Studia Islandica - 01.06.1963, Page 81

SUMMARY
Chapter I surveys briefly the Icelandic sources relating to the
two families of Scandinavian gods: the Æsir and the Vanir, the
war between them, and the settlement which ends it. The fullest
accounts are to be found in the works of Snorri Sturluson: Ynglinga
Saga (the introductory saga of the Heimskringla) and the Younger
Edda. VölusTpá tells of the war of the gods, and many other Eddic
poems distinguish clearly between Æsir and Vanir. This division
of the gods into two groups is therefore certainly much older than
Snorri, and there can hardly be any doubt that it goes back to
heathen times.
The problem of the relationship between Æsir and Vanir has
long occupied students of Scandinavian religion and mythology.
Of particular interest is the fact that the three Vanir deities:
Njord, Frey, and Freyja, were beyond all other gods worshiped as
fertility gods. It was suggested long ago that the story of the war
between Æsir and Vanir contained reminiscences of a conflict be-
tween two religions. Some scholars associate this conflict with a
migration of peoples, but according to the testimony of archaeo-
logy, no major migration into Northern Europe has taken place
during the last 4000 years. Shortly before 2000 B. C. the Aryans
— the Battle-Ax People of the archaeologists — broke through
from the plains of Russia to the Rhine and settled among a farm-
ing population which a few centuries earlier had begun to culti-
vate the soil. But the author thinks it unlikely that the story of
the war between the gods represents memories of events taking
place in the first centuries after the Aryan invasion. If the story
goes back to a conflict between two religions, that conflict must
have come to an end not long before the beginning of historical
times in Scandinavia.
In recent years the prolific French scholar Georges Dumézil has
interpreted the story of the war between the gods in a very dif-
ferent fashion. He believes that all Aryan peoples originally had
a common religion, and in this religion he finds the origin of the
deities of the Germanic peoples. According to him the story of the
struggle between Æsir and Vanir reflects not a clash between dif-