Misconception 25: The Vanir Now Live with the Aesir
25. The Vanir remain to this day happy participants in the Aesiric pantheon.
I think that it is important to remember that after the war between the Vanir and the Aesir, only three of the Vanir had anything to do with the Aesir. The rest of the Vanir lived in Vanaheimr. Two of three, Njordr and Freyr, were hostages among the Aesir. Being a hostage among the Aesir is hardly grounds for being happy. Freyja, the Lady, went to Asgard on her own to be with Freyr, her husband, and also Njordr whom she loved as a father.
I think that after the Vanir became aware that the Aesir acted in bad faith in the exchange of hostages for peace that Njordr, Freyr and Freyja left Asgard. There would have been no reason for them to stay. The treaty was broken. We do not know exactly how long they stayed in Asgard but it was long enough for some of the things told in the myths to occur. Perhaps not long after Freyr and Gerdr and Skadi and Njordr married they left Asgard. Freyr and Gerdr went to live on in Alfheimr. Skadi and Njordr alternated between Noatun and Thrymheimr until they separated to live on in their respective homes. Freyja lives on in Folkvangr.
To conclude on the basis of the primary sources that Njordr, Freyr and Freyja remain to this day happy participants in the Aesiric pantheon requires a fairly shallow reading of the sources. It requires a surface reading of the myths that assumes we have the whole story in what remains of the mythology, that there are no layers to the mythology that survives and that the only correct reading of the sources is a literal one. It also assumes that nothing has changed among the Vanir and Aesir since the myths were put into writing. These are assumptions I cannot make.