Death and Afterlife in Germanic Mythology

The Eddas tell us that the body of man is divided into the following constituent parts:-

La-blood/lifegiving warmth.

Laeti-motion.

Lik-the physical body consisting of natural elements.

Litr goda-colour/image/countenance.

Ond-spirit/breath.

Odr-the soul/reason.

The Elder or Poetic Edda[Voluspa 17 and 18] contains one of the two myths concerning the creation of man or the first Teutons. Odin along with Hoenir and Lodurr acted as a trinity of Gods in the creation of Teutonic humanity from the form of two trees known as Ask[the male and cognate with the ash tree] and Embla[the female and probably cognate with the Elm tree but there is much scholarly debate over this].
The second creation myth is to be found in Gylfaginning 8 in the Younger or Prose Edda and the ceating Gods in that myth are Odin and Vili and Ve, His brothers.
The body[Lik] has already been formed by the dwarves Mimir and Durinn which is an indication that the dwarves at one time were an early race of Gods as were the giants. Indo-European mythologies have many similar exampes of where early races of Gods are supplanted by more recent ones. One thinks in particular of the struggles between the Titans and the Olympian deities and the wars between the Aesir and Vanir and the Asa/Vana Gods against the giants. Irish or Celtic mythology also has examples of struggles between competing pantheons of Gods which point to a mythologising of actual historical struggles between different ethnic groups for possession of land.
The God Lodurr who is only mentioned once in the Eddas grants la, litr goda and laeti to the lik.
Hoenir according to Voluspa 63 is one of the 7 named Gods who survive Ragnarok and his role in Germanic mythology is uncertain but nevertheless he is one of the three creating Gods and grants odr to the lik.
Odin grants ond which is fitting when one considers that He is the most important deity and the granting of breath or spirit is associated with the highest of Gods or the supreme God of monotheistic religions.
In Gylfaginning Odin grants the breath of life, Vili intelligence and movement and Ve outward appearance, speech, hearing and sight. The etymology of Ve suggests that he is associated with the word ve meaning `holy` whilst Vili is associated with the `will`. Both are brothers of Odin.
At the point of death the various elements, physical and spiritual/psychic seperate.
The earthly matter, la and lik seperate from a person`s higher elements and remain on Midgardr. What remains, the ond, odr and litr goda travel to the underworld, Jormungrund for judgement. The ond and litr goda are seperated from the odr at Nagrindar, the gates of Niflhel and the remaining odr receives a new litr goda corresponding to the spiritual condition of the odr. So in effect we create our own judgement and our own ultimate destiny whilst here on Midgardr.
Those who die in battle or have led the life of a warrior[spiritual `warriors` included] are selected to reside in either Valhalla with Odin or in Folkfangr with Freyja.
"The earthly death consists of the earthly matter, the la and the lik, being seperated from the person`s higher elements and staying behind on Midgardr. The dead who have fared to Jormungrund are made up of ond, odr, and litr. If one is sentenced to a second death at Gimle, the ond and the litr goda will be seperated from him at the Nagrindar. Then there remains only the odr; and this receives a litr that corresponds with the condition of the odr. The higher elements return to the Godin, traveling to the afterworld; whereas the lower elements are spread across the earth, returning to the waters, to the plants, and to all that lives."[XXIV.9. Asatru Edda].
Those who are judged by the Gods at the Helthing as being guilty of crimes against the Folk or the Gods such as perjury, murder, adultery, defaming of temples, opening of gravemounds, treason and villainy will be sentenced to the second death and punishment in the halls of Niflhel.
"Once a person has died, their higher elements remain around the corpse for three days, and attend their own Helfor. All will have a guide that will lead them to Hel, which appears before them right before their death, carrying their summons to the Helthing. Foremost among them are the Valkyrjur, beautiful maidens with contemplative faces. Whenever a battle takes place, they appear fully armed there on their horses, although some wear feather guises, and with their spear shafts point out the champions whom Odinn and Freyja have selected for their halls, and they carry the fallen to Jormungrund, and from there on Bifrost to Asgardr.
Urdr sends maidservants of a very different sort to the inhabitants of Midgardr who are not among the heroic dead, each by the nature of their death. To those who surrender to the burden of years comes the Dis who is the handmaiden of the bent and stooping. This kind-hearted Dis removes the burden which Elli puts on men, and which gradually gets too heavy for them to bear. Children have their guides, who are motherly, tender, and kind. To those who were snatched away by plague or other epidemics come Leikn and the beings of Niflhel who resemble her, and those who die of disease are carried away by the corresponding vaettir of disease to the Helthing to be judged by the Godin."[XXIV 15, 16 Asatru Edda].
The brave dead who reside in Asgardr with the Gods and Goddesses spend their `time` feasting and fighting, preparing for the day of Ragnarok when they must go forth with the Gods to fight their last battle to prevent the triumph of the forces of chaos, the sons of Muspel.
"All those who die in battle heroically are his adopted children. He assigns them places in Valhol land they are known as Einherjar."
[XXV 6, Asatru Edda].
The etymology of Einherjar is Old Norse and means` those who fight alone`. Thor is designated as Einheri in Lokasenna 62 and means `the one who fights alone`.
Sometimes the dead choose to remain in their burial mounds close to their kin and clan in order to protect them by their presence. There are examples of this to be found in the Icelandic sagas. The concept is also linked to the idea of the dead residing in mountains, particularly dead kings that await their return to their people in times of great national distress. I think in particular of the legends that relate to Friedrich Barbarossa, Friedrich II, Widukind, King Arthur, Bran the Blessed, Charlemagne, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Ogier the Dane, Heinrich the Fowler, etc, etc.
One thing is for sure and that is our ancestors do act as guardians, watching over their descendants down the generations.
"Those who have become immortal look down on the mortals and protect their children on earth. In Midgardr`s atmosphere, through the entire airspace they travel, and where one prepares sacrifice and invokes them, there come holy, faithful, wise fathers with help and blessings for their children. They bring power, wealth, and descendants; they hear, help, and console; and they fight bravely and heroically in battle."[XXIV 29, Asatru Edda].
There is also evidence to support the case for reincarnation in both Germanic and Celtic mythology and such reincarnation appears to manifest within the same family and genetic lines with forefathers reincarnating as their own descendants.
One of the most interesting examples of reincarnation is to be found in the story of Helgi Hjorvardsson who reincarnates as Helgi Hundingsbane and Helgi Haddingjaskati in the Poetic Edda.

