So I got thinking about the old Norse religion again. (And I know it got its reputation somewhat tarnished by neo-nazi nutcases, but let's just say those just annoy the rest of us normal, run-of-the-mill nutcases.)
And more to the point, about the anomaly that is Tyr.
Now Ty/Tyw (the "r" or respectively "z" are just the Norse and respectively Saxon nominative singular suffix) is not just recorded as the primary deity for some Germanic tribes back in ye olde Roman day, but his name even means "God". You can see that used in kennings for other gods, e.g., "fimbultyr" = "mighty god" is one of the names of Odin, among several other containing "tyr".
He's also the same root indo-european deity that became Zeus for the Greeks or Jupiter for the Romans. And also the root of "deus" or "theos".
That dude was important. Yet later we find him as a crippled has-been, in the Germanic mythology. So WTH happened there?
I will start exploring that problem and formulating my hypothesis with the one thing Snorri did get right: in polytheistic cultures, power shifts and cultural takeovers were routinely reverse-euhemerized as events in the gods' realm. You didn't just go "worship Marduk, even for the stuff that Inanna and the rest used to be responsible, those other gods are now obsolete." You made up a story (in Marduk's case, the Enuma Elish), about how the other gods gave him all their powers. Or you didn't just go "Amun never existed, stop worshiping him." You made up a story, like Akhenaten did, about the death of Amun.
And in the case of cultural takeovers, a popular "plot" device was inheriting the heavenly throne by just inheritance. You made your gods be the sons of the old gods, and then somehow kill or banish their fathers. E.g., Zeus overthrows or possibly castrates Kronos to become the new top dog (which in many cultures disqualifies one from the throne), just like Kronos had done with Uranus before. Ba'al castrates El to become the top god. Etc.
Essentially you didn't just say "Zeus is the real god, you conquered Mycaeneans stop worshipping Kronos and the other ." You made up a story in which Zeus is the son of Kronos and inherits the throne, after disposing of his tyrant father.
Now let's look up north, if you will. Sure enough we find Tyr, the equivalent of Zeus, as one of the sons of Odin, and Odin is banished from Asgard for his being, shall we say, less than honourable. Doesn't the story seem to follow the same pattern, so far?
Except Odin is less easy to dispose of, or at least that's my hypothesis. Skip forward a couple of centuries, and he's back in the saddle.
He's the Master Of Magic. Or rather Master Of The Mystical Extasy. No, really, it's literally his name. The religion in the area never gets rid of shamanism and the like, and guess who's the god of those? Right. Odin and Freya. Moreover, rather than a priestly class, you find the local comunity leaders having to fulfil the role of Godi and do all that magic, together with the witches, and Odin becomes the god of nobility too. And if not them directly, their champions, the berserkers, continue to rely on Odin's magic.
Essentially, unlike Kronos or Uranus, the allfather doesn't just roll over. He gets his throne back and the upstart son loses his right hand.
Now some might say, "but wait a moment, weren't the Vanir the old pre-Norse gods of nature and such?" No, not really. The Vanir are a very late split of several Aesir into an Aesir and a Vanir version. And by "very late", I mean it could be as late as the 10'th or 11'th century. Odin is split rather unconvincingly into Odinr and Odr, Freya is split into Freya and Frigg, etc. We can hypothesize about why that happened, e.g., the more individualistic sides of those gods become the Vanir, and the Aesir are the more communal gods fighting against that, and even burn Gullveig/Freya for bringing that corruption into Asgard. (But you can't keep her down either.) But we'll never really know, and it's a different topic. At any rate, the Vanir are much later than the Aesir, rather than being the original deities.
So, anyway, that's my hypothesis: that Odin is actually a very old, pre-indo-european god, that could not be overthrown that easily. In fact, one that actually pulls a reverse cultural takeover.
Other possible old gods there would include Freya, possibly Frey (not sure about that one, tho), and almost certainly Loki. A trickster god is far more characteristic of a shamanistic pantheon, than of any indo-european pantheon ever.
