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 Sweden. In her excellent new books, Fröja's Apples and Flowers of Blood, Sara weaves plant lore, folk customs, and anecdotes from antiquity into a beautifully presented repository of a magical terroir. What is the relationship between Odin and the Virgin Mary? Why did Mugwort ask to be called Luna? Why does a white snake guard an oak tree in the forest that never loses its leaves? Let's find out.

SHOW NOTES:

Fröja's Apples - Hyldr Press

Flowers of Blood - Hexen Press

Sara's IG: @sara.bonedea