The Etymology of Woden

This article is solely concerned with discussing the etymology of Woden`s name and its various cognates; it is not concerned with an exploration of his many and diverse roles.
Volume 1 of Grimm`s Teutonic Mythology gives quite a detailed analysis of the etymology and the various cognate forms of the name.
Among the Anglo-Saxons He was called Woden, the Langobards knew Him as Wodan or Guodan, the Old Saxons as Wuodan or Wodan, the Frisians called Him Weda, the Goths referred to Him as Vodans and the Scandinavians as Odinn. In the Faroe Isles He was called Ouvin and Saxo Grammaticus refers to Him as Othinus. In Old High German He was known as Wuotan. Another variant is Woatan.
The word is immediately derived from the Old High German watan from which comes the substantive wuot[modern German Wut] meaning wrath, fury, wildness and impetuosity. Grimm deduces from this that by extension Wuotan, Odinn "would be the all-powerful, all-penetrating being".
He goes on to say "How early this original meaning may have got obscured or extinguished , it is impossible to say. Together with the meaning of wise and mighty god, that of the wild, restless, vehement, must also have prevailed, even in the heathen time. The christians were the better pleased, that they could bring the bad sense into prominence out of the name itself. In the oldest glosses, wotan is put for tyrannus, herus malus.......so wueterich......."
He goes on to give examples of how the adjective was used to describe evil kings and evil deeds and thus the christians succeeded in further demonising Woden through their choice and use of language.
"The former divinity was degraded into an evil, fiendish, bloodthirsty being, and appears to live yet as a form of protestation or cursing in exclamations of the Low German people, as in Westphalia: O Woudan, Woudan! .....and in Mecklenburg: Wod, Wod!"
This primary aspect of Woden`s furious nature has in the past manifested itself in the battle rage of the ancient Teutons and the Berserker rage. Furor Teutonicus[Teutonic Fury] was a Latin phrase that referred to the aforesaid fierceness. In the Viking Age the christianised victims of the Viking raids would pray "From the wrath of the Northmen, O Lord, deliver us."

