Frey and Freya personify, it may be thought, a male/female split in the procreativity formerly centred exclusively in the indivisibility of Mother Hel, surely identifiable with Hulda, Holda, or Frau Holle, as described by Grimm, p.267. Frey, says Hellquist, means "Lord", and Freya is merely a feminisation of the same word, ie "Lady"; hence Ger Frau, Fraulein, and Sw fru, "Mrs", and froken, formerly "Miss", both titles now almost obsolete. Frey is also called Fro, "seed", so froken means "seedling", otherwise "nymphet", the term lately popularised by VN.

But Hellquist hasn't finished. Fro, believe it or not, is also cognate with "frog", Sw groda, a word apparently obscurely related to Sw groda, not a million miles from English "growth". For the divinity of frogs and toads see Marija Gimbutas: illustrations below. Prehistoric biologists, embryologists and natural scientists would have observed that frogspawn and toadspawn rapidly convert into tadpoles, eggs with tails and sprouting legs, all of which can be seen, without the aid of a microscope, as growth from various sorts of seed. Fro survives in English as "fry", as in "small fry", little fishes, especially those fresh from the spawn, or little children.

From Hel to Hell and Back