Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Freyja Cried

I wrote this song about a year ago hoping to capture the beauty I feel in aspen forests.

Click here to hear or download for free.

Freyja is a goddess in the Old Norse pantheon who fell in love with Odin and cried tears of red gold for her unrequited love. I was thinking of the red-gold leaves of aspen which are tear-shaped and was struck by the idea that they could be part of a greater myth. We have few myths in America other than the 'American Dream' and other pointless and unromantic cultural stories.

As I started writing a little poem about it, I was also struck by the notion that I'd only heard of male entities 'sacrificing' themselves for the good of the people. Were female sacrifices invalid, or unimportant, or just lost in the waves of time due to the illiteracy of women? Freyja had to give up on love to be the fertility goddess, and because her lover was already 'married.' I like to think we could close the loop and offer honor to the sacrifices and duties of women, who offer their bodies and minds to the generations to come.

Freyja cried, she cried tears of red-gold.
She cried for unrequited love; this is her sacrifice.
TIme passes, does Freyja still cry?
I know she cries for unrequited love.
This is her sacrifice.

I walked in the mountains,
I walked in the forest,
and I saw her flattened tears
held up in the arms of the aspen.
Tears of gold, and red-gold
lifted back to the sky for a blessing
before falling softly, and feeding green to come.

Her.