Two Hammers of Thor?

The Eddas state that Thor`s hammer Mjollnir was made by the smith dwarves Sindri and Brokkr and is the subject of many giant slaying myths. It had special properties, being able to produce thunder and lightning and when it is thrown it returns to the hand of the thrower. It was also used as a means of consecration at funerals and weddings, thus alluding to Thor`s joint role as God of war and as a fertility deity. In order to handle Mjollnir Thor needs special iron gloves.
It is of great antiquity and features in Bronze Age rock carvings.
In the Viking Age it became the most important symbol for Scandinavian heathendom in its opposition to the alien religion of Christianity and was worn by adherents of the old faith as an amulet. Today those of us who have heard the call of the blood, the call of the ancient Germanic Gods wear this symbol as a visible expression of our faith in our ancestral Gods.
The etymology of Mjollnir is traced to the Proto Norse *melluniaR
Rudolf Simek in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology specuates that "it may be related to Old Slavic mlunuji, Russian molnija, `lightning`[either borrowed from there or else from an early stage] which would allow an interpretation of `the one who makes lightning; another attempt to explain it, however, relates Mjollnir to ON mjoll `new snow`, Icelandic mjalli `white colour`, and as such would mean `the shining lightning weapon`. In earlier scholarship Mjollnir had been connected with Gothic malwjan and ON mala `to grind` and interpreted as `the grinder`".
The etymology is also discussed in Jaan Puhvel`s Comparative Mythology and Puhvel cites the Welsh cognate mellt and also adds: "It is thus the bolt, and it can be represented also as an[originally stone] ax, a club, or as a counterclockwise hooked cross symbolizing a thunderball, resembling the Indic svastika-`good luck sign`[from Vedic su-asti- `well being, good fortune`]. It was a tool that the god used to `hallow` [vigja] beings in a positive vein[consecrate a bride, revive his own goat team, sactify the dead;cf. Indra`s vajra-cognate with Latin vegeo `arouse, quicken`]."
He goes on to add that both Thor and Indra used it as a thunder weapon against giants, serpents and demons. Clearly Thor/Indra relate back to a much earlier Proto-Indo-European thunder God as they like their other Aryan cousins-the Baltic Perkunas, the Slavic Peruna and the Celtic Taranis.
Viktor Rydberg in his Teutonic Mythology volume 1 states: "The hammer is Thor`s most sacred weapon. Before Sindre forged one for him of iron[Gylfaginning], he wielded a hammer of stone. This is evident from the very name hamarr, a rock, a stone."
Ryberg in his Teutonic Mythology volume 2[Investigations into Germanic Mythology Volume II Part 1] repeats this argument: "Thor`s oldest weapon is made of stone. The name itself says so, hamarr, and this is confirmed by the folk-idea of the lightning bolt as a stone-wedge. Likewise Indra`s oldest weapon was made of stone; it is called the `celestial stone`[Rigv.II,30,5] and is said to be `four-edged`[Rigv.IV,22,1,2]. This `four-edged` weapon has its symbol in the swastika, a figure that is rediscovered in the realm of Germanic memory and therefore must have derived from the Proto-Indo-European era.
All this brings me to the passage in the Asatru Edda: "Thorr was brought up in Jotunheimr by a jarl named Vingnir, and when he was ten years old, he received the stone hammer, Vingnir`s Mjollnir."
Far from the Eddas being a mediaeval Christian monkish construction they have their origins deep into the Stone Age as this transition from a stone to an iron Mjollnir represents.

The Four Sacred Treasures of the Tuatha De Danann

When the ancient Irish Gods, the Tuatha De Danann left their Hyperborean Urheimat to colonize Eire with the permission of their chief God, The Dagda they brought with them 4 sacred objects which feature in Celtic Mythology, the Stone of Destiny[Lia Fail], the Spear of Lugh[Slea Luin], the Sword of Nuada[Claiomh Solais] and the Cauldron of the Dagda[Coire Ansease].

