Vanir

[Tore Gannholm]

Thule (the Scandinavian peninsula) and the island in Mare Suebicum (The Baltic Sea, Gotland)
The Gotlandic Roman Iron Age estates and cemeteries give us basically the image of a rich and prosperous farming community with strong elements of one of international trade embossed luxury. Particularly well documented are the connections between Gotland and the eastern Baltic during the time of the Roman Empire. The Gotlanders with their trading in the amber area seems to have dominated the amber trade and benefitted very much from this trade. It is mentioned by Phyteas.
Three key factors that characterize this culture from 100 BCE to about 200 CE:
a technically accomplished goldsmith, especially in filigran technique.
a similar, Celtic-inspired formworld, especially in the distinctive, uniform, hardware-intensive manufacture of arms,
and finally an advanced furnace type for iron of Celtic origin.
Tacitus, who wrote in year 98 CE, tells about the mighty people in the Mare Suebicum (Baltic Sea), which he calls "Suionum Civitate" and that they live on an island in the ocean straight out from the Vistula.
The Gotlanders had trading emporiums in various places on the east and south coasts of the Baltic Sea from the Bronze Age to the Viking Age. The Romans called the people with their trading emporiums in the Vistula area Gutones. What should they call the related trading people on the island in the Baltic Sea? It was easier to refer to them as the people who lived on the island in Mare Suebicum ("Suionum hinc civitates"). (See "A Roman knight visited Gotland?")
Tacitus lists the Eastern peoples, going from south to north and mentions Lugians, Gutones and Rugians out on the coast. Then he turns to the west and mentions Lemovians, after which he goes straight out into the Baltic Sea and mentions Suionum Civitates. From there he goes due east to the mainland, and mentions the Estonians. Furthermore, he says that Suionum Civitates had close contact with another people called Sithones who are considered to have lived in the eastern coastal areas of Finland. The latter were probably the suppliers of the beautiful skins that the Gotlanders conveyed to the Romans.
Even Tacitus depiction of the Germanic society in the north of the continent or to them related peoples contains many observations, which in an interesting way can be compared with farm and village remains on Gotland. Such a comparison has also its special value, because the Gotlanders on Gotland at this time, as mentioned above, in many respects were close to the continental Germanic peoples, especially the Goths at the Vistula. (See Note 7).
According to archaeologist T.J. Arne, Fv 1931 p 291: "Gotland was already at the time of the birth of Christ a center for international trade in Northern Europe. The result makes itself known in many ways, including the large silver treasures, which landed on Gotland.”
Swedish scholars have taken it for granted, without bothering about the overwhelming archaeological and geographical facts, that "Scadinavia" should mean what we today call the Scandinavian peninsula, without reflecting that it originated from Johannes Magnus Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sveonomque regibus and Olof Rudbeck's 17th century book Atlantica which are pure fantasies. The Roman’s name for the Scandinavian peninsula was Thule.
If you stand down at the Vistula it is Gotland you have straight out to the sea, and you discover the island at a distance on the cloud formations over Gotland. If you instead want to put this people in the Lake Mälar valley and go directly there you have to pretend that Gotland does not exist. The idea is totally ludicrous that the Romans would not have known of the great trading center in the middle of the Baltic Sea, with which they evidently had close trade relations, but instead talk about some unknown people on the Scandinavian Peninsula that the Romans called Thule (see note 9).
If, after this description, someone claims that Suionum Civitates means some at that time unknown Svear in the Lake Mälar area as has been maintained by Swedish historians, it is necessary for those persons to take a better look at the map. However, there is no misunderstanding regarding the Roman idea about the Scandinavian peninsula. Still in the 500s the Romans called the Scandinavian peninsula for Thule. For example Prokopios says about the Heruli that they moved to Thule and settled alongside a mighty tribe called Gauti.
Already Pytheas, who lived in the 4th century BCE knew the Scandinavian Peninsula as Thule. He writes that Thule is said to be a very fertile land, rich in fruits that only late in the year come to maturity. The people there used to prepare a drink of honey. They threshed their grain in large houses, which depended on the prevailing cloudy weather and "the heavy rain." For a southerner, accustomed to threshing in the open and constant sunny skies, indoor threshing was a peculiarity worthy of mention.
What Pytheas says bears the character of sincerity and is consistent with the known Nordic conditions. It is not in any inhospitable lighting Thule is depicted, but rather as a fairly good country with a farming population.
