Conspectus Deum Theodiscorum
Overview of all my remembered theses to date, assured & unassured, about the Thedish gods.
This being only a summary, I certainly did not give my full train of logic or sources in most cases, so if there's any point where there's curiosity for a clearer & fuller explanation, please do ask.
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First Function.
Geven/Yeven - O.N. Gefjon
This gyden is assuredly the sister of Woden mentioned in Hávamál 164, as seen in the Lokasenna, the unnamed eighteenth spell being prescience. The myths regarding her- as a shapeshifting magical scheming-seducer mislaying kings- affirm this. Compare also Snorri's parallel stories of her mislaying Gylfi the first pagan king with her brother's failed seduction of Tryggvason the first Christian king.
The form of her name I use is borrowed from the Old Norse for its loveliness, not directly from a postulated Old English.
Latinly Diána, Hellenicly Artemis & HecatĂ©, Indially KálĂ, Chámundá, & like Mahádevi-forms.
It would seem that the Theodiscans understood her being the gyden of maidens (meyjar) differently from the Mediterraneans, as only in the same sense that Apollo is unwed.
Woden - O.E. WĂłden - O.N. Ă“Ă°inn
Latinly Juppiter & specifically Védiovis, as well as Mercurius; Hellenicly Zeus as well as Hermés; Iliadicly perhaps Apollón-Hecatos; Indially Rudra, and perhaps Varuna; Bacchus might also be pertinent.
Herne the Hunter is likely a memory of him, Herne being an English form for Herjan.
Although he has clear heavenly attributes- being atop the highest mountain, bridegroom of the Earth, god of ernes & ravens - his nature as a god of heaven in particular is quiet in the extant West Norse verses- part of a trend that does not speak of the gods' essential elementalities, seen also with Thunder & Easter-Free. Contrarwise, the Christian skalds love to give IHVH titles like Sólar Salkonungr (Sun's Hall-King) and Ræsir Regnbýs (Ruler of the Rain-House).
The Sun & the Moon are his two eyen, and the Moon being the eye that lies in Mime's mead, which is akin to the famous link between Chandra & Soma among the Inds.
Frie-Scathe - O.E. FrĂg-*SceaĂ°a - O.N. Frigg-SkaĂ°i
I consider it likely, though not assured, that these two gydens & brides of Woden are mythologically the same, nikimitama & aramitama.
You will note that Scathe has an elaborate myth of how she came to the gods and wed Nearth and then Woden, but disappears from narrative right as she marries him and, as Snorri says, bears him many children. Contrariwise, Frie is regarded as Woden's wife most regularly, but there is no mythology of where she came from. (The title Fjörgyns mær (Fiergen's maid) given to her in the Lokasenna clearly in context means lover, not daughter, of Fjörgynn, who must be Óðinn; Loki taunts her by a name that recalls her husband's other wife Fjörgyn.)
You will also note the complementarity of the two names- Frie, love, Scathe, harm, as well as Scathe's complementarity with Woden (id est furor).
This also explains why Ing-Free is called Friggjar angan- Frie's sweetness- in the Völuspá; this refers to her role as her beloved son by Nearth, as seen in the För SkĂrnis.
Latinly JĂşnĂł, Hellenicly HĂ©rĂ©, Indially PárvatĂ-KálĂ.
Scathe is from the Old Norse, seeing as the very word was regularly borrowed into English. The fully English form would be Sheath.
Wider - O.E. *WĂder - O.N. VĂĂ°arr
I straightforwardly affirm Dumézil's theory that Wider is Indially Vishnu; their eschatological roles, their striding & riding are alike, and even the meanings of the names are similar.
His absence from attestations of other Indo-European religions may pertain to his grand eschatologicality. I do consider it possible that he may be hidden as one or another of the Greek heroes.
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Second Function.
Thunder - O.E. Þunor - O.N. Þórr
Thunder agrees with Jove only in his weapon, in all other aspects of cult & myth, in particular his wandering & warding, ambuling & apotropaic, he agrees with Hercules, which is indeed what Tacitus calls him. This in confirmed by his role in the cognate gigantomachy myth; Apollodorus notes that the giants could not be defeated until Heracles came, likewise with Thunder.
And one might object that Hercules was said to be a man first and a god second, but so were the Dioscouri, whom we know from the Inds to be in truth eternal gods. And all three of them were in deed worshipped as key gods always, whatever had happened in the mythology.
Of course Indially Indras, Hellenicly Héraclés, Latinly Hercules, & perhaps Márs also.
Tue - O.E. TĂw - O.N. TĂ˝r
I must be silent. From toponyms, he appears to have been known, not in Norway whence our verses come, but in Denmark, and further south, among the Angels & Sexen. Perhaps he is the same as Ing-Free- note the vagueness of the names Týr- God- and Freyr- Lord- but perhaps he is not.
