1953-start

Snorre Sturlasson and Atlantis, By Paul Hoffman (a summary)

The worship of the old Scandinavian god Odin among the S. American Indians, and the Central American legends of Votan (W-V-Odan), seems to tally with the assumption that the American Red Indians invaded the New World from northern Asia across the Bering Strait, when attention is paid to the statement in the Icelandic historian Snorre Sturlasson's (1178-1241) "Ynglingesaga," in the cycle of old Norwegian sagas called "Heimskringla," that Odin was originally a chieftain in an Asiatic realm, east of the river Tanakvisl (supposed to be the Don), and that he subsequently invaded northern Europe. Modern science usually assumes that all the Scandinavian gods and the whole of Scandinavian sacred lore hailed from Asia, and we have no reason to doubt the statement in Snorre that these gods are but deified men, in the same way as we know it from Egypt, Greece, etc. Nevertheless, various authors have had a taste of Atlantean affinities in old Norse mythology, wherefore it may not be without purpose to point out a few very interesting points in Snorre himself, statements that seem to render Snorre's opinion of the location of the kingdom of Odin less certain, and which may well be aboriginal traits in some obscure and fragmentary source-book of the authors.

Here is Hoffman's points:

Home of Gods-"Asgaard, watered by four sacred rivers of milk, encircled by a splendid wall, lies toward the southwest which suits no Asiatic location in relation to Scandinavia, but to more a mid-Atlantic location? (Towards the east, in Asia, is declared to lie country of the giants.)

That it may refer to Asgaard in the land of the Old World Amazons. (both cycles might be about Atlantis (as it would appear, as regards the Amazons, from Diodorus Siculus), and were misplaced at the same time, for some reason or other.

Snorre mentions Svitjod, as land north of the Black Sea, i.e. Russia, comprising the kingdom of Odin, but is the wrong description for prehistoric Russia. Based on these points-"In Svitjod are many great cities, many nations and many tongues, there are giants and dwarfs, there are "blaamenn (negros) and many strange peoples, there are, furthermore, animals and dragons there, terribly big."

"Mountains towards the north" from where comes the Tanakvisl river? These descriptions are found in Plato's descriptions of Atlantis. No hills towards the north in Russia ought to be called Mountains. In Critias (Plato) is to be read: "The whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain…" "…the whole region of the island lies towards the south, and is sheltered from the north…" (Great plain of Atlantis has its counterpart in the lovely plain of Asgaard, referred to elsewhere in Norse mythology.) Furthermore did any negros ever live in Russia? Anyway, they certainly lived in Atlantis. Are finally, not the giants and dwarfs, the strange peoples, the animals and dragons, well-known mythological features from a number of our source-books to Atlantean History?

In "Ynglingesaga" we read: "While Njord (a god -man) lived among the Vanir (a neighboring people, with whom the Aesir had intercourse and troubles), he had been married to his sister, as was legal there…(he had children by her)…among the Aesir it was prohibited to marry such close relatives." This reference to a brother-sister-marriage is no usual feature in this mythological complex. The fact that in its position in Snorre's story it stands without significance for the rest of the narrative allows us to consider it an aboriginal trait, that should be compared with the same phenomenon so often found in other myths relating to Atlantis. (The statement, that such a marriage was prohibited among the Aesir, must be charged to Snorres' own account.). "(In Asgaard) it was a custom that 12 high -priests should be the leaders, they should perform the sacrifices and judge the people; they are those called "diar" or "drotner" (kings); the entire people had to serve and obey them."

