Fröja's Apples with Sara Bonadea George

About this episode

The episode explores the transformation of the goddess Fröja in Sweden and the impact of colonization on folklore and mythology.

What can change a goddess into a nature spirit? What can change a nature spirit into a witch? A hasty answer might simply be "colonization." This was the evolution of Fröja in Sweden. I don't think we can have an intellectually honest discourse about folklore without confronting the forces of colonization head-on. What has this ongoing process done to the gods, the spirits, and the myths of a people? However, stopping there might miss the point. I think we also need to ask: what is the agency of a Goddess during a religious conversion? Does she merely recede into the past, or does she take an active role in co-creating her future? While I personally can't bypass the erasure of ancestral lifeways, I also choose not to skip from the year 800 to the birth of Neo-Paganism, when considering the engagement of a Goddess with their people. I like to embrace the mystery of a Goddess making a home in a tree, or speaking through a fairy tale, or whispering secrets to a cunning person. I think this multivalence doesn't diminish a Goddess, but actually makes them more. Sara Bonadea George offers us a glimpse into this interplay of folklore, mythology, and shifting paradigms in the history of…

People in this episode

Host: Chad Andro

Guest: Sara Bonadea George

Topics covered

• folklore
• mythology
• colonization
• religious conversion
• agency of deities
• plant lore
• cultural evolution

Keywords

• Fröja
• nature spirit
• witch
• colonization
• folklore
• myth
• agency
• religious conversion
• plant lore
• cultural history

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Fröja's Apples, Flowers of Blood

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