This is the video I've been waiting for. I've quietly been a devotee of Lord Freyr for 20 years now - planting trees, feeding bees, building soil, making the Earth bloom, listening to birds, making offerings and learning from the Lord of love, abundance and the ultimate triumph of our Folk. You have a new Patron ;)
There was a deity/myth of 'Telepinu' amongst the Hittites, he was a God of Farming I think. This myth has solid parallels in other cultures, like you notably referenced. When the god of agriculture disappears, the earth dies; when he returns, everything begins to grow again.
Freyr wasn't also being known as only a fertility god, he was also known as the embodiment of passion, the inner fire, the things that drives our motivations and with that also the motivation to secure the bloodlines of those who followed and worshipped him. In German ginger is called Ingwer, because of it's effect to give inner warmth and to heat up the body a direct link to Ing / Ingui-Frey / Freyr can be made. With that in mind, there is a hindu god of fire with a very similar name as Ing, Agni. Could it be that there's also a link between these two through the Yanmar people?
I think you have to be careful with assuming names that sound similar are cognates. False cognates are the reason Snorri thought the Aesir were from Asia. It might be useful to look for potential cognates and then several other parallels to have a fairly solid case. That said, they could be true cognates.
@ScottButler You're right but sometimes those coincidences in languages (especially if they're both from the same super language group) don't seem so much as coincidences. In these cases however what you considered one should do to verify ones own theses should be applied. I just find it fascinating that there is so much to learn about language and that there is still so much unknown to us. Language is what connect groups of people, sometimes they're an offshoot of another genetically linked culture (british and germans), sometimes it's an indicator that another culture group had massive influence over another (colonists over native groups) and sometimes it's a mix of both (The Aryan invasion). to make things short, language is history, and I love history.
I think the assumption that the only evidence Snorri had to say the Aesir were from Asia was the similarities in their name is pure bs. Snorri knew more about Norse Paganism that just about anybody in his time and to say that he was just guessing is absurd. Asaland in the Ynglinga saga was directly in Scythian territory who widely known to have migrated into Europe along with other Iranian peoples. Aesir is cognate with Asura and it’s quite clear the Scythians worshipped gods labeled as Asuras in the Rig Veda (like Mithra, Varuna, etc.). It actually makes a lot of sense they would have came from Asia.
Freyr isn't my favorite god, but he's one of them, and the more I study the more I see his importance. I think heathens tend to gravitate to Odhinn because our surviving literature is mostly influenced by Odhinn's cult; but people are wrong to underestimate Freyr, and most heathens seem to me to be of a character most like Freyr or Thorr rather than Odhinn. Freyr is definitely associated with war, which is essential to maintain frith, a concept I see him as intimately connected to. But there's a definite aspect of peace (also tied to frith) and self-sacrifice in his character: the barring of weapons from his sacred enclosures; the myth in which he loses his sword (phallic symbol?) to gain Gerdhr (earth goddess?), which ultimately costs him his life at Ragnarok, and possibly the life of the universe since Surtr who slays him goes on to destroy the worlds; legends of kings that die in strange ways possibly indicative of sacrifice (though this might be a stretch). I don't think I would say Freyr and Odhinn are one. It might be more accurate to say that Freyr and Odhinn represent two complementary yet contradictory aspects of the sacral king. Their characters are significantly divergent, and the natures of their cults (including different funeral practices) seem to indicate different worldviews.
And to that end, polytheism to me means that different gods and different ways of looking at the world get to coexist in one culture. There was a lot of tension between the cults of Odhinn and Freyr but both gods were still honored at Uppsala.
My frisian-dutch family is very big into freyr and horses. Always has been really important to them, so far as anyone knows. To this day, we keep representations of horses, specifically white horses, in our homes for luck, prosperity and family unity. I really couldn't tell you why it's for luck, prosperity and unity as that thought process was probably lost to time, but the women in our family revere Frigga/frig/mother spirit on a level above Freyr, but Freyr for them seems to be about what jesus is for christians and everyone is devoted to hin, but only the women do ritual to the mother. (They say "the mother" but I'm not sure why, perhaps a remnant of an earlier cult?) and usually have her representation as Frigga or even the virgin Mary. 🤷🏽♀️ they sort of just rolled the whole jesus thing into the pantheon and kept on truckin'. It's pretty interesting to me because the method and practice of ritual or worship literally varies from one family to the other but they're all joined by Freyr and horses and I really am curious as to how that survived and how they mixed paganism and christianity together and apparently had little or no issues with it.
I'm getting the impression that the co-existence of Woden, Thor of Yngvi Freyr in the Nordic mythologies is an indication of the melding of pre-Indo-European gods and post. The Aesir (Indo-European) seem to have accommodated the indigenous cult of the Vanir, as indicated by those three gods being venerated at Old Uppsala and by the lack of evidence of any military conflicts around the time of the Indo-European invasion and colonization. I'm just a beginner, so I could be wrong (could be wrong regardless).
@@Wadidiz from what I understand, and I am also happy to be wrong, the adoption of gods was more or less situational with very little religious conflict occurring. every polytheist culture has a God of the sky, the earth, rain, lightning, etc. so simply adopting that God's name to replace one a settling group already worshipped wouldn't be much of a stretch or a struggle to keep the peace and integrate. Much like tacitus calling Celtic God's by their Roman counterparts names, hence there was no real "conversion" as such, one would simply adopt a more successful god if theirs proved to be ineffective, and the same seemed to go with method of ritual to various gods as well. for example, Helgi adopted Jesus and named his settlement in Iceland christ land, but chose his homesite based on pillars he threw overboard that were dedicated to the northern gods, and invoked thor while traveling away from home. It would seem that northern and continental germanics simply took what we would see as an exceptionally pragmatic view of religious life.
I used to live in Uppsala very close to the graves three years back. Very beautiful, used to roll down the hills sometimes and eat picnic there with friends. There is a river not far away very good for swimming in.
Absolutely beautiful, very good information . Namastey from India. Been watching your videos after listening to you on" the sham sharma show" absolutely love your content my fellow pagan brother.
Currently starting the second month of my first year studying ancient history and archeology at Uppsala and you have been a huge inspiration to actually say shove it to my old life and begin anew learning about our past. Thank you for your amazing content Tom keep it!
Great video on a massively overlooked deity. As a fellow Anglo Saxon and therefore a descendant of the Ingaevones, I also consider him an important God.
Stupid xanthum who has no purpose in life other than to insult strangers online. Whether the myriad gods of the world and of ancient history exist or not is irrelevant and beside the point. They're all deities, and can be discussed in an academic theological context, as here. Why not wait until you're a bit older, more mature and better educated before you try to join in the conversation with adults?
@Sam m that's a very good question mate. He has been identified as a cognate to both. My personal feeling is that he is associated with Tiw, or Mars. In this respect he can be seen not just as a national god of the Saxons but as a companion god for all warriors.
The festive joviality of Morris men could be characterised as 'unmanly' or 'effeminate'. Fertility and the celebration of it is generally colourful (think springtime flowers) and this could be seen as feminine.
That's what I was thinking. It seems like there was a popular sentiment in Christianity back then that dancing around erratically and showing lots of uncontrolled emotion is vert effeminate
Here is my pet thought on Ingvi-Frey: Tacitus or whoever met or was told of a people to the north-west who were worshipers of Ingui-Frey. They so identified with this god that they were called or called themselves, Ingui. Their country became blurred into Ingui-land, and hence Angle-land. They were thus Angles and moving across to Britain, they became the English of Englaland. In short a people named after the god they worshiped in ancient times.
Ingvi is/was the god of the Swedes before the cult of Wodenaz spread to Scandinavia, and Oðni assumed the role of cheiftan. I know they used to have a ritual where they would Sacrifice a boar in Uppsala to Yngvi-Freyr for peace and prosperity.
Fascinating and very learned! I best like to think of Freyr as he sat on Odin's throne and gazed lovesick at the distant and gorgeous gleaming Gerdr. Don't we all know that feeling!
Good stuff. Very informative. The more we speak about these things, the more understanding there is about our ancient ways and perhaps we uncover the true solution to the Indo-European's spiritual crisis.
The TRUE solution is to abandon religion and just follow the commands of Yeshua who is Christ or Deliverer. In Germanic he is known as Yerserald the Thrice- Pierced.
What you said at the end as the gods representing "one truth" really struck a chord with me. I had come to the same conclusion after years of studying mythology. Pantheons seem to represent a greater "godhead" in most cultures. Pantheons seem to go much deeper than being the answer to early human questions about the natural world around them. The gods, and their sagas are complex and seem to me to represent the fighting spirit to survive, thrive, and have hope in a world that was constantly trying to kill them. The complexity of the sagas is a reflection of a complex people and complex society. So many write off the early cultures as being "heathen" and simple, but I think that is far from the case. It only makes sense that as people migrated across Europe and into Scandinavia that they would bring their gods with them, look for common gods worshiped by the indigenous people, and meld the gods together to create a common bond that everyone could identify with. Great Video!!!!
ingui is perhaps related to the Irish word aigne "Nature, character, Mind, disposition" which is cognate to ignite - both getting at the mystery of being by the metaphor of spark-mind
You very respectfully pull off a pro Yngvi-Freyr henotheistic advocacy there. Freyr needs more actual fjǫlkunnigr such as yourself as advocates. I genuinely feel most contemporary self-identifying "Odinists" are really misdirected Freyr adherents. That is, they identify with *Odin* but act like Freyr. As far as Óðinn being a bit Ingvi-Freyr and vice versa, I honestly am not sure how it could be another way. We know the names of many of the Norse/Germanic Gods refer also to a vocation/role and not just to a deity in itself. Another interesting perspective is the interaction of both of these Gods with Freyja. That Freyr and Freyja are lovers is well established as is the name of Freyjas husband: Óðr. The connection goes beyond the "-inn" less Óðr and into the entire Frijjō phenomenon. As far as salty old Saxo and the description, in the male performers role in blessings honoring Freyr, as "unmanly", it would certainly fit an anti pagan agenda to describe a pagan custom as "argr". The only potential arg that Freyr could be accused of is losing "his sword" in pursuit of Gerðr. That poem is one I have always taken as a cautionary tale about allowing oneself to be emasculated in pursuit of a woman. None the less Freyr retains his manhood in the form of an antler, a strong fertility symbol but also an indication that this deities role as a war god has come to an end and now the focus is on fertility. Just some thoughts! Great video, thank you for creating and uploading it.
