Thunder and Lightening

I vaguely remember being told thunder was furniture being moved, but I can’t recall who was doing the moving. 

I haven’t any other thunder related folk belief tales to add, though thunder does bring to mind Zeus, the ancient Greek King of the Gods and God of Thunder, lightening, hail, rain and other things. Zeus deposed his father Cronus, and with lots drawn from a helmet, he divided the world between himself and his two brothers, ending up with the sky. 

Perhaps the forked lightening was one of his thunderbolts! 

Don’t forget Thor….

I think theres quite a lot of linkage between between the deities of the ancient middle east and more historical ones, I read a book on the links between Scandinavian beliefs and Mespotamian beliefs. I'll try and dig it up and tell you what it was.

As well as thunder gods theres also similarities with the Goddess being the sun and the God the moon and with Goddesses being drawn in carriages pulled by cats.

ArchaeC, I think part fo the fascination for me about researching this lesser known path, is that we can look at the archaeology, what are the similarities in material culture, iconography, what and where were the trade links? Then we get onto the gentetics, can we see genetic similarities between early Northern Europeans and those from the Middle East? Could ancient Sumarian beliefs come as part of a Neolithic package? We know farming and domesticated animals did, it would seem a lot of people came north and west too, it would seem very strange if they had left thier inner culture behind and just brought thier material culture with them. There's anohter book I have which might interest you as it sheds light on pre-historic Scandinavia and that's, The Children of Ash and Elm, A history of the Vikings. by Neil Price, agains mines an ebook on my kindle, but it's available in hard copy, maybe you could get it from your local library?

I think the Nephilim by thier very nature undermine a lot of the OT and ask to many questions of it that are to uncomfortable to answer, leaving the field open to conspiracy theorists. One fo the Best books I've read on it is  From the Ashes of Angles, by Andrew Collins, it's still pretty out there, but not as far as some.

Thank you for that TheCatWoman . Your information gives me something to sink my teeth into and I am at my happiest when searching for potential missing links.

It’s fascinating to think of these stories and myths travelling with our ancestors from Asia through Europe and into Scandinavia. 

The written Sumerian sources going back to c.3200BCE have proven too difficult to be fully translated by experts, and chunks of cuneiform have broken from the tablets and have been lost. At least some of the Mesopotamian myths would have been passed down through previous generations. There is a big gap in culture and years from Sumerian to Akkadian culture, and on down and across cultures and years, but art and iconography imagery and figurines could also provide clues into some of the myths. Christian Old Testament scholars have been unable or unwilling to seriously tackle the Nephilim, but I have read somewhere about a potential link with Mesopotamia, so it is worth looking at. 

The book is Anglo-Saxon Pagainism, History and Beliefs, by Jamie Lang, mines an ebook on my kindle downloaded from amazon.

I remember being intrigued by it and wanting to do more research, but not being able to find anything I wanted on Innana and Ishtar, I think that there are more biblical links with Ishtar, or certainly OT ones as the early Jews had more contact with the worshipers of Ishtar, theres some ideas around the Nephilim being the offspring of angels and "the daughters of Ishtar", some of the stuff's a bit fringe.

But the research in Langs book points to contact and maybe survival or intermixing of Scandinavian Gods and Innana and Mesopotamia. I think this could be one of the least explored linkages of early religion and hasn't had all the accretions of the OT and Ishtar links, or the Helenistic pantheon. Early forms of Greek religion are interesting too and I'd like to look more at how they were expressed and did some of the Helenistic gods get tacked onto to any earlier Greek deities?

I can't remember if it's this book or another that tries to seperate the Vanir from the Aesir in Scandinavian religion, I was less convinced by that, or maybe less convinced by the interpretation given than to the idea that they were different godly families.

The book is Anglo-Saxon Pagainism, History and Beliefs, by Jamie Lang, mines an ebook on my kindle downloaded from amazon.

I remember being intrigued by it and wanting to do more research, but not being able to find anything I wanted on Innana and Ishtar, I think that there are more biblical links with Ishtar, or certainly OT ones as the early Jews had more contact with the worshipers of Ishtar, theres some ideas around the Nephilim being the offspring of angels and "the daughters of Ishtar", some of the stuff's a bit fringe.

But the research in Langs book points to contact and maybe survival or intermixing of Scandinavian Gods and Innana and Mesopotamia. I think this could be one of the least explored linkages of early religion and hasn't had all the accretions of the OT and Ishtar links, or the Helenistic pantheon. Early forms of Greek religion are interesting too and I'd like to look more at how they were expressed and did some of the Helenistic gods get tacked onto to any earlier Greek deities?

I can't remember if it's this book or another that tries to seperate the Vanir from the Aesir in Scandinavian religion, I was less convinced by that, or maybe less convinced by the interpretation given than to the idea that they were different godly families.

ArchaeC, I think part fo the fascination for me about researching this lesser known path, is that we can look at the archaeology, what are the similarities in material culture, iconography, what and where were the trade links? Then we get onto the gentetics, can we see genetic similarities between early Northern Europeans and those from the Middle East? Could ancient Sumarian beliefs come as part of a Neolithic package? We know farming and domesticated animals did, it would seem a lot of people came north and west too, it would seem very strange if they had left thier inner culture behind and just brought thier material culture with them. There's anohter book I have which might interest you as it sheds light on pre-historic Scandinavia and that's, The Children of Ash and Elm, A history of the Vikings. by Neil Price, agains mines an ebook on my kindle, but it's available in hard copy, maybe you could get it from your local library?

I think the Nephilim by thier very nature undermine a lot of the OT and ask to many questions of it that are to uncomfortable to answer, leaving the field open to conspiracy theorists. One fo the Best books I've read on it is  From the Ashes of Angles, by Andrew Collins, it's still pretty out there, but not as far as some.

Thank you for that TheCatWoman . Your information gives me something to sink my teeth into and I am at my happiest when searching for potential missing links.

It’s fascinating to think of these stories and myths travelling with our ancestors from Asia through Europe and into Scandinavia. 

The written Sumerian sources going back to c.3200BCE have proven too difficult to be fully translated by experts, and chunks of cuneiform have broken from the tablets and have been lost. At least some of the Mesopotamian myths would have been passed down through previous generations. There is a big gap in culture and years from Sumerian to Akkadian culture, and on down and across cultures and years, but art and iconography imagery and figurines could also provide clues into some of the myths. Christian Old Testament scholars have been unable or unwilling to seriously tackle the Nephilim, but I have read somewhere about a potential link with Mesopotamia, so it is worth looking at.