Dumézil's thesis that he is an oath-god seems doubtful; his Varuna-Mitra theory has no real examples in any I.E. branch.
Barring new revelation, I do not think Lord Tue will be understood in our eld.
I would worship him like Mars, since that is the best we can do.
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Third Function.
Nearth - O.E. *Neorþ - O.N. Njörðr
No apparent relation to gods in any other I.E. branches; likeness to e.g. Nereus is etymologically unsound. The Icelanders themselves said Saturnus, but this is late, as shown by the name of the day.
A fanciful myth I poet- that Easter-Free & Ing-Free were born from the hanged-gored Woden's blood drifted down into Nearth's sea, just as Venus was born from Uranus bled.
A mystery.
Ing-Free - O.E. Ing-Fréa - O.N. Yngvi-Freyr
There were were two sorts of masculine Third Function gods, the brothers of the dawn-gyden- among the Grecians & Inds one finds the two Discouri, but among the Italians & Theodiscans a solitary god is known as well- an Osirian founder king.
He was called Ing-Free among the Swedes, who held the holy land of the Thedishmen- the Norse name for Zion, JĂłrsalir, is modeled after the name of the heathen holy see of Uppsalir. His Sexen name is, of course, Sexneat.
Romanly he is QuirĂnus-RĂłmulus, but Iguvinely Vofionus.
It thus seems that this sort of cultic god was reconsecrated with a new name in every city or tribe. Hence, perhaps, the generic name of the poets Freyr.
On the other hand, founding twins were common in Thedish genealogies- Hengest & Horse for the Angelkin, Ybor & Agio for the Lombards, Ambri & Assi for the Wendels- and Tacitus claims the unknown Alcis were the Dioscouri. The meaning is not fully clear.
The "Fricco" name by which Adamus Bremensis knows him is perhaps some derivation of frakka, viz. spear, which is ithyphallic, and would match with SeaxnĂ©at & the seax, and QuĂrinus & his quirĂs.
Balder, Foal, the other Theodiscan Osiris, may be a doublet of sorts.
Easter-Free - O.E. Éastre-Fréo - O.N. Freyja
Freyja is the Dawn-gyden. This is seen most assuredly by the cognate gigantomachies- in the Grecian the ettins seek Sun, Moon, & Dawn- the three childer of Hyperion as well- while in the Norse the giants seek Sun, Moon, & Freyja.
Thus, of course, she is the English Éastre, hence my lovely modern name for her of Easter-Free.
Furthermore she is the Sithgouth (O.E. *Sinþgúþ, O.H.G. Sinthgunt) of the Second Merseburg Charm, the witch who is the Sun's sister.
And again she is the Suebian Isis who so baffled Tacitus, the name he heard being *Idisiz, a synonym of *FrawjÇ.
Indially she is Ushas, Latinly Auróra & Venus (alma lux Ænéæ), and Hellenicly the triad of Éós in cosmology, Aphrodité in cult, & Helené in the heroic legend, who are all three the Walkyrie of Ilium.
She is the only main god who can be found by this more or less same name in so many branches, doubtless since it was the regular name of a natural element.
Her belovèd Wode (O.N. Óðr) is likely a solar or planetary god, her golden tears for him being like the Heliades' for her brother Phaethon- such a name was given to the belovèd of Eos-Aphrodite as well.
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Hamdell - O.E. *Hámdeal - O.N. Heimdallr
He is the god of Awedrassel the holy Tree, which the Völuspá tells us outright is Ash the first man, he & his Emble being made by the gods from driftwood, which must have come from the Tree to begin with, and indeed the last wife & wer Life & her Lover will return to the Tree at the end of days; Tree, God, & Man are all the same again & again, and Woden, we must then note, was hanged upon Man.
The story of the RĂgsĂľula, then, is just Homedeal's aforementioned nature as the god of the Tree that begets Man shown in a different myth.
I affirm Signe Cohen's theory that he is the Inds' & Medes' Apám Napát.
Lock - O.E. *Loca - O.N. Loki
He has been shown to be the god Lóðurr, and so the giver of craft & beauty to mankind.
Possibly he was understood as a malign ghost who always was present at offerings, and who needed to be bound or beaten or bribed or blessèd off. This would explain well his roles in the mythology- how he can claim to have lain with all the gydens, why he always accompanies Thunder, why Woden cannot drink without him.
Hellenicly he is of course Prometheus, likewise a maker of man with Zeus, a giver of arts & beauty, and a divisionary of sacrifice; bound for his sins, but friends with Hercules. And one will note that Prometheus was worshipped, at Athens.