Survive the Jive That makes sense, you give off a "Freyr" energy/hamr that can be sensed through even the digital ether. So thinking about that sword drew to me thoughts of Rydberg's theory that Freyr's lost sword is haevateinn, and is used against him by Surtr in Ragnarok. Which reminds me that much is revealed about the nature and importance of a God in knowing who its chief antagonist is. This alone puts Freyr with Odin/Fenrir, Thor/Jormungandr, Heimdallr/Loki. Surtr is primordial and as said in the prose Edda, he destroys everything. Not just Freyr, but everything. The only other Gods that get such epic all-destroying antagonists are Odin and arguably Thor. Even Tyr as the generally assumed pre Odin pantheon head (Tiwaz) only gets a second rate version of Fenrir in the form of Garmr, to fight. Food for thought. :)
J Civilis I'm not sure Freyja is the only Goddess that can be considered "unfaithful". It all depends on how much we want to believe the various primary sources that speak to the subject. Do we disregard the Lokasenna in this way even though what Loki says is generally true (aka mostly backed elsewhere in the primary sources), though highly insulting? For example, one perhaps would never question Frigga's fidelity, though it is openly shown in the Lokisenna to be faulty and this is backed in the Ynglinga saga. There is actually more mention in the primary sources of Óðr as Freyjas husband, than of Freyr as Freyjas husband: Volsupa 25, Hyndluljóð 47, Gylfaginning chapter 35 and 36, Skáldskaparmál chapter 20, 36, 49, 75, and chapter 1 of the Ynglinga saga. Maybe she married twice. Tacitus mentions monogamy as a rule for non noble people, but goes on to specifically say, "The matrimonial bond is, nevertheless, strict and severe among them; nor is there any thing in their manners more commendable than this. Almost singly among the barbarians, they content themselves with one wife; a very few of them excepted, who, not through incontinence, but because their alliance is solicited on account of their rank, practice polygamy.". This is backed in Caesar's "Gallic Wars" with specific examples. Freyja being The Lady, she definitely fits the description of "noble class". All very interesting stuff, and safe to say that in regards to the ancient Germanics, they were a multidimensional folk who consistently resist classification in any kind of simple black/white, yes/no category or characterization.
Considering the existence of rival "tribes" of gods in Indo-Iranian myth, I would suggest that the AEsir-Vanir War reflects, primarily, a spiritual truth rather than a historical truth. Even more so when one considers that the names of these two tribes in Indo-Iranian belief, the asuras (ahuras) and devas (daevas) have cognates in the Old Norse AEsir and Tivar, respectively. Take a look at the Indic myth regarding the "Churning of the Ocean". Interesting stuff when compared to the AEsir-Vanir War and associated events. Of course, while a myth might well be, first and foremost, a spiritual truth, this does not mean it goes unshaped by historical experience. In regards to the AEsir-Vanir War, the historical relationship between the Ingvaeones, the tribes of Ingui, and the Herminones, the tribes of Irmin, might be more pertinent. Irmin, beyond the description of him as being a "Mars-like Mercury", is afterall cognate to the Old Norse Jormun, which is listed as a by-name of Woden's in the Eddas. The Ingvaeones occupied those same seashore lands that their ancestors did throughout the Nordic Bronze Age, and remained there during and following the upheaval that brought about the end of that age, unexposed, at least directly, to the new influences of their migrating fellows; most notably the Irminones, who were largely the subject of Tacitus' Germania, who's land were formerly held by the Celts and so likely had a Celtic substrata influencing their culture and beliefs, who were in intimate contact with the prestigious Roman Empire, and acted as something of a buffer between Imperial Rome and the Ingvaeones. While I trace the beginning of the evolution of the "cult of Woden", from the end of the Nordic Bronze Age and the subsequent Hjortspring deposit, the Celto-Roman influence likely had a significant effect on belief and ideas that altered the shape of the age-old pantheon and propelled the wolf-god of the "*koryos" to the Allfather of the pantheon. And so Snorri all but tells us that Woden had his beginnings in Germany, where he fathered lines of kings before moving on into the Ingvaeonic Northlands. This meeting between Ingvaeonic and Irminonic can be seen to frame the Gylfaginning in the meeting between the High One and the Ingaevonic King Gylfi of Sweden. However that may be, it seems to me that we stand to miss something significant if we reduce these divine tribes to a historical war between mortal cultures; which is identical to euhemerism.
Jamey Martin you are absolutely right about a spiritual truth rather than historic and also that a theological fable can become infused with facts from historical events as we see in the works of Homer - in this case the myth of two gods may have been influenced by the indo european invasions of Northern Europe as i suggested while also having their origin on the steppes with the Proto Indo Europeans
I was also thinking this idea of a war between old and new gods could also be related to the ancient greek myths of the war between zeus and the olympians against kronos and the titans?
How does Tivar relate to Vanir? I have never heard the word Tivar. I believe that the orthodox IE gods of each culture (Æsir, Deva, etc) represent a roughly similar divine concept, despite appearing to be linguistically opposing. I think we should look more at what the group of gods represent rather than linguistics to discover connections, as linguistics can evolve in surprising ways even when we aren't talking about prehistory. The Æsir and Deva have far more in common conceptually than the Æsir with the Asura and the Deva with the Vanir.
I’ve been calling forth the deities of my ancestors lately and this testimony has been most auspicious for my journey. It is resonating with me greatly. Thank you.
I have been practicing Norse paganism for years (way before Vikings tv show). I have worked a lot with Odin Thor and Frey. And he is underestimated, and I think us as pagans to give Frey more respect and attention. I been working with each god on their day of the week. And have got awesome results, connecting with them in this way. I think Frey might have been a living human and worshiped as an elf. But I could be wrong that’s just a thought since he was awarded Alefheim. I’m really glad you made this video and to give Frey more attention. He definitely is very important when studying and practicing. Germanic paganism
Nice to see someone delving dep into sources and talking about things of gravity. My first video of yours, and ann insta-sub. I'll work through these vids withmuch interest.
This is a fascinating and well thought out talk. Freyr is also my favorite god, and I’ll have to look into the Shiva connection. I’ve never heard of that before. I think in order to understand who Freyr is, we have to resolve the Vanir-Aesir question. We also have to understand who the gods are: deities, mythologized ancestors, archetypes, other, some of the above, all of the above. My thoughts are contradictory. I see the Vanir-Aesir War as Indo-Europeans bringing their gods to an animistic people of nature gods. If this is the case, Freyr is the nature god of fertility as well as peace and sacral kingship. As far as who the gods are, I go with the some of the above option. And in the case of Freyr as Lord Ing, we see the migration of the Ing > Ingaevones > Angles > English. So is Ing a mythologized ancestor? My view is toward England rather than Sweden, although there can be branches of descendants. Then on the archetypical/metaphysical level there is the rune Ingwaz, which is probably a later and/or bind rune. So for my view, he’s a pre-Indo-European deity, mythologized ancestor, and archetype.
Icelander here, I remember hearing a story about Freyr as a child where he visits Midgard ant tells the humans that for every tree cut down they should plant five more, are there any sources for this story?
A very wise video. All commentaries upon our religious history have to be informed by an understanding of Deity, in my view, in order to grasp the significant truths therein.
Hadn't the Early European Farmers reached the north German plain & southern Sweden prior to the arrival of the Indo-Europeans? Which would imply the Vanir were theirs. Are there any parrallels with Levantine gods? (My own suspicion is that the split is more recent & both Aesir & Vanir were Indo-Euro in origin, but the Vanir do seem more argricultural in orientation)
Human sacrifice in paganism was real. Its confirmed by historiography and archeology. Some like Romans did abandon it and viewed other who practiced it with contempt but even they acknowledged that their forefathers did it as well.
hani karam Human sacrifice in Pagan Europe were nothing but sacrificing traitors and disabled people who have suffered enough in the name of Óðinn. It kept society healthy and un-cucked. What about witch burning were christians burned white women for teaching their children Pagan traditions? It was the real human sacrifice in the name of Jewish diety Yahweh.
Again, a very interesting and informative video. As I do genealogy online, I have found that the British, Welsh, Irish, German, etc. (understand that I use the modern names for these countries) kings and queens I am related to, have Woden and Frigg pre-existing them all. The Scandinavian kings and queens I am related to have Frey of Alfheim. There was, also, a river god and a nymph, although I can't remember their names. I am not sure of the accuracy of these lineages, but it is fascinating none the less to ponder on them.
