Викинги-кавказцы

[tual]

«Огден, Огден...»

«Огден, Огден...» — лихорадочно вспоминаю я. «Да ведь это же Один — верховный бог скандинавского языческого пантеона!..»

— У ученых до сегодняшнего дня нет единого мнения о происхождении скандинавских народов, — продолжает Тур, — Есть несколько теорий, но во всех отсутствуют веские доказательства.

А текст исландского летописца, вместе с моими археологическими исследованиями, в полной мере могут дать такой ответ.

Огден-Один был настолько популярен в народе, что считался пришельцем из небесной страны. Когда он умер, ему стали поклоняться, как богу.

Все ученые, и я в том числе, считали его легендарным, мифологическим героем, но летопись Снорре во многом подтверждает обратное: Один был великим, но смертным викингом, реальной личностью из плоти и крови…

Народ асов

Рука Тура то зависает над Азовским морем, то переносится на Волгу, а оттуда в Закавказье:

— В рукописи Снорре есть очень точное описание Кавказско-Азовского региона. Указаны многие географические подробности, совпадают природа, ландшафты…

Один правил племенем асов; есть город Азов и целое Азовское море, — параллели напрашиваются сами собою. Не древний ли город Азак, столица асов, был предшественником современного Азова в устье Дона? Тем более, в рукописи говорится, что асы жили на берегах реки Таны. А ведь в античных источниках Дон называют не иначе, как Танаис!..

— После того, как я увидел документ Снорре, — говорит Хейердал, — у меня и созрело решение отправиться на Дон и начать тут раскопки. Тем более, что Азов в древние времена стоял на перекрестке стратегических торговых путей: с Востока в Европу, из северных земель в Византию.

Здесь намешано очень много варварских культур, были колонии эллинов, стояли римские легионы. Задача нашего исследования — найти факты, по которым впоследствии возможно будет реконструировать реальные события истории Кавказско-Азовского региона…

Если археологи найдут следы большой миграции незадолго до Рождества Христова, это будет весомым подтверждением слов Снорре. Если не найдут, не беда. Отрицательный результат тоже ценен. — Тур благодушно улыбается. Его большая рука скользит по карте и к Скандинавии, потом к Гренландии и дальше — к Северной Америке... И туда заплывали храбрые почитатели Одина!

Хейердал считает, что потомки асов, оставшихся на месте, до сих пор живут на Кавказе — в Азербайджане и Грузии. Там тоже ведутся археологические исследования, и Тур получает оттуда информацию. Сам он не раз ездил в Закавказье:

— Народ асов жил на всем Кавказе, на север же ушла только часть племен под предводительством Одина. Прочие остались. В Азербайджане и сегодня есть небольшое селение, жители которого называют себя «людьми Одина».

Они говорят, что всегда жили на этих землях, первыми приняли христианство, а когда все вокруг начали принимать ислам, они по-прежнему оставались христианами. В то же время, у стариков живет вера, что у их народа есть родственники в Грузии и Приазовье.

Позднее их слова почти полностью подтвердились — на севере от Тбилиси тоже живет народ, считающий себя потомками Одина. А в Азербайджан я ездил несколько раз, изучал там петроглифы.

Самое удивительное, что в Закавказье есть петроглифы с изображением кораблей викингов, — таких же, как и на камнях в Норвегии. А еще в Азербайджане живет народ ассирийцев; возможно, они и есть потомки народа асов. Чувствуете параллели: асы — ассирийцы?..
...по всем раскопам...

Раскопки

Раскопки в Азове идут прямо посреди городских кварталов. Краеведческий музей выкупил несколько небольших садовых участков, и там, на средства Хейердала, были заложены три раскопа. Работают студенты-археологи из Ростова-на-Дону и небольшая группа норвежских археологов из университета в Осло.

Норвежцы копают тщательно, сдувают каждую пылинку, любой предмет заносится в каталог. Руководитель норвежского раскопа отмахивается от меня, как от назойливой мухи.

