Studia Islandica - 01.06.1963, Síða 82

76
ferent religions or different peoples, but a conflict between classes
or groups within the primitive Aryan society; it mirrors, as it were,
the social structure of the primitive Aryans. Dumézil supports this
view by a comparison of the myths of various Aryan peoples. He
equates Odin, Tyr, and Thor with the ancient chief deities of the
Indians: Varuna, Mitra, and Indra. But beside these three principal
deities, old Indian sources include among the gods a pair of twins,
variously named Nasatya or Ashvins, who are above all friendly
towards men and bestow on them such gifts as good health and
fertility. According to Dumézil the Ashvins correspond to Frey
and Njord, though the Scandinavians have made the latter father
and son instead of twins. He compares the story of the Æsir’s war
with the Vanir to the ancient Indian story of Indra’s fight with
the Ashvins which ends with the twins being admitted to the
number of the gods. Of the same nature, according to Dumézil, is
the legend which tells how the Sabines gained equal rights with
the Romans in the time of Romulus. All three of these stories,
Dumézil claims, represent the same social development: the labor-
ing agricultural class forces the upper classes, which originally
looked down upon it, to reognize the importance of its role in the
society. But if the story of the war between Æsir and Vanir goes
back to the time of a single Aryan community, it must have sur-
vived in oral tradition for over 3000 years, which seems highly
unlikely.
The author does not intend to deny a relationship between an-
cient Germanic religion and that of various other peoples. But he
regards the known accounts of Germanic religion in its earliest
stages as the most promising starting point for further explora-
tion in various directions. He also considers that a firmer founda-
tion of knowledge can be laid by tracing religious customs and
ritual rather than individual myths. In the following chapters an
attempt is made to trace the Scandinavian history, first of all of
the three Vanir deities: Njord, Frey, and Freyja, and, secondarily,
of the three principal deities of the Æsir group: Odin, Tyr and Thor.
In Chapter II the meager information about the religion of the
South-Germanic tribes is surveyed. Their chief gods appear to have
been Odin and Frigg, Tyr, and Thor. The author regards it as parti-
cularly significant that no reliable evidence of the worship of the
three Vanir deities is found outside Scandinavia.
Chapter III discusses Tacitus’ account of the worship of the
goddess Nerthus by seven Germanic tribes living by the northern
sea — by all indications in what is now Denmark. The account
shows that Nerthus was a goddess of fertility and that ritual mar-
riage played an important part in her worship. The author com-
pares the cult of Nerthus with those of Isis and Osiris, Ishtar and
Tammuz, and other eastern fertility gods, and concludes that