The Saga of Vanadís, Völva and Valkyrja

1961), in common with Freyja. In Egypt the name for cat ‘mau’, is cognate with the word
for ‘mother’ (Babcock and Boulet, 1994).
Closer to Island, than Egypt and Anatolia, lived the Celtic goddess Brighid, later
adopted by the Christians and called St. Bridget or Bride. To her the cat, whether wild or
domestic, is sacred. The Welsh Ceridwen, in her sow form as Henwen, gives birth to a
kitten that grows to become the fierce Palug Cat, one of the three plagues of Anglesey,
killed by King Arthur. Those three plagues have their parallel in the Islandic trinity of the
Wolf, Fenris, the great snake, Miðgarðsormur, and the goddess Hel. Many places in
Britain are named after cats, such as Caithness, where Auður djúpúðga (see below) set off
from Scotland to Island and where the Kati or ‘cat-people’ lived. Cat skins and heads
were used as power objects in war (Carr-Gomm, 1994, pp. 55-57). Brighid is a
protectress of childbirth (Gimbutas, 2001, p.184), like her Egyptian sister. She, or her
Catholic counterpart, is even recalled having been the midwife and foster mother of
Jesus, a later version of another tale of the Celtic Son of Light (Stewart, 1990, p. 98).
Freyja is Gefn and Gefjun, the giver. Her role as mid-wife or protectress of women in
childbirth is displayed in Oddrúnarkviða, one of the Völsunga-poems (stanza 9). There
she and Frigg are called upon for help, when a woman in childbirth is in danger.
Long before I even ventured my thoughts in the direction of Freyja as my
goddess, or became aware of her, Bast’s or Brighid’s connection to the cat and their role
as protectors in childbirth, I had a dream. At the time I was a young mother myself,
newly divorced, working at the hospital in my hometown, mostly at the maternity
department. I was also a member of the municipal council. In the dream I was in my
living room, watching over a group of she-cats.
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