— Здесь нельзя ходить. Запрещено! У наших археологов все проще и быстрее. Они копают не так тщательно, и поэтому на участке русских глубина раскопа уже метра три-четыре. Владимир Кияшко, руководитель одного из раскопов, провожает меня на место работ:

— Мы работаем, конечно, побыстрее, чем норвежцы, но это не значит хуже. Ведь у нас вся страна — один большой нераскопанный археологический памятник, объем работ огромный, а у них давно все копано-перекопано. Вот они каждую черепушку и подбирают. Но Тур доволен и нами, и норвежцами, — Владимир Яковлевич подходит к картону, на котором выставлены находки дня. — Гвоздь времен Петра I, остаток греческой амфоры, казачья трубка…

Но сегодня мы, наконец, дошли до слоя начала нашей эры, то есть, до того времени, о котором говорится в летописи Снорре… Тут должны быть главные находки!
Тем временем тучи собрались над Азовом, полетели первые крупные капли. Но никто и не думал уходить.

— Это они Хейердала ждут, — шепнул мне Владимир Яковлевич. — Он каждый день по всем раскопам ходит, смотрит, как работы идут. Я ведь, знаешь, тоже студентом был, когда впервые его увидел. Он тогда, в шестидесятых, тоже в Ростов приезжал…
— Археолог задумался, наблюдая за своими подопечными. — Никогда не думал, что с ним работать буду. Ведь уже он тогда не молодой был. А сегодня ему уже восемьдесят шесть! Притом — на пятый этаж, как мальчишка, взлетает, а у меня от этого сердце выскакивает.

Вот что ему работа дает, вот как его держит. Не удивлюсь, если он и через десять лет где-нибудь раскопки вести будет! И всех заражает своей страстью. Всюду он самый молодой...

...каким был мир тысячи лет назад...

Наконец, появился Хейердал в сопровождении директора музея Сергея Лукьяшко и вечной своей спутницы, жены Жаклин. Несмотря на дождь, Тур подошел к раскопу и долго, не перебивая, слушал отчет Владимира Яковлевича, лишь иногда поглядывая на дождливое небо.

Непосвященному в археологические таинства сложно понять, что может значить глубокая черная яма в земле. Но когда слышишь слова специалиста, все становится на свои места. Здесь стоял дом, в нем были очаг, лестница…

Рядом с Туром, не менее внимательная, стоит Жаклин. Она тоже не упускает ни одного слова из рассказа русского археолога. Жаклин тихо, незаметно сопровождает Хейердала повсюду, на всех встречах, интервью, ужинах с археологами.

С трудом верится, что когда-то эта простая, обаятельная француженка снималась в Голливуде, во Франции, а потом бросила кино и в последние годы участвует во всех экспедициях своего великого мужа...

Кое-кто среди ученых — и российских, и норвежских — считает его дилетантом, которому повезло. «Кто дает деньги — заказывает музыку», — сказал один из ростовских археологов. «Хейердал оплачивает раскопки... что ж! Поэтому, он скорее всего, увидит в наших находках именно то, что хочет».

Мне трудно согласиться с этим циничным выводом. Тем более, что сам Тур, человек-легенда, сказал напоследок:

— Мне не обязательно доказать, что я прав, что Снорре описал реальные события! Просто хочется узнать правду о том, каким был мир тысячи лет назад, откуда и куда двигались народы.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Сами ассирийцы называли свою, ныне исчезнувшую страну — Ашшур. (Прим. ред.)

http://www.vokrugsveta.com.ua/S4/proshloe/viking2.htm

[tual]

В Азербайджане и сегодня есть небольшое селение, жители которого называют себя «людьми Одина».

Люди Одина в Азербайджане? Не удинов ли имеет в виду? Они односятся к дагестанским народам и действительно являются христианами.
А вот и подтверждение на уровне генетики:
http://dagens.narod.ru/boock/pressa/finni.htm
В целом исследования дагестанского генофона дают любопытные результаты. Во первых дагестанскин народы родственны друг другу, их генетический материал схож. Нас роднит гораздо больше, чем отличает от других народов. Во вторых выяснилось, что по генетическому материалу мы схожи - с кем бы вы думали? - с народами северной Европы. Речь идёт о финнах, норвежцах, соверных немцах и др. Сравнительные исследования не проводились. но логика и косвенные данные подсказывают, что в группу наших "родичей" также входят англичане, ирландцы, шотландцы. Повторяю, речь идет о схожести генофонда и крови, при этом традиции и культура народов, живущих за тысячи километров друг от друна, могут быть совершенно различными.

