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This article serie discusses the scientific relevance of ancient Nordic (un)historical sources. Topics found interesting are discussed from a geographical and logically mathematical point of view, when reviewing these sources.
One major hypothesis under investigation has been to consider the origin of Asa mythology to be, in fact, founded upon a real human tribe immigrating in Northern Europe. Another that the often mentioned ancient Swedish tribe Sueones or svìar have not been solely nor primarily located around the lake Mälaren and the province of Uppland, but rather inhabiting a larrge part of the middle parts of the modern day state Sweden.
Feel free to email me at: mailto:wilmer.t@comhem.se to supply initiated comments, escpecially when or if erroneous facts are found, and not least with suggested reading references for the discussions held.
This article serie will elaborate on the findings of ancient Nordic (old Norse) archelogical, linguistical and historical sources, from a geographical and logically mathematical point of view.
A number of hypothesis1 will be examined, and some conclusions will be drawn as to whether these hypothesis bear any scientific value in the respects that are examined according to given, individual article purposes.
Following this and the same definitions, the term theory2 is used for a collected set of hypothesis, viewed and discussed individually and put togehter as awhole.
An objective view will be held in that (un)historical tales, sagas and other sources will be regarded as valid for making calculations of time, distances and geographical references. The same will be discussed in terms of logic, to find out whether there might be validity to the claim that the history of ancient North is not yet fully disclosed.
Hence, the paradigm3 of Ancient Sweden being founded solely or primarily around the northern shores of lake Mälaren, Uppland, will be questioned. Not to deduct that this belief must be wrong in every way, but to investigate whether other opposing beliefs may bear any real matter to a scientifically valid explanation of the history of ancient Sweden.
The method will thus be inductive before deductive4, and at that holding rather a scientific than humanistic view towards the used sources. The articles will, consequently, not solely rely on "approved" diacritics of sources, but strive to present a probable synthesis for explaining the evolvement of ancient Nordic, and specially Swedish, turns of history.
If the hypothesis can be adequately mapped to the referenced sources, and thus supply a plausible explanation of the historical hypothesis raised in the articles, it might be possible to schedule a thorough search, and find, actual remains in written sources and / or archeological findings to match the made conclusions.
Naturally, to hold any view at all regarding the existence, first, and the location, second, of these ancient places of cult and religion, one have to be very well read of the actual historical sources, and of the findings in archelogical and linguistical science being conducted over the years.
From a scientific viewpoint, the content of old myths and sagas cannot be held as historically valid sources. For one thing, they are written down centuries after they are supposed to have happened, following oral traditions that at best have added some flavour to the original tales - if there are any real matter to them at all. More often, the tales have lend from one another and the final versions are likely to contain additions that can only render them untrustworthy as historical sources.
They can, however, disclose elements that have bearing and references in known and alleged sources from other parts of Europe, and hence some traces of the original (again, if ever existed) deeds and people may be identified from them. Furthermore, when several different sources relate the same topic, personas, actions or locations, it can be used as an indication of a real substance underlying the myths and legends - with the reservation of collaboration and dependencies between the sources, which must be thoroughly investigated.
Especially, the story of Odin and the Asas emigration according to Ynglinga saga is generally considered non valid by the offical views and scholars. Other parts of the extensive work of Snorri Sturluson (and other saga writers) may however be considered valid references for finding elements of the ancient history of Scandinavian people and their religious customs and beliefs.
To find any 'real' truth in historical myths and sagas, you are bound to have to take into account all possible aspects of science, not just the religious, historical, archeological and linguistic scholar domains. It have to be put together, and viewed objectively. Otherwise, the prevailing paradigm is bound to limit the perspective and interpretations possible from any given set of facts.
Therefore, in this ambition of objectivity towards ancient Nordic sources, also geographical and natural sciences will be taken into account. The inclination of this, of course, is that the myths and sagas and historical sources must be considered to have actual geographical bearing also for studying our ancient history.