Excellent video, also lets not forget that the Apollo connection who is said by the ancient Greeks to dwell with the "HyperBoreans" in the winter, Apollo was a god of light like Freyr, and his sister Artemis, was also a fertility cult goddess like Freyja.
That is because there is a direct link between the ancient European religions and early Hinduism. Also the fertility goddess simply changed names and is now venerated by the Catholics as Mary. Same goddess different names. Even the Catholic "Christ Child" has been linked to another deity worshipped by Babylon and many other cultures. This "Christ" IS NOT Yeshua Bar Joseph by any means! Yeshua Bar Joseph was a monotheist and opposed polytheism like all Jews.
thanks. it's insightful to know the lore surrounding the old deities of our ancestors. i can't see how we can go back in time to an earlier view of the universe except perhaps, if we are to survive, we must return to serving the goddess, the life process. what ever it is that nurtures the natural world and allows us to believe we have a beautiful future. i like Freya
I recently read an excerpt of a protocol from a witch craft trial, that suggests that a hedonistic rite of Frey was being practiced as late as 1720 in northern sweden.
Very interesting analysis and perspective. Thank you. As far as the Odin/Freyr complementarity / doubleness, it's indeed possible that it can be traced back in part to the coalescence of different peoples with originally distinct pantheons. You mention also another perspective, the scenario of their being "two sides of their coin," which I'm a little more supportive of, so that Odin and Freyr would be comparable to Mitra and Varuna in Vedic India or the unit Mitra Varuna. I'm sympathetic to Kristianssen & Larsson, CUP, Rise of the Bronze Age, who posit that IE populations were led by notional twin leaders on the political plane, whose counterparts on the sacred plane were the Divine Twins.
The name Shiva arose from a title or epithet of Rudra , "Shiva" meaning "the Auspicious One " and may have been used as either a placatory or euphemistic name to avert the god's anger or attention . " Rudra" itself has been variously interpreted as "terrible , furious" or "red" or "howling" . In a similar way the ancient Greeks referred to the Furies as the Eumenides , "the kindly ones" .
I'm Very interested in the relationship between Freyr and the elves i.e. the alfar. There is very little that I can find on the subject. if you could help me I would be very grateful.
I love these videos, truly. I'd like to see your take on Tiw, the god who shares a name with Zeus and Iupiter, who are both supreme gods in their pantheons
Speaking of the arrival of the farming culture from the South, can you deduce much about the pre Indo-European culture? Have you, for example, studied the Basque mythology?
From Prosaic Edda (and also from archaeological remains associated with Vanir cult), it is evident that Freyr (and rest of deities of Vanir cult) represents pre-Indo-European, Neolithic deity of northern Europe.
Alternative explanations of the Aesir - Vanir war: - There has also been huge upheaval in scandinavia during the roman ironage, 0-300. Ancient settlement disapear and another one apear very close by, in many places. Probably due to mercenaries coming home equiped with superior roman knowledge of war and upsetting the poritical order? - There has also been speculated of mediteranean traders colonizing scandinavia. This theory comes from the petroglyphs being so similar in the med and in scandinavia during the nordic bronze age or some parts of it. - I also read a very interesting interpetation of the petroglyphs in the Kings grave, the interpetation was that it shows two peoples coming out of two different wombs (looks like horshoes a bit on the stones) and then through rituals becomming one people with one pantheon. The kingsgrave is from the year 1000 bc? This theory is probably linked with the mediteranean traders theory. But of course it could be a memory of the arrival of the indoeuropeans some 800 years before.
The energy of Odin is again manifesting itself as our races face extinction from mass immigration, etc. We will see the return of Heathenry and Odinism, and most likely the growth in popularity in channels like your own that focus on ancestry, genealogy and ancient Nordic/Germanic religion.
Commander S. H.Cobra I believe this energy form known as Odin, Wotan etc will manifest and continue to do so in an exponential manner until the safety and preservation of our people is secure.
When people become threatened, they go to their father, to the one who cares about them. Jesus's turning the other cheek is some submissive defeatism. Abrahamic religion is the religion of self hatred. Abrahams god is the god for his own children. Our people have submitted to an uncaring step father who seeks to weaken us to diminish the competition for his own stunted weakling sons.
Thor Odinsson If you have not, read the essay by CG Jung entitled, "Wotan". Our people are generally tolerant and even friendly until pushed too far. Then comes hammer, blade and spearhead. In the Weimar Republic, the third Reich was born of resurgent volkism as a mother, and as father, the relentless rage of Germanic people pushed too far. Consider the vast power of the greater Germanic people of today and the fact that we all are being pushed way too far in our own nations, across the globe, and you have the formula for a storm that will make WWII look like a mild midsummer evening light rain. It is pure suicide for a foreign culture to screw with the combined might of the US, Russia, the UK, and whatever European and Scandinavian nations have enough remaining sense to join the cause. Give it twenty years max. Europe has a pattern of widespread total war about every hundred years and the next one is due.
My favorite god or gods('favorite' doesn't seem like the appropriate term, does it?) would be Seaxneat and Gautr, National gods of the Saxons and Geats, respectively. And of course, Hangatyr, Grimnir, Woden....Odinn Alfodr.
@@Survivethejive Absolutely right, they are. It's just that the slight differences from culture to culture, their national identities and ,of course, the awesome obscure names fascinate me. Wow can't believe I got a response. Wasn't expecting that. Thank you sir. I have a great deal of respect for you.
Thank you for reminding us of the space for monism in our native religion. Especially the myths of Odin (the inspiration) wandering through all the worlds in many guises to gain wisdom and suffering hanging in the world tree to understand the runes (secrets) hint at this to me. Of course that's not their only purpose, but it's right there, ready to be pulled out.
he was also ancestor of the Frisians, as laid out in other videos about that people and others from the line of Yngve, which includes the Jutes, Angles and Saxons. Which lines of kings were descended from WotanOdin/Woden I wouldn't know but strikes me that the stories of the Eddas that involve Odin involve the tribes of Germania, not so much those of Scandinavia.... though I'd thought the kings of Denmark were descended from Odin, if someone could correct me on that please do. Why the cult of Thor was more powerful and popular in Norway maybe someone can answer... more war? - and the weather?
hey frey what do ya say the past is the past i live today ya can't go back the dead men say forward boys go this way time is ours it is our day. thank yew thomas take care gare
The fertile land around Uppsala rose from the ocean due to the disappearance of inland ice thousands of years before. Every year the land could carry more and more cattle. It must have seemed like magic..
The myths we have in Sagas, Vedas and told stories are all slightly different as they were adapted over the years by different populations. I believe Yngui was originally a Fire God. Indo-Europeans have a couple of variants for the same word, representing a fire, fireplace, furnace (srb. furuna), all associated with metalwork and tribal closeness. Finding out his name seems simple enough. INGUI is IGNI or AGNI, or in OGNI. It exists as a name, we Serbs still give names like Ognjen and Scandinavians use another variant - Yngwie. His rune is the symbol of a lantern. Fires cast shadows, thus are sometimes associated with trickery and deception, but they also cast light so fire deities are also teachers. In the Slavic branch PLAMEN root of which is PLAM is same as FLAME. PLEME is a tribe, also a marker of distant kinship and PLEMIĆ means A NOBLE. Nobles everywhere claimed descent from fire gods it seems. So, be proud to be English. You carry the name of fire. There is a reason you had marvelous examples of metallurgy and craftsmanship. Since I mentioned fire, I would associate it with a Serbian variant pir. It is used in the word vampire. Originally it meant sPIRt (see what i did there, a s-PIR-it is your equivalent of vampire) or one whom is born from a fire. Van means out and pir is... well fire. Pir, about 50 to 70 years ago, was also used to describe the warmth and continuous burning of a fire. It's verb variants are associated with different things such the feeling of wind(pirjati), staring into a fire(piriti), making a fire burn harder(raspiriti), but also with gusts of, or hitting the air. Thusly, a bird's feather means pero, steam is para (another word is dim, which you also have in the same form, although it means that sight is obscured) and it is widely considered that pir is the root word for Perun. Translated it would be one who strikes. The striker. He is the god of thunder after all. Thunder strikes. Perkele and Thor are the same thing. Our words for thunde are a bit more distorted though. We have two, now almost obsolete words. Tandrk, comprised of tam (there) and drek (loud noise, an explosive yell) combined to describe a loud PERcussive sound ( see what I did there again hheheh) and grom which is also thunder. Icelandic people use þruma which might be a better preserved variant. I could also tie the word to the name of the original inhabitants and namegivers of Palestine, but it would be too long. Weirdly enough washing is prati. An older varianr is perati. Cloth used to be washed by striking it over a hard rock. B is often interchangeable with P, so there might be a variant of biti or beating tied to the word as well. This puts a question over the word washing.... its original meaning was hanging. Veshati means to hang. The -ti suffix is inverted and put in front of English verbs as to. Vesha-ti is the same as to-wash. The noun Veš (eng. wash) is translated as laundry. Laundry is hanged to dry. Its remarkably easy to see the connections. Point is the split between Germans and Slavs happened much more recently than we previously believed and the culture which we come from was dominant in Eurasia after the last Ice Age. People from Vinča culture are your ancestors as much as ours. The key is in the language. Preserve it much as it is possible, try to keep your language PURE(oops I did it again). Thanks for reading!