Pliny the Elder who died in 79 CE tells about the island "Scadinavia" (Dumézil comments that the first element Scadin must have had—or once had—a connection to "darkness") which lays straight out from the Vistula estuary and the people who live there, "illa Suionum gente". Pliny also speaks about a Roman knight, who in the literature has been called the Amber Knight.
Ptolemy, a Greek-Egyptian astronomer said in his geography from the second century CE that to the east of the Cimbrian peninsula are four islands called "Skandiai". The largest and most easterly is north of the Vistula estuary. This is the island that you think of when talking about Skandia. In addition it is consistent with the size of Gotland.  The Archaeological finds from this period from Gotland are overwhelming, whilst Uppland was mainly yet subdued under water. If we only look at the coins, Roman denarius, found on Gotland compared with the Lake Mälar area, the figures are astounding. Gotland has 6500 silver denarius from 64 CE and forward, whilst in the Lake Mälar area only 80 silver denarius have been found. In the treasure from Sindarve in Hemse is a coin for the Emperor Nero, who ruled from 54-68 CE, the same time as the Roman Knight was here.
Already the superintendent (bishop) on Gotland Jöran Wallin, who wrote his Gotlandic collections, published in 1747 and 1776, believes that it is Gotland, that Ptolemy speaks about. Wallin regretted that Olof Rudbeck, who tried to place the Roman description of the Gotlanders in the Lake Mälar valley, had such poor knowledge of Gotland. (see note 8).
For Jordanes who wrote the Gothic tribal story in the 6th Century, the tradition goes back to the Baltic sea region and its tribes, and it was not just in the sense of national pride that he could say Scandza insula quasi officina gentium aut certe velut vagina nationum. It is as much a telling characteristic of a world history that says that the Goths came from the island Gothiscandza or just Scandza which is straight out of the Vistula mouth and looks like a lemon leave. In addition, he says that "Gothiscandza" was located at the side of Thule. German researchers say that Gothiscandza can be translated as the Gotlandic coast, which was the official name of Gotland in later preserved trade treaties.
It must be regarded as far-fetched, and in the light of the archaeological finds unlikely, that the Roman narrations would hint at the Scandinavian peninsula and some not yet existing Svear. The origin of the word Svear is disputable and the confusion with Roman names of other peoples seem to exist. Those we today call Svear or Svioner do not step into the light until the early 500s, when they according to the sources immigrated from the south and brought a new religion with them, the Æsir-belief. However, still in the Beowulf epos, probably written down in the 8th century, they are not known as Svear but Skilfings. There are interpretations that the word Svear would come from the "pig-people" that is the people who worshipped the pig Sæhrímnir. Sweden was previously called Svitjod, first mentioned by Snorri Sturlason in the 13th century. When Christian scholars confronted Roman sources and found the Latin words that resembled Svioner they used just these words for the Svear.  
On Gotland the word "Sueus" is proven already at the end of the 300s on the Kylver stone from Stånga. The etymological derivation of the Roman name Suiones is in dispute. It has, however, by Professor Elias Wadstein been interpreted as the people from the country that has been drained. It is interesting here how the Guta saga begins: "At that time Gutland was so bewitched that it sank by day and rose at night." The Scandinavian peninsula is by the Romans, from Pytheas time in the 300s BCE to Prokopios in the 500s CE called Thule. When the term Scandinavian peninsula first began to be used is unclear, but this was probably quite late in our time.
If you look at the archaeological finds, it is clear that there can not be any Svear in Uppland in the Roman time handling the transit trade with the Romans. The prehistoric finds point very clearly to the fact that it is Gotland the Romans refer to. Gotland is located centrally in the Baltic Sea and is therefore ideal for the task to be in charge of the transit trade in the Baltic region, which also all archaeological finds too clearly testify to.
During the late Bronze Age, early Iron Age (500-300 BCE) the Gotlanders had trading colonies in Estonia and Latvia. This we know from Gotlandic graves on the spot. The trade contacts stretched all the way to the Caucasus.
It also seems quite clear that relations between Gotland and the Volga region during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age were direct. In the middle Volga area the gravefield at Achmulova has more than 1000 graves from 800-500 BCE of a type of graves that only have similarities on Gotland. 
Prof. Birger Nerman writes that a significant portion of the eastern influences as early as the late Bronze Age - Iron Age certainly has been conveyed by the Gotlanders to the other tribes in the North.
Roman contacts with the Gotlanders during the first century is also evident in the picture stones. Rests of the oldest picture stones are dated by archaeologists to this particular time.
It is no wonder that historians and linguists have searched in vain for information about the Svear in Roman sources. 

