Re: [tied] Vanir

--- In cybalist@..., "Christopher Gwinn" <sonno3@...> wrote:

> > 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.
> >
> > Whom Vanir could be then?
> > Before moving in Europe many Alanian groups were incorporated

into

> the
> > Hunnian horde, as usually happened with defeated nomads.
> > BTW before the end of the 4th century AD, when Huns went to

Europe,

> they
> > inhabited exactly the Lower Don, i.e. where Tanais "falls into

the

> Black
> > Sea" and where Vanaheim was situated.
> >
> > A question to the linguists:
> >
> > Is it thinkable that a transformation like
> >
> > Hunnu > *Vun > Van
> >
> > occurred in a East Iranian or an North Germanic language ?
>
>
> Aesir comes from the Proto Indo European root *ansu-

"spirit/demon",

> which gives Old Norse ass "god" (why would a tribe of humans call
> themselves "the gods"?). This root also lies behind Vedic Asura,
> Avestan Ahura.

Here's my alternative theory.
North Germanic drops many syllable-final n's. West Germanic doesn't.
From Snorri' we have a number of "we-call-them-this-they-call-
that"'s. For instance: We call him Odin, they call him Voden. It
seems the arrving upper-class in Scandinavia spoke a more West-
Germanic-colored Germanic. In this situation <n>/no <n> was a
shibboleth between upper and lower class. So I believe *ans- (the <n>
documented, as I recall, only from Gothic) is a hypercorrect form,
influenced by *an- "spirit" etc.
As for calling themselves Gods, no. They just demanded to be treated
as such.

>
> Vanir comes from PIE *wen-[1] "to strive for/desire" - a root which
> suits the 3rd funtion role of the Vanir - and is related not only

to

> Latin Venus (note Feya's byname Vanadis), but also Irish fiana (a
> militaristic band of hunters/brigands, made up primarily of youths).
>
> When will people get it through their heads that the Aesir and the
> Vanir weren't real people? Apparently they don't teach anyone about
> euhemerization anymore.
>
> - Chris Gwinn

No, the curriculum on euhemerisation has been greatly reduced the
last couple of decades. It's a scandal.
I looked it up in Webster, just to make sure. But explaing a myth as
reality presuppose that you know for a fact that it is a myth. And
the evidence is?
I can look these words up just as well as you can, but I fail to see
that these proposed etymologies prove that Snorri's account is
factually false?

Torsten