[gothic-l] Heyerdahl, the Goths and the Aesir

[bertil]

Keth,

Dr. Heyerdahl has been in contact with Academy of Sciences both in Azerbaijan and in Georgia, where Snorri placed the land of the Aesir. Snorri did not place Odin with the other gods of Norse mythology but regarded him as a human chief, who ruled over the land of the Aesir (aser, asar). His seat was Asgard or Aasgaard, which was situated, so Dr. Heyerdahl, on the eastern bank of the river Don, called Tanais, where the delta is situated on the Sea of Azov (close to the area of the Goths of the third century AD). The land of the Aesir was geographically placed between the Black Sea and east of Tanais, which was the border river between Asia and Europe. The Aesir were battling the neighboring peoples. But Odin worried about the approach of the Roman army, which had conquered nearby lands and he decided to move to northernmost Europe with the Asir and the Vani. Odin fooled both the Danes and the Swedes into believing he came from the country of the gods. How did Snorri on Iceland know anything of Caucasus? He might, so Heyerdahl, have had a copy of a map by Ptolemaios from the first centuries AD, where Don is named Tanais. The Greek Tanais was recently discovered by archaelogists close to present day Asov (where the Eruli resided in the third century AD). Tanais was the end station of the Silk Route where ships were loaded for the the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and the Russian rivers. The Aesir, so Heyerdahl, were a subgroup of the Alans or the Sarmatians, who originated in the Caucasus area (today the rest of the Alan people are the Ossetians).

Dr. Heyerdahl wants to start an archaelogical project in Asov cooperating with the University of Rostov and archaelogists from Norway.

The English philosopher Roger Bacon (1214 – 1292) wrote in his major work Opus Majus about the Caucasus area that in the east are the Alani and the Aas peoples. They are Christian and accept all types of Christianity, so they are not sectarian. Bacon was educated both at Oxford and in Paris, so there is no relation between him and Snorri on Iceland.

In another book Juan de Plano Cartini (born 1182) and Guillaume de Rubrique (born 1215) both wrote about the Aas people as a part of the Alans. Another source is the old Russian chronicle “Povest Vremennykh Let” from 965 AD. Here the Aas are mentioned as the Yas in the history of the military expedition of a Slavic prince. The chronicler believes the Aesir belong to the same linguistic root, ansu, which can be found in the nname of the apostle of Scandinavia, Ansgar.

The claim that Snorri thought the Aesir came from Troy in Asia Minor is not correct. He regarded the area between the Black and Caspian Seas as the origin. 

Gothically

Bertil




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