[gothic-l] Wodan, Gaut and the Ansis

[finnestorp <martin.skoglund@sfmab.com>]

It is possible that there both are a war good wind good etc and a
person claiming to be a good. Snorre (or Saxo ?) writes that Odin had
tricked the Europeans that he was a good. Some of the skills that
Oden supposedly brought to Scandinavia were 1. The Runic writing
inspired from the latin alphabet. 2. How to fight in "fylking" which
actually is a roman military tactic. When the Geofyn myth describes
the way that the Asar came to Scandinavia it sounds similar to the
description of the Heruli remigration. However if you would care to
analyse the archaeological findings from southern Sweden from 0-500AD
you would realise that warbands in a very organised manner regularly
took part in armed ventures together with other tribes in contact
with the Roman Empire. Let me give one example in Illerup (200AD) the
losing armies gear was sacrificed in a lake. The army had roman
swords and other roman weapons but had typical Scandinavian clothes
etc. The attacking tribe/tribes had put runes on many of their
swords. These tribe/tribes were among the first to use runes.
Analysis of their gear (like combs of moosebone) indicates their
origin from toady's Southern Norway and/or today's Western Sweden.
Now, lets speculate.. The leader of an army of the kind that lost in
Illerup had probably experience from the roman army, maybe he spoke
latin and maybe he translated the latin alphabet to a form that could
be used in Scandinavia. A king or a chieftain that was successful
could be worshipped as a good in Scandinavia as late as in the late
viking period. Jordanes mentions the Ansis and their first leader
Gapt. The Ansis were considered gods because they were so successful
in fighting the romans. One of Odins names in the sagas is Gaut
chieftain of the Asar. What if Gapt was a tribal leader of a tribe
within the "Gothic group" that migrated/remigrated back to
Scandinavia assuming the role of a hero and later that of the
wargood ? Proscopius mentions that the Goths believed that the
wargood was born amongst them. If there was a real person he probably
lived before 200 AD and had little connection to the Heruli.

About Illerup
http://www.illerup.dk/e/e.htm

Best regards Marty



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