening, but I'm going to do everything in my power to change it, right?
AMANDA: Make sense.
JULIA: However, this is an art but not a perfect one, which leads to a lot of dramatic tension when we see it used in stories. So for example, you might remember Frigga's attempts to stop the death of Baldur after seeing that premonition of it through Seidr, right? And we know how that went.
AMANDA: It's fascinating and a really good story tool.
JULIA: Yeah, it really is. God more stories should have premonitions. I know a lot of fantasy stories already have premonition dreams and premonitions in general, but man, I never get tired of it.
AMANDA: It's a trope for a reason.
JULIA: It is, it is. So now that we've got our background on Freya, I want to tell you some of my favorite stories about her. But first I think we need to grab a refill.
AMANDA: Let's do it.
[theme]
AMANDA: Welcome to the refill. Hello, it's Amanda and I would like to say hello not just to you listening, but to our newest patrons Sydney and Kelly, I hope you enjoy the refreshing Cucumber Mint lemonade that I Have prepared. Welcome as well to our supporting producers, Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Brittany, Froody Chick, Hannah, Jack Marie, Jane, Kneazlekins, Lily, Matthew, Megan Moon, Nathan, Phil Fresh, Rikoelike, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, Scott, and Zazi. and our legend-level patrons, Arianna, Audra, Bex, Chibi Yokai, Morgan, Sarah, Schmitty, & Bea Me Up Scotty. You too can be thanked by name and know that you are literally making it possible for us to make this podcast if you join as a Patron. For as little as four bucks a month at patreon.com/spiritspodcast. Did you know that on Patreon you can, A. pay in your local currency in almost all cases, and B. you can pay upfront for a whole year of Spirits support and bonus content and good stuff. Julia and I just recorded earlier today a advice video podcast for patrons. It is so much fun to do and you make it possible for us to do this as our jobs. So please go ahead and pledge your support now at patreon.com/spiritspodcast. I would like to recommend a YouTube channel that has been getting me through my evenings recently. I have been doing lots of work and coming home pretty sleepy and I just watch very calming videos of people tending to their gardens. And one of my favorites is Jacques in the Garden. Jacques spelled the French way in the garden, which just a lovely man and his dogs chickens, and partner in San Diego gardening in a way that I truly cannot fathom here in New York because they are several zones warmer than me and do things like grow tomatoes all year round. But it is so charming and soothing and makes me really excited to have my own little tiny rooftop garden grow this year. Now, we made a little mistake guys. 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Alright, folks, this show is sponsored by Better Help. And there are lots and lots of ways that you take care of others, but not a lot of time that you really reserve only for yourself. And by you, I mean me. In the last few weeks, every morning that I have gotten up and gone up to the rooftop where I'm growing some vegetables this year to check on my little plants, and my little seeds and make sure they have all the water they need. And make sure nothing, you know, disastrous has happened during the night. That is really one of the few moments during the day that I know is just for me. And like yes, I'm tending to the garden, but also I get to take a breath and a pause and put my face up to the sunshine and just take a little minute. And it's really really helpful to make sure that I do that. 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JULIA: So for this cocktail, I'm introducing one that I am calling the Freya's flax. So this cocktail which is flaxen in its color, much like Freya's hair. It is a little bit sweet but also has a deep richness to it. So it features scotch, Cointreau, apple and lemon juice, and a little bit of ginger beer. And I think it really gets across the whole vibe that Freya has kind of got going for her here. So that like initial sweetness with hidden depths.
AMANDA: It is also a very good way to use up a bottle of perfectly fine scotch I have that I don't really want to drink meat. So this is a great combo.
JULIA: I had trivia last night and one of our bartenders was leaving a little early, and he's like, yeah, he was telling us like, yeah, you know, I really like to take the empty bottles home with me to like, make stuff out of them, especially like the cool shaped ones.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And he was like, I really want to take this bottle of a [34:00] home, but no one ever drinks it. And there's like three shots left of it. I was like, Peter, sign us up for some shots. And he's like, really? I was like, okay, great. And we did the shots, and I was like, whew, that tasted bad. It was not very good. It was like sweet and old, and I was like, [coughs] alright, take the bottle home.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: So shout out to people who have alcohol that they want to use up, this is a great cocktail for that.
AMANDA: Oh yeah.
JULIA: Plus, I always like— I don't drink a lot of apple juice but sometimes I buy it for recipes. And using this in a cocktail is a good way to get rid of that apple juice that I don't want to use anymore.
