Re: Odp: Aesir and Vanir.

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 1123
Date: 2000-01-24

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Stephanie Budin
To: cybalist@eGroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 7:08 PM
Subject: [cybalist] Re: Aesir and Vanir.

	Greetings!

	There is an equally valid hypothsis that the Vanir are not the 
third branch of Dumezil's tripartite I-E structure, but that they are the 
Finno-Uralic branch of the Norse pantheon.  Thus, the Aesir are I-E, the 
Vanir are not I-E.  Support for this argument is that, while the Aesir 
deities have Germanic cognates (Odhinn=Wotan, etc...), none of the Vanir 
do.  Furthermore, Freyja is specifically associated with seidr magic, 
which is more associated with the Finnish and Lapp populations of 
Scandinavia.
	I must ask, though, what exactly is the linguistc comparison 
between "Vanir" and "Venus" which you mentioned?  I have never come 
across this cognate before.

	Cheers!
	Stephanie
There is also Theo Vennemann's hypothesis about the Vanir being what he calls "Atlantiker" -- Afroasiatic seafarers and megalith-builders who, saith Vennemann, colonised the Atlantic seaboard of Europe (complete with the British Isles and Scandinavia) in prehistoric times. Not that I'm inclined to believe any of it, but this Atlantean hypothesis has been circulated in serious journals and post-conference publications and has acquired some ardent enthusiasts.
 
I think at least some of the Vanir (Freyja/Freyr, Njörd) have names which may well be IE. Could anything beginning with Fr- be Finno-Ugric anyway? Is there a single convincing Uralic etymology for any of the Vanir?
 
Piotr