Fjörgyn and Fjörgynn

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Fjörgyn and Fjörgynn are figures in Norse mythology. Fjörgyn is the feminine personification of the earth, while Fjörgynn is the masculine form. They are tied to the family of Odin and Thor.

What they are said to be
- Fjörgyn (earth) is Thor’s mother. Thor is Odin’s son and the god of thunder.
- Fjörgynn (the masculine form) is Frigg’s father. Frigg is Odin’s wife.

Where they appear in the myths
- In the Poetic Edda (the older collection of Norse poems), Thor is described as Fjörgyn’s son in a kenning (a poetic phrase).
- In the Prose Edda (written by Snorri Sturluson), Fjörgyn is named as the father of Frigg.
- In Hárbarðsljóð, Fjörgyn is mentioned as Thor’s mother.
- In Lokasenna, Loki jokes that Frigg is Fjörgyn’s daughter, showing Fjörgyn as Frigg’s parent in the mythic tradition.

Name and meaning
- The Old Norse name Fjörgyn means earth or land. It likely comes from Proto-Germanic words meaning “earth” or “mountainum.”
- Fjörgyn is related to cognate words in Gothic, Old English, and Old High German that also point to “mountain” or “earth.”

Alternative names and ideas
- Some scholars think Fjörgyn and Jörð (the godly or personified earth) might be the same figure or closely connected. In some sources, Fjörgyn is treated as another name for Earth.

Theories about their origins
- One idea, proposed by Hilda Ellis Davidson, is that Fjörgyn and Fjörgynn were a divine pair — a mother-father earth-power pair — about whom little else survives in the records, similar to other mythic pairs in Norse lore.
- Another idea links Fjörgyn to Proto-Indo-European thunder or rain gods. Some scholars see connections between Fjörgyn and related gods across Indo-European traditions (like Perkūnas, Perun, Perjanya) through language and myth.

In short
Fjörgyn and Fjörgynn are earth-related deities in Norse myth, linked as Thor’s mother and Frigg’s father, respectively. Their exact roles and origins aren’t fully explained in the surviving texts, but they are important because they connect the earth, Thor, Frigg, and Odin’s wider divine family.