Could the Latin word 'invictus' from the name of 'Sol Invictus' be etymologically related to the Proto-Germanic Ingwaz...? If that is the case, then I wonder if it exists more widely in the Indo European tradition
Sol Invictus sounds like something from the old sun worshippers cult that is rumured to be around as the Illuminati or "the illuminated ones" their "god" is Lucifier itself.
A little hard to follow towards the end, for someone who isn't an academic (like me). But fascinating, nonetheless. I do have a couple of practical questions though, 1st, do you wear any symbol that to you represents Freyr, & if so what would that be? Also, which runes do you associate with him?
Beautiful and respectful as due explanations on this precious deity (or any other one) should be, and one which I hold especially close to my heart, together with Thor. I just have a little doubt here: a friend of mine from Sweden once told me how the people of Gutland (Gotland) would refer to their isle as more intimately related to Freyr, I can´t remember his exact words now as he told me this over a decade ago. Is there no mention of this in any Norse literature, besides the Gotland runic inscriptions relating him to that Swedish Isle? By the way, I think you touched a crucial aspect of Indo-European spirituality, of the different deities expressing emanations of the infinite qualities of the Ultimate Source itself, which could also be compared to the teachings of the Primordial Nature in Taoism, the Bön in Yungdrung Bön tradition and, of course the Mahayana concept of the Sacred Void (akin to the Hindu Sunyata) as the 'Womb of the Tathagathas" as the Dalai Lama mentions it to be one of its names.
It sure looks like every place where the proto-indo-european people went there are old gods and new gods in the pantheon . The new gods always seem to be lead by a storm/sky god. There are also strong triads or triplets with the younger grouping of gods. At least this is the way it appears to me so I tend to prefer that line of thought. Also when looking at Hebrew and Egyptian lore you have Yahweh who takes on aspects of a sky/storm god and his main adversary becomes Hadad or Marduk the "newer" storm god of Mesopotamia. Similar thing in Egypt where set, a good storm god, takes on the role of invaders and evil guy after Egypt fends of major invaders from outside. Often being associated with Hadad or Marduk. History is written by the victor so a conqueror will would likely make their gods the new gods and leave the old ones around to appease the conquered. Defending against the invaders you will likely give a name and face to the invaders and have a deity take on a major aspect from their pantheon. At least that's my reasoning as to why its a good proposition.
You mentioned around 13:20 that it's unlikely royalty would change the gods they claimed as ancestors as unlikely couldn't they claim another more popular deity as an ancestor in addition to the one the proclaimed previously? They didn't have detailed birth records back then, so they get someone to created some corrected family tree to include Odin or another god as an ancestor. Greek city states, when they developed innovations in government, would claim to be restoring a lost practice and so actually just returning to traditional ways.
Yes we offer sacrifices like Herbs fruits vegetables milk alkohol etc. We give offerings to spirits of nature too like apples carrotts milk and so on, to thank mother nature and the gods. So the animals/insects etc eat and drink our offerings, its like to saying to nature you gave us so much and this is my little sign of gratitude. As more we care about nature and the spirits as more they care about us protect and help us. As a example odin likes alkohol so of you seek wisdome of him you ask him politly for your desire and give him something he likes. Its more symbolic its not like odin comes and drinks it :). Or freya is the goddess of love and beauty, so you can offer her flowers or cute things.
allegedly Frey or Yngvi frey is an ancient grandfather of mine. through Ganger rolfr Ragnavaldsson aka Rollo the Viking 1st duke of Normandy. ( most likely many of European and scandanavian decent are decended from Frey yngling dynasty)
Hahaha the peasants used to make wild claims like that so their serfdom wouldn't seem so bad. More than likely you are descended from serfs who were tied to the land.
I think a lot of Scandinavians are descended from the known Viking dynasties, due to a phenomenon known as "pedigree collapse", where due to a lack of available genetic diversity and constraints of geography, the relations sort of fold in on each other with cousins of varying stripes marrying cousins. Because only so many people could hold hereditary titles, a lot of us slowly trickled down the social ladder from royal courts to regular insignificant Average Joes. I'm descended from the Yngling dynasty, too, so we're probably 28th cousins once or twice removed (if I look it up, Rollo's probably in the ballpark of my 24th to 28th great-grandpa).
Did the Germanic cultural-linguistic complex develop in southern Scandinavia and expand southward, to present-day Germany, or the opposite? I'm reading recent theories that Germanic-Norse culture may have its origin very near Sami, instead of on the Continent.
It expanded out of Scandinavia. The proto-germanic people evolved in the bronze age out of the local corded ware cultures, the battle-axe and boat-axe culture. There were also some bell beakers there in Jutland.
Excellent work, good man! I just wanted to ask if you were aware of any linguistic arguments for Yngwe Frey being pre-IE, or whether current IE etymologies are convincing or not?
The primordial Lithuanian god Praamzius (who also had other personal names) presages the gods that had practical myth meanings in known pagan practices (except perhaps in the main solstice ceremonies). He had a wife, Lada, who gave birth to twins. interestingly represented as conjoined horses. Don't know for a fact, but I tend to think human sacrifices or other rituals (if they occurred) were punishments of crimes carried out for propitious purposes. Zeus was the son of the titan Cronus who was the son of Uranus. The further back you go, the more (intentionally?) vague the gods become.
As far as Im aware Freyr was the goddess of Seidr, female magic. Odin mastered it, in order to be all knowing, but had to sacrifice an eye. It was considered a taboo in Nord culture to be a male seer, or divinator. She was associated with fertility, and kidnapped by Loki. Apologies if Im mixed up
Including Ingui-Frey, who are the 3 gods you mention being of the 3 honored gods at Uppsala in this video? Forgive me if I worded that wrong. I may be a little buzzed, but I wont be when I read your reply.
Source for all norse deities being reflections of a single, whole divinity? That's pretty Gnostic. Are you open to connections between Sumer, the Annunaki, and the Norse Pantheon? Any chance you'll explore that?
@@Survivethejive yeah but Gnosticism still existed before Christ. Just because it wasn't called Gnosticism doesn't really make much difference. So viewing Norse gods as reflections of one aspect is very "Gnostic" insofar as I'm referring to the "religion" of Gnosticism as it existed contemporary to the Norse Pantheon. But my question was more about your view of the overlap. What do you think of the overlap between say, the Norse pantheon, the Hindu gods, and/or the Sumerian myths?
A dwarf in Voluspa is named Yngvi. 16. Álfr ok *Yngvi*, Eikinskjaldi, Fjalarr ok Frosti, Finnr ok Ginnarr; þat man æ uppi, meðan öld lifir, langniðja tal Lofars hafat.
Kings are said to descent from Freyr, but it is Symbolic, Kings (or better, chiefs), had to go through rituals and tests to become the Deity themselves, so did girls with the May Queen. He and Freya (were one at first) are the Vanirs, the best individuals within the tribe of the gods. Do you agree with that ?
This is the video I've been waiting for. I've quietly been a devotee of Lord Freyr for 20 years now - planting trees, feeding bees, building soil, making the Earth bloom, listening to birds, making offerings and learning from the Lord of love, abundance and the ultimate triumph of our Folk. You have a new Patron ;)
I truly love comparative mythology and similarities between them. This kept me glued to my seat throughout, very insightful and nicely explained.
There was a deity/myth of 'Telepinu' amongst the Hittites, he was a God of Farming I think. This myth has solid parallels in other cultures, like you notably referenced. When the god of agriculture disappears, the earth dies; when he returns, everything begins to grow again.
Your channel is the most important one on youtube.
a bit of an overstatment but dont get me wrong this is a great channel
Freyr wasn't also being known as only a fertility god, he was also known as the embodiment of passion, the inner fire, the things that drives our motivations and with that also the motivation to secure the bloodlines of those who followed and worshipped him. In German ginger is called Ingwer, because of it's effect to give inner warmth and to heat up the body a direct link to Ing / Ingui-Frey / Freyr can be made. With that in mind, there is a hindu god of fire with a very similar name as Ing, Agni. Could it be that there's also a link between these two through the Yanmar people?
Outer Heaven Gaming yes it could, syncretism was more common than most realize
Very interesting points made
I think you have to be careful with assuming names that sound similar are cognates. False cognates are the reason Snorri thought the Aesir were from Asia. It might be useful to look for potential cognates and then several other parallels to have a fairly solid case. That said, they could be true cognates.
@ScottButler You're right but sometimes those coincidences in languages (especially if they're both from the same super language group) don't seem so much as coincidences. In these cases however what you considered one should do to verify ones own theses should be applied. I just find it fascinating that there is so much to learn about language and that there is still so much unknown to us. Language is what connect groups of people, sometimes they're an offshoot of another genetically linked culture (british and germans), sometimes it's an indicator that another culture group had massive influence over another (colonists over native groups) and sometimes it's a mix of both (The Aryan invasion). to make things short, language is history, and I love history.
I think the assumption that the only evidence Snorri had to say the Aesir were from Asia was the similarities in their name is pure bs. Snorri knew more about Norse Paganism that just about anybody in his time and to say that he was just guessing is absurd. Asaland in the Ynglinga saga was directly in Scythian territory who widely known to have migrated into Europe along with other Iranian peoples. Aesir is cognate with Asura and it’s quite clear the Scythians worshipped gods labeled as Asuras in the Rig Veda (like Mithra, Varuna, etc.). It actually makes a lot of sense they would have came from Asia.
Freyr isn't my favorite god, but he's one of them, and the more I study the more I see his importance. I think heathens tend to gravitate to Odhinn because our surviving literature is mostly influenced by Odhinn's cult; but people are wrong to underestimate Freyr, and most heathens seem to me to be of a character most like Freyr or Thorr rather than Odhinn.
