Most modern people probably have encountered Viking myths in Tolkien’s remaking in his Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien created his own world of fantasy but his dwarves, elves, trolls, dragons, ainurs (Aesirs), valars (Vanirs) of Silmarillion [1] are clearly inspired by Snorri’s Prosa Edda, even the names of dwarves are directly from Snorri’s list (p. 23-24 in [2]) though, in Snorri’s list Gandalf is also a dwarf).
While Edda (not only Snorri’s Prosa Edda but also the accounts of Saxo Grammaticus and Poetic Edda) and British and Germanic legends like Beowulf and Nibelungenlied (though, apparently also King Arthur myths as he wrote his version of them in [3]) are Tolkien’s main inspiration, there are a small number of influences from Finnish Kalevala. The name Iluvatar for the high god resembles Ilmatar, the lady of the sky (see p. 17 in [4]), Turin Turambar’s story [5], though mostly from Sigurd of Edda, spoils his sister and kills himself. This is clearly from the story of Kullervo in Kalevala, especially as the sword answers to Turin just like to Kullervo. (Tolkien wrote a prose version of Kullervo’s story in [6] and used in Turin’s story.) One can also mention creating the world by songs in Ainulindale of [1] and a song fight in Beren and Luthien in [1]. Both fit better to Kalevala than to Edda, and naturally also the name Arwen Undomiel in The Lord of the Rings. Untomieli is a very Kalevalaic name. Notice also the shift m->v or w in Finnish to elvish (Ilmatar->Iluvatar, Armi->Arwen) clearly, these languages are related.
It is interesting to notice how Tolkien changed his characterization of dwarves in Hobbit. In Hobbit dwarves want to regain their lost homeland and the story has a ring, which makes the bearer invisible. Prose Edda does have magic rings. The ring of the dwarf Andwari has a curse on anyone who carries the ring, and Odin’s ring Draupnir, also forged by dwarves, produces eight new rings every nine days. Yet, Edda’s rings do not make the ring bearer invisible. Such a ring can only be found from Platon’s Republic, book II, 359d, the ring of Gyges. On p. 58 in [7] (book II, the talk of Adeimantos 365d) it is clarified that the ring is a secret brotherhood: in order to do evil while appearing to do good, they found secret brotherhoods. In Silmarillion, and indeed, in Tolkien’s first story with dwarves, elves, balrogs and all these fantasy beings [8] there is no magic ring and dwarves have not lost any homeland. The dragon sitting on the dwarves treasure does look like Fafnir from Sigurd’s story in Edda, but in Edda dwarves are not Jews moving to the lost homeland, as it clearly is in Hobbit and which Tolkien did admit. Dwarves in Edda were first maggots eating Ymir, and later they were fine craftsmen living underground and forging splendid artwork from gold. Just one look at Viking gold treasures ([9] has nice photos, though the book is old) shows that they did have fully professional goldsmiths. At that time the best metal workers were Celts, but to me it seems natural to think that the idea of dwarves living in underground caves was inspired by Vikings finding grave goods of some earlier cultures in tumuli.
Likewise, I think light elves were simply forest spirits (black elves in Edda are dwarves), while the existence of giants was an explanation of megalithic constructions that Vikings found in Scandinavia. Later the giants’homeland Jotunheim was pictured in the far north (see e.g. a map by Sigurdur Stefansson from 1590 on p. 16 in [1]), but that only meant that there is ice in the north on the North Sea and that glaciers also move boulders of impressive size. Giants were also known in Finland. In Kalevala the references are to Hiisi (kind of a devil), there are many hiidenkivi, and hiidenkirkko, but there are also jȁtinkirkkos (church of jotuni/giant), see e.g. p. 123 in [11], Pattijoen Kastellin linna in Raahi, piles of stones, maybe prehistoric grave yards. Thus, the different races in Edda need not be mapped to any people. Yet, Tolkien does so in Hobbit.
There is an interesting information in [8], given by Tolkien’s son. While the Wikipedia states that Tolkien wrote Hobbit in 1930-1932, C. Tolkien places the writing to 1937, just before to the time when Hobbit was published. J. R. R. Tolkien suddenly stopped working with Silmarillion and wrote the two hobbit stories. These stories were not simply mythologies of Indo-Europeans. They were related to world events on Tolkien’s own time. Wagner Ring trilogy, an inspiration to Nazis, is also based on Snorri’s Edda and Nibelungenlied, but a significant detail is that Tolkien inserted Paton’s ring with the obvious implication that behind the return of Jews to their homeland was a secret brotherhood.