[Ordjonikidze]

Неудивительно Какой уже день на канале "24 док" правда ночью, крутят передачу о европейских аланах И где их только не находят. И даже "душу щемит" у авторов передачи когда они смотрят на развалины средневековых замков Европы вспоминая осетию, делая ТОЛСТЫЙ намек на на не менее толстые обстоятельства, что и в Европе кочевники, каким то фантастическим образом, умели искусно класть камень и возводить каменные сооружения, при этом напрочь забывая что в осетии башни и склепы были построены вейнахами, а в Европе местными народами. Но осетины лихие(?) парни(?) им все не почем.

Хотя тема интересная

[tual]

при этом напрочь забывая что в осетии башни и склепы были построены вейнахами,

ты упустил хорошую возможность промолчать))))

[tual]

А по теме если, то маршрут мог быть таким: Закавказье, где удины, дагестанцы, плюс схожая с североевропейцами генетика-> Северный Кавказ, где асы, откуда и Асаланд, Асгард и проч., ну и далее с Северного Кавказа в Северную Европу через земли славян и прочих народов.

[висмар]

А по теме если, то маршрут мог быть таким: Закавказье, где удины, дагестанцы, плюс схожая с североевропейцами генетика-> Северный Кавказ, где асы, откуда и Асаланд, Асгард и проч., ну и далее с Северного Кавказа в Северную Европу через земли славян и прочих народов.

Ничего удивительного, люди охотно верят тому, чему желают верить

[SWAN]

To fully substantiate the early parts of the Ynglinge Saga, another people also had to be located, called the Vanir, who were supposed to be a neighboring people in the land between the Caucasus mountains and the Don river. They fought many battles with the Aes, and they were victorious often enough so that a final truce were made, in which the Aes and the Vanir exchanged peace hostages of high-ranking members of their tribes. The Vanir hostages sent to the Aes were Njord, and his two children Frey and Freya, probably accompanied by a contingent of Amazon warriors.

The name Vani was easily found, both the name of a lake in north-eastern Anatolia and of a well known ruin village in Georgia, in the area known as Colchis in 1100 BCE, at the time when these events were supposed to take place. But neither the Hettite’s, the Frygian’s nor the Colchidian’s were likely candidates for the Vanir, since they all lived south of the Caucasus range, and also seemed to have incompatible cultures.
On the northern slopes of the mountains, however, there lived a well known and powerful people, called Suannies by the Greek and the Svani by the Colchidians. Their land, Svaneti, also bordered the land of the Amazons, in the north-east Caucasus, and that of the Aes people in the north.
The Svani had become rich and powerful partly because they were well protected from marauders by nature, living in a fertile land surrounded by immense forests, wide rivers and high mountains, easily defended against intruders. But also because they had discovered, in their mountains, easily mined deposit of the only known naturally alloyed copper. Alloyed with antimony and arsen, this copper was nearly as strong as bronze, and for more than a millennium, the Svani bronze was the dominating metal of the Caucasus region, used as weapons, tools and ornaments.
The Svani also had a culture of matrilineal inheritance, it was a religion in which the worship of a Mother Goddess, a water goddess and a love goddess was prominent. And in their culture, fertility symbols like the horns of oxen and bucks, strange-looking axes and certain figurines were also prominent. All of these cultural and religious clues could be matched to archaeological finds in Denmark and Sweden, dating back 2000 years, when a new culture became prominent in Scandinavia.
http://idrisi.narod.ru/volvewitch.htm
I found no other local people or culture more suitable than the Svani to fit the role of the Vanir, as much from their religious and cultural traits, as for their power to fight the Aes on equal terms. And it seems feasible that the word Svani could change into ‘Vani in another dialect.
I am comparing some of the details of what we know about the religions of Scandinavia, 100 BCE to ca. 550 CE, of the goddesses Freya and Nerthus (the latter one only mentioned once by Tacitus, and found in no other source), and the culture of these centuries, with the knowledge I have been able to unearth about the religions, goddesses and cultures from the centuries prior to that, in the Caucasus region.
The three known goddesses venerated by the Svani of Caucasus were called Itrujani, Danana and Ainina. They also venerated a goddess/god couple called Ga and Gatsi, assumed to be their old Mother Goddess and son the God, similar in function to Gaea and Uranous, Cybele and Dionysos or Maia and Hermes.
The three goddesses seem to be local variations of some well known goddesses in Asia Minor; like Ishtar, Anahit and Diana, covering the divine aspects of fertility, love/sex and war respectively.

