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I'm reposting this, along with a few other of my old threads, over here. They were originally posted on Skadi, but since I probably won't be able to access that site much longer, I'd like to keep them here.
The Gods of our ancestors are, today known by many names. While an Icelander speaks of Týr, Óðinn, and Þórr, and Englishman knows Tíw, Wóden, and Þunor. The names of these Deities come down to us through a combination of period literature and linguistic reconstruction. While we do know that our forefathers interacted with various European tribes, what we do not know is how the ancient Germanics viewed the Gods of their neighbors. Would a Norwegian raider recognize the Anglo-Saxon Fríge as being the same Goddess as his own Frigg? Do we, as modern Heathens, accept a Pan-Germanic view and accept disparate divine names as being regional manifestations of one God, or do we take each regional Deity as being unique?
The reason that we have as many variants of divine names is due entirely to the evolution of Germanic languages. All Germanic languages are, ultimately, derived from a reconstructed language known as Proto-Germanic. Through the process of phonetic change typefied by Grimm's Law, the various Germanic tongues branched off to form that variety we have today:
Through this process, the original Proto-Germanic *Wóðanaz (the asterisk denotes that a word is a reconstruction) became Wuotan in Old High German, Wóden in Anglo-Saxon, and Óðinn in Old Norse.
So, knowing then, the genesis of the names of our Gods, how do we interpret the disparity? It seems to me that there are two basic position, both of which can, of course, be broken down further into differentiated views. The first being that regional Deities are, for whatever reason, distinct from their related counterparts. According to this view Óðinn and Wuotan are two different entities and the conflation of the two is wrong. On the other hand, we can view the disparate names as being merely regional pronunciations of the same divine name. In this way, Týr and Tíw would be identified as just being different pronunciations of the primal god-name *Tíwaz.
If we are to accept the first position, when we must face the question of how a regional phoneme shift is able to affect the nature of a God. Does Odin branch off into two distinct Gods every time a group of people starts to pronounce his name differently? However, if we accept the counter view, we must then deal with the slippery slope of Pan-Aryanism. After all, if Týr and Tíw are the same God, wouldn't the same principle apply on an Pan-Indo-European leval; thus Týr would be equated with Zeus, by way of the primal god-name *Dyeus.
Although I don't have an answer for this, I can say that the second option makes a bit more sense. A good historical example of this process would be Charlemagne. His original name would've bee Carollus Magnus, which, through the changes that led to Latin becoming French, became Charlemagne. To the Germans, he is Karl der Grosse; which, in English translates nicely to Charles the Great. Although these names are all regionally distinct, and the corresponding views of the man are also regionally distinct, there is no doubt that they all refer to one unique personage. Would the Gods follow this example as well?
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