The Lineage of Norse Mythology..??

[Lyfing]

Last night I ran across an essay called The Lineage of Norse Mythology, and I’ve not stopped thinking about it since. I wonder what any of you all may think of it..??

The author proposes that ..


Abstract:
Several traditions are represented in Norse mythology as recorded in the Eddas. The earliest were Bertha, Heimdall, and Lodur (Heimdallic tradition). Then there arrived the god of light Baldr and the god of darkness Hod from Syria (Baldric tradition). Nanna came with the Baldr myth, but the identical goddess Idunn had already made her way into another tradition. Next came the gods of the sky represented by Tyr (Tyrric tradition) and Thor (Thorric tradition). After this Odin (Odinic tradition) made his way into different regions, taking over for Tyr as the most important god. Then the trinity gods adapted though time into the Vanir Freyia, Frey and Od and as the Aesir Frigg, Fricco <Friggo> and Odin. Meanwhile in the north, the god Niord was introduced and became the father of Frey and Freyia. Then there was a final combination of the Aesir with the Vanir that is thought to have occurred during the Migration Age. The indigenous gods Forseti, Ull and Skadi lingered around, each adopted into one of the other
traditions.


I’ve pretty much always figured something along these lines was going on. With maybe the Vanir preceding the Aesir, and the war between them being some record of it. Also, with Thor being around since Paleolithic times, and Loki being of a shamanic nature of individuality and not concerned with later ordered society. But this essay shed some real light on the matter of how different traditions come about being together with..


There may be something to be gained from basic guides that may be followed to interpret the descent of mythic traditions. First, that any tradition would only have one deity for each phenomenon (i.e. only one Sun god or water god, etc.). Thus once the god or goddess has been identified for one tradition, another god of that same phenomenon would have come from a different tradition. Second, that older gods in a region become the children of newer gods introduced into it. This can be seen in noting how Ull is the son of Thor, and Thor is the son of Odin. This would then imply that Ull was the earlier god at this location, superseded by Thor and then Thor by Odin. This permits some idea of the order in which the traditions were combined, which can be compared to historical records. Another thing that should be noted are those gods that are strongly associated within the myths, to thus suggest which gods emerged from the same tradition. This cannot be wholly relied upon, given tendencies to transform the myths in later times, and because some deities also might have been established so early that they became universal (such as Loki and Bertha). However, strong associations between gods can be significant. Finally, that the further something is away from its source, the more divergent it becomes; thus myths evolve through time and are combined differently in different regions.

These rules would establish that since Baldr is the son of Odin, that the Odinic tradition arrived later. This is to some extent confirmed by the divergence between the Syrian and Nordic mythologies compared to the Indian and Nordic. However, there is no means to establish the expected degree or rate of change of myths through time, except when samples abound. The only thing that is suggested is that both the Odinic and Baldric traditions are far from their source, perhaps by a thousand years, but it cannot be concluded which is further in time from its source. Also beliefs and practices were adopted in different ways by different people and changed over time, making it very difficult to make any historical statements with exactness and specificity. However, mythological studies can be used with more established findings based upon linguistics, genetics, and archaeology to contribute to the establishment of beliefs along with our knowledge of objects, relations, and migrations.

Each tradition seems to have started with only a few gods, but allowed for the addition of gods with no need for an exclusive single God. If it were not for this insistence among the Christians, their gods would just have been added into the pantheon as any others would–as was first the case among many adherents to the old religion. As new gods were introduced into a region, they were simply added to the ones that were already revered. In this way, there is an accumulation of deities that permit people to either rely upon the traditional ones or hope for better luck with a new one. According to this theory of combination sometimes two gods remained distinct and would retain their individual existence (ex. Freyia and Frigg), some could be viewed as identical but would retain different names (ex. Lodur and Loki), sometimes one name won out over another (ex. Frey and Fricco4) or the god went by both names alternately (ex. Iarnsaxa and Grid).


The authors conclusion..


According to interpretations of mythology, several traditions are represented. The earliest gods among the Germans appear to have been the gods Bertha, Heimdall, and Lodur, the gods of the Sun, Moon and fire. Bertha certainly spread widely, from Hekate in the south to Freyia in the north. Loki too, as god of fire, may have extended back quite far into human prehistory.

Some of the older gods are the indigenous gods that still lingered on in the places where they had arisen. Those such as Forseti, Ull and Skadi fall into this category, who all resided around the Baltic peninsula Scandza.

Then there was the god of light Baldr and the god of darkness Hod, who from their origin in Syria extended up through Britain to Norway, from France to Russia, and from Anatolia down into Caanan. Nanna came with the Baldr myth, but the identical goddess Idunn had already made her way once to the north.

Next came the gods of the sky represented by Tyr and Thor. Thor appeared in the north and Ull was made his stepson, while Ull’s mother Sif became his wife. After this Odin made his way into different regions, taking over for Tyr as the most important god.

Then the trinity gods in the north adapted though time into the Vanir Freyia, Frey and Od and the Aesir Frigg, Fricco <Friggo> and Odin (and in Germany as Frea, Fro and Wodan11). Thus Tyr, Thor, Heimdall and Baldr all become Odin’s sons, and in which Lodur was equated with Loki.