But this is not my topic in this short article. My interest was awoken by the observation that neither Tolkien’s books nor Snorri’s Edda seem to give a correct interpretation of the Viking myths. As astrological associations abound in ancient religions, I think it is very likely that Viking gods relate to ancient astronomy and I will propose a mapping of Viking gods to star constellations.
A similar misunderstanding seems to prevail concerning Kullervo’s story both in Kalevala [4], probably in a verse that Elias Lönnrot wrote himself to tie two stories together, and in Tolkien’s translation in [6]. All stories in Kalevala (apart from spells for hunting, healing, marriage, bear festival and so on) are syntyjȁ syviȁ, which means deep truths. They cannot be instructions how to grow up a child, or Greek tragedies of a doomed man. The natural explanation for Kullervo’s story is also astronomical.
Let us start by showing that the explanation to Kalevala must be astronomical. It is quite well established that Sampo, kirjokansi, in Kalevala is the World Pillar, skambha, sammas, supported by a turtle (a frog, sammakko, as there were no turtles in Finland). The World Pillar should be fixed to the sky by a golden nail, a polar star, but the celestial North Pole (continuation of Earth’s rotational axis) moves in a circle with a period of 25,800 years (the Platonic year) around the center point in the constellation of Draco (the center of the ecliptic) and there is not always any star in the placed of the celestial North Pole. The poem where Kalevalaic heros (Vȁinȁmöinen, Ilmarine, Lemminkȁinen) steal Sampo from the Northern country Pohjola can be associated with a time when the celestical North Pole changed.
The Sampo story is not the only place in Kalevala which refers to a World Pillar. In the beginning there is a huge oak, which is felled. Vȁinȁmöinen burns the tree to ashes. He also burns a forest (flash-and-burn agriculture) and leaves one tree standing for a bird to sit on. In all these instances we can take the tree as the World Pillar with a bird (the constellation of Swan) sitting on the top of the tree. The ashes are the Milky Way. The Milky Way is also the Lady of the Sky, Ilmatar, Ilman impi, on whose leg a bird lands and the world is created from an egg the bird lays. We can fix the time for this myth as 12,000 BC, the time when Deneb was close to the celestial North Pole and was used as the Pole Star.
Edda also includes the World Pillar: the tree Yggdrasil. Like Sampo, Yggdrasil has three roots. In both Kalevala and Edda it is know that in the end of the times the World Pillar will shake or break. The times are the periods when the World Pillar stays fixed with a golden nail in the sky. In Kalevala it is not told who causes the World Pillar to move. In Edda this character is Loki. Loki is often described as a Trickster god, but a simpler explanation is that Loki is the mover of the pillar. The tricks Loki does in Edda, like stealing the apples, are easily explained by the moving of the celestial North Pole. Notably, the apple is Vega, the second Pole Star after Deneb. Vega is the apple also in the biblical story of Adam and Eve: Adam and Eve are the two parts of the Milky Way. The tree is Deneb. The snake is Draco. The apple is Vega, where the celestial North Pole moved. The son of Eve, who is to be bitten to the heel by the snake is Hercules, whose foot is very close to the head of Draco.
Ilmarinen can be identified with the constellation of Hercules from the heroic deeds Ilmarinen does. He ploughs a field full of snakes. The head of Draco is close to the foot of Hercules, which agrees well with a snake raising its head when Ilmarinen ploughs the field. An other deed Ilmarinen does in order to marry the daughter of Pohjola are catching a large pike with the help of an eagle. I propose that the eagle is the constellation of Swan and the pike is Draco. the third deed of Ilmarinen is catching a bear and a wolf, which can be identified as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Thus, all three deeds deal with circumpolar constellations.
There are similar deeds by Lemminkȁinen, also for marrying the same daughter. The first of these deeds is catching the moose of Hiisi, which can well be Ursa major and Ursa Minor as moth circulated the celestial North Pole in a manner of a hunted and a hunter before Polaris become the Pole Star. The second is catching a horse. It may be the constellation of Bootes. The last is shooting the Swan of Tuonela. This can easily be the constellation of Swan. Lemminkȁinen also travels to Pohjola and has to pass a bird (constellation of Swan), an obstacle on the road (maybe Cassiopeia, assuming that Lemminkȁinen in this story is Hercules and he follows the Milky Way. The last deed is passing a fence full of snakes (Draco). Pohjola then must be in the celestial North Pole. Lemminkȁinen slays the master of Pohjola, a deed that should be explained.
