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Frige

Frige, or Frig, was the presumed Old English name for a goddess found in Anglo-Saxon paganism, the religion that dominated Anglo-Saxon England from the 5th to the 7th centuries CE. There are no direct descriptions of this deity in surviving literary sources, but historians have drawn together indirect evidence from a variety of other sources, arguing that she was probably associated with sexuality and fertility by her worshippers.

Following the Christianisation of England in the 7th and 8th centuries, Frige's worship was eradicated, but she left an influence on the English language. She lent her name to the Modern English word " Friday", which came from the Old English word Frigedæg, meaning "Frige's Day". She also provided the basis for a number of place names across the country, including villages like Froyle, Freefolk and Fretherne.

The role of Frige in pre-Christian England has been evaluated by a variety of different historians and scholars of Old English, such as Brian Branston (1957), Richard North (1997) and Stephen Pollington (2011). Because very little information about Frige has survived from English literary sources, scholars have looked for comparisons within Norse mythology to elucidate more about this deity. In Norse mythology, there were two distinct goddesses who have been compared with the Anglo-Saxon Frige: Freyja, who was associated with sexuality, magic, fecundity and violent death, and also Frigg, who was associated with childbirth, wealth and power over the household. Archaeologists have also suggested that certain female figurines found from Anglo-Saxon England might have represented the goddess Frige.