The Stone of Destiny

This sacred stone is the stone on which the High Kings of Eire stood at Tara to confirm their right to the throne. It would confirm the election of the rightful ruler by roaring. The stone was sent to Scotland in the 6th century CE for the crowning of Fergus the Great. An ancient prophecy said that wherever the stone was a king of the Scotic race would reign. The said stone was further removed to England in 1297 by Edward I and became the Coronation Stone in Westminster Abbey. The current monarch can trace her descent back to the very same Scotic or Irish-Milesian rulers. The stone was returned to Scotland in 1996 where it currently resides in Edinburgh Castle. However any future British monarch will still be crowned on this stone when it has been temporarily returned to Westminster Abbey.
The Northumbrian rune stave Stan is esoterically linked to the stone.

The Spear of Lugh

Lugh is cognate with the Germanic God Woden/Wotan/Odin and both possessed a sacred spear. In Germanic mythology this is called Gungnir and runes were engraved on the tip of the spear. This spear was both a practical magical weapon and also a symbol of the divine authority of both of these Gods.
The Northumbrian rune stave Gar is esoterically linked to the spear. Gar is Old English and is cognate with the Old High German Ger, both having the meaning of `spear`.
T.W. Rolleston in his Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[1911] also draws a link to the Hammer of Thor and to the lightening weapon of the Aryo-Indian Thunder God Indra which is suggestive of a common Indo-European magico-cultural inheritance. It also suggests an association with the swastika which is also called the Hammer of Thor.

The Sword of Nuada

Nuada or Nuada of the Silver Hand like the Germanic God Tir was one handed. He lost one of his hands in battle whilst Tir lost his hand as the result of a false oath made to the Fenris wolf.
Nuada was the first king of the Tuatha De Danann and had cognates with the Welsh Nudd and the Gaulish Nodens. A silver hand was fitted to replace his natural one but this blemish subsequently made him unfit to rule the Tuatha De Danann. Interestingly Tir was the original Germanic sky God and may be traced back to a much earlier Indo-European deity long before the emergence of Woden who was subsequently portrayed as Tir`s father and became the primary God of the Teutonic peoples in Tir`s place. The Germanic myths do not explain this apparent `fall from grace`.
The Common Germanic Tiwaz rune stave is Tir`s rune and may be esotrically linked to this sacred object. Some Wodenists also make an association with the Northumbrian rune stave Cweorth although for the time being I can detect no direct link with the sword. Its appearance at the end of the 33 Northumbrian rune row makes it very tempting to draw such an association as the other 3 `Grail` runes certainly are linked with these sacred Celtic treasures.



The Cauldron of the Dagda

The cauldron was a talisman of abundance and regeneration and also appears in the Welsh myth of Bran the Blessed and in the works of the Welsh Bard Taliesin. Not only could the Cauldron feed a host of men but the bodies of fallen warriors immersed inside it would be regenerated but the said regenerated bodies lacked the power of speech.
Cauldrons feature prominently in Celtic myth and I am reminded of the famous Gundestrup Cauldron found in 1891 in a peat bog in Denmark. It is thought to date to the 1st century BCE which would place it within the late La Tene Iron Age period. The mythical and religious figures that feature upon the sides of the cauldron support the view of the Cauldron being an object of regeneration and/or sacrifice.
It is likely that the Cauldron is the original `Holy Grail` and it is interesting that the extant Arthurian literature usually portrays the Grail also as an object of abundance and regeneration.
This sacred object is linked esoterically with the Northumbrian rune stave Calc which is a rune of transformation, a key attribute of the `Holy Grail`.

It is tempting to also draw a special link between the the Sword and the Stone. Arthurian myth places the sword Excalibur in a stone. This of course could be just a simple stone but whilst the sword Excalibur had a supernatural origin like the Sword of Lugh it was also a symbol of divine kingship like the Stone of Destiny and the Sword of Nuada.

Likewise one may draw a special link between the Spear of Lugh and the Cauldron of the Dagda as they also represent the spear of the Celtic hero Parsifal and the Holy Grail of Arthurian myth.

Eire and the Aryan Connection

Ireland, Erin, Eireann or Eire represents probably the earliest place of settlement of the invading Aryan tribes from the east.
Irish mythology makes reference to five invasions. They are as follows:

The coming of the Partholan into Ireland.