   
2 aug 2012 kl. 00:25 skrev ingemarn2000:

> Tore!
> 
> Most of what you write makes sense but not all. To claim the Gotlanders were Tacitus Suiones is pure ridicule. The possibility the Heruli could have adapted the name is however possible. They could however hardly have built such a strong realm as you suggest but they could have transferred knowledge and active help to the local rulers being incorporated among them. Uppsala is just one opf several possible places for Heruli immigration and we are not talking of great numbers. Sure same Goths could have ended up in England but when Jordanes mentions Brittany he just means present Bretagne. Not only Heruli constituted the royal gard or wore such helmets. The watchtowers can not be specially referred to neither Svear or Heruli and this reminds too much of Erik Elgqvist's fantasy of skialfs being watchtowers in the Sviaveldi encompassing also Denmark. You religious commentaries are okey but remember this new religion is not a single product of some Heruli but a common input from the Continent to the whole of Scandinavia.
> 
> Best greetings!
> Ingemar
> 
> --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Tore Gannholm <tore at ...> wrote:
> >
> > The beginning of the Vendel era-Viking Age.
> > The immigration of the Svear to the Lake Mälar region in the 500s
> > The second half of the first milennium is normally in Swedish history divided into the Vendel era and the Viking Age. The Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning from the late 8th to 11th century. This is probably right for the west of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. However, it is unknown what triggered the Norse expansion to the west and the conquests. This era coincided with the Medieval Warm Period (800–1300) and stopped with the start of the Little Ice Age (about 1250–1850). The start of the Viking Age, with the sack of Lindisfarne 793, also coincided with Charlemagne's Saxon Wars, or Christian wars with non-Christians in Saxony. Historians Rudolf Simek and Bruno Dumézil theorise that the Viking attacks may have been in response to the spread of Christianity among non-Christian peoples.
> > This is not the case in the Baltic Sea area. There it is actually one continous era that clearly starts with the immigration of the Svear (Heruli). In the early 500s, suddenly a Svea kingdom emerges that is strong enough to wage war on the Gotlanders out in the Baltic Sea. Where did these Svear come from?
> > In the Swedish 17th-century propaganda Olof Rudbeck in his Atlantica claimed, that when the Roman writer Tacitus wrote about the powerful people in the Baltic Sea, he would have meant a nation called Svear. However, this was wishful thinking at a time when Sweden was a superpower. There are no archaeological findings, that indicate that it would have been some mighty Svear at that time. Most of their future land was still under water at that time.
> > Already Prof. Birger Nerman was highly skeptical to the old notion of the Svear, although he with a sigh accepted it and says in his book, Det svenska rikets uppkomst (The Rise of the Swedish State) p. 16: "That the 'Svear' in Tacitus time should have dominated the Scandinavian peninsula and the eastern part is not a reasonable conclusion. Of the following, in both classical and Germanic sources we find that the position of the 'Svear' for a long time is considerably more modest, and it is not likely, that the 'Svear' in Tacitus' time extended its dominion over territories, which they later lost." "However, the findings in the former Götaland and the Baltic islands undoubtedly testify richer settlements in these areas than in the Lake Mälar Area, which, however, on the other hand, need not exclude that the few 'Svear' have been more powerful."
> > When Tacitus refers to the powerful people in Mare Suebicum (Baltic Sea), there can be no other people than the Gotlanders to whom he refers.
> > We can now continue our line of thought when we have removed the misunderstanding of some 'Svear' as a mighty people before the early 500s. The Heruli (Earls) was a Scandinavian people that with Gutans, or Goths, which the Romans called them, ravaged in the Black Sea, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean from the third century CE. Having been subjugated first by the Goths and then by the Huns, who spoke a Turkish language, these Heruli established at the mid 5th century a kingdom in upper Hungary. They also seem to have been good sailors. They were sought after as soldiers in the Roman Imperial Guard. According to Roman sources they were a more primitive people than other Germanic peoples as they had not adopted Christianity as the Goths, preferring their own acquired blend of gods. Odovakars troops who seized power in the West Roman Empire in 476 were composed according to the sources to a large part of Heruli. This kingdom was, however, in its turn pretty soon overthrown by the Ostrogoths.
