Re: Vanir

Hi,
Torsten:

> I had one more idea as to who the Vanir (Vani?) were.
> Suppose they were originally *waGn- something?
>
> Anders provided this interesting overview of early runic

inscriptions

> by Looijenga:
>
> http://www.ub.rug.nl/eldoc/dis/arts/j.h.looijenga/c5.pdf
>
> There are three bog finds of weapons with the word <wagnijo> found

in

> Denmark, two in Illerup bog, dated with coins to not before 181 CE.
> The blades of the swords are Roman, the handles local, Germanic.

Are

> they old hand-me-downs? I know from my time in the artillery how

long

> iron can be kept functional, with proper maintenance.
> Looijenga proposes a connection with Vangiones, a tribe that fought
> against Caesar under Ariovist (and everybody now probably knows

what

> role I've given him, so I won't repeat it), with the cohors

Vangionum

> stationed in Britain, and with the word for wain, waggon.

So far the I think I agree to the reasoning. Interesting!

> Now suppose
> the Vani on the Black Sea were IE, could they be Waggoners?

This Aliexeev from your post:
"This kingdom is influenced by Greece but it also
has its native cultural traditions 6. Linguists do not know which
languages were spoken "

So why suppose they were IE? Just asking.

> As for the weapons in Illerup, this might be the defeat of the Odin
> elite,

I don't really follow You here. Do you think that Odin was belonging
to a "Vani"-people?
Wasn't Your theory that Ariovist was =Odin the As?

>the expulsion of the Heruli, who were fighting with their
> ancestors' swords?

I guess that most people interpret Jordanes As if the said expulsion
was close in time to when he wrote it. That would be in the late
fifth or in the sixth century.

Don't ask me Why it is so. Personally I'm cosidering a much earlier
date.
Since many people associate Heruls with runes, it looks attractive to
me to see the war sacrifice at Illerup as goods from defeated Herules
And that the surviving ones were expelled (?).

But in my opinion then the time when the Herules lived north of the
Black Sea, as Heluri as Jordanes/Ablabius calles them, also must be
put much further back in time.
Perhaps then further back than Ariovist and Mithridates.

From the reading in Jordanes here also it can't be determined the
time. Right?
So anything seems possibe.


Best wishes
Anders