The coming of the Nemed into Ireland.

The coming of the Firbolgs into Ireland.

The invasion of the Tuatha De Danaan.[The folk of the god whose mother is Dana].

The invasion of the Milesians[Sons of Miled] and the conquest of the Tuatha De Danaan.

We know that at least some of these if not all of the invading peoples were of Aryan stock.
As a minimum the Milesians are regarded as the ancestors of the Irish Gaels and the Tuatha De Danaan are widely referred to as the deities of the Irish people. In Irish mythology myth and history seem to blend and mortals and immortals do not appear to have such clear dividing lines between them as in say the Teutonic mythology.

The sciences of comparative linguistics, mythology and modern genetic testing all point to the Irish people having been in possession of Ireland from the earliest days of the Aryan dispersal.
It is conceiveable that the Aryans did not arrive in Ireland all at the same time but came in waves of immigration and possibly using different routes. Mythology tells us that the Milesians came by the way of Spain.

Ulick J. Bourke gives abundant linguiistical evidence in his Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race and Language for the great antiquity of the Irish tongue putting it on a par with Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.

He has this to say about the various invasions:
"All these different migrations had come forth from the Keltic family home; and all spoke the same language. All were Aryan. Thus the ancient annals of Ireland accord most wonderfully with the teaching of the science of comparative philology."

One has only to look at the name or names of Ireland itself to see this ancient Aryan connection.

"For those who for whatever reason wish to resist the idea that the Celtic mythology and religion[as well as culture] is essentially based on Indo-European roots, it might be noted that the first element in the names Ire-land and Ira-n are the same liguistically, and both are related to the Arya-ns of India. Thus the great span of Indo-European culture, from the middle of Asia to the westernmost islands of Europe, can be seen in its full expanse from ancient times."
[Edred Thorsson , aka Dr Stephen Edred Flowers, The Book of Ogham]

This theme is further emphasised by Peter Berresford Ellis, author of various books on Celtic mythology, history and culture, "To demonstrate some of the similarities of vocabulary between Old Irish and Sanskrit, we may refer to the following: arya[freeman] in Sanskrit, from which that much maligned word Aryan comes from. In Old Irish, the cognate is aire meaning "a noble"." [The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends].

In addition to the Aryan connection with the name Ire-land there is also the equally explicit connection with Er-in, Eire, Eireann[pronounced `Aryan`. The Ar Aryan prefix is cognate with Ir and Er and many examples of such connections may be found in other Indo-European languages. What they have in common is their meaning-Land of the Aryans, which is linguistically the same as Aryavarta[Sanskrit] or Iran/Eran.

The Aryan connection may also found in the names of some of the ancient Irish deities, eg Eremon. The name of this Irish god is cognate with Ariomanus a god from Celtic Gaul which in turn is cognate with the Sankrit Aryaman and the Iranian airyaman.[J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, The Oxford Introdution to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World].

According to Irish mythology Eremon was one of three Milesian leaders who set out for the conquest of Ireland. Initially he occupied the north but after a war he became victorious and ruled the whole of Ireland from the sacred centre of Tara.
Prior to this Ireland at one time was ruled by three Danaan kings. The wife of one of these kings was called Eriu. Her name has persisted through the course of time and in the dative form her name, Erinn is now a poetic name for Ireland or Eire.
Professor L. Austine Waddell writes: "And Ireland of the Irish-Scots has also its "Holy Isles", with very ancient remains, including a magnificent "prehistoric" fort of cyclopean masonry in the Hitt-ite style, in Galway Bay, and also significantly named "Aran" or "Arran", which like the name "Erin" and "Ir-land", in series with the "Airy-ana" or "Ir-an" or "Land of the Aryans" of the ancient Sun-worsipping Aryans in the Orient." [The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots and Anglo-Saxons].