AMANDA: I love apple juice and drink it all the time. Eric, my husband does a lot of like molds apple cider as a sort of you know in the autumn especially. But it is—there's like a renaissance in heirloom apple juices and ciders—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —recently. So you can get like honey crisp apple juice and like all kinds of stuff that you couldn't get in the past. So I think actually that the honey crisp would be a really good addition to this recipe, because it does have even like, I don't know, it's like a mellower sweetness than a typical apple juice doesn't taste as— it doesn't taste like sugar, it tastes like apple, which I personally really like.
JULIA: That'll probably pair really well with the scotch, that'll be interesting.
AMANDA: Next—next round Julia. Yeah.
JULIA: You have to send me a list of the ones that you would recommend, so I can look out for them in the store.
AMANDA: Of course.
JULIA: Let's get into our stories of Freya. To start things off, I just want to briefly talk about one of the earliest stories we have a Freya, which is her involvement in the war between the Aesir and the Vanir. So this was as I mentioned, in kind of the world-building and Odin episodes, the Aesir and the Vanir were groups of gods who were at war with each other and then made peace and kind of joined forces together. So in the Prose Edda, there is something called the Ynglinga saga, which tells the story of the early Norwegian kings and also Odin's arrival in Scandinavia and of course, the war between the gods. The war goes on, but when the two sides reach a peace settlement after the fighting, Odin asks Freya to oversee the offering of the sacrifices. Which is a big deal because Odin, as we know is the all father and is headed the Aesir, but by asking Freya to do this, saying that he trusts this leader of this opposite force, which is kind of a good way of them coming together, right? So in this role, Freya is able to preserve the peace between the gods and maintain the cycles of fertility that keep the world in motion again. This kind of idea that she is associated both with the cycle of life and also death. So she of course for these efforts was praised and celebrated, so much so that her personal name was applied to all quote-unquote “ladies in good standing.” Remember how I said Freya means lady, that's where we get ladies from.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: So this saga also claims that Freya introduced the Aesir after the war to the practice of Seidr, which we talked about before, which ended up being utilized by several of the Aesir in later stories of Norse mythology.
AMANDA: Hell yeah.
JULIA: From the Poetic Edda there is another story featuring Freya and her favorite servant whose name is Ottar, right? Ottar approached Freya one day and told her that he didn't know his ancestry, but he wanted to know more in order to settle a bet against another man whose name was Angantyr, which I—I love this is like, oh, you think you're so cool, well, I can name all of my family tree going back five generations. And he's like, oh, well, I can do six, you know?
AMANDA: I know. Damn.
JULIA: What bragging? So Freya, who adored Ottar was more than willing to help him out. And Ottar also, like made a bunch of beautiful sacrifices to her and she was like, oh, my sweet servant, I'll do whatever you ask. So what she does to help him is she transforms him into Hidilsvini, the pig familiar, the battle swine, and took him to see a wise woman named Hyndla. Now Hyndla knows a lot of stuff as a wise woman. However, she at first did not want to reveal any of This information to Freya, she's doing a lot of hemming and hawing and whatnot. And then Freya eventually has to resort to threatening her. Again, while Freya is nice, Freya is not always nice.
AMANDA: You start with the nice and then you move into hey, wouldn't it be sad if this thing happened to you?
JULIA: This wouldn't be a shame if something happened to you.
AMANDA: Uh-huh.
JULIA: Because of my—my pig here.
AMANDA: He's called a battle swine. He's not called nuzzles your hand and never bites you swine.
JULIA: Exactly. Exactly. So this wise woman, you know, now properly motivated by Freya's threats begins to recite an extremely complicated genealogy and identifies Ottar's place within it. Now Freya is listening to this, and she's like, oh, this is—whoo, this is really complicated. I don't think he's going to be able to remember all this. I don't think he's gonna be able to win the bet. So she looks at him and says, okay, what you're going to do so that my pig here can remember, all the things that you're saying, is you're going to pour him the beer of memory.
AMANDA: What's the beer memory?
JULIA: Well, Amanda, it's basically a memory potion, but in the form of beer.
AMANDA: I mean, God, I wish.
JULIA: God I wish. I wish beer made me remember things better, rather than worse.
AMANDA: I know!
JULIA: So I have actually the part of the Poetic Edda that she talks about this and—alright—
AMANDA: Oh, Julia you know me so well. Yes, please.