Freyr is definitely associated with war, which is essential to maintain frith, a concept I see him as intimately connected to. But there's a definite aspect of peace (also tied to frith) and self-sacrifice in his character: the barring of weapons from his sacred enclosures; the myth in which he loses his sword (phallic symbol?) to gain Gerdhr (earth goddess?), which ultimately costs him his life at Ragnarok, and possibly the life of the universe since Surtr who slays him goes on to destroy the worlds; legends of kings that die in strange ways possibly indicative of sacrifice (though this might be a stretch).
I don't think I would say Freyr and Odhinn are one. It might be more accurate to say that Freyr and Odhinn represent two complementary yet contradictory aspects of the sacral king. Their characters are significantly divergent, and the natures of their cults (including different funeral practices) seem to indicate different worldviews.
And to that end, polytheism to me means that different gods and different ways of looking at the world get to coexist in one culture. There was a lot of tension between the cults of Odhinn and Freyr but both gods were still honored at Uppsala.
Everyone needs to eat , that is why Ingvi Freyr was/ is the most important of Gods
My frisian-dutch family is very big into freyr and horses. Always has been really important to them, so far as anyone knows. To this day, we keep representations of horses, specifically white horses, in our homes for luck, prosperity and family unity.
I really couldn't tell you why it's for luck, prosperity and unity as that thought process was probably lost to time, but the women in our family revere Frigga/frig/mother spirit on a level above Freyr, but Freyr for them seems to be about what jesus is for christians and everyone is devoted to hin, but only the women do ritual to the mother. (They say "the mother" but I'm not sure why, perhaps a remnant of an earlier cult?) and usually have her representation as Frigga or even the virgin Mary. 🤷🏽♀️ they sort of just rolled the whole jesus thing into the pantheon and kept on truckin'.
It's pretty interesting to me because the method and practice of ritual or worship literally varies from one family to the other but they're all joined by Freyr and horses and I really am curious as to how that survived and how they mixed paganism and christianity together and apparently had little or no issues with it.
I'm getting the impression that the co-existence of Woden, Thor of Yngvi Freyr in the Nordic mythologies is an indication of the melding of pre-Indo-European gods and post. The Aesir (Indo-European) seem to have accommodated the indigenous cult of the Vanir, as indicated by those three gods being venerated at Old Uppsala and by the lack of evidence of any military conflicts around the time of the Indo-European invasion and colonization. I'm just a beginner, so I could be wrong (could be wrong regardless).
@@Wadidiz
from what I understand, and I am also happy to be wrong, the adoption of gods was more or less situational with very little religious conflict occurring. every polytheist culture has a God of the sky, the earth, rain, lightning, etc. so simply adopting that God's name to replace one a settling group already worshipped wouldn't be much of a stretch or a struggle to keep the peace and integrate. Much like tacitus calling Celtic God's by their Roman counterparts names, hence there was no real "conversion" as such, one would simply adopt a more successful god if theirs proved to be ineffective, and the same seemed to go with method of ritual to various gods as well. for example, Helgi adopted Jesus and named his settlement in Iceland christ land, but chose his homesite based on pillars he threw overboard that were dedicated to the northern gods, and invoked thor while traveling away from home. It would seem that northern and continental germanics simply took what we would see as an exceptionally pragmatic view of religious life.
I used to live in Uppsala very close to the graves three years back. Very beautiful, used to roll down the hills sometimes and eat picnic there with friends. There is a river not far away very good for swimming in.
Wood Glue Ayyy a fellow uppsalabo (or ex-uppsalabo)
your lucky, to had been so close to the 3 kings .😊
Maybe that’s where the jack and Jill came in from lol it’s another version of you think of it.
feórþa!
This is all good information. Please do Tiw next.
A horn of Mead in your honour !
Hail Tiw/Tyr/Ziu/Teiwaz/Mars/Ares, keeper of oaths, god of justice, honour, sacrifice and battle!
Absolutely beautiful, very good information . Namastey from India. Been watching your videos after listening to you on" the sham sharma show" absolutely love your content my fellow pagan brother.
Currently starting the second month of my first year studying ancient history and archeology at Uppsala and you have been a huge inspiration to actually say shove it to my old life and begin anew learning about our past. Thank you for your amazing content Tom keep it!
Gamla Uppsala is a lovely place. The cafe near by called odinsberg is worth a visit
Great video on a massively overlooked deity. As a fellow Anglo Saxon and therefore a descendant of the Ingaevones, I also consider him an important God.
Important but, to me at least, not pre-eminent. Seaxneat watches over us all.
stupid people, gods dont exist except The God
Stupid xanthum who has no purpose in life other than to insult strangers online. Whether the myriad gods of the world and of ancient history exist or not is irrelevant and beside the point. They're all deities, and can be discussed in an academic theological context, as here. Why not wait until you're a bit older, more mature and better educated before you try to join in the conversation with adults?
@@user-bh4rx8mf8g is seaxneat freyr or tiw?
@Sam m that's a very good question mate. He has been identified as a cognate to both. My personal feeling is that he is associated with Tiw, or Mars. In this respect he can be seen not just as a national god of the Saxons but as a companion god for all warriors.
The festive joviality of Morris men could be characterised as 'unmanly' or 'effeminate'. Fertility and the celebration of it is generally colourful (think springtime flowers) and this could be seen as feminine.
Captain L-Ron good point
Brendan Hall I’m reminded of the practice to put jingles on harnesses, and so we circle back to the Sacred horse.
That's what I was thinking. It seems like there was a popular sentiment in Christianity back then that dancing around erratically and showing lots of uncontrolled emotion is vert effeminate
@@nonyabuisness6642 Kinda is though
Here is my pet thought on Ingvi-Frey: Tacitus or whoever met or was told of a people to the north-west who were worshipers of Ingui-Frey. They so identified with this god that they were called or called themselves, Ingui. Their country became blurred into Ingui-land, and hence Angle-land. They were thus Angles and moving across to Britain, they became the English of Englaland. In short a people named after the god they worshiped in ancient times.
Ingvi Freyr is desperately needed in Sweden today, take pity on us great lord!
Ingvi is/was the god of the Swedes before the cult of Wodenaz spread to Scandinavia, and Oðni assumed the role of cheiftan. I know they used to have a ritual where they would Sacrifice a boar in Uppsala to Yngvi-Freyr for peace and prosperity.
Yes
Hail Freyr!
Hail Freyr!!
Fascinating and very learned! I best like to think of Freyr as he sat on Odin's throne and gazed lovesick at the distant and gorgeous gleaming Gerdr. Don't we all know that feeling!
Excellent use of Grimrik on the soundtrack. Superb stuff.
Good stuff. Very informative. The more we speak about these things, the more understanding there is about our ancient ways and perhaps we uncover the true solution to the Indo-European's spiritual crisis.
The TRUE solution is to abandon religion and just follow the commands of Yeshua who is Christ or Deliverer. In Germanic he is known as Yerserald the Thrice- Pierced.
Our largest blot is to his father Njord. We spend a week at the beach, holding blot to Njord, honoring him and thanking him for our prosperity.
Hail Njord!
What you said at the end as the gods representing "one truth" really struck a chord with me. I had come to the same conclusion after years of studying mythology. Pantheons seem to represent a greater "godhead" in most cultures. Pantheons seem to go much deeper than being the answer to early human questions about the natural world around them. The gods, and their sagas are complex and seem to me to represent the fighting spirit to survive, thrive, and have hope in a world that was constantly trying to kill them. The complexity of the sagas is a reflection of a complex people and complex society. So many write off the early cultures as being "heathen" and simple, but I think that is far from the case. It only makes sense that as people migrated across Europe and into Scandinavia that they would bring their gods with them, look for common gods worshiped by the indigenous people, and meld the gods together to create a common bond that everyone could identify with. Great Video!!!!
ingui is perhaps related to the Irish word aigne "Nature, character, Mind, disposition" which is cognate to ignite - both getting at the mystery of being by the metaphor of spark-mind
One of my favourite videos of yours.
You very respectfully pull off a pro
Yngvi-Freyr henotheistic advocacy there. Freyr needs more actual fjǫlkunnigr such as yourself as advocates. I genuinely feel most contemporary self-identifying "Odinists" are really misdirected Freyr adherents. That is, they identify with *Odin* but act like Freyr.
As far as Óðinn being a bit Ingvi-Freyr and vice versa, I honestly am not sure how it could be another way. We know the names of many of the Norse/Germanic Gods refer also to a vocation/role and not just to a deity in itself.
Another interesting perspective is the interaction of both of these Gods with Freyja. That Freyr and Freyja are lovers is well established as is the name of Freyjas husband: Óðr. The connection goes beyond the "-inn" less Óðr and into the entire Frijjō phenomenon.
As far as salty old Saxo and the description, in the male performers role in blessings honoring Freyr, as "unmanly", it would certainly fit an anti pagan agenda to describe a pagan custom as "argr". The only potential arg that Freyr could be accused of is losing "his sword" in pursuit of Gerðr. That poem is one I have always taken as a cautionary tale about allowing oneself to be emasculated in pursuit of a woman. None the less Freyr retains his manhood in the form of an antler, a strong fertility symbol but also an indication that this deities role as a war god has come to an end and now the focus is on fertility.
Just some thoughts! Great video, thank you for creating and uploading it.