The Horned God Archetype

The horned God is an archetype common in many Aryan mythologies, most especially amongst the northern Europeans.
The renowned Wotanist Ron McVan writing in his Creed of Iron Wotansvolk Wisdom states "Through anthropological research one can trace the line of horned god prototypes back to Paleolithic times. The earliest known representation of such a figure is found painted on the interior walls of the Caverne des Trois Freres in Ariege, France and dates to the late Paleolithic period. Among an assemblage of animals, a figure of a man is clothed in the skin of a stag and wearing on his head the antlers of a stag. It seems evident from the relative position of all the figures that the man is dominant and that he is in the act of performing a ceremony."
He goes on to state "It is into the Bronze Age when the horned figure flourished again among the Indo-European[Aryan] tribes of Egypt, Mesopotamia and India. Horned gods were quite common in Mesopotamia, as in Babylon and Assyria. The copper head found in the gold tombs of Ur is believed to be earlier than the first Egyptian dynasty, displaying an advanced stage of metal working.
When Alexander the Great raised himself above the kings of the earth and declared himself a `god`, he wore a horned head piece as a symbol of his divinity. Polytheism appears to have arisen among the Aryan cultures, East and West, with the amalgamation of tribes, each with its own gods. The horned deities were prevalent throughout Greece and Rome."
Greek mythology has its half man, half bull Minotaur and of course the half human and half goat God Pan.
In Egypt the Goddess Hathor was portrayed with cow`s horns and the God Osiris with the horns of fertility.
However what of the horned Gods of northern Europe?
The most prevalent horned deity is Cernunnos. His image dates back as far as 20,000 years ago and was worshipped in pre-christian Gaul. The Gundestrup cauldron from Denmark features a stag-horned God believed to be Cernunnos. The cauldron dates back to the second-first century BCE.
"As a symbol, the stag is of considerable antiquity in the Celtic or proto-Celtic world. For hunters the stag with its tree-like antlers represented the spirit of the forest; its agility, speed and sexual vigour were admired, and there was a mystery in the autumn shedding and regrowth of the antlers in the spring, which could easily symbolise seasonal death and rebirth.
"Stag symbolism is prominent on the Gundestrup Cauldron where the stag-horned god Cernunnos is associated with a stag and where on another plate, a god grasps a stag in each hand.
"In the case of Cernunnos. who is often represented with a stag as well, being antlered himself, one sees the adoption of the animal-attribute perhaps to symbolise the very close and indeed essential rapport between beast and deity."[The Gods of the Celts. Miranda Green].
Cognate with Cernnunos is the name of the God Cerne, whose image as the Cerne Abbas giant lies on Giant Hill above the village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset, England. He is renowned for his errect phallus and mighty club. The figure does not have horns but Eric L. Fitch author of In Search of Herne the Hunter speculates that Cerne was once horned and thus further linking him with Cernunnos. He also mentions that the name Cornwall in both its English version and its Cornish[Kernow] refers to "the corner, curved shape or horn-like aspect of the principality itself." He further links the name of Cerne to Herne the Hunter.
The Saxon `horn` is cognate with the Latin `cornu`. The letters `h` and `c` are interchangeable between certain Indo-European languages, the `c` often mutating into `h` .