Another example of the importance to keep an objective view in order to get a new perspective on an old paradigm, is the admirable, now late, Thor Heyerdahl. Being non-historian, but a biologist, he has driven hypothesis to the limit in a vast number of areas, where the scholars of those affected disciplines have consequently ignored, and ridiculed, his hypothesis. Where different discipline scholars have been mostly concerned by their own field of expertise, Heyerdahl has found new approaches to solutions from simply combining knowledge from different scientific disciplines, and put them together as a whole. Whether his findings in different areas have been shown to hold up for a scrutinized examination or not, he has undoubtly raised the interest in these topics and pointed out the importance of an objective approach, without the restraints by a certain paradigm.
His last project, Jakten på Odin was aiming at finding out whether Snorri actually could be trusted when he states in Ynglingasaga that Odin and the Asas actually had emigrated from the Black Sea around 60 BC, a topic which will be elaborated on in the article Was Odin a genuine human being? on page 11.
This article serie is written in English5, in order to be readable to a greater audience than if written in my native Swedish language. However, some parts of the articles (still) are provided in Swedish, mainly when the referenced sources are given in Swedish. In accordance to this, also other languages are quoted, such as Danish, Latin and old Norse or Icelandic.
Whoever reads these articles are more than welcome to supply initiated comments, especially when, or if, erroneous facts are found, and not least with suggested reading references for the discussions held in the articles.
Each one of these articles discuss certain hypothesis pertaining to an important paradigm regarding ancient Nordic history.
The purpose in each article is to investigate whether the prevailing paradigms can be adequately questioned, to, if so, serve as a basis for possible revelations of unknown archeological remains in those places that are indicated as interesting by the findings.
The main concern for challenging ruling paradigms of ancient Nordic sources will be that of a time line. That is, whenever deductive "facts" are established as based upon different, and most importantly in time differing, sources, the approach will be to investigate whether a new perspective and an unbiased assumption of the expected results can reveal an alternative interpretation to the history of ancient Sweden.
A major basis for the line of reasoning will be to consider the origin of Asa mythology to be, in fact, founded upon a real human tribe immigrating in Northern Europe, just as stated by Snorri Sturluson and Saxo Grammaticus. This is discussed in the article Was Odin a genuine human being?
Both these contemporary but (according to this author) independent writers of the early middelages states that a human tribe of schamanistic wizards gained the reputation of being gods. See "Ancient sources referencing the Asas" on page 15.
It is the opinion of this author, that the questioning of the ruling paradigm of Snorris Asas being an imaginative creation will lead to a profound new view of all ancient Nordic sources, and that the collaterals from applying this hypothesis in further discussions on ancient Nordic paradigms will, no doubt, revolutionize the way ancient Nordic sources and archeological findings are interpreted.
A second important basis for this article serie is that the tribe, or perhaps collective reference of several tribes, denoted e.g. Sueones (by Adam of Bremen) or svìar (by e.g. Snorri Sturluson), were not solely based in the Northern lake Mälar regions of todays province of Uppland, but rather inhabited all land of middle and southern modern day state Sweden, apart from those areas former belonging to the Danish empire.
This is discussed in the articles Sueones / Svìar - Ancient tribe or collective reference? , Where was the Birka of Ansgar located? and is also based on the discussion of the existence, and localization, of the heathen religious cult "temple" Ubsola, or Upsalir, in Where lies Ubsola - ancient Uppsala?.
[This article is yet only at a preliminar status; therefore the complete conslusions cannot be entered at this time.]
1Following the definition made by Carl Holmberg in [Ref. 71], p. 15, a hypothesis is considered to be the assumption made to explain the relation between two or more concepts; a concept, in turn, is defined as the determination of one or several objects, group of objects or (a) phenomena.
3In [Ref. 71], p. 26f., Ulla Tebelius discusses the paradigm definition made according to Thomas S Kuhn (The structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962), and holds that Kuhns second paradigm level - where a certain scientific theory guides, or even dictates, all research within nearby disciplines - is a valid definition, and furthermore, that the old knowledge of such an old paradigm can be just as valid in a new, contradicting paradigm, although understood differently and thus leading to new conclusions and other questions on the topic at hand.
4By the definition made by Holmberg in [Ref. 71], p. 15, a deduction comprise conclusions made from generally acknowledged principles regarding a specific topic, whilst an induction builds upon a number of reflections or observations, thus making a general conclusion on the topic at hand based on these observations.
 http://wilmer.karlkvist.com wilmer.t@comhem.se |
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