Danana was also known as Danae or Dana, daughter of the Sumerian goddess Belili, and probably an early form of Diana, mother of Persevs by Zeus himself. Aspects of all three can actually be found in the stories about Freya. And since 'Freya' means 'Lady', I suggest that the Caucasian Svani who came to Denmark over 2000 years ago were called 'Daner', as they worshipped the goddess Dana in particular, and that 'Freya' was their name, either publicly used for The Lady, or a title used for the High Priestess in their religion, a priestess who continued the ancient practice of 'temple prostitution' so common in the ancient goddess religions of Asia Minor. And that they practiced, as well, a form of dynastic and ritual marriage to their brothers, quite natural in a culture of matrilineal inheritance, as Snorre tells us was the normal practice among the Vanir.

I also bring up again the fact that, as the three Vanir Njord, Freya and Frey are always described as divine in all other written material, the Ynglinge Saga claim that they, as well as Odin and the Asar, were mere mortals. This, too, has an obvious explanation, as there is a lot of precedents for the fact that many cultures of those times practiced ancestor worship. The Schytian worship of king Skolo as their god is just one such example.
There is, however, another possible explanation too: It is commonly known that Frey and Freya can mean Lord and Lady, and thus could have been titles, not mere names. Njord and Nerthus, too, can be translated as 'fertility' or 'power of growth'. It is less known that 'Odin' could be read as 'O Don', meaning 'The Great Father' in the local dialect of Caucasus at the time. Thus ‘Odin’ may have been an hereditary title for the king of the Asar peoples, similar to Caesar and Rex in function.

[SWAN]

http://idrisi.narod.ru/volvewitch.htm

[SWAN]

Odin's tribes must have been a people divided into different classes as well as the known twelve tribes. In the tradition of other local cultures there was four different classes of people: You had the noblemen, priests and landowners, the rich people. Then you had the warriors, the fighting footmen, who were often close to the rich in social status, the glory of heroes. Then the free farmers and tradesmen, fishers and other free men of lower status. And lastly the thralls and frills, the unfree people, chattels and slaves. So let us assume that the people who came with Odin were divided into four classes as well. Also, there was another people with him, not Aesar but Vanir. Of the Vanir nobles we know four names, Njord, Frey, Freya and the wise Kvasir. The saga also mentions Gevjon, one of the Amazone warriors, or Valkyrjur, as a powerful leader - the one who actually settled in Zealand. So we can safely assume that, like the Aesar chieftains Odin, Thor, Brage and Heimdal mentioned in the story, the Vanir also brought others of their tribe to serve and protect them.
My guess is that they must have had a large number of warriors, since they won earldoms in Germany for Odin's sons, and by the fact that they soon came to dominate both Sweden and Denmark, as well as parts of Norway. So my estimate is a total number of 20-25.000 people coming to Fyn in about 70 BCE. Let us say about 5000 warriors, the rest people of the other classes. Let me then guess that most of the warriors among the Aesar people belonged to a certain clan, maybe led by a warrior chieftain called Tyr, their tribe known as the Erilar, meaning 'wild warriors' or some such. And I guess too that some 1000 of the warriors and some 3000 of the other people belonged to the Vanir people, known among themselves as the Children of Danae, or the Daner. For the goddess Danae was well known in the lands from whence they came. One people in Caucasus who did venerate Danae was a mountain tribe of tall, fair people locally known as the Svani.
http://www.eutopia.no/erildane.html

[SWAN]