> > Prokopios says that some years later the Heruli kingdom in Upper Hungary was crushed. He refers to the Heruli, who emigrated to South Russia and first obeyed the Ostrogoths and Huns, but after the downfall of the Hunnish empire established an independent kingdom on the north side of the Danube, on the border between present day Moravia and Hungary. About the year 505 they were forced by the Lombards to leave this region. Some of the Heruli settled in Illyria under the Byzantine emperor's patronage, but another part could not, Prokopios says, decide to cross the Danube, but settled in the very outermost parts of the inhabited world. They returned to Thule (Scandinavia) and settled down next to the Götar (Gautoi, Västergötland). At the same time it is noticed that a Svea empire with mighty kings are emerging in the Lake Mälar region.
> > Led by numerous members of their dynasty they passed the Slavs public lands (most likely from the lower Danube and the upper Vistula and further west), marched away by a large stretch of barren land and came to a people called the Varner. Then they pulled rapidly through the lands of the Danes without the barbarians there inflicted them any harm. From there they came to the sea and went to the island of Thule, where they stayed.
> > Thule is a very large island, Prokopios continues, over ten times larger than Britain. Most of it is desolate, but in the inhabited part are thirteen populous tribes, each of which have a king. A populous tribe there was the Gautoi, and it was next to them (not among them) the Heruli newcomers settled.
> > Much later, guesses are both at the end of the 520s and mid 540s, the king of those in the South still remaining Heruli was killed and that these Heruli, in order to get a new king of the old dynasty, sent messengers to that in Thule resident family portion. Here they found many of royal blood, and chose the one they liked best. During the trip south, however, he fell ill and died in the country of the Danes. In order not to come back empty-handed the messengers were compelled once again to go to Thule. By this they were so behind in time, that their principals despaired of success and were persuaded by Emperor Justinian as their king to swear allegiance to one in Constantinople brought up Heruli. When at last the messengers from Thule came back with their royal subject, however, the emperor's protégé was abandoned in favor of the latter.
> > It is interesting to note that while the Heruli settle beside the Gautar (Västergötland) a new Ynglinga kingdom is thriving in the Lake Mälar Valley with mighty warriors and war fleets (note 13). So we have here two different names for the same people, Heruli and later Svear (Sviar) or perhaps more properly the people who worshipped the pig.
> > According to Folke Ström, Nordisk hedendom. Tro och sed i förkristen tid (Nordic heathendom. Beliefs and Customs in Pre Christian Time) p 73: "Completely different appears the statement that in the Vaner war a mythical reflection of social contradictions is seen. According to this approach the contrast Æsir - Vaner would respond to a social division and stratification in the Nordic society. On the one hand, an aristocratic social class with a martial way of life and martial ideals, on the other hand, a peasantry with a materially oriented fertility ideology. The Æsir would then have been the religion of the martial master class and the Vaner worship that of the peaceful peasant population. In accordance with the fundamental needs of human beings a state of balance in life, the conflict would be settled peacefully. Such a created basis for social peace and lasting order forms was the myth's innermost function and meaning." p 184: "It is a well known fact that Iranian culture and religion exerted a powerful and diverse influence on surrounding cultures. This influence has been through various intermediaries conveyed over considerable distances in space and time. It would have reached Scandinavia through the offshoot of Iranian religion, which after its creator, religion founder Mani is called Manichaeism. This doctrine was in the 300s widely spread outside what was then the Persian Empire."
> > A new form of burial appears in the Lake Mälar area during the 500s. The form of burial is very ritual-bound, suggesting that religion through a prescribed firm ritual has governed the treatment of human beings for the afterlife. During a short period this ritual was introduced throughout the East and Middle-Swedish area. Examinations of the Uppsala mounds, according to Sune Lindqvist have shown that the cremation pyres have been designed similarly as the cremations of the Roman Emperors. This should be related to the aforementioned Heruli (Svear) immigration where the leading aristocracy brought a new religion.
> > In the Ottar's Mound in Uppland a Roman coin from the year 476 has been found, the same year as the last western Roman emperor was deposed by the Heruli. The helmets in the Vendel graves are also remarkable. They are identified as Roman Emperor Guard helmets of the model that was used during the 400s. They are considered to be based on the Sassanian helmets of the Persian Empire and have been manufactured in the Ostrogotic workshops on the Black Sea. We know from pictures that the Germanic mercenaries in Roman service wore these helmets. The helmet from Vendel XIV is the only extant in Europe, decorated helmet of the highest ranking class, the Roman imperial house and military. Those for Vendel XIV peculiar facial protectors of entirely Roman model emphasize the solidarity with the Roman army.
