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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