Lemminkȁinen is a Viking (he has many characteristics of Estonian Viking Lembity from Saaremaa, who did raid Sweden) and Viking gods Aesirs had a war against older gods Vanirs. Vanirs were fertility gods and they provided people with prosperity. The Lady of Pohjola seems to be a Vanir: she wants Sampo, a mill which grounds prosperity (money, salt and flour). The mill is similar to Frodi’s mill in Snorri’s Edda, and Frodi worshipped Vanir gods. The daughter of Pohjola is desired by all men, so we can identify her with Freyja, the female Vanir fertility god of Edda. Lemminkȁinen also seems to be a fertility god (or hero). We can identify him with Frey, a Vanir god, who – with his sister Freyja – joined Aesir gods. If so, slaying the master of Pohjola describes the war between the Aesir gods of Viking and the older Vanir fertility gods, but the war leads to a union. In this union Vikings had five main gods: Odin, Thor, Tyr, Frey and Freyja. They can be identified with planets: Odin – Mercury, Thor – Jupiter, Tyr – Mars, Frey – Saturn, and Freyja – Venus.
But there is an older identification than planets. Planets signified Zodiac gods, but older gods were fixed star constellations. Thus, Odin – Orion, Thor – Hercules, Tyr – celestial North Pole. In Kalevala the corresponding identification is Vȁinȁmöinen – Orion, Ilmarinen – Hercules, Ukko – celestial North Pole. Additionally Kalevala has two fertility gods: Lemminkȁinen and the daughter of Pohjola.
The identification of Vȁinȁmöinen with Orion should be rather obvious. There are only two star constellations which usually describe humans: Orion and Hercules. Orion is not circumpolar and the human shaped god it describes, like Osiris in Egypt, goes every year to the kingdom of the dead. This god is a god of the dead, though he does not stay in the kingdom of death all the time. In Kalevala Vȁinȁmöinen goes two times to death and returns. Vȁinȁmöinen is a poet, like another god, who went to death: Orpheus. In Edda the poet god is Bragi, but Bragi seems to be a name of Odin. Odin is also a god of some dead: he has the halls for the dead heroes.
The identification of Tyr (Tiwas of the Germans and Tiw of the British) with the celestial North Pole is reasonable. There must be a high god in the celestial North Pole and this god is a sky god. Both Ukko and Tyr are sky gods. Thor is a storm god and better fits to Hercules, who also has a hammer. Ilmarinen is a smith and has a hammer. Ilmarinen is also a sky god of some time, shown by his name (ilma=air). It is of course possible, even likely, that identifications have changed. Once Ilmarinen may have been the high god instead of Ukko, and Thor took the place of the high god from both Tyr and Odin.
One deed of Loki deserves special attention. Loki caused the death of Baldr, the most beautiful god. If we assume that Loki is the one who makes the world tree shake and the celestial North Pole to move, then we can explain this myth. Today, if situated in the Nothern latitude, we cannot see all stars of the Southern hemisphere. Indeed, assuming that we are in Denmark, like the Vikings, on the 56th latitude, we cannot see stars which are inside the cone of 56 degrees from the celestial South Pole. Especially this means that we cannot see such bright star constellations as the Southern Cross and the bright star Regill Kentauris. But were we in Denmark in 2400 BC, then the celestial North Pole was close to Thuban and the celestial South Pole was a bit right from the constellation Cassiopedia. At that time the cone of 56 degrees from the celestial South Pole did not include the Southern Cross or Regill Kentauris, and we could very well see them by looking at the south in the night. Calculating when exactly these bright stars become invisible, we get the time range about 300 AD to 800 AD, just the correct time for the Viking myth to be invented. Thus, it is very possible that Baldr is the Southern Cross and Hel, the daughter of Loki, is Regill Kentausir. In another times in the Platonic year these stars and constellations will again be visible. We see now why the Aesir gods did not kill Loki but only bind him, and why he will break loose in the end of the times. The end of the times is not the end of the world. Edda promises that there will be another world after Rangarok. Also Kalevala promises that Vȁinȁmöinen will return to let out the new day.