JULIA: —so she says to Hyndla, to my boar now bring the memory beer, so that all thy words that will thou have spoken, the third mourn hence he may hold in his mind when they're races, Ottar and Angantyr tell.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: Which is just, you know, imagine giving beer to a pig so that he can remember his lineage.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: So she feeds the beer memory potion to the guy, he's able to defeat Angantyr in remembering more of his genealogy and he wins the bet. And that's the end of the story.
AMANDA: And he got to drink a beer and his boss loves him.
JULIA: And he's a pig!
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Yes, and his boss loves him, so everything going great for him.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: Now the next story will sound familiar, but only because we told the story from the perspective of Loki in the past. But this story is of Freya and her almost marriage.
AMANDA: Yes, Julia given us both sides of this like a—like a heist movie where the fifth act of the heist movie is looking back at why the beginning of the heist or seemed like it didn't go so well. Actually, they plan for it.
JULIA: Exactly.
AMANDA: Danny Ocean?
JULIA: I am it's me, Danny Ocean.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: A lot of stories and problems that kind of arise around Freya were simply because she was just too damn hot. You know?
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
JULIA: Our girl was just so sexy. What can you do sometimes when you're just a woman who is too sexy in the world, things happen.
AMANDA: You know, people have a lot of opinions about them that does not involve saying, what a good-looking lady and then leaving her alone.
JULIA: Yep. So basically everyone wanted Freya as a wife, including a hill giant that one day approached the gods and offered to build them a impregnable fortress that would protect the gods from any enemy.
AMANDA: I mean, convenient, useful.
JULIA: All he wanted in exchange for this tremendous gift was the sun—
AMANDA: Ohh.
JULIA: —the moon.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: And Freya's hand in marriage.
AMANDA: Now that's a step too far.
JULIA: That's where we draw the line. So the gods huddle up to discuss this deal, and they say okay, but you have to complete the fortress by the first day of summer.
AMANDA: Julia, this is simply good business practices. You gotta make sure there is a deliverable timeline in your contract.
JULIA: Of course, of course. So the giant agrees to this so long as he could have the help of his stallion, Svadilfari.
AMANDA: Good.
JULIA: Great. The gods agree and the giant begins his task, but the gods are so sure that he will not be able to complete the task in such a short amount of time. They're like there's no way he could do that, simply no way. That's why we put this on the moon and Freya on the line here. However, as summer begins to approach, the gods start realizing that with the help of the stallion, the builder is getting dangerously close to meeting his deadline.
AMANDA: Gotta make Loki into a sexy horse, distract him from the goal?
JULIA: Yes, I'm glad you remember how it goes.
AMANDA: I could never forget, Julia.
JULIA: So worried that they are going to lose Freya forever because this marriage means that she's going to be taken to the land of giants. The gods decide that they need to sabotage the hill giants' efforts by, Amanda?
AMANDA: Making Loki into a sexy horse.
JULIA: Yes. So Loki transforms himself into a mare and distracts the stallion with you guessed it, sex.
AMANDA: You know to be fair to the horse, I think all horses are sexy. I think all horses good looking in their own way. Yes, I have been watching my husband play Tears of the Kingdom a lot. And yes, his gigantic horse named Meatball did make it over from Breath of the Wild into Tears of the Kingdom we were all—
JULIA: Incredible.
AMANDA: Very pleased.
JULIA: I am currently playing through Breath of the Wild because I feel like I need to finish it before I play Tears of the Kingdom. And all of my horses are named after gemstones.
AMANDA: Good.
JULIA: Which I haven't done an amber yet, but I am planning on it. I just named one Quartz.
AMANDA: Yeah, Eric's are, Noodle, Meatball, and Apples
JULIA: Aww.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: I have Garnet, Quartz and Opal.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: So Loki has sex with the stallion—
AMANDA: Yup, yup, yup.
JULIA: —and realizing without his stallion that he won't be able to complete the fortress in time, the Hill giant flies into a rage. The other gods are like uh, Thor. Thor help. And so as the poem puts it, quote, “straight away the hammer Mjolnir was raised aloft.” He paid the rights wage and not with the sun and the moon.
AMANDA: Huh?
JULIA: The Hill Giant was killed, Freya was saved from an unwanted marriage. The gods gained a fortress and a new fold because Amanda as you remember, Loki gave birth to the eight-legged steed Sleipnir.
AMANDA: A gender fuck hero if there ever was one.
