The Aesir ( Old Norse Æsir, singular Áss, feminine Ásynja, feminine plural Ásynjur) are the principal pantheon of gods in Norse mythology. They include many of the major figures, such as Odin, Frigg, Thor, Balder and Tyr. A second clan of gods, the Vanir, is also mentioned in the Norse mythos: the god Njord and his children, Freyr and Freya, are the most prominent Vanir gods who join the Aesir as hostages after a war between Aesir and Vanir. The Vanir were mainly connected with fertility, the Aesir with power and wars. Ása is also a collective name given to an Aesir of the Norse pantheon. The term Ása tends to have a more religious connotation than Aesir, indicative of worship: it is the root of the name Ásatrú used of a contemporary re-implementation of pre-Christian Norse beliefs. (In comparison, the Vanir are each called Vana and their faith, would be called Vanatrú.) The form often appears as a prefix to indicate membership in the Aesir, for example, Ása-Thor or Ása-Loki.
These words appear to dervied from Proto-Indo-European *ansu- 'breath, god' related to Sanskrit asura and Avestan ahuraAhura is the Zoroastrian term for a god, the chief of which is Ahura Mazda (sometimes spelled Ormazd . This Avestan word is related to the Sanskrit word Asura. It is based on the same Indo-European root as Aesir (in Norse mythology). Zoroastrian gods. with the same meaning; though in Sanskrit asura came to mean 'demon'. The cognate Old English form to áss is os 'god, deity' (as in the still-current surname Osgood). The word áss also means "beam" or "post" in Old Norse, but there has been no demonstration of etymological connection between the two words. SchefferusJohannes Schefferus ( February 2, 1621 March 26, 1679) was born in Strassburg, the present Strasbourg, in present-day France (at that time it was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and outside of France). Schefferus came from a patrician German family ( Schef, a proto-ethnologist of the 17th century16th century 17th century 18th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601- 1700. During this period, the power of England and the United Provinces increased; while that of, held that aesir refered to 'Asian emperiors', that is, a pseudo-feudalicThis page relates to medieval Europe. Compare feudal Japan at the entry Tokugawa shogunate''. Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum itself borrowed from a Germanic root fehu a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held ( shamanistic hereditary ) leadership, emanating out from the Eurasian steppes into Europe in ancient time. No other scholar in the intervening centuries has found any evidence to back this contention.
The interaction between the Aesir and the Vanir is an interesting aspect of Norse mythology. While other cultures have had "elder" and "younger" families of gods, as with the TitanIn Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek , plural ) are among a series of gods who oppose Zeus and the Olympian gods in their ascent to power. Others include the Gigantes, Typhon, and Ophioneus. The Greek myth of the Titanomachy (the war with the Titans) fals versus the OlympianMount Olympus (also transliterated as Mount Olympos and on modern maps, ros Olimbos is the highest mountain in Greece, at 2911 meters high; it is situated at 40°05'N 22°21'E. The name means "The Luminous One" in Classic Greek language. Mount Olympus is nos of ancient GreeceGreece formally called the Hellenic Republic (in Greek: ) Hellenike Demokratia , is a country in the southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. It is bounded on land by Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania, the Aesir and Vanir were portrayed as contemporary. The two clans of gods fought battles, concluded treaties, and exchanged hostages (Frey and Freya are mentioned as such hostages). It is tempting to speculate that the interactions described as occurring between Aesir and Vanir reflect the types of interaction common to various Norse clans at the time. According to another theory, the cult of the Vanir (who are mainly connected with fertility and relatively peaceful) may be of an older date, and that of the more warlike Aesir of later origin, so the mythical war may perhaps mirror a religious conflict. On the other hand this may be a parallel to the historicized conflict between the Romans and the Sabines. The noted comparative religion scholar Mircea Eliade speculated that both conflicts are actually different versions of an older Indo-European myth of conflict and integration between deities of sky and rulership vs. deities of earth and fertility, with no strict historical antecedents.
The chronology of the cults would in that case not be pictured in the myths. However, only Odin and Thor were important in both myth and cult; an áss like Ull is almost unknown in the myths, but his name is seen in a lot of geographical names, especially in Sweden, so his cult was probably quite wide-spread.
The Aesir stayed forever young by eating the golden apples of Idun, although they could be slain, as it was predicted that nearly all will die at Ragnarok.
