--- In cybalist@..., "Alexander Stolbov" <astolbov@...> wrote:
> I don't think that the Kingdom of Vani could be a good candidate
for Vanir.
> The reasons why not are, IMHO:
>
> - Geography. The Vanaheim is situated on the Tanais banks (a
neighbour
> region of Asaheim), but not behind the Caucasus mountain far
southward.
>
> - A town. The center of the Kingdom of Vani was the town of Vani
but towns
> of Vanir were never mentioned (in contrast with Asgaard) - only
Vanaheim and
> Vanaland.
>
> - Way of life. During the war "victory was changeable, and they
ravaged the
> lands of each other, and did great damage". If Aesir were semi-
nomads, Vanir
> had to be (semi)nomads too, otherwise the war would not have a
character as
> described and would not finished with mutual love. Actually one of
the
> tribes was incorporated in the structure of another one.
>
> If Aesir are not a fruit of imagination of ancient Scandinavians,
but a real
> tribe they must be Asses (= Yass = Yazig), a group of Alanian people
> (sometimes Asses were equated with Alans, sometimes were mentioned
side by
> side with them). Everything - name (letter by letter), time, place,
many
> details fit well.
>
>
>
> Alexander
>
Some years ago there was what was known as the Asian economic crisis.
It came suddenly, and it left again after some month or so. All the
economic commentators were puzzled as to why.
I have a guess what might have happened.
First a digression.
Suppose we were to write a object-oriented program to describe a
community, or trade network, what types of objects would we need?
We would need independent Agents, who had Transactions (perhaps in
predetermined Places (Markets, Cities), moving along set Routes) in
which they exchanged Stuff or Things. And to haggle and get the
conditions for the transaction right (at least for transactions
beyond rudimentary ad-hoc barter) they would need a Language. You
might describe this system with large graph (in the computer science
sense of the word, or call it a network).
But these networks would be isolated from one another, and there
would be no trade among them, if there are no Bilinguals to connect
them.
So.
The Asian trade which is part of the Asian network, is largely
conducted by Chinese, in Chinese. For connection to the World, or
English-speaking, economy it is dependent on bilinguals in Hongkong.
Which at the time of the crisis was preparing to be given to China.
And a good part of the English-Chinese were therefore leaving at the
time. Before new bilinguals could take their place, trade would be
disrupted.
And what has that got to do with anything?
From Dio Chrysostomis' 36th Discourse, of Borysthenes, a Greek Black
Sea colony at the mouth of the river Bug, in 96 CE:
"
... And here it is also that we find the vast number of salt-works
from which most of the barbarians buy their salt, as do also those
Greeks and Scythians who occupy the Tauric Chersonese [the Crimea]...
The city of Borysthenes, as to its size. does not correspond to its
ancient fame, because of its ever-repeated seizure and its wars. For
since the city has lain in the midst of barbarians now for so long a
time - barbarians, too, who are virtually the most warlike of all -
it is always in a state of war and has often been captured, the last
and most disastrous capture occurring not more than one hundred and
fifty years ago. And the Getae on that occasion seized not only
Borysthenes but also the other cities along the left side of the
Pontus as far as Apollonia [that would have been during the
Mithridatic wars, perhaps "Odin" passing by? T.]. For that reason the
fortunes of the Greeks in that region reached a very low ebb indeed,
some of them being no longer united to form cities, while others
enjoyed but a wretched existence as communities, and it was mostly
barbarians who flocked to them. Indeed many cities have been captured
in many parts of Greece, inasmuch as Greece is scattered in many
regions. But after Borysthenes had been taken on the occasion
mentioned, its people once more formed a community, with the consent
of the Scythians, I imagine, because of the need for traffic with the
Greeks who might use this port. For the Greeks had stopped sailing to
Borysthenes when the city was laid waste, inasmuch as they had no
people of common speech to receive them, and the Scythians themselves
had neither the ambition nor the knowledge to equip a trading centre
of their own after the Greek manner.
"
Which was a rather long way of saying that you can't conclude from
the existence of the port of Vani that the Vani themselves were
sedentary. They might well have been semi-nomadic, coming to the port
only for trade. One wouldn't conclude from the existence of Fort
Apache that the Apache were sedentary? And perhaps the "land of the
Vani" was as elusive as the "land of the Apache"?
Torsten