JULIA: Always and forever baby, always and forever. Now another story in which Freya is coveted for marriage might also sound a bit familiar. So in this story, she is coveted by the king of the Jotnar, whose name is Thrym. I fucking love the name Thrym, it's just fun to say. Thrym.
AMANDA: Yeah. Great, great feeling, great sound.
JULIA: I know, I know right? Especially when you like kind of roll the R a little, Thrym. Beautiful. The story begins not with Thrym, saying hey Freya you want to marry me but, rather with Thor awakening one day to find that Mjolnir is missing.
AMANDA: Oh, no, not good.
JULIA: That's his—his boon companion, the big hammer.
AMANDA: His thing!
JULIA: So Loki in a surprising twist for Loki, volunteers to try to find it and asks Freya if he may borrow her falcon feather cloak. Which again my favorite item of Freya's, which she gives to him freely. The Poetic Edda then says, quote, "then Loki flew and the feather dress word, till he left behind him the home of the gods and reached at last the realm of the giants. Which I love that description so much. I'm picturing it like the whirring of propellers on a prop airplane and going zooom and then off Loki goes.
AMANDA: Oh, that's good. I was picturing like you ever see like ladies with a essentially like fur coat cape situation when it's like too warm?
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: That's—that's what I'm picturing. With like the hem billowing.
JULIA: Oh, I love it. Yes.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Like a—like a Miyazaki character in the wind.
AMANDA: Yes!
JULIA: So at this point, after Loki has gone zooom. He discovers that Mjolnir was stolen away by Thrym and that Thrym we'll return it, but only in exchange for Freya.
AMANDA: Oh, she's too sexy again, Julia.
JULIA: Just too sexy. So when Loki returned with this offer, which he didn't really make it seem like an offer. He was kind of just appeared in the hall of the gods and was like, Alright, we gotta go if, you want Mjolnir back, Freya's gotta go with the land of the giants.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Now Freya became so furious at this news, that the palace of the gods shook on its very foundations and her necklace Brasingamen cracked and fell to the ground.
AMANDA: Nooo, not the pretty!
JULIA: As the Poetic Edda puts it, quote, “wrathful was Freya and fiercely she snorted, and the dwelling great of the gods was shaken, and burst was the mighty Brisings necklace.” She then retorted to Loki, quote, “most lustful indeed should I look to all, if I journeyed with thee to the Giant's home.” Basically, like damn, I would look pretty desperate if I agreed to marry the king of the Giants.
AMANDA: Seriously.
JULIA: Freya's got standards. She is sexy and she has standards!
AMANDA: Like not today Loki, not like this, not with you.
JULIA: No. But luckily one of the gods Heimdall and you might remember this part from our Thor episode a while back, devises a scheme to once again keep Freya from being married off. So they decide to dress Thor as Freya, adorning him in her prized necklace and a bridal veil so that he can enter Thrym's Hall undetected. And Loki goes with him dressed as his maid, or in this case, Freya's made, and the two are able to recover a Mjolnir and forcefully take it back to the Halls of the gods.
AMANDA: See, Drag on with us forever people.
JULIA: It just has, you know. Like cross-dressing features in so many stories of mythology, and no one had any problems with it. No one was fucking laughing at Thor being like, haha, or being like, oh, Thor is totally unmanly now that he has decided to dress as a woman. No, everyone's like, yeah, fucking Thor did what he had to do. And [47:52] Thrym. Just another—just another classic from Norse Mythology.
AMANDA: I know, conspirators know. But just [47;59] Come on people.
JULIA: Listen, sometimes we just—we're not yelling at you conspirators—
AMANDA: We're yelling.
JULIA: We're yelling [48:03]
AMANDA: We're yelling, we're yelling.
JULIA: We're just yelling. So now this final story that I have to tell is a little different because it does not come from the traditional Norse sources, the Edda's or anything like that, but rather, was a 14th century narrative written by Christian Priests. Which as you can imagine, does not paint a quote-unquote “pagan goddess” in a very nice light.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: However, I do want to share it because like, as we discussed early on, Freya is a goddess not only of love but also fertility and most telling lust, right? So this is a story that definitely is told through the kind of moralizing lens of Christianity, but I also think that it's worth telling because it does feature a part of her domain that we don't touch upon that often.
AMANDA: Sounds good.
