I wrote this blog in September of 2013. Two months later I get a letter from Rena five days after Christmas.

https://rosamondpress.com/2013/09/07/eric-the-reds-daughter/

Thomas Pynchon wrote a book titled ‘Vineland’ a place where the last of the hippies congregate.

https://rosamondpress.com/2013/01/14/the-vineland-of-pynchon-and-Sinclair/

If only Belle and Rena would had let me write my legend. They destroyed so much hard work, along with my daughter. Where is their story?

Jon Presco

Last night I went to Eugene’s first Friday art walk. Friday is name after Freya the ‘Lady of Love’ who is associated with weaving and the Norns ‘The Three Fates’.

At the New Zone gallery I beheld three paintings of Women Warriors not unlike the vision I own of Rena Christensen who rebels against the Red Thread Clue of Rosamond because she has become a good Christian. Christensen is a Swedish name meaning ‘Son of Christian’. Is she kin to King Olaf?

If Rena had married me, then I would never have married Mary Ann who is kin to Eric the Red and his daughter, Freydís Eiríksdóttir.

“Both Frigg and Freyja are associated with weaving, combining the aspects of a love goddess and a domestic goddess. In Sweden and some parts of Germany, the asterism of Orion’s Belt is known as her distaff or spindle.”

Rosamond is the name of the Sleeping Beauty Princess who falls asleep after being pricked with a weaving needle. Queen Eleanor finds Fair Rosamond in her maze with the clue of the Red Thread of the yarn she weaves with. My Rosamond kindred descend from a long line of weavers. The famous artist Rosamond was good with a needle and thread. But, let us throw all this away, because my ego might be too large, as large as a Norse God?

And forth she calls this trustye knighte,
In an unhappy houre;
Who with his clue of twined thread,
Came from this famous bower.

And when that they had wounded him,
The queene this thread did gette,
And went where Ladye Rosamonde
Was like an angell sette.

Erik the Red (Eirik Raude) Thorvaldsson (950 – 1003

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyja

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frijj%C5%8D

In Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse the “Lady”) is a goddess associated with love, sexuality, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death.

The weekday Friday in English is named after for the goddess Frigg (Old English frigedæg). Friday in Old Norse was called both Freyjudagr and Frjádagr

Frijjō (“Frigg-Frija”) is the reconstructed name or epithet of a hypothetical Common Germanic love goddess, the most prominent female member of the *Ansiwitz (gods), and often identified as the spouse of the chief god, *Wōdanaz (Woden-Odin).

The origin of the name norn is uncertain, it may derive from a word meaning “to twine” and which would refer to their twining the thread of fate.[2]

http://www.exclassics.com/percy/perc77.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norns

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/companion-of-jeanne-de-rougemont/

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/fitzwolf-and-the-bayeux-tapestry/

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/alice-ida-and-margaret-de-tosny/

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/the-maze-and-grail-at-blenheim-palace/

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/freydis-the-shieldmaiden/

I posted this in April.

Though she is not called a Shieldmaiden, Freydís Eiríksdóttir, is compared to one. She is in my family tree because I am kin to Erik the Red Thorvaldsson. After I married Mary Ann Tharaldsen, we flew to New York to meet her parents. They were not to happy we did not inform them we were getting married. Mary Ann’s father was very mu ch into his ancestor, Eric the Red, and had done extensive genealogical reasearch. You could say he was a fanatic, like I would turn out to be. He let me know in detail I had married into a noble and famous Norwegian family. He then asked about my ancestors. He was not impressed. No one jumped out at him – from a Viking vessel.

Mary Ann and her husband adopted a blonde boy they named Erik, and a Eskimo boy. When by great luck Mary Ann became pregnant and born a girl, they named her Britt.

Rena Christiansen is Nordic, and an Aries. I see her holding a shield and wearing a Viking Helmut. Behold the Goddess of War!

With the ruling that American Women can serve in the military and be in combat, Freyis is now the sister of Lady Liberty whom I have compared to the Rose of the World, the protectress of our shores and our Democracy.

Long live our Freedom!

Jon ‘The Ranger’

Freya

In Norse mythology, Freya is a goddess of love and fertility, and the most beautiful and propitious of the goddesses. She is the patron goddess of crops and birth, the symbol of sensuality and was called upon in matters of love. She loves music, spring and flowers, and is particularly fond of the elves (fairies). Freya is one of the foremost goddesses of the Vanir.

She is the daughter of the god Njord, and the sister of Freyr. Later she married the mysterious god Od (probably another form of Odin), who disappeared. When she mourned for her lost husband, her tears changed into gold.

Her attributes are the precious necklace of the Brisings, which she obtained by sleeping with four dwarfs, a cloak (or skin) of bird feathers, which allows its wearer to change into a falcon, and a chariot pulled by two cats. She owns Hildesvini (“battle boar”) which is actually her human lover Ottar in disguise. Her chambermaid is Fulla. Freya lives in the beautiful palace Folkvang (“field of folk”), a place where love songs are always played, and her hall is Sessrumnir. She divides the slain warriors with Odin: one half goes to her palace, while the other half goes to Valhalla. Women also go to her hall.