The name Herne can be identified in place-names in Kent and Hampshire. Herne may be derived from the Saxon word `Hyrne` meaning a corner or angle. An alternaive origin for Herne can be traced to `haer` which means a stone or rock and this can be found as a place-name in Bedfordshire. `Cerne` may also be traced back to the Celtic word `cairn`. This is all suggestive of the curvature of the horns or antlers which relate to both Herne and Cernunnos.
"Thus here we see Horn-Herne-Cernunnos-Kernow-Cornu, all aspects of the one theme of the curved horn. It is therefore no surprise to find that a ghostly figure who wears a set of horns or antlers on his head is known by the name of Herne."[In Search of Herne the Hunter].
Herne is linked to the Wild Hunt which is common to all northern European cultures.
"Wild Hunt stories tell of a spectral hunt which courses across country, through forest or across the sky, usually led by some form of demonic personage with an entourage of ghostly horses, hounds, devils, and otherworldly beings. Accompanying the Hunt are all manner of unfortunates. These include unbaptized children, suicides, murderers, adulterers, criminals, blasphemers, witches and freemasons, as well as soldiers, churchmen and courtesans. They are often deformed, with their heads in their chests or facing backwards"[In Search of Herne the Hunter].
In Germanic mythology and folklore the Wild Hunt is led by Odin/Woden/Wotan.
The Wild Hunt in Germanic regions usually occurs during the Twelve Nights of Yuletide on a stormy night. The scholar Hoefler was the first to prove that the legends of the Wild Hunt are "in an exceptional majority reflections of ancient cults of secret societies".[Quoted via Rudolf Simek`s Dictionary of Northern Mythology]. These were Germanic warrior bands and their earliest reference is to be found in Tacitus` Germania: "For their part, the Harii, besides their military might in which they surpass the peoples listed a little above, savage as they are, enhance their inborn ferocity by trickery and timing: their shields are black, their bodies stained, they choose dark nights for battles, and thus inspire terror with their shadowy horror of a ghostly army. None of their enemies can withstand that strange and so to speak hellish sight: for in every battle the eyes are overcome first."[43.4]
"The name `Harri` probably meant something like `warriors` [cf. Gothic harjis, `army`] and presumably had some connection with the battle practices noted here. Many commentators, following the theories of Hoefler[1934], see in this account evidence for the sort of cult group whose memory survived in the widespread Germanic legends about the Wild Hunt, the ghostly riders who ride through the storms during the twelve nights of Yuletide. These would in origin have been bands of warriors dedicated to *Wodenaz as the god of battle fury[Simek]. This theory rests on some striking similarities, but it is impossible to corroborate. Phrases like a `ghostly army` are just as likely to be rhetorical embellishments added by Tacitus; if they are removed, his description would be well suited to a practice of stealth attacks with no particular supernatural associations."[Rives]
Again returning to Ron McVan, "Within the Aryan tradition of the Celts the horn has a long and celebrated lineage. To the Celts horns were a powerful symbol of virility and power. They not only gave their gods horns, but enhanced their chances of success in battle by wearing horned helmets. It was believed that a warrior wearing such headgear would not only stress his own martial and male qualities, but ensure for himself the protection of the deity whose particular attribute they represnted. Kings and priests were, also , horned to indicate their special power. "
[Temple of Wotan].
In addition to the Gundestrup Cauldron the long lost Gallehus horns which date to the beginning of the 5th century CE also depicts anthropomorphic figures with horns or antlers.
The Abbot`s Bromley horned dance is still practiced each year on the first Monday after 4th September at Abbot`s Bromley in Staffordshire.

