Götter mit Migrationshintergrund

[oloriel]

So yesterday, I had an epiphany while reading an essay.

Backstory time!
I did read the Edda at some point, but it was a kiddy version and didn't have annotations so, for instance, you'd read a word like "Tyrkland" and nobody would tell you what "Tyrkland" is. I mean, today I look at the word and see certain parallels to a modern country named "Turkey", but back in those days, I apparently didn't make that connection? Or I forgot about it long ago.

Anyway. So Odin and his brady bunch of Æsir immigrated into the Skandinavian (or broader Germanic, really) world from somewhere south, namely, Tyrkland, yes? MAN, THOSE ARE SOME WELL-INTEGRATED IMMIGRANT WORKERS. (I'm sorry I could not resist!) Of course, back in those days, "Tyrkland" wasn't in fact Turkey but somewhere in Central Asia and --
oh God.
Æsir.
Asia.
As---
Does that mean that etymologically, Asia and Asgard might be the same word? DOES IT?
LAUGHING MY ASS OFF FOREVER.

[/things that amuse me]

(The etymology dictionaries tell me stuff about one being speculated to stem from Akkadian asu, meaning "to rise", "to go forth", and the other originating from PIE *ansu-, "spirit", related to Sanskrit asu. As there is no PIE root given for Akkadian asu, so there might or might not be a link between the two, this is spectacularly unhelpful. :P OH WELL IT'S A VALID THEORY AND I'M LEAVING IT THERE.)

Either way, this bit of knowledge makes those Neonazi groups who invoke them good old "Germanic" gods look really pretty stupid, doesn't it? I mean, even more stupid.