Re: Vanir

--- In cybalist@..., tgpedersen@... wrote:

> --- 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
> >
>

[snip]

>
> 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"?
>

I sat a my favorite café Sunday, which has a large map of Europe and
environs on the wall. There I suddenly discovered that the little
green speck south of Batumi (Vani, Svans etc) was isolated from the
the nice green area east of the Don by an ugly brown something. Is it
possible that there are montains in the Caucasus I thought to myself?
So I did some damage-control (of my clever theories) thinking:

Snorri does not say that the peoples mixed, but that they exchanged
hostages to ensure peace (which is still considered de rigueur in
some parts of the world). In this way the physical distance does not
enter into it. Thus his story becomes the history of the elites of
the two peoples.

Also: Odin had possessions in Tyrkland. That makes the existence of
independent Vanir a strategic threat.

Another thing again: If the Vanir actually lived in Vani, they would
have been Colchians (no?). Colchians had immigrated from Egypt, this
proved by the fact that they practised circumcision (I think I read
this in Herodotus?). Njord married his sister, because that was
permitted among the Vanir, but not among the Aesir. But Herodotus
assures us that the only people that permitted that, were Egyptians?

Torsten