Freya, also known as The Witch of the Woods and Frigg, is a supporting character in God of War. She is a Vanir goddess who helps Kratos and Atreus on their journey.
She is the daughter of Njörd, an ex-wife of Odin, the estranged mother of Baldur, the sister of Freyr, and the former Queen of the Valkyries before Sigrún.
Little is known about her childhood, aside from being the daughter of Njörd, as well as the sister of Freyr. Freya had been a leader of the Vanir gods during the Aesir-Vanir War and eventually agreed to marry Odinin order to bring peace between the two sides. Freya clearly did not enjoy this, due to her own distaste for the Aesir, especially after they unjustly imprisoned, tortured and nearly killed her brother Freyr. During that time, she became the Queen of the Valkyries. Also some time during her marriage to Odin, Odin began to learn the ways of Freya's magic and began using it for unjust purposes. While she and Odin were acknowledged by Mimir to be genuinely in love, Freya eventually chose to leave Odin due to his unjust ways. However, she couldn't flee to her own people for refuge, as they saw her marriage to Odin as a betrayal, thus forcing her to flee to Midgard.
Because Freya broke the marriage off from Odin, and thus incurred the Allfather's wrath and spite. Feeling deeply betrayed, Odin cursed her to prevent her from ever leaving Midgard or harming any living creature - through either physical or magical means. Additionally, he stripped Freya of her Valkyrie wings and hid them in an unknown location. Some saw this as petty cruelty on Odin's part, for Freya was a warrior in spirit and the curse would force her to do nothing else but live in isolation.
The only thing she cherished from her marriage with Odin was their son, Baldur. Though she loved him dearly, a prophecy foretelling his death as an unnecessary one drove her to find a way to prevent it. With her fears controlling her, Freya placed a spell on her son, granting him invulnerability. She hoped that the spell would spare her son from death and herself from the pain of loss. However, her spell left Baldur unable to physically feel anything at all, including taste and other pleasures. Full of fury and resentment, Baldur demanded his mother to remove the spell but she claimed she was unable to and tried to assure him that what she had done was for the better. Baldur was not convinced or moved by her motherly love. He attempted to kill her but couldn't bring himself to do so and instead vowed that he would hate and never forgive her, much to her sorrow. To this day, she remains blind to her son's desire to physically feel again and that her own fears brought about the torment Baldur endures. In fact, she lied to her son that she didn't know how to break the spell when in fact it was mistletoe and thus viewed the plant as wicked and sought to destroy it.
Freya is implied to have lived a life similar to Kratos, saying she sees a lot of herself in him and by helping him, she hopes to atone for her mistakes.
Under the alias of the Witch in the Woods, Freya first meets Kratos and Atreus in an incident where a boar she was protecting was shot and injured by Atreus. Kratos and Atreus agree to help heal the boar and are taken back to her home. She takes an immediate liking to Atreus and becomes his friend. Kratos, however, is wary of Freya, especially after it is revealed that she is a goddess. When Atreus is outside gathering materials for the healing process, Freya reveals to Kratos that she knows he is a foreign god and warns him that the Aesir will not tolerate his presence in their realms. She continues to express her worries for Atreus and the fact that Kratos keeps him ignorant of his true nature, but Kratos sternly states that it is not her concern.
After the boar is healed, Freya gives thanks to Kratos and Atreus by placing marks on them that will protect them from the Norse gods. Before they leave, Atreus asks Freya if they will meet again, to which she smiles and kindly responds "as much or as little as you like."
Freya catches up to Kratos and Atreus as they begin scaling the mountain, offering to help them overcome the roadblock in front of the two. She leads them to Týr's Temple, all the while explaining its purpose and how to overcome the obstacles. She shows Kratos how to use the Bifröst and has him set a passage to Alfheim. However, she is unable to follow as the curse Odin placed on her quickly drags her back to Midgard.
Freya is once again encountered when Kratos brings her Mimir's severed head to resurrect, much to her shock. Before she resurrects Mimir, she notices that Atreus is equipped with mistletoe arrows. Knowing that mistletoe is the only thing that can break the invincibility spell placed on her son, she quickly replaces Atreus's arrows with her own and destroys the mistletoe ones. Upon Mimir's revival, it immediately becomes apparent to Kratos that Freya greatly dislikes Mimir, and Mimir accidentally reveals Freya's identity to Kratos and Atreus while apologizing, as he would not have asked to be brought to her had he known she was 'the witch'. This deepens Kratos' distrust of Freya.