Gweilo Xiu interestingly my fiancee is named after Gerdr
Survive the Jive That makes sense, you give off a "Freyr" energy/hamr that can be sensed through even the digital ether.
So thinking about that sword drew to me thoughts of Rydberg's theory that Freyr's lost sword is haevateinn, and is used against him by Surtr in Ragnarok.
Which reminds me that much is revealed about the nature and importance of a God in knowing who its chief antagonist is. This alone puts Freyr with Odin/Fenrir, Thor/Jormungandr, Heimdallr/Loki.
Surtr is primordial and as said in the prose Edda, he destroys everything. Not just Freyr, but everything. The only other Gods that get such epic all-destroying antagonists are Odin and arguably Thor. Even Tyr as the generally assumed pre Odin pantheon head (Tiwaz) only gets a second rate version of Fenrir in the form of Garmr, to fight.
Food for thought. :)
Maybe Saxo was going off his knowledge of the Celtic horned god(because you mention antlers), and that Celtic literal cuckholds would wear horns.
J Civilis I'm not sure Freyja is the only Goddess that can be considered "unfaithful". It all depends on how much we want to believe the various primary sources that speak to the subject. Do we disregard the Lokasenna in this way even though what Loki says is generally true (aka mostly backed elsewhere in the primary sources), though highly insulting?
For example, one perhaps would never question Frigga's fidelity, though it is openly shown in the Lokisenna to be faulty and this is backed in the Ynglinga saga.
There is actually more mention in the primary sources of
Óðr as Freyjas husband, than of Freyr as Freyjas husband: Volsupa 25, Hyndluljóð 47, Gylfaginning chapter 35 and 36, Skáldskaparmál chapter 20, 36, 49, 75, and chapter 1 of the Ynglinga saga.
Maybe she married twice.
Tacitus mentions monogamy as a rule for non noble people, but goes on to specifically say, "The matrimonial bond is, nevertheless, strict and severe among them; nor is there any thing in their manners more commendable than this.
Almost singly among the barbarians, they content themselves with one wife; a very few of them excepted, who, not through incontinence, but because their alliance is solicited on account of their rank, practice polygamy.". This is backed in Caesar's "Gallic Wars" with specific examples.
Freyja being The Lady, she definitely fits the description of "noble class".
All very interesting stuff, and safe to say that in regards to the ancient Germanics, they were a multidimensional folk who consistently resist classification in any kind of simple black/white, yes/no category or characterization.
love your channel. Thank you
Considering the existence of rival "tribes" of gods in Indo-Iranian myth, I would suggest that the AEsir-Vanir War reflects, primarily, a spiritual truth rather than a historical truth. Even more so when one considers that the names of these two tribes in Indo-Iranian belief, the asuras (ahuras) and devas (daevas) have cognates in the Old Norse AEsir and Tivar, respectively.
Take a look at the Indic myth regarding the "Churning of the Ocean". Interesting stuff when compared to the AEsir-Vanir War and associated events.
Of course, while a myth might well be, first and foremost, a spiritual truth, this does not mean it goes unshaped by historical experience. In regards to the AEsir-Vanir War, the historical relationship between the Ingvaeones, the tribes of Ingui, and the Herminones, the tribes of Irmin, might be more pertinent. Irmin, beyond the description of him as being a "Mars-like Mercury", is afterall cognate to the Old Norse Jormun, which is listed as a by-name of Woden's in the Eddas.
The Ingvaeones occupied those same seashore lands that their ancestors did throughout the Nordic Bronze Age, and remained there during and following the upheaval that brought about the end of that age, unexposed, at least directly, to the new influences of their migrating fellows; most notably the Irminones, who were largely the subject of Tacitus' Germania, who's land were formerly held by the Celts and so likely had a Celtic substrata influencing their culture and beliefs, who were in intimate contact with the prestigious Roman Empire, and acted as something of a buffer between Imperial Rome and the Ingvaeones.
While I trace the beginning of the evolution of the "cult of Woden", from the end of the Nordic Bronze Age and the subsequent Hjortspring deposit, the Celto-Roman influence likely had a significant effect on belief and ideas that altered the shape of the age-old pantheon and propelled the wolf-god of the "*koryos" to the Allfather of the pantheon. And so Snorri all but tells us that Woden had his beginnings in Germany, where he fathered lines of kings before moving on into the Ingvaeonic Northlands.
This meeting between Ingvaeonic and Irminonic can be seen to frame the Gylfaginning in the meeting between the High One and the Ingaevonic King Gylfi of Sweden.
However that may be, it seems to me that we stand to miss something significant if we reduce these divine tribes to a historical war between mortal cultures; which is identical to euhemerism.
Jamey Martin you are absolutely right about a spiritual truth rather than historic and also that a theological fable can become infused with facts from historical events as we see in the works of Homer - in this case the myth of two gods may have been influenced by the indo european invasions of Northern Europe as i suggested while also having their origin on the steppes with the Proto Indo Europeans
I was also thinking this idea of a war between old and new gods could also be related to the ancient greek myths of the war between zeus and the olympians against kronos and the titans?
@@tm-pm1rp what if I told you are right
@@ericfisher565 you think so too?
How does Tivar relate to Vanir? I have never heard the word Tivar.
I believe that the orthodox IE gods of each culture (Æsir, Deva, etc) represent a roughly similar divine concept, despite appearing to be linguistically opposing.
I think we should look more at what the group of gods represent rather than linguistics to discover connections, as linguistics can evolve in surprising ways even when we aren't talking about prehistory. The Æsir and Deva have far more in common conceptually than the Æsir with the Asura and the Deva with the Vanir.
Shiva and Freyr both are represented by a phallic symbol...the Lingam and Freyr's phallus ?
I’ve been calling forth the deities of my ancestors lately and this testimony has been most auspicious for my journey. It is resonating with me greatly. Thank you.
I have been practicing Norse paganism for years (way before Vikings tv show). I have worked a lot with Odin Thor and Frey. And he is underestimated, and I think us as pagans to give Frey more respect and attention. I been working with each god on their day of the week. And have got awesome results, connecting with them in this way. I think Frey might have been a living human and worshiped as an elf. But I could be wrong that’s just a thought since he was awarded Alefheim. I’m really glad you made this video and to give Frey more attention. He definitely is very important when studying and practicing. Germanic paganism
Nice to see someone delving dep into sources and talking about things of gravity. My first video of yours, and ann insta-sub. I'll work through these vids withmuch interest.
This is a fascinating and well thought out talk. Freyr is also my favorite god, and I’ll have to look into the Shiva connection. I’ve never heard of that before.
I think in order to understand who Freyr is, we have to resolve the Vanir-Aesir question. We also have to understand who the gods are: deities, mythologized ancestors, archetypes, other, some of the above, all of the above. My thoughts are contradictory. I see the Vanir-Aesir War as Indo-Europeans bringing their gods to an animistic people of nature gods. If this is the case, Freyr is the nature god of fertility as well as peace and sacral kingship. As far as who the gods are, I go with the some of the above option. And in the case of Freyr as Lord Ing, we see the migration of the Ing > Ingaevones > Angles > English. So is Ing a mythologized ancestor? My view is toward England rather than Sweden, although there can be branches of descendants. Then on the archetypical/metaphysical level there is the rune Ingwaz, which is probably a later and/or bind rune. So for my view, he’s a pre-Indo-European deity, mythologized ancestor, and archetype.
Really enjoyed hearing about this!
Icelander here, I remember hearing a story about Freyr as a child where he visits Midgard ant tells the humans that for every tree cut down they should plant five more, are there any sources for this story?
No that sounds modern
@@Survivethejive I see, maybe I read it in some fantasy book. Thank you so much for your time.
Great video, Tom.
Do you think the name of Óðinn as "Yggr" (à la Yggdrasil) has any connection to Yngvi?
Fascinating video as always!
Very good,thank you for helping me understand and walk closer with my ancestors /gods
A very wise video. All commentaries upon our religious history have to be informed by an understanding of Deity, in my view, in order to grasp the significant truths therein.
Germanic Paganism is Very Interesting!! This video is a good one!
Hadn't the Early European Farmers reached the north German plain & southern Sweden prior to the arrival of the Indo-Europeans? Which would imply the Vanir were theirs. Are there any parrallels with Levantine gods? (My own suspicion is that the split is more recent & both Aesir & Vanir were Indo-Euro in origin, but the Vanir do seem more argricultural in orientation)
Human sacrifice in paganism was real. Its confirmed by historiography and archeology. Some like Romans did abandon it and viewed other who practiced it with contempt but even they acknowledged that their forefathers did it as well.
I am not judgmental. I just think we must be truthful. It was different era.
Yeah christcucks stopped sacrificing humans, look where what happened after that. Europe full of traitors.
hani karam Human sacrifice in Pagan Europe were nothing but sacrificing traitors and disabled people who have suffered enough in the name of Óðinn. It kept society healthy and un-cucked. What about witch burning were christians burned white women for teaching their children Pagan traditions? It was the real human sacrifice in the name of Jewish diety Yahweh.
Again, a very interesting and informative video. As I do genealogy online, I have found that the British, Welsh, Irish, German, etc. (understand that I use the modern names for these countries) kings and queens I am related to, have Woden and Frigg pre-existing them all. The Scandinavian kings and queens I am related to have Frey of Alfheim. There was, also, a river god and a nymph, although I can't remember their names. I am not sure of the accuracy of these lineages, but it is fascinating none the less to ponder on them.