> > The astronomer Göran Henriksson has made a compilation of the "Riksblot" (State Sacrifice) in Uppsala, noting that the Svear used the Roman Julian solar calendar which he believes was introduced in Upland around 500. Still in the 1600s the "disting" day in Uppsala was calculated after this calendar. Henriksson believes that the ruling classes in the Nordic countries are likely to have come into contact with the Julian calendar very early. The Svear (i.e. Heruli) would thus have learned the Julian calendar from the Romans and brought it with them at the immigration in the early 500s (see note 17).
> > From the above observations, it is difficult not to draw the connection between Prokopios' Heruli and our later Svear. Such a mighty people like the Heruli do not settle next to the Gauts and then disappear into oblivion! The Gauts lived in Gautland (Västergötland) on the western side of Tiveden and the Heruls settled east of Tiveden. Archaeological finds and written sources can not be ignored. It has been suggested that the Svea immigration would mark the prelude to the Vendel era-Viking Age. According to known sources, this is very likely.
> > Another interesting information in Prokopios is, that after the surrender at Vesuvius which in 552 ended the Ostrogotic empire in Italy, he says, the Goths, who so wished, had the right to remain as peaceful farmers in Italy. Since Prokopios uses the word Goth for all before this time in Italy resident Germanics, the related information is likely mainly to refer to those who already before the Ostrogotic arrival had received the "herulian plots". Another part of the Goths, and thus referred probably to the Ostrogoths in the strict sense, i.e. those who nearest supported the now collapsed empire, did not stay on, but pulled away from Italy, and we do not know where.
> > However, it is very possible that the Goths went to England. The finds in the graves at Sutton Hoo are in this case memories of them. In the eastern part of the tomb there has been found a wide range of household containers including two curved bronze cauldrons of Gotlandic type, flat unfolded estuary edge, and twisted iron handles. In particular the contacts are reflected in the famous Gotlandic bracteates found in eastern England. The swords and art objects produced in Gotlandic workshops at that time, and found in several Gotlandic graves, are closely related to the corresponding English art. In the Beowulf epos, which is considered recorded in England in the 700s, the Gotlanders are called "geta" and the Goths contemporary tribal tale called "getica". This may explain the link between the Gotlanders and Sutton Hoo. Probably the Gotlanders continued their previous relationship with the Ostrogoths. Professor Sune Lindqvist says in "Sutton Hoo och Beowulf": "It is clear in any event, that an immediately made compilation of grave finds from Sutton Hoo and the contents of the Beowulf epos was properly justified and encloses great opportunities. By all accounts, these two documents, on an excellent way, complete each other. Both gain in clarity by comparison. "
> > In support of Ostrogotic involvement, in Sutton Hoo, a large silver platter was found. The bottom of the dish has inside the deep foot ring two hallmarks from the Emperor Anastasius time. He ruled over the Eastern Roman Empire between 491 and 518 i.e. when the Ostrogoths ruled Italy. The plate was then already an antiquity when it was put down in the grave in East Anglia.
> > According to Sune Lindqvist, it is not Denmark, but the eastern parts of Scandinavia, primary Gotland and Uppland, which have got a lasting influence from the Roman culture. Towards the end of the Roman Iron Age and during the next period, these areas survived and developed, based on received impulses, even long after the immediate contact with the Roman culture had been broken. Lindqvist tells of a powerful cultural span of a bridge, which from Italy in a huge culture bridge led all the way to Uppland.
> > He points out that the Germanic Stilico, in the early 400s was commander of Roman troops, and recalls Odovakar's and Theodoric's significant contributions. With them in mind it's easier to understand why Germanic antiquities found in Italian soil, will have their closest counterparts in southwestern Germany, and that many of them, quite close to the new forms, which are known from graveyards on Gotland and in Uppland from the 400s and 500s.
> > The findings show, however, far more. The Nordic areas, on which we in this case refer, have "longest preserved the benefits and lessons learned, when on service in the Roman army." This has not only been fruitful in the culture of the Baltic Sea area in matters of substance, but has also given numerous members of the Nordic great dynasties a valuable military and political training. It may be added, that it probably greatly promoted the Svea expansion. There is a strong correlation between the Svea border watchtowers and Roman towers. In this context, the so-called defense towers, solid stone towers of square or round shape from the earlier Romanesque era should have its attention. The basis for Old Swedish Kastel (even kastelle, kastale) is latin Castellum, diminutive of castrum 'with wall and graves surrounded camp'. We know a whole series of round stone strongholds from Rogsta in the Hudiksvall region in the north to Kalmar in the south.
> > It is not a coincidence that the ancient Germanic literature is richest represented in the Nordic region as well as the runes. One can even here see traces of a coherence.
