#regionality

Great question!

So, while people know that individuals interacting with deities can have very different experiences of their personalities and relationship types, the same is also true regionally. This isn't just a Norse-germanic Thing, regional "versions" of deities were pretty common. It makes things tricky for how to understand what's going on - is this the same god being interpreted in different ways or interacting in different ways because of the local culture, or are they different gods who happen to use the same name or were similar enough that we humans mistook them as having the same name, or...? You see how that's tricky. Too far in one direction, you get those Victorian sorts of reductivist arguments that "all the goddesses were secretly Frigga" sort of thing. Too far in the other direction and you start deciding each new bit you see is a separate new deity, which isn't going to be correct either and rather foolish to boot, given all the stories we have of the gods disguising themselves for various reasons. (Including prank playing and starting trouble.)

Heiti are essentially nicknames or aspect names of the gods, from the verb for "to call" or "to name". You can find lists of heiti for Odin, for Thor, and so on. They are similar to kennings, and some believe (and it's panned out to be true, in my personal experience) that if you call upon a particular heiti, you will interact with that aspect of their personality. Funny thing, the names of the gods are kinda heiti in themselves. Freyr just means Lord. Freyja just means Lady. Thor stems from the word that means Thunder. Odin is tied to the word for frenzy or raging. I suspect they have names we don't know.

Regional cuisines often differ substantially in their cooking methods, their food preparation and above all their ingredients. But they can also be closely related. So here’s an interesting question: what factors determine the links between regional cuisines?