At 4:20:35 PM on Wednesday, December 1, 2010, Torsten wrote:
> http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Heimskringla/Ynglinga_Saga#Of_the_People_of_Asia.
[...]
> I can't see anything in that description that would be
> improbable for a ruler of an Iranian upper layer / nomadic
> people.
Perhaps, but that's only Ch. 2. Then there's Ch. 7:
Óðin changed shapes; his body then lay as if asleep or dead,
and he was then a bird or an animal, a fish or a serpent,
and travelled in the twinkling of an eye to distant lands,
on his or other people's errands. In addition he was able
with words alone to put out a fire and calm the sea, and to
turn the winds any way he wished. Óðin had a ship that was
called Skiðblaðnir, on which he travelled over great oceans,
but it could be folded up like cloth. Óðin had with him
Mímir's head, and it told him many tidings from other
regions. And now and then he awakened dead men from the
earth, or sat under a gallows; on this account he was called
lord of ghosts or lord of hanged men. He had two ravens
that he had trained to talk; they flew far and wide all over
the lands and told him many tidings. From these things he
became very wise. He knew all the skills with runes and
incantations that are called witchcraft; on that account the
Æsir are called sorcerers. Óðin knew that skill that the
greatest might accompanied, and himself practised what is
called <seið>. And thereby he could know people's fates and
things yet to come, as also cause people's death or bad luck
or illness, as also to take from people their wits or
strength and give them to others. But so much lewdness
accompanies this sorcery when it is performed that it did
not seem to men other than disgraceful to deal with it, and
this skill was taught to the priestesses. Óðin knew about
all treasure hidden in the earth, where it was hidden, and
he understood the incantations that opened the earth before
him, and boulders and stones, and the mounds, and he bound
with words alone those who were present, and went in and
took as he wished. He became very famous on account fo
these powers; his enemies feared him, but his friends
trusted him and believed in his power and in him himself.
And he knew the most skills of his sacrificing priests; they
were closest to him in all witchcraft and sorcery. Yet many
others learned much and have thence spread the art of
sorcery far and wide and long continued to practise it.
And people worshipped Óðin and those twelve chieftains and
called them their gods and believed in them long afterwards.
Brian