🕯️ LEGENDS GARDEN
🦭 Freya
Walrus · The Oslofjord, Norway, and originally Svalbard
Lives in Legends Garden
Freya was a young female walrus, named after the Norse goddess, who appeared along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Denmark and Sweden from October 2021. In summer 2022 she reached Norway and began hauling out to sunbathe on small pleasure boats, sinking several of them, and was first seen in the Oslofjord on 17 July 2022. Crowds swam and posed beside a 600 kg wild animal despite official warnings, and on 14 August 2022 the Directorate of Fisheries killed her. A crowdfunded bronze statue of her by sculptor Astri Tonoian, titled For Our Sins, was unveiled in Oslo in April 2023.
What they do
Hooks a flipper over the gunwale and hauls her huge body onto a small boat one heave at a time until it settles under her, then flops onto her side to sunbathe.
Six hundred kilos of sunbather who thought every moored boat was a lounger built for her.
Lore
- ★She weighed about 600 kg and travelled roughly 1,200 miles from Svalbard, turning up in the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Denmark and Sweden before Norway.
- ★She sank several pleasure boats simply by climbing onto them to sleep.
- ★A crowdfunding campaign raised about $25,000 for a bronze statue of her, For Our Sins, unveiled in Oslo in April 2023.
Helping the real one
No verified way to support this animal exists.
We will not invent one.
No fund or charity was ever set up in Freya's name. The one memorial effort, a crowdfunded bronze statue in Oslo, was completed and unveiled in April 2023 and is no longer collecting.
Where this comes from
- PBS NewsHour Freya the walrus euthanized by Norway officials ↗
- Phys.org (AFP) Walrus that attracted crowds in Oslo fjord euthanised ↗
- Wikipedia Freya (walrus) ↗
Every link here was checked twice before it was published. If one is dead or wrong, tell us.