JULIA: So in this version of the tale, Freya is shown to be a concubine of Odin. Again, just the like real Christian like, oh, well, you know, you're not his wife so—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —kind of vibe.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Now Odin is infatuated with Freya and Freya of course, as we've talked about, already extremely beautiful. One day Freya slipped away from the palace of the gods and came across a cave where four dwarves are working on crafting a necklace. Which, while the story does not say it outright, is definitely her infamous Brasingamen, right? Now Freya as the story goes, loved all fine things. And upon seeing the necklace desired it immediately. And as we talked about, it's a beautiful necklace, like it is canonically gorgeous, right?
AMANDA: We've all been there.
JULIA: We've all been there. You go to a jewelry store, you're like, oh, no, I want it. I want it so bad.
AMANDA: Yeah, or bookshop or plant nursery, you know, y'all have your thing.
JULIA: Everyone's got their thing. So the dwarves agree to give it to her, but only if she will consent to have sex with each of them, which Freya unabashedly agrees too.
AMANDA: Cool. I mean listen, it sounds like a great day for Freya frankly!
JULIA: Yeah. Like if— like if that's the payment they want and Freya's down for it, fuck yeah, let's go.
AMANDA: [50:03]
JULIA: [50:03] positive queen. We love her.
AMANDA: I see how these Christian priests are like, and adding insult to injury, you know, Freya had sex all the dwarves, to me that's like Freya, get your free [50:11] enjoy.
JULIA: Do your thing, Freya, like no one's stopping you. You're more than welcome to it.
AMANDA: No!
JULIA: You know?
AMANDA: But they're great with their hands, come on!
JULIA: Oh yeah, I bet they are. And plus like the thing too is like this is all consensual, right like—
AMANDA: Yeah!
JULIA: —and again, we—we tend as you said earlier on the episode in western kind of Puritan society, we tend to believe that love and lust are opposite spectrum things. But like, this is a goddess who is both and can enjoy both, and that's fine.
AMANDA: Yeah. And the dwarves are like, yeah, we make beautiful necklaces, you're a beautiful woman, you want to like hang out all afternoon and then we all walk away happy, and Freyas goes dope. And then that sounds amazing.
JULIA: Yes, exactly. So we'd love to see it. So as is often the case, eventually Loki found out about this sexual encounter and he went to Odin to kind of just rat her out.
AMANDA: Come on Loki.
JULIA: Classic Loki stuff.
AMANDA: Loki's jealous.
JULIA: Yeah, he is. He probably wants to have sex with Freya. And like as we discussed.
AMANDA: Or a room full of dwarves that are good with their hands, come on!
JULIA: Also that. But like as we discussed, Freya is like a very discerning lover, you know?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: She doesn't want to fuck Thrym. She doesn't want to fuck the hill giant that came by, she wants to have sex with these dwarves and get a necklace out of it and that's great.
AMANDA: Yes!
JULIA: So Odin after hearing this news, and she gets ratted out by Loki, decides to get back at Freya. And so he encourages Loki to steal the necklace from Freya. He goes alright, you saw what happened, you go you find the necklace. So Loki in traditional Loki fashion, transforms himself into a flea and slips into Freya's bedroom. Freya, he finds is sleeping with the necklace beneath her, which seems uncomfortable, not gonna lie to you seems not comfy.
AMANDA: Is she wearing it and it's like sleeping on her stomach?
JULIA: No, because here's how Loki manages to get it off of her. So Loki in flea form bites her cheek which causes her to turn over in bed, frees up the necklace which Loki then steals away and brings to Odin.
AMANDA: You know Julia, I fall asleep in my Airpods and sometimes, and I wake up in the air pod is like under the bed, across the room, like in Eric's pillow, like you know there's—there's all kinds of places things can go. So I am not super alarmed by this necklace.
JULIA: That's what the dwarf said to.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: Loki gives Odin the necklace and in the morning when Freya finds that the necklace is gone, Freya approaches Odin to ask if he knew what happened and if he was behind the theft. Which Odin is like, yes, I was, also know about you and the dwarves.
AMANDA: Okay. Jealous much?
JULIA: Again. She's like, Okay. And so he's like, alright, I'll return the necklace to you, but you have to perform a interesting task for me. And she's like, okay. And he says, you have to force two kings who each rule 20 kings to fight an endless war. And each time the king slay each other, they will rise again to fight. And this will happen for all eternity until a true Christian arrives to end the war.
AMANDA: Sure, sure. Okay.
JULIA: Which for some context was supposed to be a reference to Olaf Tryggvason, who was the Christian King of Norway from 995 to 1000 CE.
