[gothic-l] Re: "Eruli", "Goths", "Danes" and wherefrom the runes

[Einar Gunnar Birgisson <einarbirg@yahoo.com>]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "gunnerwold <gunnerwold at y...>" 
<gunnerwold at y...> wrote:
> Hello Bob, Troels and everyone. Just a few comments on the Odin 
> discussion.
> > 
> > Troels writes:
> > > As far as I can see you have just argued that Odin could easily 
> be a king/chieftain/ancestor like Abraham.
> 
> I don't think so. My major was in forestry, but I also took a lot 
of 
> anthropology in college - enough to have looked at ancestor worship 
> in many cultures. Odin doesn't really fit the bill. First the kings 
> claimed him as their patron to strengthen their power, then as time 
> passed they claimed actual descent from the god. Christians later 
> took advantage of these silly claims by heathen kings and used it 
to 
> prove that their chief god was really a man. This scenario is often 
> repeated in converted cultures. It happens during the transitional 
> period. Later the cultural traditions are forgotten and replaced by 
> Hebrew ones from the Bible. This is also what happened to the 
Goths, 
> at least as far as I can tell. Odin and the other viking gods were 
> the same ones the original Goths worshipped before their culture 
was 
> destroyed through assimilation. 


### Hej and excuse me being unprepared for the discussion but if the 
Asa religion is a Gothic heritage! then why did it went prominent in 
Scandinavia? As the Heruli were a Gothic people it must be assumed 
that their arrival brought some elements from Gothic culture to 
Scandinavia. As for the Asian connection of Asatru the history of the 
Heruli as dwelling in Asia could be the explanation. 
The older religion of the Vanir (Freyr/Freyja)in Scandinavia predates 
the Asa religion and is it not so that scholars do accept that the 
Asa religion seems to have its "beginning" in Scandinavia in the 6th 
and 7th centuries? Scholar like Pálsson has the meaning that 
the "essense" in the Eddas, Sagas, Fornaldarsögur was partly a Gothic 
heritage brought to Scandinavia. That would mean the Asa religion as 
well. 
Well, the above is of course a oversimplification but anyway.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers Einar

Some have argued that their gods were definitely not human.
> Just my thoughts.
>  
> > Bob
> > I´m not an anthropologist, however, and 
> > it seems more like a question for anthropologists. As to the 
name - 
> > I researched the name and came to basically the same conclusion 
as 
> > Konrad and others have: an attested Asian wind god. 
> 
> I have some background in Anthropology. Odin is definitely a wind 
god 
> and not a human. But I'm not sure why he became the main Germanic 
> god. Do you have any more information about the Asian connection? 
I'm 
> interested in this because the Nordic gods have always seemed Asian 
> to me. Were there Asians in Scandinavia a long time ago? I don't 
> think Germanic people would have developed any religion on their 
own. 
> Christianity is borrowed from the Jews like Islam is. Maybe they 
were 
> borrowing from the Asians before that and then changing things to 
fit 
> their way of life. Just my thoughts.
> 
> Gunner


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