> > The Baltic sea area's role as a tradition bearer can not only be explained by its peripheral location. Before the Germanic units separated from one another and were largely assimilated by the Roman world, the Baltic Sea area was the target for powerful impulses, which were primarily the result of cultural progress in the East Germanic area. During a short period of time in the 500s the Baltic Sea area was powerful enough to convey reflections to the Germans on the continent. The new order in Europe in the centuries that followed led to the fact that the Nordic countries at the beginning of the Viking Age were the real free and undisturbed Germania.
> > The Vendel era is a powerful and internally Baltic Sea area development of the Migration Period culture, a parallel phenomenon to the increasingly powerful Franks on the mainland. From the Germanic point of view the Baltic Sea area does not appear as a relic area but as the central point of a strong and original cultural tradition, which becomes thinner, more mixed, the further away from the Baltic Sea area you come. During this distinct development, on the other hand, naturally non-Germanic innovations - regardless of the degree and nature of the external dimension - had more difficult to assert themselves in the Baltic Sea area than among West Germanics. This is clearly apparent for example in mission historical terms.
> > 
> > 30 jul 2012 kl. 21:24 skrev ingemarn2000:
> > 
> > > Västergötland or Lake Mälaren is beside the topic. I just show that the asir and vanir were common in the North far before the Ódin variant of the cult showed up during the 400's and was completed in the 500's. There you have your change in burials. Still. however, we are dealing with the same entities of gods - both asir and vanir. A religion will nessecarily develope and change in parts during 1000 years. Wether you call it speculations or hypothesis is your choice. You have my book so please look at the archaeological sections as well. I can't take everything on the net.
> > > Best
> > > Ingemar
> > > 
> > > --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Tore Gannholm <tore@> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > This is of course speculations as there are no archaeological evidence that early.
> > > > 
> > > > The change in burial customs take place in the Lake Mälar area only in the 6th century,
> > > > 
> > > > We can't lump the Lake Mälar area into the same fold as Västergötland as there are large forests in between.
> > > > 
> > > > The Gauts in Västergötland have their connenctions westward 
> > > > Tore
> > > > 
> > > > 30 jul 2012 kl. 19:25 skrev ingemarn2000:
> > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > To ease it up I have choosen to give you also the preliminary conclusion of my primary investigation. To see all you can read it in The Well Spring of the Goths (Amazon et al.)
> > > > > 
> > > > > Best
> > > > > Ingemar
> > > > > 
> > > > > Conclusions of the examination of the fertility-cult and the cult of Óðinn
> > > > > 
> > > > > After having performed the above examination it seems as I can conclude, that most of the gods have fallen into their proper places. The fertility-cult exhibits just those classical traits also found in the Meditrerranean area. It deals with the death of the sun when winter starts but the sun is partly kept alive by the moon-goddess reflecting the solar light. The opinion Balðr is not resurrected I mean to have proven to be false. He is reborn every year in may and buried in november according to my analysis of Skírnismál. There is much suggesting that Balðr- at least what the name concerns- is a later amandment. Both his name and the one of his spouse – Baal and Nanna/Inanna are known in the orient. Forsete is often associated to Fosite's land, and is supposed to have come by sea with the Frisians. Concerning Nanna she is originally connected with Venus while Inanna is a moon-goddess. In this connection ÚllR is interesting. It is claimed by de Vries that his cult was actual around yule and was later replaced by the one of Óðinn. We know he is a ring-god. We also know that he is closely tied to the vanir in younger myth and in e.g. the Haddingr-saga he figures together with Sviþdagr, to whom he is also a foster-brother in Sif's marriage with Ivalde. Most indicies accordingly point in the direction he indeed is an old sun-god. According to Ohlmarks the connection with winter and scating is depending of a misinterpretation by Saxo.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Saxo Grammaticus has changed the sea-faring in a shield to a trip over the frozen sea with a rune-inscribed magical bone, in which one have beleived to see the Nordic scates. Ull however is travelling on one bone, not two. . . Ull's weapon is above all the bow with the sun-ray as an arrow; he is the asir of archery and an exellent archer, and so clever on skies that nobody can compete with him.(Ohlmarks, Fornnordiskt Lexikon). 