From the start, I did not attempt to produce academically acceptable historic research. It was never my intent to give irrefutable, or even uncontroversial, evidence, acceptable to the academic community. I did instead rewrite a part of the history which had nearly always been suppressed or forgotten in historic research: The story about one of the great Pagan religions that were prevailing in Asia Minor before the onset and domination of the major monotheistic religions, outlawed and fiercely suppressed by Christians and Moslems alike, hardly tolerated by the Hebrews, and nearly eradicated through the execution of millions of women, children and men. I talk, of course, about the religions venerating the Great Mother, in her many guises: Gaia, Cybele, Demeter, Isis, Inanna, Ishtar, Maia and many other names. Known to Tacitus the Roman as Nerthus, sister and wife of Njord, the Sea God, mother of Freya and Frey. But probably called Danana by the Vanir.
When I started to look for clues in the history of the Black Sea/Caucasus region fitting the descriptions in the Ynglinge Saga, I found plenty. Not, however, evidence as such - no massive rune stone stating "Odin lived here" or proof that Nerthus was a well known local goddess. But the clues were intriguing enough. And lined up, they formed a very convincing chain of circumstantial evidence; archaeological, historical, geographical and otherwise.
One of the first traces of the Vanir tribe I found was the temple town Vani in Georgia, the ancient Colchis. The religion which had been practised here seemed right, and the name itself was too much of a coincidence. But the geography was not right. Then I found the Svani people, living on the northern slopes of the Caucasian mountains, about 500 kilometres away from Odin and his Trojans. Archaeological finds in this area, by Marija Gimbutas and others, as well as description of their culture from local and Roman sources, indicated that they were a likely source for the mysterious Vanir people of the Norse sagas. And their nearest neighbours, the Amazons, were the perfect role models for the Valkyrjer of the sagas.
Another major culture in this area, in the land north and west of the Caucasus mountains, were the Svani people, a prosperous and relatively peaceful people farming and mining the fertile slopes of the Caucasus, down to the river Kuban and all the way to Kerch. Being naturally protected by rivers and lakes to the north and west, the mountains to the south, and by the women warrior tribe of the Amazons, with whom they were close allies, to the east, they had little need of warcraft.
Much of their prosperity came from the fact that a naturally alloyed bronze was easily mined in their land, so they had been miners and bronze smiths for more than a thousand years. With this providing a surplus, and because of the peace, they still kept to the religion which had prevailed in this area since the time of the Sumerians, venerating the triple goddess and the Mother Earth and her consort. Their Mother Earth was known elsewhere as Inanna and Ishtar; among the Svani she was known as Danana. Like the temples at Vani in Colchis, Her temples were mainly cared for by priestesses, and their society was basically matrilineal. The men were miners, smiths, hunters and herders; the women owned the property and farmed the land, built the houses and maintained the temples. To keep property within the family clans, the older women routinely married their brothers, but these marriages were dynastic, not conjugal. And since inheritance followed the mothers line, it mattered not who were the fathers of children; all children were the gifts of the Earth Goddess, cared for and raised within the clan.
http://www.eutopia.no/Vanir.htm
The Svani religion was a local variation of the Goddess religion that had once spread all over Asia Minor from Ur, dominating in the fertile crescent stretching from Egypt to Colchis. But since after the major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions taking place from 1600-1300 1600-1300 BCE, which devastated the peaceful culture of Crete among others, the fiery, masculine warrior-religion of the Indo-European nomadic tribes had started to sweep away the old cultures and beliefs. In 1100, when the Aes occupied the shores and plain north of the Kuban river, the Solar God religion of the horse-mounted warriors was dominant in almost all the lands surrounding the Caucasus, now only prevailing in enclaves like Colchis, in Svaneti and among the Amazons. And with the coming of the Aes people, who moved their troops rapidly by boat upriver, hungry for more conquest, as well as blocking all of the Svani trade with the northern lands, the Svani culture was now threatened.