AMANDA: Okay, sure. So by the time the story has been written, this is enough comfortably in the past that we're like, let's romanticize the first Christian kingdom, Norway.
JULIA: Exactly. And again, these are Christian priests writing this, so they're like, ah, yes, the one person who can stop the infinite war, the first Christian king.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: So Freya in order to win her prize back agrees to this task and she's like, fine, whatever, just give it back to me when it's done. Which she eventually gets the necklace back because this Christian king just show up. But this is really as I kind of suggested, a smear piece by Christianity on Freya. And it's interesting because while it is a smear piece, it's not wrong, necessarily, like Freya's quote-unquote, “like promiscuity" is somewhat implied, or at least referenced in the Edda's. So for example, we talked about Loki's rap/insult battle in his episode, and he accuses her of having slept with all of the gods saying, quote, “be silent Freya, for fully I know the sinless thou are not thyself, of the gods and elves who are gathered here each one as thy lover has lien.” Which he's like you've slept with everyone in this room, Freya, right? You're not blameless at all. And like, who cares Loki, you're drunk. Shut up.
AMANDA: Yeah. Which I—which I get why he thinks is an insult, but I'd be Freya and be like, mmm, yeah, great.
JULIA: I mean, I would be Freya and I would be like, you fucked a horse, dude.
AMANDA: You wish. You're just jealous. you're not on my list.
JULIA: Exactly. Or don't you feel bad about that?
AMANDA: Right.
JULIA: Well, whatever. Again, Freya a discerning sexual partner in my opinion.
AMANDA: Seriously.
JULIA: Now those are the stories of Freya, but Freya's impact in the more modern era is definitely worth mentioning before we wrap things up. She is mentioned by name in the first stanza of the civil national anthem of Denmark.
AMANDA: Hey.
JULIA: Which was written in 1819 by Danish poet. I'm going to try my best at this one, Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger.
AMANDA: Oh, I was gonna say that sounded great. And then you got to the last name and I was like yep, also sounds good. But—
JULIA: Oehlenschlager.
AMANDA: [53:35] correct.
JULIA: So it starts quote, “it is called Old Denmark and it is Freya's Hall.”
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Which I love that.
AMANDA: Yeah!
JULIA: There also, as I mentioned earlier in the episode, several plants that were named after her such as Freya's hair and Freya's tears, though in a real kind of LOL, it's not pagan, it's fine Christian rebranding. Many of these plants were instead renamed to include the Virgin Mary instead of Freya.
AMANDA: Ah, yes, classic.
JULIA: Which is also interesting, because some of phrase more kind of benevolent characteristics around fertility and like kind of granting forgiveness to women were transferred to the Virgin Mary, with the eventual kind of aggressive spread of Christianity across Europe.
AMANDA: Right.
JULIA: So Freya, not like super—we tend to mention like, for example, the God of War games in these and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Freya, not really involved in any of those at all. But in a lot of cases, you can kind of see where some of Freya's qualities were put on to Frigga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Before she was unfairly killed.
AMANDA: Well, Julia, I've been thinking all along about my epithet for Freya. And I think I have one. Now there are a lot, there's obviously fertile is one not what we're going to be going for here. There's fancy which I think is also nice. She likes the finer things in life. Fearsome perhaps, but I think I'm gonna go with Freya the formidable.
JULIA: Woohoo. I like that one.
AMANDA: Because, if she sets her sights on something, she knows how to get it. If you cross her, you're in for not an easy time. And if she invites you to her Hall, it's a formidable experience. It might make you a little bit like make sure you're well dressed and your best behavior. But then once you get there you realize wow, to be in Freya's favor, really mean something.
JULIA: Or you know just proves that you are formidable if you wind up in her Hall as well, which I really love. Amanda, Freya the Formidable, I love it so much.
AMANDA: Yay! Well thank you for doing this wonderful deep dive Julia into a goddess whose name I knew, but whose story I did not. And I'm really excited where you know next time I'm in my garden and I'm thinking about what my magical watering can could be like and how I hope my plants you know, present all kinds of wonderful and bear all kinds of wonderful fruit. I'm also going to be thinking about pleasure and about flowers and how I can make a lovely hospitable area for creatures big and small you know?
JULIA: Yeah. I— Amanda, I love it. And conspirators, next time you are the host to four awesome dwarves remember, stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
[theme]
AMANDA: Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Alison Wakeman.
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JULIA: Thanks for listening to Spirits. We'll see you next week.
AMANDA : Bye!