So, any comments? Anyone more knowledgeable want to poke holes in that theory?
And more to the point, about the anomaly that is Tyr.
Now Ty/Tyw (the "r" or respectively "z" are just the Norse and respectively Saxon nominative singular suffix) is not just recorded as the primary deity for some Germanic tribes back in ye olde Roman day, but his name even means "God". You can see that used in kennings for other gods, e.g., "fimbultyr" = "mighty god" is one of the names of Odin, among several other containing "tyr".
He's also the same root indo-european deity that became Zeus for the Greeks or Jupiter for the Romans. And also the root of "deus" or "theos".
That dude was important. Yet later we find him as a crippled has-been, in the Germanic mythology. So WTH happened there?
I will start exploring that problem and formulating my hypothesis with the one thing Snorri did get right: in polytheistic cultures, power shifts and cultural takeovers were routinely reverse-euhemerized as events in the gods' realm. You didn't just go "worship Marduk, even for the stuff that Inanna and the rest used to be responsible, those other gods are now obsolete." You made up a story (in Marduk's case, the Enuma Elish), about how the other gods gave him all their powers. Or you didn't just go "Amun never existed, stop worshiping him." You made up a story, like Akhenaten did, about the death of Amun.
And in the case of cultural takeovers, a popular "plot" device was inheriting the heavenly throne by just inheritance. You made your gods be the sons of the old gods, and then somehow kill or banish their fathers. E.g., Zeus overthrows or possibly castrates Kronos to become the new top dog (which in many cultures disqualifies one from the throne), just like Kronos had done with Uranus before. Ba'al castrates El to become the top god. Etc.
Essentially you didn't just say "Zeus is the real god, you conquered Mycaeneans stop worshipping Kronos and the other ." You made up a story in which Zeus is the son of Kronos and inherits the throne, after disposing of his tyrant father.
Now let's look up north, if you will. Sure enough we find Tyr, the equivalent of Zeus, as one of the sons of Odin, and Odin is banished from Asgard for his being, shall we say, less than honourable. Doesn't the story seem to follow the same pattern, so far?
Except Odin is less easy to dispose of, or at least that's my hypothesis. Skip forward a couple of centuries, and he's back in the saddle.
He's the Master Of Magic. Or rather Master Of The Mystical Extasy. No, really, it's literally his name. The religion in the area never gets rid of shamanism and the like, and guess who's the god of those? Right. Odin and Freya. Moreover, rather than a priestly class, you find the local comunity leaders having to fulfil the role of Godi and do all that magic, together with the witches, and Odin becomes the god of nobility too. And if not them directly, their champions, the berserkers, continue to rely on Odin's magic.
Essentially, unlike Kronos or Uranus, the allfather doesn't just roll over. He gets his throne back and the upstart son loses his right hand.
Now some might say, "but wait a moment, weren't the Vanir the old pre-Norse gods of nature and such?" No, not really. The Vanir are a very late split of several Aesir into an Aesir and a Vanir version. And by "very late", I mean it could be as late as the 10'th or 11'th century. Odin is split rather unconvincingly into Odinr and Odr, Freya is split into Freya and Frigg, etc. We can hypothesize about why that happened, e.g., the more individualistic sides of those gods become the Vanir, and the Aesir are the more communal gods fighting against that, and even burn Gullveig/Freya for bringing that corruption into Asgard. (But you can't keep her down either.) But we'll never really know, and it's a different topic. At any rate, the Vanir are much later than the Aesir, rather than being the original deities.
So, anyway, that's my hypothesis: that Odin is actually a very old, pre-indo-european god, that could not be overthrown that easily. In fact, one that actually pulls a reverse cultural takeover.
Other possible old gods there would include Freya, possibly Frey (not sure about that one, tho), and almost certainly Loki. A trickster god is far more characteristic of a shamanistic pantheon, than of any indo-european pantheon ever.
So, any comments? Anyone more knowledgeable want to poke holes in that theory?
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