There are no records telling us how long it took from when the Aes first settled in their new city close by Tanais - a city fortified like their lost Troy and called The Walled City, or As-Gard - and until they dominated all the land between the Kuban river and Don. It could have been a hundred years, or 500 years, or even more. Even if the land was sparsely populated, partly by swamp dwellers called Alans, partly by Pontic nomadic tribes, they also had the Schytians to keep at bay. The Schytians, like the Trachians and their cousins the Trojans and Phrygians, were all Indo-Europeans. Their gods were male ancestors or male solar deities, their most precious metals iron and gold, and they lived by their swords and their horses. All land, horses, riches, women and other property was owned by men, and inherited by their sons. And all men were divided into four classes: The priest-kings and their royal families, the warriors, the tradesmen and farm owners, and the slaves.
The Aes were mainly ancestor worshippers, and their priest-king held the title Great Father, or the O-Din in their own tongue, also known as "He who brings his people safely across the river". As in Troy, the O-Din had 12 Hov-goder (priests) and Drottner (chieftains), under him. A Hov was a large house, also used as a temple, and the Hov-gode was the owner. Each of O-Din’s Hov-goder and Drotner supplied and commanded a part of the army, and each had a number of warriors, tradesmen and farmers under him, supplying the men, the ships and the weaponry. Plus of course slaves. We do know that the Aes were known and feared for their warships, as well as their ferocity in battle, so it would not have taken them too long to dominate the eastern shores of the Don and the Sea of Azov, and to advance up the first few hundred miles of the Kuban river.
It may have been here that the Svani and the Aes first met in battle. It is clear that the Svani had time to prepare for war, and clear also that they had good support from the Amazons. Whether by skill or by number, nobody knows, but the Svani prevailed against the Aes, and even routed them. Time after time the Svani and the Aes battled, and their fighting continued for centuries; two neighbours in combat, the Aes for land and glory, the Svani for their very lives.
In the end, the Aes themselves must have perceived a greater threat elsewhere, for they negotiated a truce with the Svani, exchanging peace hostages from among their royal families and priesthood. As told by Snorre, the Aes sent their prince Hoenir and the wise man Mimer to Svaneti (called Vanaheim by the Aes). In return, the Aes got the royal prince Njord, his son, the priest Frey and his daughter, the Svani priestess Freya. (Or, those are the names given, but they were titles among the Svani, not real names: Njord means The Powerful, Frey means Lord and Freya means Lady). Njord also wanted to bring along his wedded wife and sister Nerthus (meaning Fertility), but this was seen as an abomination among the Aes - no man should be wed to his sister, even if they only shared the same mother.
The peace would not last them long, because at this time, around 90 BCE, the Roman conqueror Pontus was advancing along the eastern shores of the Black Sea, making all lands in this area Roman, all kings Roman vassals - or dead kings.
As not even the Aes and Svani combined could prevail against this war machine of the Romans, the Aes O-Din went north to the Rus people, seeking new land for the Aes, but he was turned back. Eventually, he went to Trachia with all who would follow him, possibly several thousand people in hundreds of ships, loaded with their valuables and their weapons: and in his retinue were the Svani peace hostages, their servants, slaves and families and a phalanx of Amazone warriors.
Their Trachian cousins let them pass, and the Aes sailed west up the Danube, then north, pulling their ships along were there was not enough water to sail, robbing villages and later conquering the land as they went. In Saxony, the O-Din let his many sons take the small kingdoms as earldoms - and some of these tribes later came to be known as the Merovingians.
After a couple of years of travel, the Aes and the Svani finally came to the southern shores of the Baltic, where the river Oder divides the land between Poland and Germany.
The rest, as they say, is history. The Aes and the Svani first settled on the island of Fyn, and sent their Eril warriors north to secure the island of Sjaelland; Gevjon and her warriors went north-east to king Gylve in Sigtuna, to secure southern Sweden. And within a lifetime the Svear and the Daner - as the Aes and the Svani became known as here - had conquered most of Sweden, Denmark and the south-eastern Norway.
One which, among many other things, makes a credible claim for the belief that much of the European witchcraft which has survived in folklore, and even in practice, may in fact based on the scattered remnants of the Vanir religion, brought to Denmark from the mountains of Caucasus, and prevailing there well into the 5th century CE.
http://www.eutopia.no/Vanir.htm