I’ve been thinking about Njordr and Nerthus. Even though literary references to them are about a thousand years apart they are connected in at least three ways: etymologically, ethnologically, and cultically. Etymologically, their names are the masculine and feminine versions of the same name. Although the meaning is obscure, many scholars conclude ( Read more... )

5. The Vanir instigated the first war

This misconception holds hands with the one about Freyja deserving the violence inflicted on her by Odin and his cohorts. (Neo) Heathens and scholars read into the myth of the war between the Vanir and the Aesir that the Vanir sent Gullveig to Odin and the Aesir to corrupt them and incite them to lust for gold. ( Read more... )

1.       Norse mythology includes the mythology of the Vanir.

I have come across this assumption in books, articles and on-line communities of (Neo) Heathens and (Neo) Pagans. Many, usually those who have relationships with the Aesir, would not think of questioning this assumption. I do. I am exclusively Vanatru. I have nothing to do with the Aesir ( Read more... )

Academic scholars and the heathen religious hierarchy agree: Aesiric mythology is tainted by Christian impurities. How could it not be? Everything that remains of Aesiric mythology was written by Christians. How could they not taint what they wrote with their own values and views?

What is still ignored by most is that Aesiric mythology is also ( Read more... )

We who are Vanatru have no Poetic Edda, no Snorri. No Vanic myths survive in either oral or written form. What survives of our Northern European ancestors is a fragmented and christianized Aesiric mythology. What Aesiric mythology says about the Vanir is very little. It mentions only three of the Vanir by name, Two are hostages from the First War, ( Read more... )