Excellent video, also lets not forget that the Apollo connection who is said by the ancient Greeks to dwell with the "HyperBoreans" in the winter, Apollo was a god of light like Freyr, and his sister Artemis, was also a fertility cult goddess like Freyja.
That is because there is a direct link between the ancient European religions and early Hinduism. Also the fertility goddess simply changed names and is now venerated by the Catholics as Mary. Same goddess different names. Even the Catholic "Christ Child" has been linked to another deity worshipped by Babylon and many other cultures. This "Christ" IS NOT Yeshua Bar Joseph by any means! Yeshua Bar Joseph was a monotheist and opposed polytheism like all Jews.
thanks. it's insightful to know the lore surrounding the old deities of our ancestors. i can't see how we can go back in time to an earlier view of the universe except perhaps, if we are to survive, we must return to serving the goddess, the life process. what ever it is that nurtures the natural world and allows us to believe we have a beautiful future. i like Freya
I recently read an excerpt of a protocol from a witch craft trial, that suggests that a hedonistic rite of Frey was being practiced as late as 1720 in northern sweden.
Very interesting analysis and perspective. Thank you. As far as the Odin/Freyr complementarity / doubleness, it's indeed possible that it can be traced back in part to the coalescence of different peoples with originally distinct pantheons. You mention also another perspective, the scenario of their being "two sides of their coin," which I'm a little more supportive of, so that Odin and Freyr would be comparable to Mitra and Varuna in Vedic India or the unit Mitra Varuna. I'm sympathetic to Kristianssen & Larsson, CUP, Rise of the Bronze Age, who posit that IE populations were led by notional twin leaders on the political plane, whose counterparts on the sacred plane were the Divine Twins.
certainly the divine twins are an ancient PIE trope, often developing into progenitors of distinct peoples eg. hengest and horsa
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
The name Shiva arose from a title or epithet of Rudra , "Shiva" meaning "the Auspicious One " and may have been used as either a placatory or euphemistic name to avert the god's anger or attention . " Rudra" itself has been variously interpreted as "terrible , furious" or "red" or "howling" . In a similar way the ancient Greeks referred to the Furies as the Eumenides , "the kindly ones" .
7:33 So that is horse gear with conspicuously engraved "tags"? Is it just geometric patterns and is it common for gear to include gold?
I'm Very interested in the relationship between Freyr and the elves i.e. the alfar. There is very little that I can find on the subject. if you could help me I would be very grateful.
I love these videos, truly.
I'd like to see your take on Tiw, the god who shares a name with Zeus and Iupiter, who are both supreme gods in their pantheons
The Surt i have mentioned that in several videos already
Okay, been awhile since I watched some of your videos.
Thanks to Freyr, i found this channel
Best channel
I agree
Have you read Varg's interpretation of Frey/a? He claims they're the representations of the May king and queen.
Speaking of the arrival of the farming culture from the South, can you deduce much about the pre Indo-European culture? Have you, for example, studied the Basque mythology?
Great video 👍
I loved this and I adore your channel. Finally some good true pagan history
What a great video. Tremendous thoughts here.
From Prosaic Edda (and also from archaeological remains associated with Vanir cult), it is evident that Freyr (and rest of deities of Vanir cult) represents pre-Indo-European, Neolithic deity of northern Europe.
Alternative explanations of the Aesir - Vanir war:
- There has also been huge upheaval in scandinavia during the roman ironage, 0-300. Ancient settlement disapear and another one apear very close by, in many places. Probably due to mercenaries coming home equiped with superior roman knowledge of war and upsetting the poritical order?
- There has also been speculated of mediteranean traders colonizing scandinavia. This theory comes from the petroglyphs being so similar in the med and in scandinavia during the nordic bronze age or some parts of it.
- I also read a very interesting interpetation of the petroglyphs in the Kings grave, the interpetation was that it shows two peoples coming out of two different wombs (looks like horshoes a bit on the stones) and then through rituals becomming one people with one pantheon. The kingsgrave is from the year 1000 bc? This theory is probably linked with the mediteranean traders theory. But of course it could be a memory of the arrival of the indoeuropeans some 800 years before.
I think you just blew up my Internet with this upload! lemme check...
Hey Thomas, do you know what is the Baltic equivalent of Odin or Wotan (if there is one).
The energy of Odin is again manifesting itself as our races face extinction from mass immigration, etc. We will see the return of Heathenry and Odinism, and most likely the growth in popularity in channels like your own that focus on ancestry, genealogy and ancient Nordic/Germanic religion.
There is a vast some of knowledge that we have yet to learn and rediscover. but the truth (natural law) always come out.
Commander S. H.Cobra I believe this energy form known as Odin, Wotan etc will manifest and continue to do so in an exponential manner until the safety and preservation of our people is secure.
When people become threatened, they go to their father, to the one who cares about them. Jesus's turning the other cheek is some submissive defeatism. Abrahamic religion is the religion of self hatred. Abrahams god is the god for his own children. Our people have submitted to an uncaring step father who seeks to weaken us to diminish the competition for his own stunted weakling sons.
Thor Odinsson If you have not, read the essay by CG Jung entitled, "Wotan". Our people are generally tolerant and even friendly until pushed too far. Then comes hammer, blade and spearhead. In the Weimar Republic, the third Reich was born of resurgent volkism as a mother, and as father, the relentless rage of Germanic people pushed too far. Consider the vast power of the greater Germanic people of today and the fact that we all are being pushed way too far in our own nations, across the globe, and you have the formula for a storm that will make WWII look like a mild midsummer evening light rain.
It is pure suicide for a foreign culture to screw with the combined might of the US, Russia, the UK, and whatever European and Scandinavian nations have enough remaining sense to join the cause.
Give it twenty years max. Europe has a pattern of widespread total war about every hundred years and the next one is due.
Ollie I have asked myself that question many times. I believe we should respect all our ancestors and follow where we feel belonging.
I wonder if you will ever make videos on celtic paganism (all groups of celts) though I do not mind either way
Very informative. You've given me a lot to chew on.
My favorite god or gods('favorite' doesn't seem like the appropriate term, does it?) would be Seaxneat and Gautr, National gods of the Saxons and Geats, respectively. And of course, Hangatyr, Grimnir, Woden....Odinn Alfodr.
I think Gautr just means Woden. Seaxnot is probably Freyr or Tyr
@@Survivethejive Absolutely right, they are. It's just that the slight differences from culture to culture, their national identities and ,of course, the awesome obscure names fascinate me. Wow can't believe I got a response. Wasn't expecting that. Thank you sir. I have a great deal of respect for you.
Great video, thanks for sharing. What is that bit of footage shown at 1:49? Is that in Sweden?
Thank you for reminding us of the space for monism in our native religion. Especially the myths of Odin (the inspiration) wandering through all the worlds in many guises to gain wisdom and suffering hanging in the world tree to understand the runes (secrets) hint at this to me. Of course that's not their only purpose, but it's right there, ready to be pulled out.
he was also ancestor of the Frisians, as laid out in other videos about that people and others from the line of Yngve, which includes the Jutes, Angles and Saxons. Which lines of kings were descended from WotanOdin/Woden I wouldn't know but strikes me that the stories of the Eddas that involve Odin involve the tribes of Germania, not so much those of Scandinavia.... though I'd thought the kings of Denmark were descended from Odin, if someone could correct me on that please do. Why the cult of Thor was more powerful and popular in Norway maybe someone can answer... more war? - and the weather?
hey frey what do ya say
the past is the past
i live today
ya can't go back
the dead men say
forward boys
go this way
time is ours
it is our day.
thank yew thomas
take care gare
The fertile land around Uppsala rose from the ocean due to the disappearance of inland ice thousands of years before. Every year the land could carry more and more cattle. It must have seemed like magic..
love that grimrik music1 great video!
When are you releasing your Thor video?
The myths we have in Sagas, Vedas and told stories are all slightly different as they were adapted over the years by different populations.
I believe Yngui was originally a Fire God. Indo-Europeans have a couple of variants for the same word, representing a fire, fireplace, furnace (srb. furuna), all associated with metalwork and tribal closeness.
Finding out his name seems simple enough. INGUI is IGNI or AGNI, or in OGNI. It exists as a name, we Serbs still give names like Ognjen and Scandinavians use another variant - Yngwie. His rune is the symbol of a lantern. Fires cast shadows, thus are sometimes associated with trickery and deception, but they also cast light so fire deities are also teachers.
In the Slavic branch PLAMEN root of which is PLAM is same as FLAME. PLEME is a tribe, also a marker of distant kinship and PLEMIĆ means A NOBLE. Nobles everywhere claimed descent from fire gods it seems.
So, be proud to be English. You carry the name of fire. There is a reason you had marvelous examples of metallurgy and craftsmanship.
Since I mentioned fire, I would associate it with a Serbian variant pir. It is used in the word vampire. Originally it meant sPIRt (see what i did there, a s-PIR-it is your equivalent of vampire) or one whom is born from a fire. Van means out and pir is... well fire. Pir, about 50 to 70 years ago, was also used to describe the warmth and continuous burning of a fire. It's verb variants are associated with different things such the feeling of wind(pirjati), staring into a fire(piriti), making a fire burn harder(raspiriti), but also with gusts of, or hitting the air. Thusly, a bird's feather means pero, steam is para (another word is dim, which you also have in the same form, although it means that sight is obscured) and it is widely considered that pir is the root word for Perun. Translated it would be one who strikes. The striker. He is the god of thunder after all. Thunder strikes.