However, Kratos is forced to seek Freya's help when Atreus falls ill after a battle with Magni and Modi. Freya is initially reluctant to help Kratos due to his open hatred of gods and only agrees to help when she realizes Atreus's plight. She scolds Kratos for keeping Atreus unaware of his divine heritage, as Atreus's current situation was a result of the conflict between Atreus's divine nature and his belief that he is a simple mortal. She tells Kratos that she needs a rare ingredient from Helheim to cure Atreus and that Kratos would need a non-ice based weapon in order to fight the beasts living in that realm.
After retrieving the ingredient, Kratos brings it to Freya who uses it to create a cure for Atreus. She then tells Kratos that she too has a son whom the runes, on the day of his birth, foretold of his needless death and she swore to do anything to protect him, no matter the sacrifice. She laments her decisions that had led to her son's resentment of her and implores Kratos to avoid making the same mistake and to have faith in his son. At this point, Freya begins to warm up to Kratos, while the Ghost of Sparta hesitantly lets his guard down around her.
After Kratos and Atreus end up in the realm of Helheim after another encounter with Baldur, Kratos and Atreus watch as an illusion plays in front of Baldur. They learn that Freya is Baldur's mother, whom he despises due to the spell she cast on him that took away his ability to physically feel anything. This also reveals that at some unknown point, Freya cursed Mimir to keep him from revealing Baldur's invincibility's weakness.
Just before the final encounter with Baldur, Freya appears before a cautious Kratos and Atreus to look for Baldur, claiming that the fields and woods speak his name, leading her to believe that he is in Midgard. She notices that Kratos and Atreus are more distant towards her, but before she could figure out the reason, Baldur appears. Freya is happy to see Baldur and tries to reach out to him and atone for his suffering only to be met with scorn. Baldur attempts to kill Freya but Kratos intervenes and soon it escalates into a fight. When Atreus stood before Kratos to protect him, Baldur punches him square in the chest, inadvertently causing the mistletoe arrow that was tied to Atreus's quiver strap to slice right through his fist which, much to Freya's dismay, breaks the invulnerability spell on him.
With Baldur vulnerable, a desperate Freya uses her magic to reanimate the corpse of the frost giant Thamur to try to separate Kratos and Atreus from Baldur, pleading for them to stay out of her affairs. When Kratos retorts that Baldur cannot be reasoned with and means to kill her, she proclaims that she doesn't care and that she will protect him at all costs. Baldur soon reappears and the battle continues. Throughout the brawl, Freya begs them to stop fighting, believing that she can still reason with Baldur. After the battle dies down, she begs Kratos not to hurt Baldur, to which Kratos agrees.
Baldur continues to berate Freya, condemning her for always interfering in his life. Freya admits she was wrong and tries to help Baldur find it in himself to give up his resentment of her, hoping to repair their relationship, but Baldur refuses to forgive her. Freya finally gives up trying to reason with Baldur and decides to let him kill her since it is the one thing that would bring him peace. As Baldur strangles her, she tells him she loves him. However, before Baldur could kill her, Kratos grabs him from behind and quotes his father by telling Baldur "the cycle ends here" before snapping Baldur's neck, finally killing him.
Freya, livid from her son's needless death, swears vengeance upon Kratos. She taunts him about his past that he has yet to reveal to his son. This prompts Kratos to finally divulge his violent past to Atreus. She is last seen carrying Baldur's lifeless body off-screen. Then Kratos and Atreus leave to finish their journey.
According to Mimir, Baldur was the only gift she treasured from her marriage to Odin and she was a good parent who only wished to spare him pain, but her impulsive decision to curse him to accomplish it was "bloody tragic" and "terribly stupid."
After Kratos and Atreus return from Jotunheim, Mimir tells them that more time passed than they thought and in that time, Freya came to visit Mimir and asked where Odin kept Freya's Valkyrie wings. Mimir told her what little he knew of it. To which he says "The Cycle of Vengeance is not so easily broken." And she is also a member of the Council of Light as being recruited by Amaterasu.
And she is reprised by Danielle Bisutti in the English dub and Kikuko Inoue in the Japanese dub.