The Third Race of Gods in Old Germanic
Religion
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In many of the works of poetry and
prose which
have come down to us from the Old Teutons, we hear of two major races
of
gods: the Æsir and the Vanir. In only one of the remaining texts
- that carved on the arm-ring found in Greenland (the only Older
fuþark
inscription found outside of Europe) - do we find record of the third
race
of gods, who left the cold north early in the battle for supremacy,
rather
than face defeat at the hands of the Æsir. Although the
inscription
is rather short, much may be inferred from its content as to the
average
Scandinavian’s attitude toward them, as well as to the general
nature of
their functions in Germanic religious thought.
Here follows the inscription:
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Click image for full size.
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and a transliteration (normalized, after Antonsen):
I. ek erilaz Eirikiz haiteka : Eirikiz wrait runor ok
fahido
II. fuþarkgwhnijëpzstbelm(ng)do ||||| anir hlaupa
undan asir :
III. argr (r)agr anir: alu laukar ha ha ha ha : anir (r) agr
argr an(i)r ||||| alu
IV. anir : asir aut(a)n : westiz anir hlaupa (a)rgr : anir westiz
heim : alu
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and a translation:
I. I the erilaz am called eirikr: eirikr wrote the runes
and painted
(them)
II. fuþark ||||| (the) Anir escape the Æsir:
III. cowardly/womanly (x2) Anir: magic words, ha ha ha ha: Anir
cowardly/womanly(x2) Anir ||||| magic
IV. Anir: Æsir from the east: westward the Anir ran argrly:
the Anir westward home: magic
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Note: alu can also be interpreted as ale or beer, and
laukar
as leek, so III R(12-28) may be a comment on beer’s effect on the
Anir
(took a leek) and laughter at their inability to drink.
The rest of the translation is not
subject
to doubt, to my knowledge, by any of the leading runologists.
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In any case, we get a marvelously
compressed
view of the Teuton’s view of the cowardly (really argr) gods, the
Anir,
who run before Oðinn and his pals, and (quite possibly) can’t
hold
their alu.
Like whipped dogs before a stern master, the
Anir run off to the west to home, if we read l. IV correctly. Since the
ring was found in Greenland, it is obvious that home for the Anir must
lie in the Americas. But if that were the case, certainly some trace
would
have remained - in place-names, at least.
In fact, such evidence of the Anir making
it home is recorded for all the world to see, in a place name in the
United
States of America. Not in Minnesota, nor in Maine, not even anywhere in
New England, this place-name evidence, and Möltke would surely
agree
with me here, is conclusive. The Anir lived at or near the present site
of Ana-heim, California. Even the name of the local professional hockey
team (a Norse kind of game) is indicative: the name "Mighty Ducks" is
quite
reminiscent of the Anir's hlaup-ing undan the Æsir.
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Note: Annapolis is also a possibility, even to the
point of accepting
both places as indicating the continued westing of the argr Anir. |