Othni, the first king of Scania was about my 73rd great grandfather. I may have missed a few generations. Othni was the leader of the Boreades, or the Aesir, the Battle-Axe people. They migrated to Europe from somewhere near the Caucuses in the Bronze Age, circa 2500 bc. Othni appears to be closer to 1500 bc. So that makes him nearly all mythical, but he is still my grandfather.
The Scyldings were the successors of the Boreades, which had itself become extinct. The Scyldings conquered Denmark and transferred their seat there and gave Denmark its second dynasty.
The Scyldings were later dispossessed in Denmark by invading Danes, true Danes [descendants of the Greek Danaoi, not Hebrew Danites], who came under their tribal chief or king Dan “Mykillate” from the Danish Isle of Schonen [their original home] and conquered the Danish mainland and gave Denmark its name as well as its third dynasty, circa AD 275.
The story of the Scyldings is told in the “Skjoldunga Saga”, which is also a source of information on the legendary history of Scandinavia. The short-lived dynasty of Dan “Mykillate” ended in co-heiresses (circa AD 375), who married Gothic, Vandal, and Heruli chiefs, who each contended for the Danish crown, and Denmark eventually came into the possession of the Volsungs, which family ruled the country throughout medieval times.
Back to Othni…
A quick peak at Wikipedia talks about…
The Battle Axe culture, also called Boat Axe culture, is a Chalcolithic culture which flourished in the coastal areas of the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula and southwest Finland, from around 2,800 BC to 2,300 BC.
The Battle Axe culture was an offshoot of the Corded Ware culture, and replaced the Funnelbeaker culture in southern Scandinavia, probably through a process of mass migration and population replacement. It is thought to have been responsible for spreading Indo-European languages and other elements of Indo-European culture to the region. It co-existed for a time with the hunter-gatherer Pitted Ware culture, which it eventually absorbed, developing into the Nordic Bronze Age. The Nordic Bronze Age has in turn been considered ancestral to the Germanic peoples.
I’m currently listening to lectures on the English language. The root of a standard Ido-European language seems fairly convincing, with similar sounds and words for the core concepts, like “snow”, “water”, “father”, and “mother”. Except for the oldest language researched in Russian Georgia. “Papa” means mother. And you guessed it, “mama” means father.
If Othni brought the Bronze Age to Scania, then he brought a culture that was steeped in metallurgy. Sources of tin were nearby, but copper was miles away. Abundant sources of iron was right beneath their feet. Iron technology in Scania began around 500 bc, when contact with the Hallstatt culture increased. Hallstatt iron technology may have come from the Hittites. In any case, iron had a thousand years in Scania before the Viking Age, and it all started with Othni, my 73rd great grandfather.
My 74th great grandfather, Othni’s father, was supposedly Odin of Asgard. So then, that means Thor is my great uncle?
