Hej All,
>Snorre´s stories about Odin, viewed as the king of the gods in Norse
mythology, portrayed him as fighting battles. By contrast, Snorre treated
Thor, the god of thunder, as a mythical hammer-wielding figure riding
through the air.
Just a couple of small points:
1) Snorri did not treat Thor exclusively as said above, but specifically
states that he was an ancient anscestor of Odin the immigrant, and a son of
King Priam of Troy (from Roman mythology). This occurs in the preface to
Gylfaginning and runs throughout the work.
2) Snorri didn't treat the Aesir as originating in Russia, but rather as
originating in the city of Troy (which they called Asgard) now in modern
Turkey.
>"Snorre didn´t sit down and dream this all up," Heyerdahl said at the
launch of his book with his co-author, Per Lillestrom. "In ancient times,
people
treated gods and kings as one and the same thing."
It's pretty clear he did not just "dream it all up", there was already a
trend afoot in Roman days to connect all peoples of the world to the city of
Troy and the war and resulting migrations there, just as the later
Christians would further connect all races to Noah and his sons. Snorri was
not alone in this.
And besides, regarding Heyerdahl's evidence-- we know that Scandinavians
migrated to Russia, but do we know that the opposite is true? Heyerdahl's
evidence only suggests that the migrations to Russia occured earlier than
previous thought.
Wassail, William
You have a point.
I quote from "The Origin of Svear and their arrival in the Lake Mälar area
in the 6th century"
"European interest for the origin
From the 6th century and forward the belief spread through Europe that the
peoples in Europe originally came from the Black Sea area or Minor Asia and
that they had a special connection to Troy. Both Visi- and Ostrogoths who
dominated a large part of the world, as well as the Heruls, came latest
from there. For example, Jordanes says in the history of the Goths that
they had participated in the Trojan war.
The spreading of this belief takes place at the same time as the new type
of picture stones flourishes in Gotland. These picture-stones were placed
in groups close to roads and meeting places. Therefore it is reasonable to
connect these occurrences and see the picture-stones as notes that Nordic
belief originated from Troy. The picture-stones have in this case filled a
function similar to different tabulae iliacae in Rome, i.e. they tell the
story of the origin and deeds of their heroes and gods far back in Troy. At
the same time Asgård Troy represented for the Vikings the other world, the
land with brave warriors where they were promised daily fights and nightly
feasts.
The Hildur saga
The other world was founded on an indefinite Trojan war. You can see that
in the story about Hildur, where Snorre Sturlason says that the continuous
battles between the warriors only can end in "Ragnarök".
By combining the core of the Nordic mythology about a final cathastrophy
with the fall of Troy the possibility is suggested that there existed a
Nordic tradition, possibly brought with the Heruls, about the Trojan war.
On the other hand the Gutar might, with their close contacts with their
cousins the Goths, have been closer to the classical tradition from which
follows the close connection between this tradition and the Gotlandic
picture-stones. It is for example strange that in both traditions
sea-serpents play an important role in the downfall of an old city. The
fall of Troy is in a way linked to the two sea-serpents that Apollon sent
and that, after they had crossed the bay, like tides sweeping in over land,
didn't stop until they reached the high fortress. In the same way is the
fall of Asgård heralded through the way the Midgård snake works its way
through the water of the sea, after which he comes up on land in order to
attack Asgård. Professor Sune Lindqvist has tried to interpret the
Gotlandic picture stones to the Hildur story but obtained certain
occurrences difficult to interpret, as the Hildur story deviates somewhat
from the original story. If one, as Srigley has done, applies the Trojan
story directly to the picture-stones, suddenly there is an explanation for
all the sequences. We must not forget that the Roman and Greek literature
was not known to the North Europeans until the end of the 14th century when
it, after being introduced by Petrarca and Boccacio, gained firm ground."
Tore Gannholm