Apart from the number (in other places too, we meet the uncertainty as to whether there were ten or twelve kings in Atlantis), this is exactly the same description as that given in "Critias" concerning the tasks of the kings of Atlantis, during their meeting in the central metropolis. Among these "drotner"

Odin divided his kingdom. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish sites attributed to the various kingdoms of Snorre are certainly quite arbitrary. Odin was a culture-hero, not only in America, but also in Scandinavia: "It is told-and it is certainly true-that when Asa-Odin, and together with him 'Diane,' came to the Northern countries, they undertook and taught various achievements, with which people have dealt long after. Odin was the foremost among them, and from him they learned all the achievements, because he was the first to know all of them-or most of them anyway." "He and his high-priests are called verse-makers, because with them that art came to the northern countries." "Odin gave laws, the same that had before been given among Aesirs…" Snorre says, that people in olden times had a lot to tell from "Gudelheimen," the home of the gods, i.e., Svitjod." Unfortunately, he has let none of these stories come down to us. He merely says that, "Odin died of sickness home in Svitjod." He was burned, and "people worshipped Odin and the twelve chieftains, and called them gods and believed in them long after."

There may be more mythological material relating to Atlantis in "Heimskringla." In the saga of Harald Haarfager is mentioned a locality, an island called "Atly," i.e., "Atl-Island," and the name Atle may be reminiscent of Atlas. However, any closer analysis is out of place here, as it has only been my purpose to show, that we should not be much wrong in placing the "Ynglingesaga," and perhaps the entire "Heimskringla," among our sources of Atlantean history. The task to divide its true mythological elements from the speculations of its author is, I think, going to be rather a difficult one."

Note from Webmaster- There are about 4 components to the tale that bring up some very interesting timelines in these Nordic stories which direct us to be careful of interpretation:

1. Asa-Odin, and the Diane names as extremely Greekinized but have a Persian back drop in formed words, not exactly Sanskrit, nor exactly Sumarian and more like an Egyptian pantheon gone Greek. There is also a Turkish element in the transporting of story and may explain the Don referred to. But the correction is that Tanakvisl has the 'Tana' a Egyptian name of a Russian River with a celtinized 'Ak' and a 'wisr', or visl for 'water' like 'Ossa' which are connected by place-names to a river region near the Don River. Basically, Don River means the same as Tanakvisl but came from a Celtic mixture period.

Date-2,500 to 300 B.C.

2. Plato does the Atlantis story around the 300 B.C. era, yet the Nordic tale seems older in its narrative, or in a more raw form? More likely Plato gets the 800 B.C. portion of Solon's account that was a Greek also, and has a more refined version of Atlantis. The Sumarian's had a version of Atlantis with other additions to the paradise and its mountain rivers. They made a map that is one of the oldest that shows the world as a square with cardinal points of their world adapted to their own paradisal outline of another kind of Asgaard.

Date-2,800-300 B.C.

3. The terms of 'Lofty', 'Sea-side People' and the Vanir's is another epic period which is much harder to date in its introduction of terminology. 'Lofty' in Egyptian is 'Fai' which is hinting at the linguistic confusion in a similar word i.e. 'Po', or 'Fo' which combined with Fo-Mer we now get not Lofty, but 'Side' from Fo and Mer is 'Sea' in meaning. Thus, Sea-Side as Fo-Mer and now the rubric is complete with who the Fo-Mer were enemies with in Irish and Nordic tales such as the Fir-Bolg or were alternately called the Fenirs or Fernils i.e. Fer=Childern and Nil as Nile, or Children of the Nile. The Nile Children had another alternate name if they came from the Don River in which case they were called Don-Nils.

Thus, we have the tale of a historical war between Sea Side=Fomers and against the Fernil-bolgs as found in Irish tales.

The Date-6,000 to 2,500 B.C.

4. The Saga names hint another factor, Gudelheiman and the Aesirs are almost the same name as God-ly Men or Man-Gods and the likewise Auser as the Osiris figure who was the Man-God of Assyria and Egypt. It does refer to also the Ash Tree, or Persea Tree that Osiris was buried or resurrected in with Auser by name. This ties into the Paradisal Tree of Atlantis amidst the sacred canals and the four quarters of the world.