> > > > > 
> > > > > Balðr leads his fighters in the battle between summer and winter against his brother Höðr - his own dualistic half/twin-brother and ÚllR and Sviþdagr do the same in the story of Haddingr. Höðr sure has a certain rumour concerning the shooting of arrows of mistle-toe, and he rules in winter. Besides it might be remembered, that north of the Polar circle the sun shines 24 hours a day in winter- also when the perma-ice covers the sea, and ÚllR is confirmed in Sweden and Norway-not in Denmark. Úllrs tree is the yew, being green all winter and is said to grow in the holy grove in 'Upsala'. The heaven-god ÚllR as the sun surely dies and is buried the 4/11 but still lives – of this the yew bears witness- and he also rules in winter, like Balðr, through his dualistic half and bane Sviþdagr. His name is translated as wulþus, the shining. ÚllR is tied to single combat and stallion-fighting and is regarded by some as a war-god. The stallions and the fighting fit well so good in the fertility-cult and with cultic fights. He simply has been replaced by Balðr when the cult of Óðinn arrived. This also explains why he takes the place of Óðinn during the civil war between asir and vanir. He is the predecessor of Balðr, being the son of the former sky-god, and so he is the only natural heir on the side of the vanir.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Some want to see ÚllR as the equivalent of Týr, but in this case I mean, in spite of also Týr being connected with single combat, that Heimdallr is a more probable predecessor of Týr. He uses all his time to guard and protect the other gods from both Bifrost –the rainbow - and Biröst – the Milky way, and specially he protects the sun – Brisingamén – which he saves back into the care of the moon-goddess when Loki has stolen it. He fights Loki in Ragnarök – the day versus night. He is not identical with Týr fighting Garm as Óðinn Fenrir – and he also lacks the mutilation-characteristics of both Óðinn (one eye) and Týr (one hand). He is regarded as the one having taught the humans the art of writing, in spite of that the runes are ascribed to Óðinn, and runes were nessecary when writing. Dumézil claims that in certain cultures, like the Vedic, sometimes one single god included the functions of Mithra and Varuna. Why not so in the North before the arrival of the Continental cult of Óðinn? Most signs indicate that Heimdallr can have had these functions by us. Above earlier mentioned qualities he is also the creator of the three important groups of humans, he taught how to grow the land and he protects and keeps the hearth-fire. He cares and preserves according to some the tree of life- the world-tree, Ýggdrasil, he is the world-axis. In short he is allmighty. It is interesting that he by many interpretors is recognized in the rock-carvings equipped with buck-horns – the sword of Heimdallr. The last however is disputed and hence not surely confirmed. and rests on subjective interpretations of the sword mentioned in old Nordic literature.
> > > > > This leaves the place as sun-god – the predecessor of Balðr – free to be taken by ÚllR quite in harmony with older interpretations of wulþus, the shining. If you regard the Trollhätte-bracteate where Týr loses his hand to the Fenriswolf you clearly see his two arms/hands marked as the sun and the moon, where the sun is the one indicating his function as ring-god. To this comes, quite in the sheme Dumézil, the leading god of plane two-Þórr- naturally into the picture as the god of thunder and growth, the one leading the fight against the chaos-forces –reses and rimþurses. Those who have seen (e.g. Ohlmarks) ÚllR and Þórr as the extended arms of Týr, and as his sons, and compared him to Tuisto, the two-arm god, maybe have a point. Tuisto is said to be earth-born and father of Mannus, father of three human tribes. Heimdallr is father of chiefs, free men and thralls. He is born by nine norns out of the depth of the earth and Vergelmer, in a similar way as Chronos was begotten by Uranos and Gaia. He definitely is a sky- and heavenly god. It is not claimed that he lost a hand or other part of his body, so even if there are many similarities with both Óðinn and Týr he is an own god comprising most of the functions of these both gods, and he is decidedly very old in the Scandinavian area.
