Studia Islandica - 01.06.1963, Page 85

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invasion, so that chronologically there is nothing to prevent an
Aryan origin for these cults. But there are other kinds of argu-
ments against Dumézil’s view. In the first place, the Vanir cult
must clearly have originated among an agricultural people, but
according to the archaeologists the Aryans were still at the no-
madic stage when they overran Northern Europe. In the second
place, Dumézil makes the Vanir the gods of the third estate, but
the earliest known Scandinavian kings traced their descent from
Frey, and the saeral nature of the kingship is more closely con-
nected with him than with any other god.
In Chapter VIII an attempt is made to follow the fortunes of
Thor, Tyr, and Odin in Scandinavia. In the Viking Age, Thor was
by far the most widely worshiped of the gods in all the Scandi-
navian countries, and there is much that indicates that this was
also the case in the centuries immediately preceding. Our sources
contain no accounts of the worship of Tyr, but the evidence of
place names indicates that his cult was most deeply rooted in Den-
mark. The earliest apparent references to the cult of Odin in
Scandinavia are found in the writings of Jordanes and Procopius
about the middle of the sixth century. To be sure, these authors
call the god Mars and Ares, but the rites they describe resemble
closely the festivals of the worshipers of Odin. The sacrificial
customs described by Procopius and Jordanes are believed to be
those of the Gautar, which agrees well vith the testimony of the
Old Norse skalds, among whose names for Odin are Gautr, Gauta-
týr, and Gauta spjalli (friend of the Gautar). Everything thus
points to the Gautar having for a long time worshiped Odin above
other gods while Frey was still the principal deity of the Swedish
kings at Upsala. But before the pagan religion had run its course,
this difference had ceased to exist, and Odin and Frey were sit-
ting on either side of Thor in the largest sanctuary in the North,
the Chief Temple at Upsala.
In Chapter IX the main conclusions of the study are sum-
marized. An attempt has been made to prove that Odin was wor-
shiped in Gautland at the same time as the Vanir cult had its center
at Upsala. Place name studies have also revealed that before the
Viking Age the Odin cult flourished most in the southern regions
of Scandinavia: Denmark, Gautland, and south-eastern Norway,
whereas the Vanir were the principal deities in the remaining dis-
tricts of Norway and Sweden. At the dawn of Germanic history
the cult of the Æsir: Odin, Thor and Tyr, seems to have formed
the core of the worship of the South-Germanic peoples. On the
other hand, our earliest sources of information about Scandinavia
show that there the Vanir cult was firmly rooted, and there are
also various indications of Thor-worship. All of this suggests that
the center of gravity of the cult of Odin and Tyr has always been