17. The Vanir and Aesir are complementary to each other.

This misconception assumes that the Vanir and Aesir are incomplete without each other. While I think that it could be argued that the Aesir are essentially incomplete in and of themselves I do not think that it could be rightly said that the Vanir are likewise incomplete. The Aesir, especially ( Read more... )

16. Freyja and Freyr are the biological children of Njordr and therefore literally (twin) sister and brother.

I think that it is important to keep in mind that the surviving mythology of the Norse is a hybrid mythology. It is the combination of at least three mythologies, maybe more. It combines the mythology of the Aesir with fragments of the ( Read more... )

15. The Vanir Practiced Incestuous Marriage.

“While Njord was with the Vanaland people he had taken his own sister in marriage, for that was allowed by their law; and their children were Frey and Freya. But among the Asaland people it was forbidden to intermarry with such near relations.” Ynglinga Saga, 4.

I have never believed that the Vanir or ( Read more... )

14. Freyja is a goddess of sex, witchcraft and war.

This misconception is similar to the one about the Vanir being fertility deities. It is partially true, but only partially. It narrows and reduces Freyja’s powers to three attributes. Yes, she is a goddess of sex, witchcraft and war (well, in a sense maybe). She is also so much more. Her powers are ( Read more... )

13. The Vanir are fertility deities.

This misconception among (Neo) Heathens is supported in part by Georges Dumezil’s tripartite theory which he presented in his Gods of the Ancient Northmen. In order to make his theory work Dumezil had to narrow and oversimplify the characteristics of the goddesses and the gods. More importantly, he assumed that ( Read more... )

12. Alfheimr, Folkvangr, and Noatun, the realms of Freyja, Freyr and Njordr, are in Asgard.

If the Dictionary of Northern Mythology by Rudolf Simek is not the origin of this misconception it reinforces it. Simek, with little if any basis in the surviving literature, overtly asserts that Alfheimr, Folkvangr, and Noatun are all in Asgard.  He bases ( Read more... )

9.       The Aesir treated their Vanir hostages well.

Like the other misconceptions held by so many (Neo) Heathens and scholars, there is ample evidence in the surviving mythology of the Aesir to the contrary. There is plenty of evidence that the Vanir treated the Aesir well. Treating the Aesir well is consistent with the Vanir’s values of peace, ( Read more... )

7. The exchange of hostages to end of the war was done in good faith by both parties.

In the Ynglinga Saga we read this:

They tired of this at last, and on both sides appointed a meeting for establishing peace, made a truce, and exchanged hostages. The Vanaland people sent their best men, Njord the Rich, and his son Frey. The people of Asaland sent a ( 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... )

4. The violence against Freyja as Gullveig was an initiation like Odin’s.

The first poem of the Poetic Edda, the Voluspa, declares that the first war, the primary war, began when the Aesir “Gullveig gashed with their spears”. After being gashed with spears, she was burned to death three times…and yet she lives. It is reasonable to conclude, as many ( Read more... )