Frige

Our first information of the Anglo-Saxon Frige comes from the name of the fifth day of the week, Friday, which comes from the Old English
Frige-daeg or the day of Frige.It also shows that the Germanic peoples saw her as being equivalent to the Roman Venus, whom the Romans called their fifth day after, i.e 'dies Veneris' or 'day of Venus'. There are several place names in England that may contain the name of Frige, these are Frobury, Fryup, Froyle, Freefolk and maybe also Frydaythorpe. Freefolk seems to mean the people of Frige, which seems to suggest an area of strong Frige devotion. In the Germanic world Frige was seen as the wife of Woden, and was only pushed for status of most powerful goddess by Freo/Freya. It seems that amongst the Germanic peoples Frige came to represent the earth as an Earth Mother. In the first century Tacitus mentions an Earth Mother goddess called Nerthus, and as there is no mention of Frige as the Earth Mother at this early period, it's possible that Frige eventually replaced Nerthus in this role. In the Heathen Anglo-Saxon calendar, September, was known as Haligmonath, which means Holy Month. Bede says the reason it was called Holy Month was:


"Because our ancestors when they were Heathen paid the devil tribute in that month."


September or Halig-monath was the month when the harvest was collected, and the so called devil that Bede's ancestors were paying tribute to was probably the 'Earth Mother' Frige, thanking her for a successfull harvest. A good symbol to represent the goddess Frige is a Sheaf of corn or the Gera rune symbol, which means year, and symbolizes the earth and harvest associated with Frige. The accompanying rune poem tells us:


'Harvest is the hope of men,
when god lets, holy king of Heaven,
the earth gives her bright fruits
to the noble ones and needy'


(Translation from-Runelore by Edred Thorsson)


The worship of Frige and the earth was very important to the Heathens. In a world that virtually revolved around the farming year, the earth was seen as not just a provider of food but also a sustainer of life, and for that they thanked her.

http://www.homestead.com/englishheathenism/frige.html