The Saga of Vanadís, Völva and Valkyrja

Fólkvangr er inn níundi,
en þar Freyja ræðr
sessa kostum í sal;
halfan val
hon kýss hverjan dag,
en halfan Óðinn á.
Grímnismál, st. 14
This poem is the main source for Snorri when he writes:
Fólkvangur is the ninth,
where Freyja determines
the guests seats;
half the slain
she chooses each day
but half are Óðinn’s.
Freyja er ágætust af Ásynjum. Hon á þann bæ á himni er Fólkvangr heitir. Ok hvar er hon ríðr til
vígs, þá á hon hálfan val og hálfan Óðinn. [...] Salr hennar Sessrúmnir, hann er mikill ok fagr.
(Gylfaginning, ch.24)
Freyja is the finest among the Ásynjur. She has a place in heaven called Fólkvangur, and wherever
she rides to battle, half the valur (slain) are hers and half Óðinn’s. [...] Her hall, Sessrúmnir, is
grand and beautiful.
So while Óðinn chooses half of the valur (slain) to follow him to Valhöll, the
other half follows Freyja to Fólkvangur, where there is always ample room in Sessrúmnir,
meaning, ‘room with many seats’. There are many parallel, but very different places for
the dead according to Old Islandic mythology. In addition to Valhöll and Fólkvangur,
there is the domain of Rán, the queen of the sea, who catches those who die at sea in her
net. Then we have the tale of Gefjun/Freyja who receives all those who die as maidens.
Last there is Hel for all the rest, i.e. those who die of old age or sickness, and the
criminals. According to Völuspá, stanzas 38 and 39, some of those traitors and murderers
spend eternity among poisonous snakes and hungry wolves, in a hall standing on
Náströnd (Corpse-shore). This last is clearly a Christian influence, one of the most
obvious in Völuspá. The division into different places of death is quite surely a
phenomenon of an age where the hierarchical structure of life was strong and it followed
126