Date-4,000-2,000 B.C.

When we take the dates in order:

2,500-300 B.C.

2,800-300 B.C.

6,000-2,500 B.C.

4,000-2,000 B.C.

We see that all four are in the 2,800-2,000 B.C. range by tales combined.

That the tale begins to be written down by 5,000 B.C. or widely transported orally.

That other components occurred much later in the story but it was purposely overlapped for a significant point of this 'event is historically a lot like this event thinking',

about 2,500 B.C..

That the tale was refined about the time of Greek and Hanno explorations 600 B.C..

That the battle for sea domination and river domination was already in full swing by 4,000 B.C. in trade due to the same reasons Atlantis sponsored its own metal seeking and water domination, again a layer to the point of the story.

The tale represents four stages of invasion a pre 6,000 B.C. of a North African Origin,

A Egyptian invasion 4,000 B.C. with a Persian parallel, and a Black Sea invasion with a Celtic invasion followed by a Greek-Persian conclusion. The average date from 6,000 to 300 B.C. is 2,850 B.C.

The last point is that Odin has the name of Aten, which comes from the 1,400 B.C. period

When the Celts received a part of this cult. We now take 2,850 from 1,400 and get the median which is 2125 B.C. and falls right in the period of heavy Egyptian gold seeking exploration. The whole story is an amassing of seekers of gold, paradise with a tree, and its god buried in its memory. Also, a lost paradise of riches in the west is implied.

It also has the mention of law and religion as well as star worship associated with the lost land and being introduced with its desires and dreams of returning to it.

In a way the story is saying: Odin Kings and Priests like Atlas Laws

Asgaard like Atly or Atlantis

Sea Side People Like Atlanteans

Religion of a dead god buried in a tree as Atlantean

Metal seeking like the Atlanteans were an

Association of Giants, Pygmy's and Dragons as descriptions about them from other peoples

The Argo Mystery involved and that they were sky worshippers

That they entered into the realm of the underworld or the sea.

There is an indication of taboos and being banished from one region to another, yet wanting to return to lost homeland. This is found also in the Arthurian Tales with the fall out of Guinevre and Arthur's not long after death longing for his Avalon. It would seem that the idea of Atlanteans being punished for their moral trespasses by a deluge that had a some powerful effect on the priests and surviving kings who were in some cases forced to intermarry due to the lack of surviving blood lines. Meanwhile the people had to avoid intermarriage by their laws to not offend the gods again. In a sense their bloodline was shamed by the event which may explain why Adam and Eve is an overlay of this Biblical Taboo or question of being in paradise and continuing man's bloodline but as 'brother and sister' had a body put in shame to lose that paradise. In their search for higher knowledge they had lost their moral virtues. In a sense a timeless note on man and his own spirits significant faults in free will gone unchecked.

The main point is the Nordic Tales tend to have layers of old and older stories overlapped which the above shows just the cultural difficulty alone in sorting out the various time events.

One thing is certain, the Nordic with a lot of their tales were often ancient sea-people influenced and may explain depth of the variations. Yet, the Atlantis story and flood myth became retained. We may note that most of the stories are before 1,400 B.C. and this rules out the Thera explosion explanation as the source of the flood myth to the Nordic with only minor significance. It seems they are referring to a much older catastrophe.

In the next article of Atlantis, A Journal of Research Vol. 5, No. 6 by Arthur and the Cromlechs M.C. Carr-Gomm points out this idea about England's Arthur story having some Atlantis layers in it:

"In conclusion we submit the proposition that these sea-farers were also the original bearers of Arthurian Culture and also of Sun Observation to the British Isles. Who can say that they were not Phoenicians or even Sumerians? Are we sure they were not Atlanteans? "

"In some green island of the sea,

Where now the shadowy coral grows

In pride and pomp and empery

The courts of old Atlantis rose." (Masefield)

The Argonauts, by Egerton Sykes cont. 1953

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