The two other children of Loki with the giantess Angrboda, Fenriswolf and Jormundgand (Midgard Serpent) can also be identified. Fenrir must be the constellation of Sirius (i.e., Canis Major, fitting for a wolf) as in Ragnarok Fenrir devours Odin starting from his legs and Sirius is close to the legs of Osiris (Odin). Jormundgand is naturally Draco. Jormundgand is also a snake in Midgard sea, but this is not a conflict in myths as celestial beings have a correspondence on the Earth by the law of Hermegistus (as above, so below). We may find these characters also in Kalevala. Baldr may correspond to Aino, while the Lady of Tuonela may correspond to Hel, and Sirius/Canis Major may correspond to Joukahainen.
There is no planet interpretation to the heroes (or gods) of Kalevala, but there is the story of Kullervo, which may clarify this issue. If the story of Kullervo contains a deep truth, then this truth is astronomical. Kullervo has sex with her sister. If Kullervo and his sister are stars, this can only mean a conjunction of two planets. Kullervo makes everything incorrectly. This corresponds to a planet moving with a wrong speed, not following the (apparent) movement of fixed stars. Kullervo revenges to the daughter of Pohjola by sending forest animals to tear her apart. This fits well to zodiac: Zodiac constellations are animals and the zodiac system replaced the older system of circumpolar stars. If this is the explanation to the Kullervo story, then the meaning of it is that Finns discarded the planet system and kept the traditional circumpolar star way. The story may suggest the reason: the zodiac system leads to a war. The zodiac was invented by Assyrians, great conquerors of other peoples. Planet constellations often signified an important king. There may be something in this religion that leads to wars. There should be some reason why Kalevala is relatively peaceful, while Vikings were born warriors. One main difference may be the zodiac gods.
Maybe there is something ancient astronomy can give to prehistory. Such as answering why did Neolithic people build observatories like Stonehenge. It was necessary to do so because the days of the agricultural year cannot be reliably determined by correlating the rising of the sun or the moon with respect of fixed stars. Precession of equinoxes moves the fixed stars to new places in the time scale of two thousand years. An earthly observatory made from large boulders stays in its place and the sun always rises in the same place in the four important days of the year (midsummer, midwinter and spring and autumn equinoxes).
There may be more. Colin Renfrew in [12], among explaining the methods of prehistory, also tries to find explanations to prehistory in terms of a population with a faster population growth replacing one with a slower growth. The book is in a way an update of his 1973 book [13], where he successfully refuted the migration theory. (This migration theory was popular already in Snorri’s times: Snorri explains how Viking gods were migrants from Troy.) However, today is is known that the builders of Stonehenge did come from Anatolia, albeit in an earlier age. I do not think Renfrew’s a bit Marxistic approach of explaining prehistory with forces of production is the correct one. People like Vikings conquered new areas, not because they had better food production capabilities, but because they loved war. Religion and myths do have a role in explanations. In Kalevala an astronomical interpretation is clearly suggested as the first poem states that Vȁinȁmöinen was created to watch stars and learn from the Big Dipper. It is likely that all religions where there is the World Pillar and thew concept of times (and the end of times) are variants of a single prehistoric religion. In this religion the peaceful times are when there is a Pole Star, while the periods when there is no Pole Star (like the Migration period) are turbulent as many peoples compete for being the future leading people.
References (I give the books I used as sometimes I make a page reference to a book):
[1] J. R. R. Tolkien, Silmarillion, ed. C. Tolkien, Bookforlagets Pan Norstedts, 1994.
[2] Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda, Penguin Classics, 2005.
[3] J. R. R. Tolkien, Upadek Krola Arthura, ed. C. Tolkien, Proszynski i S-ka, 2013.
[4] Kalevala, Juhla-Kalevala ja Akseli Gallen-Kallelan Kalevataide, WSOY, 1984.
[5] J. R. R. Tolkien, The Children of Hurin, ed. C. Tolkien, HarperCollins, 2007.
[6] J. R. R. Tolkien, Opowiesc o Kullervo, Proszynski i S-ka, 2016.
[7] Platon, Valtio (Republic), Otava, 2011.
[8] J. R. R. Tolkien, Upadek Gondolinu, ed. C. Tolkien, Proszynski i S-ka, 2018.
[9] H. R. Ellis Davidson, Scandinavian Mythodology, Hamlyn, 1994.
[10] Myths and Legends of the Vikings, Grange books, 1998.
[11] R. Lounema, Suomen kansan pyhȁt paikat, Yhtyneet kuvalehdet, 2003.
[12] C. Renfrew, Prehistory, Making of the Human Mind, Orionbooks, 2007.
[13] C. Renfrew, Before Civilization, Penguin, originally 1973.