> > > > > If you disregard the probably in Scandinavia later name-forms Óðinn and Týr, and also the name Balðr, we can see a pantheon with Heimdallr as the leading heavenly god and god-king. Loki then should be the dark, dualistic side of Heimdallr. In the second plane we have ÚllR and Þórr as sun- and thunder/rain god as the leading asir and in plane three we have the vanir with Njorðr/Njärðr,Ingr/Ingun/ and later replaced by he names Frejr/Freja. Shall we connect Skaði with the later Nanna? She is often mentioned in connection with ÚllR. Since the vanir-gods all the time also are sun- and moon-deities, as well as earth-deities, we have a complete Indo-European god's pantheon. We know, however, that Týr was worshipped in Denmark. Skaði occurs in connection with suspected cult-places – Skedevi, Skede mosse et c. but we know nothing of the cult but, as mentioned, we suspect a connection with ÚllR. Concerning Nanna there is no cultic connection at all. Her only task seems to be to weep and to mourn Balðr which directly leads the thoughts to the mediterranean fertility-cultic milieu. There is however a clear parallel with the cult of Isis and Osiris, since Osiris was denied to return from the realm of the dead but had to stay down there with Isis, the earth- and moon-goddes - at his side. Since there already existed a sun god being re-borned every year the new cult of Balðr had problems to live up to the cult-saga, which is shown by the content of the cult of Ingr/Frejr. Balðr, as well as Frejr, is re-born every year no matter the myth of Balðr says the opposite. Balðr decidedly is a foreign bird, having happened to fly a little too far north. What then about the presumed cult of Gaut? He might originally have been seen as a creator-god and shaman-god in connection with the cult of ÚllR and Ingr and been one of the high old gods, but first later more actively been lifted forward by Gautic chiefs, claiming genealogy directly from him and not just for their people in general. He and Týr might, of course, also have been aspects in a triad of Heimdallr/Loki. There is a distinct possibility, however, that Gaut might have arrived in the period between Heimdallr and Óðinn – i.e. during the later half of the Bronze Age. This will be treated more thoroughly in a later section
> > > > > The conclusion in this stage is accordingly, that there is strong evidence the cult of Óðinn under this specific name is relatively new in the Scandinavian area, and that the cult, accompanied by a sacrificial cycle of eight years, replaces an old cycle of nineteen years during the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period, and that the old name of Gaut is associated with the new name of Óðinn resulting in the double name Óðinn-Gaut. Under this name he replaces together with Týr the functions of Heimdallr and possibly Gaut. This leaves Heimdallr hanging in the air picturally spoken. Balðr most surely also arrives during this time. The fertility-cult is however not changed in it's functions but some names of gods are exchanged. The division into two high gods instead of one makes the figure of Óðinn more visible and frightening. It might, as have ben suggested, have been more tribal-connected, local gods of Odinistic character and been regarded as god-kings and fathers of the people. This is one of the possibilities for Gaut who possibly was a predecessor of Óðinn. The decisive for these possibilities is the general openness ,or more generally how opportune it was for a ruling group to claim this god as genealogical ancestor in order to base political power on this claim. Only when this happens it is possible to find hard evidence of a cult, since it affects the organization and the political developement of society.
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> > > > > Available archaeological confirmations seem to be unison in their judgement, that it is not until during the Roman Iron Age you can percept traces of this cult of Óðinn. Also the rule of Aun indicates a change of cultic habits in connection with the celebration of the disthing in Gamla Uppsala being the regional, or claimed "national", sacrifice for the peoples of the later areas Attundaland, Fjärdrundaland och Tiundaland some time around 476 AD. This fits well with the later part of the presumed period, when the cultvariant of the god bearing the specific name Óðinn ought to have spread in all Scandinavia.
> > > > > I shall however in the continuation of the book execute a closer archaeological examination in order to confirm the results above, and hence see if this preliminary result will stand scrutiny.
> > > > > The results above do however not contradict the possibility Óðinn might have been worshipped under the name of Gaut and with another sacrificial cycle. This cult then has been quite hard to distinguish. The political power base of a ruling family generally has been that the ruler claimed to be child or ancestor of a god and also, as in the case of svía-konungr, the sun-king, as a re-born god. We now know that the cult of Ingr/Frejr, being base for the Inglings, in the present description has Balðr in the leading role but earlier, I mean, this role was ÚllR's. Around 4th of november the Nordic winter started after the moon-calender, and this day the sun-god was buried and turned over in the care of the moon-goddess. That is why the cult of ÚllR is mentioned around yule. The more official cult of Óðinn spread as a base of power for a warrior-hierarchy, as is remarked by Hedeager in her work of shamanism. This does not mean the fertility-gods were forsaken or abandoned, but it rather means a challenge towards those families traditionally basing their power claim on being reborn gods guaranteeing the fruitful earth, from families with an expansionistic power-politic and who, during the Migration Period, because of their mobility often did not dispose arable land. The fertility of the fields was however as important, but the methods to improve it might have been shifted in a shamanistic direction, even if probably shamanism all the time had been practised in one way or another. The shamanistic properties of Óðinn, however, are more clearly demonstrated than with other gods. In this connection it also may be considered probable that Hlíðskíalf-the high-seat- in reality is a hjallr for practising sejdr.
> > > > > The question of the status of Gaut still is unsolved, but the possibility remains distinctively that he can have been an earlier variant of Óðinn, connected with the cult of Ingr, and quite generally been regarded as the divine father of the people, and ancestor of the chiefs and who later has merged with the new name, like the theories of Höfler concerning Hörðr, and with the new cycle.
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