Meanwhile in the north, the god Niord was introduced and became the father of Frey and Freyia. Then there was a final combination of the Aesir with the Vanir that is thought to have occurred during the so-called Migration Age.

These traditions were only occasionally represented within the historical writings. The Odinic and Tyrric were already combined before it split from the Indian. The Heimdallic is represented in the writings of Caesar, while by this time the Baldric and Thorric appear to have already combined into the Odinic. Tacitus only represents the Odinic, Tyrric and Thorric while the Beowulf poet only contains the Heimdallic and the Baldric. However, simply because certain gods are not mentioned does not mean they were unknown, thus failing to provide a sure means of tracking the progression of deities through to their final form. However it could be matched up with other external evidence, now that the theory has been proposed and described.

There are 12 pretty good essays at http://timothystephany.com/nordic.html including this one..they help this one make sense..

Any thoughts..??

Later,
-Lyfing

[Psychonaut]

According to interpretations of mythology, several traditions are represented. The earliest gods among the Germans appear to have been the gods Bertha, Heimdall, and Lodur, the gods of the Sun, Moon and fire. Bertha certainly spread widely, from Hekate in the south to Freyia in the north. Loki too, as god of fire, may have extended back quite far into human prehistory.

Interesting stuff, but I'd take it with a rather large grain of salt. I can kind of buy the association of Bertha (Perchta) with the Sun, since her name does mean "bright," but the etymologies of both Heimdallr and Lóðurr are still conjectural. I've seen Lóðurr connected to fire through Logi, but that's a very tenuous connection that's not really backed up by anything other than Wagner's opera. As for Heimdallr, I've never seen anything connecting him to the moon...

[Lyfing]

Yeah, I know what you mean. There are a few things that he's written that make me wonder..?? I've never heard of a bunch of it. It seems he's real into seeing things in the sky..

As far as Heimdall and the Moon..well..he writes this in Ancient Skies of Northern Europe: Stars, Constellations, and the Moon in Nordic Mythology


In other parts of Northern Europe there were different explanations for the Sun and Moon. For some people the Sun was known as Bertha (bright) and was seen as a lovely goddess, while the Moon was called Heimdall (world’s illuminator), a powerful god who guarded the rainbow bridge that led to heaven. It says of him in Gylfaginning:

He needs less sleep than a bird. He can see, by night just as well as by day, a distance of a hundred leagues.He can also hear grass growing on the earth and wool on sheep and everything that sounds louder than that.
He has a trumpet called Giallarhorn (loud horn) and its blast can be heard in all worlds. The head is referred to as Heimdall’s sword. (Sturluson 1987: 25)

The ‘Man in the Moon’ was the god himself, and its white glow explains why he was known as the white god (see Figure 2b). The phases of the Moon were explained here not as a well in the sky as mentioned before. Instead, when the Moon appeared as a crescent it was thought to beHeimdall’s great horn, Giallarhorn, used to blow a loud call at the end of the world when giants
would come to besiege heaven. When there was a quarter-moon it was seen to be the god’s bright smile from his name Gullintanni (shining teeth), and when it was a half-moon it was thought to be one of his great ears. The myths say that Heimdall, like Odin, also made a sacrifice but of his ear, which explained its presence in the sky. As it says in the poem “Voluspa”
(Prophesy of the Seeress):

She knows that Heimdall’s hearing is hidden5
under the radiant, sacred tree;
she sees, pouring down, the muddy torrent
from the wager of Father of the Slain
(Larrington 1999: 7)

The reference to his superior hearing arose because the half-moons were thought to be his large ears. His need for little sleep relates to how the Moon is often out during the night when everyone else needs to sleep. It is also says in Skaldskaparmal that just as the sword was referred to as ‘man’s doom’ the head was known as ‘Heimdall’s doom’ or ‘Heimdall’s sword’,
because it is said that he was pierced with a man’s head (Sturluson 1987: 76). If Heimdall was the ‘Man in the Moon’, the head that pierced him is the one seen in profile on the Moon’s surface (see Figure 2c). This serves to confirm that this god was a god of the Moon.

Later,
-Lyfing

[YggsVinr]

Very interesting but I'm not sure I buy what he's saying. It doesn't add up to what is either known or more realistically hypothesized. The approach the author takes here is very systematic and seems to completely ignore the fact that the development of the deities known to us through the Eddas can, for the most part, quite legitimately traced back a few centuries. They're development is pretty clear in most cases. It doesn't make much sense that these deities were merely introduced when in the 1st century CE Frey was not even known by that name and seems to have gone through quite a bit of a transformation since then. Who knows what form "Frey" or "Odin" took in pre-migration times or how their traditions developed out of those times into the early migration period. While there are patterns and connections to be sought in any religious tradition, some authors go a little overboard. To me this is no different than those who claim that Odin was a germanicized Mercury, that all deities with even the minutest characteristics in common must without a doubt share a common origin, that the "barbaric" stems from the "civilized".

Hopefully this post makes some kind of sense, battling a cold that's mucking with my brain a little.