The Aryan Invasion Theory and Celto-Germanic Mythology

The purpose of this article is not to discuss or examine the various theories of Aryan origins and the location of the Urheimat but to consider if the mythologies of the Germanic and Celtic peoples support an invasion theory.
Theories come and go according to the dictates and fancies of the academic world which appears to be as fickle as the rest of humanity.
Do the mythologies of the northern European peoples support an invasion theory? I believe that they do but it is important to realise that what the mythologies cannot do is give us any conclusive indication as to the location of the Urheimat.
We will start with the mythology of the Germanic peoples. Germanic mythology recognises two originally seperate pantheons, the Aesir and the Vanir. Modern writers on the subject superficially designate the Aesir as war and sky gods whilst regarding the Vanir as earth and fertility deities: this is an oversimplification.
Could the two different clans, their meeting, warfare and eventual union be a distant memory of an invading Aryan people confronting an existing Old European population, their clashes in battle and melding together?
As Ralph Metzner states in his The Well of Remembrance: "As the Kurgan and Aryan tribes spread out over Europe, Anatolia, Persia, and India, they consolidated their control over the societies they invaded and conquered. Pastoral, gardening, and farming economies were combined in various ways, as walled towns were built and city-states arose, ruled by warrior kings."
He goes on to say: "Hybrid cultures had hybrid mythologies. Mythologies must obviously reflect the historical, political, economic, and psychological patterns of experience. In Europe, the stories of the warfare between the Aesir and the Vanir deities mirror the clashing of cultures between nomadic, invading Kurgan warriors and the settled farming and gardening communities of Old Europe. Stories of the peacemaking efforts between these two clans of gods, both failures and successes, must surely reflect similar stable and unstable alliances among the hundreds of tribes and clans that wandered back and forth across central Europe for several millenia, right up into the period of the great migrations in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries of the Christian era."
The war that took place between the Aesir and the Vanir was inconclusive, neither side able to achieve a victory. A peace treaty was made and hostages were exchanged. Both sides had to spit into a vessel and they created from the mixing of their spittle a being called Kvasir. This name is cognate with the Norwegian kvase and the Russian kvas, a juice fermented from berries.
The mixing of spittle and the sharing of an intoxicated drink included in ceremonies for the conclusion of peace is common to numerous archaic tribes.
The Vanir gave Njord and his children Frey and Freyja to the Aesir whilst the Aesir gave in turn Hoenir and Mimir to the Vanir.
In the Dictionary of Northern Mythology Rudolf Simek states: "In older scholarship the myth of the Vanir wars was mostly seen as a reflection of a historical war which took place in the 2nd millenium B.C. At that time the established South Scandinavian-West European megalithic culture was overrun by the north-westward advancing battle-axe culture, whence came the mixture of the [non-Indo-European? matriarchal?] champions of the megalithic culture[=Vanir] with the Indo-Germanic battle-axe people[= string ceramics culture=Aesir]. These historical processes would have stayed in memory in the form of the myth of the Vanir and the pact of peace between the Aesir and the Vanir[Eckhardt].
In opposition to this theory, Dumezil pointed out the related myths and legends among other Indo-Germanic peoples[the Romans, Indians] and interpreted the Vanir wars as a result of this as the social conflict within a society in which the hierarchical followers of the kings[=Aesir?] and the farming population [for whom the vegetation cult and magic were of significance] stood against each other. Only through the pact of peace between these social classes-which in the myth of the Vanir wars indeed take on a central position-was the ordered social and religious structure of the Indo-Germanic society created[Dumezil, de Vries]."
Interestingly as a side point the land where the Aesir came from according to Snorri`s etymology in which he mixes together classical, christian and Germanic elements was Asia, called Asaheimr or Asaland, the capital of which is Asgard.
Now what light does Celtic mythology throw upon this issue?
Charles Squire in his The Mythology of the British Islands states: "We also find them seperated into two opposing camps, a division common to all the Aryan religions. Just as the Olympians struggled with the Giants, the Aesir fought the Jotuns, and the Devas the Asuras, so there is warfare in the Gaelic spiritual world between two superhuman hosts."
Interestingly in the above paragraph Squire does not refer to the opposition in the early days between the Aesir and the Vanir but after their union these two clans became known collectively as the Aesir. This may be because of the more dominating warrior role of the Aesir clan. Although this clan were warrior Gods, is the reason why they failed to win the war due to the Vanir being more numerous? The myths do not clarify this issue for us but if the Vanir represent a more numeroud settled agricultural population and the Aesir a less numerous but a warrior elite much more skilled in the arts of warfare it could explain the lack of a decisive outcome in the war.
The new collective Aesir went on to fight further battles with the Giants, resulting ultimately in the climatic battle of Ragnarok. Could the Giants also in some way represent a residual older population still not assimilated or conquered by the Aesir?
Irish mythology knows of up to seven invasions of Ireland by various races of divine, semi-divine or human races. The Book of Invasions is a record of this mythical and semi-historical series of invasions and colonisations.
British Celtic mythology recognises two clans of Gods, the Children of Don which is cognate with the Irish Tuatha De Danann[the people or tribe of the Goddess Danu] and the followers of a Goddess called Domnu; their king is her son Indech. They are more popularly known as the Fomors. Tuatha is cognate with the Germanic Teut The Tuatha De Danann were not the first race of Gods to arrive in Ireland. The Celtic myths recognise two earlier extinct races, the Race of Partholon and the Race of Nemed. Both races expired after each fell victim to a mysterious plague.
Squire states: "Just as the largest Iberian tribe was called the `Men of Domnu`, so the Fomors were called the `Gods of Domnu`. Thus eternal battle between the gods, children of Danu, and the giants, children of Domnu, would reflect, in the supernatural world, the perpetual warfare between invading Celt and resisting Iberian. It is shadowed, too, in the later heroic cycle. The champions of Ulster, Aryans and Gaels par excellence, have no such bitter enemies as the Fir Domnann of Munster and the Fir Gaillion of Leinster. A few scholars would even see in the later death-struggle between the High Kings of Ireland and his rebellious Fenians the last historic or mythological adumbration of racial war.