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/the-vineland-of-pynchon-and-sinclair/

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/rosamond-and-the-earls-of-orkney/

Erik the Red (Eirik Raude) Thorvaldsson (950 – 1003

Birthdate:
950
Birthplace:
Sola, Rogaland, Norway
Death:
Died 1003 in Greenland

Freydís Eiríksdóttir

This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Freydís.
Freydís Eiríksdóttir was a daughter of Erik the Red (as in her patronym) who was associated with the Norse exploration of North America. The only medieval sources which mention Freydís are the two Vinland sagas, believed to be composed in the 13th century but purporting to describe events around 1000. They offer widely differing accounts, though in both Freydís appears as a strong-willed woman. Eiríks saga rauða describes her as a half-sister of Leif Eiríksson but according to Grœnlendinga saga she was a full sister.
[edit] Saga of Erik the Red
Freydís joins an expedition to Vinland led by Þorfinnr Karlsefni. Her major part in the story is intervening in a battle between the Norse and the native Skrælingjar. The natives are mounting an attack and have driven the Norse into a retreat.
Freydis came out and saw how they were retreating. She called out, “Why run you away from such worthless creatures, stout men that ye are, when, as seems to me likely, you might slaughter them like so many cattle? Let me but have a weapon, I think I could fight better than any of you.” They gave no heed to what she said. Freydis endeavoured to accompany them, still she soon lagged behind, because she was not well [pregnant]; she went after them into the wood, and the Skrælingar directed their pursuit after her. She came upon a dead man; Thorbrand, Snorri’s son, with a flat stone fixed in his head; his sword lay beside him, so she took it up and prepared to defend herself therewith.

Then came the Skrælingjar upon her. She let down her sark and struck her breast with the sword. At this they were frightened, rushed off to their boats, and fled away. Karlsefni and the rest came up to her and praised her zeal. – Sephton’s translation
[edit] Grœnlendinga saga
After expeditions to Vinland led by Leifr Eiríksson, Þorvaldr Eiríksson and Þorfinnr Karlsefni met with some success Freydís wants the prestige and wealth associated with a Vinland journey. She makes a deal with two Icelandic men, Helgi and Finnbogi, that they should go together to Vinland and share all profits half-and-half. They agree to bring the same number of men but Freydís secretly takes more.
In Vinland, Freydís betrays her partners, has them and their men attacked when sleeping and killed. She personally executes the five women in their group since no-one else would do the deed. Freydís wants to conceal her treachery and threatens death to anyone who tells of the killings. She goes back to Greenland after a year’s stay and tells the story that Helgi and Finnbogi had chosen to remain in Vinland.
But not everyone is silent and word of the killings eventually reaches the ears of Leifr. He has three men from Freydís’s expedition tortured until they confess the whole occurrence. Thinking ill of the deeds he still does not want “to do that to Freydis, my sister, which she has deserved”.

As terrifying pedigrees go, Freydis had a pretty good one. A viking woman who was the illegitimate daughter of Erik the Red and half sister to Leif Erikson, Freydis and her husband set off on an expedition to Vinland (Nova Scotia). The Vikings and the Vinlanders had a tolerant existence of each other until the Vinlanders tried some of the Vikings delicious cheeses (which they’d never had before) and came down with a killer case of lactose intolerance. Thinking the Vikings were poisoning them, the Vinlanders attacked. The crew fled, leaving behind a heavily pregnant Freydis, who couldn’t keep up with them. Picking up a sword, Freydis ripped her dress open showing her breasts, waved her sword and screamed at the startled Vinlanders, who faced with this clearly crazy pregnant woman, retreated. No word on whether the yelling or the bared boobs are what actually ran off the natives. Having been left behind by her husband and crew, Freydis stayed hidden and gave birth to a son. Eventually the crew rescued her and held a conversation I can only assume was extremely awkward.
On a second expedition, one of the Viking ships sank with no loss of life. Not for long, as Freydis ordered the killing of everyone saved from the ship because they wouldn’t have enough provisions. When the men balked at killing the women, Freydis grabbed an axe and did it herself because that’s how she rolled. Later she and her husband set out on another expedition with a set of brothers, one of which Freydis conned out of the larger boat. Causing tensions in the settlement, Freydis ordered her husband to kill the brothers and their group. For good measure she threatened to divorce him if he didn’t follow through. Once again her husband and her men followed through, but balked at killing the women and once more Freydis said “give me that axe” and finished the job. When she and her crew returned to Greenland they told everyone that the brothers and their group liked Vinland so much they decided to stay and threatened to kill her crew if they ever leaked the truth. Eventually the secret did get out, but I assume everyone was too afraid of Freydis to do anything about it.