the æsir are the gods of the principal pantheon in old norse religion and norse mythology.the second norse pantheon is the vanir, these two pantheons waged war against each other, resulting in a unified pantheon.in genitival compounds, it takes the form ása-, e.g.in ása-þórr ('thor of the æsir'), besides ás- found in ás-brú 'gods' bridge' (the rainbow), ás-garðr, ás-kunnigr 'gods' kin', ás-liðar 'gods' leader', ás-mogin 'gods' might' (especially of thor), ás-móðr 'divine wrath' etc.landâs 'national god' (patrium numen) is a title of thor, as is allmáttki ás 'almighty god', while it is odin who is 'the' ás.there is also old east norse dialectal *ās-ækia (own: *áss-ekja), i.e.'god ride' (thor riding in his wagon), resulting in the modern swedish word for atmospheric thunder – åska (the form åsekia attested as late as the 17th c.).the feminine form is ásynja (plural ásynjur).the feminine suffix -ynja (proto-norse: -unjō) is known from a few other nouns denoting female animals, such as apynja 'female monkey', vargynja 'she-wolf'.a cognate word for 'goddess' is not attested outside old norse, and a corresponding west germanic word would have been separately derived with the feminine suffixes -inī or -injō.áss is attested in other germanic languages, such as old english ōs (plural ēse), denoting a deity in anglo-saxon paganism, preserved only as a prefix ōs- in personal names (e.g.osborne, oswald) and some place-names, and as the genitive plural ēsa (ēsa gescot and ylfa gescot, 'the shots of anses and of elves', i.e.'elfshot', jaculum divorum et geniorum).in old high german, old dutch and old saxon, the word is only attested in personal and place names, e.g.ansebert, anselm, ansfrid, vihans.the old high german is reconstructed as *ans, plural *ensî.gothic has ans- as reported by jordanes, who wrote in the 6th century ce, presumably a latinized form of actual plural *anseis), as a name for euhemerized semi-divine early gothic rulers.the reconstructed proto-germanic form is *ansuz (plural *ansiwiz).the ansuz rune, ⟨ᚫ⟩, was named after the æsir.*ansuz, itself comes from proto-indo-european *h₂énsus (gen. h₂n̥sóus) 'life force' (cf.avestan aŋhū 'lord; lifetime', ahura 'godhood', sanskrit ásu 'life force', ásura 'demons' ( *h₂n̥suró).it is widely accepted that this word is further related to *h₂ens- 'to engender' (cf.hittite hass- 'to procreate, give birth', tocharian b ās- 'to produce').while other cultures have had 'elder' and 'younger' families of gods, as with the titans versus the olympians of ancient greece, the æsir and vanir were portrayed as contemporaries.the two clans of gods fought battles, concluded treaties, and exchanged hostages (freyr and freyja are mentioned as hostages).an áss like ullr is almost unknown in the myths, but his name is seen in a lot of geographical names, especially in sweden, and may also appear on the 3rd century thorsberg chape, suggesting that his cult was widespread in prehistoric times.the names of the first three æsir in norse mythology, vili, vé and odin all refer to spiritual or mental state, vili to conscious will or desire, vé to the sacred or numinous and óðr to the manic or ecstatic.the vanir appear to have mainly been connected with cultivation and fertility and the æsir were connected with power and war.in the eddas, however, the word æsir is used for gods in general, while asynjur is used for the goddesses in general.for example, in the poem skírnismál, freyr was called 'prince of the æsir'.in the prose edda, njörðr was introduced as 'the third among the æsir', and among the asynjur, freya is always listed second only to frigg.in surviving tales, the origins of many of the æsir are unexplained.
aenir | author | garth nix <tsp> aenir | mediatype | print
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