Odin - myth or fact?

[PseRamesses]

1. You mentioned king of Russia, but Russia was formed in early medieval , and you speak of antic times;
2. You tell about Gardarika, but it is a name that was used in later centuries (in my opinion there was no such place in 100 B.C.)
3. About Atlants , there were antic historians who mentioned it long before the time period you describe, in my opinion ....

I was merley using known names for unknown places, ok?! Or do you have the proper name for Russia or Gårdarike from around 100bc-300ad? No, I don´t think so.

Thor is an alien, so Odin might be a person.

That´s really constructive KoA, thx for joining a serious discussion with that remark.

I would not put too much credit to Snorre Sturlusson before the time of Gorm the Old, and even then most of the written accounts would likely to have been nearmythical by the time he wrote it (1200). The same can be said of Saxo Grammaticus.
It is far more likely that the gods were influenced by the Greek gods. It is possible to follow the spread of this sort of pantheon slowly up through Europe. Even after the invasion of the Danes the people venerated what we could call bog-gods. In that the local bog or swamp contained a local deity or protector, even forests have been mentioned, but we have no real finds so that is conjecture.

At least Snorre didn´t have a political agenda, like Saxo Grammaticus had, when he wrote his stories. I also find it to be a belivable theory that "Asarna" are in fact wannabe Greek gods but since archaeological remains from this timeperiod are scarce we can only speculate. It´s just that I find it more than a coincidence that around 100bc artefacts, graves, settlements are turning up in an abundace, especially around Upsala, Sigtuna etc which coincide with the plausible arrivale of Odin in Sweden. Like a big jiggzaw one have to try a piece out and see if it fits with another, right?!

I read about Celtic and Red Indian gods. They seem to follow a certain pattern. They all have a god for their tribe only. He is seen as the godfather, all the members are his children. He has supreme properties and let the tribe to a new promised land. Sometimes his attributes are connected to animals. My theory is that these gods were originally real men, that formed the tribe and went to a new environment.

This is really something that I belive to be the most plausible theory. You can take any civilization, at an early stage, and find individuals or mythological person that was later on deityfied. This is why I started this topic.