There is far less information in the Anglo-Saxon primary sources on Ing-Fréa than there is in the Norse lore, however even from scant mentions we can assume Ingui was an important God to the Anglo-Saxon people, if not one of the most important.
For starters, it may be that the English people were named for Ing himself. In Tacitus’ Germania, mythology is recounted of the Earth God Tuisto, his son Mannus, and his three sons, after whom many people are called - the Ingaevones are said to dwell next to the ocean. In the Nordic lore, Frey is the son of Njord the sea God, and so it would make sense for His people to live by the sea. Pliny notes the Ingaevones as consisting of the Cimbri, Teutons, and Chauci tribes. The Ingaevones form the majority of the Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain, and the linguistic scholar Noah Webster speculated they gave England its name. John Grigsby (author of Beowulf and Grendel) remarks that on the continent, “they formed part of the confederacy known as the ‘friends of Ing’ and in the new lands they migrated to in the 5th and 6th centuries. In time they would name these lands Angle-land, and it is tempting to speculate that the word Angle was derived from, or thought of as a pun on, the name of Ing.” At the very least, an Ingui is listed in the Anglo-Saxon royal house of Bernicia, and he was probably seen as the progenitor of all Anglian kings. Ing is most likely one and the same as Yngvi, the founder of the Yngling dynasty of Sweden. Since Fréa or Frey means “lord”, we can assume Ing or Ingui is the God’s proper name, with Fréa as his title.
In the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, a rune is named for him, with the corresponding verse:
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Ing wæs ærest mid East-Denum
gesewen secgun, oþ he siððan est
ofer wæg gewat; wæn æfter ran;
ðus Heardingas ðone hæle nemdun.
Ing was first seen by men among the East-Danes,
till, followed by his chariot,
he departed eastwards over the waves.
So the Heardingas named the hero.
The Danes are mentioned in the story of Beowulf, with Hrothgar referred to as “Lord of the Ingwine”, or “friends of Ing”. We know from another account of Tacitus that the Goddess Nerthus had a yearly wain procession as part of Her cultus, Nerthus being cognate with Njord and most likely the un-named sister-wife of Njord in Ynglinga Saga, and this cult of Nerthus had observance in parts of Denmark. The wain seems to be the major symbol of the Gods known as “Vanir” (or Wen in Old English), and the saga of Gunnar Helming mentions a yearly procession of Frey with his image carried about in a wain through the country.
This verse in the rune poem suggests that Ing had an important leadership position, perhaps that of kingship. The word “hæle” more accurately translates as “warrior” in Old English. The Norse lore of Frey mentions he has a boar, Gullinbursti, “Golden-Bristles”, who is also called “Fearful-Tusk”, and the boar standard was worn most notably in England and Denmark, as evidenced by artifacts such as the Sutton Hoo helmet, the Benty Grange helm, and the Witham shield. It is also mentioned multiple times in Beowulf:
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Then shone the boars over the cheek-guard; chased with gold, keen and gleaming, guard it kept o’er the man of war
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All on the pyre were plain to see the gory sark, the gilded swine-crest, boar of hard iron, and athelings many slain by the sword: at the slaughter they fell.
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Dead is Aeschere, of Yrmenlaf the elder brother, my sage adviser and stay in council, shoulder-comrade in stress of fight when warriors clashed and we warded our heads, hewed the helm-boars; hero famed should be every earl as Aeschere was!
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Then he bade them bear him the boar-head standard…
Further evidence of Ing as a warrior-king is the Ring of Pietroassa, a torc found in a late 3rd to 4th century Gothic hoard, which has the inscription of “gutanī [i(ng)]wi[n] hailag”, meaning “to Ingwi of the Goths. Holy”. The torc was used by both the Germanic and Celtic tribes to signify kingship, usually bestowed upon those with the best warrior and leadership skills.
From all of this we can see Ing’s role as a warrior-king, further backed by the Norse lore where he is entrusted with the best sword in the Nine Worlds, later giving it to his etin-bride’s family as a bride-price, and wielding an antler in its place, though it is noted he could kill with his bare hands. However, he is also noted in the Norse sources as bringing “peace and good seasons”, a Deity invoked at weddings. Even in England, a statue was found resembling the ithyphallic Frey statues in Sweden. It would seem then that Ing is a defensive warrior, fighting for home and protecting the land, rather than the glory of war itself. The boar, his most sacred animal, is a very territorially aggressive beast. When Ing fights, it is to preserve what he holds most dear, as well as to return the land to a state of frið - peace among the innangeard, the tribe.
The main mythos of Frey in Norse lore is that of his wooing of and marriage to the giantess Gerda/Gearde, who may be one and the same as the troll-woman Þorgerda Holgabrudr mentioned in the Sagas and worshipped as a Goddess by Earl Haakon, and may also be one and the same as Hreþa whose name means “glory” - recalling the light radiating from her when Frey saw her for the first time from Odin’s high seat. Her name is related to our term “geard”, especially as denotes “innangeard”, and his marriage to Gearde the etin-bride is not only symbolic of the sacral king wedding and blessing the land, but also of another related term, “grið” - a state of truce with the outdwellers, especially if one is adopted into the tribe.
To modern devotees of Ing-Fréa, he can be seen as the ultimate example of holding what you have. He is a warrior, but one to preserve the land and homes, and restore frið. As a sacral king, his presence hallows and sanctifies. He is intimately bound with the health and fertility of the land, and his Swedish title of “Veraldar Gudh” - God of the World - can be seen as referring to the world in terms of daily life. He is the God of the sacred in the mundane, the little things that make life worth living, and what makes it worth preserving and fighting for. Ingui is a good Deity to call upon for fathers protecting their household, as well as women who need to relate to a masculine figure who is strong but not overbearing. He is a good Deity for anyone who wants to appreciate life more, drawing upon his vitality to build and grow things of life, and be able to recognize their value and work to maintain them, even fighting to hold onto them if need be.
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