Perkele and Thor are the same thing. Our words for thunde are a bit more distorted though. We have two, now almost obsolete words. Tandrk, comprised of tam (there) and drek (loud noise, an explosive yell) combined to describe a loud PERcussive sound ( see what I did there again hheheh) and grom which is also thunder. Icelandic people use þruma which might be a better preserved variant. I could also tie the word to the name of the original inhabitants and namegivers of Palestine, but it would be too long.
Weirdly enough washing is prati. An older varianr is perati. Cloth used to be washed by striking it over a hard rock. B is often interchangeable with P, so there might be a variant of biti or beating tied to the word as well. This puts a question over the word washing.... its original meaning was hanging. Veshati means to hang. The -ti suffix is inverted and put in front of English verbs as to. Vesha-ti is the same as to-wash. The noun Veš (eng. wash) is translated as laundry. Laundry is hanged to dry. Its remarkably easy to see the connections.
Point is the split between Germans and Slavs happened much more recently than we previously believed and the culture which we come from was dominant in Eurasia after the last Ice Age. People from Vinča culture are your ancestors as much as ours. The key is in the language. Preserve it much as it is possible, try to keep your language PURE(oops I did it again). Thanks for reading!
Could the Latin word 'invictus' from the name of 'Sol Invictus' be etymologically related to the Proto-Germanic Ingwaz...? If that is the case, then I wonder if it exists more widely in the Indo European tradition
No it is not related.
Sol Invictus sounds like something from the old sun worshippers cult that is rumured to be around as the Illuminati or "the illuminated ones" their "god" is Lucifier itself.
Have you considered Njord? That might be an adventure worth your while!
A little hard to follow towards the end, for someone who isn't an academic (like me). But fascinating, nonetheless. I do have a couple of practical questions though, 1st, do you wear any symbol that to you represents Freyr, & if so what would that be? Also, which runes do you associate with him?
Beautiful and respectful as due explanations on this precious deity (or any other one) should be, and one which I hold especially close to my heart, together with Thor.
I just have a little doubt here: a friend of mine from Sweden once told me how the people of Gutland (Gotland) would refer to their isle as more intimately related to Freyr, I can´t remember his exact words now as he told me this over a decade ago. Is there no mention of this in any Norse literature, besides the Gotland runic inscriptions relating him to that Swedish Isle? By the way, I think you touched a crucial aspect of Indo-European spirituality, of the different deities expressing emanations of the infinite qualities of the Ultimate Source itself, which could also be compared to the teachings of the Primordial Nature in Taoism, the Bön in Yungdrung Bön tradition and, of course the Mahayana concept of the Sacred Void (akin to the Hindu Sunyata) as the 'Womb of the Tathagathas" as the Dalai Lama mentions it to be one of its names.
Who were the druids? In the Britannica. In the pics. From Scotland.
It sure looks like every place where the proto-indo-european people went there are old gods and new gods in the pantheon . The new gods always seem to be lead by a storm/sky god. There are also strong triads or triplets with the younger grouping of gods. At least this is the way it appears to me so I tend to prefer that line of thought.
Also when looking at Hebrew and Egyptian lore you have Yahweh who takes on aspects of a sky/storm god and his main adversary becomes Hadad or Marduk the "newer" storm god of Mesopotamia. Similar thing in Egypt where set, a good storm god, takes on the role of invaders and evil guy after Egypt fends of major invaders from outside. Often being associated with Hadad or Marduk.
History is written by the victor so a conqueror will would likely make their gods the new gods and leave the old ones around to appease the conquered. Defending against the invaders you will likely give a name and face to the invaders and have a deity take on a major aspect from their pantheon. At least that's my reasoning as to why its a good proposition.
You mentioned around 13:20 that it's unlikely royalty would change the gods they claimed as ancestors as unlikely couldn't they claim another more popular deity as an ancestor in addition to the one the proclaimed previously? They didn't have detailed birth records back then, so they get someone to created some corrected family tree to include Odin or another god as an ancestor. Greek city states, when they developed innovations in government, would claim to be restoring a lost practice and so actually just returning to traditional ways.
Obviously, as a modern Pagan you don't sacrifice humans or animals. Do you incorporate some other form of sacrifice or offering in specific rituals?
Yes we offer sacrifices like Herbs fruits vegetables milk alkohol etc. We give offerings to spirits of nature too like apples carrotts milk and so on, to thank mother nature and the gods. So the animals/insects etc eat and drink our offerings, its like to saying to nature you gave us so much and this is my little sign of gratitude. As more we care about nature and the spirits as more they care about us protect and help us.
As a example odin likes alkohol so of you seek wisdome of him you ask him politly for your desire and give him something he likes. Its more symbolic its not like odin comes and drinks it :).
Or freya is the goddess of love and beauty, so you can offer her flowers or cute things.
Are you still in Sweden? Have you been to the west coast? Have you seen the bronze age rock carvings? Do you want to see them?
Gambantein they are in about 5 different videos!
Please make more videos of other Gods! 🙏🏻
I would love to find where you got those stautes of Ingui-Frey that you show at the end
My favourite God 😊. With Freyja of cause. 😊👍
allegedly Frey or Yngvi frey is an ancient grandfather of mine.
through Ganger rolfr Ragnavaldsson aka Rollo the Viking 1st duke of Normandy.
( most likely many of European and scandanavian decent are decended from Frey yngling dynasty)
Hahaha the peasants used to make wild claims like that so their serfdom wouldn't seem so bad. More than likely you are descended from serfs who were tied to the land.
I think a lot of Scandinavians are descended from the known Viking dynasties, due to a phenomenon known as "pedigree collapse", where due to a lack of available genetic diversity and constraints of geography, the relations sort of fold in on each other with cousins of varying stripes marrying cousins. Because only so many people could hold hereditary titles, a lot of us slowly trickled down the social ladder from royal courts to regular insignificant Average Joes. I'm descended from the Yngling dynasty, too, so we're probably 28th cousins once or twice removed (if I look it up, Rollo's probably in the ballpark of my 24th to 28th great-grandpa).
Did the Germanic cultural-linguistic complex develop in southern Scandinavia and expand southward, to present-day Germany, or the opposite? I'm reading recent theories that Germanic-Norse culture may have its origin very near Sami, instead of on the Continent.
It expanded out of Scandinavia. The proto-germanic people evolved in the bronze age out of the local corded ware cultures, the battle-axe and boat-axe culture. There were also some bell beakers there in Jutland.
Wow very interesting lad.. Have a question request would you like to do a video on Ratatoskr? Also have you seen the labyrinth in Nyköping?
Excellent work, good man!
I just wanted to ask if you were aware of any linguistic arguments for Yngwe Frey being pre-IE, or whether current IE etymologies are convincing or not?
The primordial Lithuanian god Praamzius (who also had other personal names) presages the gods that had practical myth meanings in known pagan practices (except perhaps in the main solstice ceremonies). He had a wife, Lada, who gave birth to twins. interestingly represented as conjoined horses. Don't know for a fact, but I tend to think human sacrifices or other rituals (if they occurred) were punishments of crimes carried out for propitious purposes. Zeus was the son of the titan Cronus who was the son of Uranus. The further back you go, the more (intentionally?) vague the gods become.
I'm surviving the jive man!
As far as Im aware Freyr was the goddess of Seidr, female magic. Odin mastered it, in order to be all knowing, but had to sacrifice an eye. It was considered a taboo in Nord culture to be a male seer, or divinator. She was associated with fertility, and kidnapped by Loki. Apologies if Im mixed up
No that's Freyja
Including Ingui-Frey, who are the 3 gods you mention being of the 3 honored gods at Uppsala in this video?
Forgive me if I worded that wrong. I may be a little buzzed, but I wont be when I read your reply.
The music is too loud and distracting.
Source for all norse deities being reflections of a single, whole divinity?
That's pretty Gnostic. Are you open to connections between Sumer, the Annunaki, and the Norse Pantheon? Any chance you'll explore that?
You cannot teleologically apply the term gnostic to pre-christian religion - also I didn't say this was a Norse belief - it comes from neoplatonism
@@Survivethejive
yeah but Gnosticism still existed before Christ. Just because it wasn't called Gnosticism doesn't really make much difference.
So viewing Norse gods as reflections of one aspect is very "Gnostic" insofar as I'm referring to the "religion" of Gnosticism as it existed contemporary to the Norse Pantheon.
But my question was more about your view of the overlap.
What do you think of the overlap between say, the Norse pantheon, the Hindu gods, and/or the Sumerian myths?
A dwarf in Voluspa is named Yngvi.
16. Álfr ok *Yngvi*, Eikinskjaldi,
Fjalarr ok Frosti, Finnr ok Ginnarr;
þat man æ uppi, meðan öld lifir,
langniðja tal Lofars hafat.
Your channel is interesting but I have some difficult to undestand spoken english language
+Survive the jive It would be most interesting to know what pendant/ornament/symbol you have in that necklace/chain.
Björn Ekdahl mjolnir
Very interesting-I never suspected that Freyjr and Odinn could be the same being.
perhaps they are not, but they certainly have a lot of overlap in their social functions
So is it out of the question that you make a video about what we know of the Vanir?
Do you have tips on books about esoteric asatru?
Kings are said to descent from Freyr, but it is Symbolic, Kings (or better, chiefs), had to go through rituals and tests to become the Deity themselves, so did girls with the May Queen. He and Freya (were one at first) are the Vanirs, the best individuals within the tribe of the gods. Do you agree with that ?