by Mikkel Stjernholm Kragh

The modern Danish people (Danskere) is made up of the proper Danes (Daner) on the numerous islands, and the Jutes (Jyder) on the Jutland peninsula, if recent immigrants, etc., are ignored. The original Danes were a Nordic tribe, while the original Jutes were a Germanic tribe. The Danes are of Dan, and the Jutes are of Judah and Dan.

The Deportation of Israel to Areas South of the Caucasus

”In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria” (2 Kings 15:29).

In 724 B.C. Salmaneser V King of Assyria attacked Samaria, the capital of the northern 10-tribed kingdom of Israel, and in 721 B.C. his successor, Sargon II, took Samaria, and the rest of the 10 tribes of Israel were deported to areas south of the Caucasus mountains and south of the Caspian Sea, as the Holy Scriptures record:

”In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:6).

These areas are almost identical to the areas where the oldest Norse chronicles state that the ancestors of the Nordic and Germanic tribes came from, before they trekked over Eastern Europe to Northern Europe.

The Aser and Vaner Homeland South and North of the Caucasus

The Icelandic chief and historian Snorre Sturlasson (1179-1241) wrote Heimskringla (app. 1230), of which the first part is called the "Ynglinge Saga," wherein Sturlasson describes the homeland of the Nordic and Germanic tribes as the areas south and north of the Caucasus mountains. They were divided into two groups, Aser and Vaner, which obviously are the names of Asher and Dan, two of the Israelite tribes in the camp of Dan.

Snorre Sturlasson describes the homeland of the Vaner, which was the lost Israelite tribe of Dan:

“On the south side of the mountains which lie outside of all inhabited lands runs a river through Swithiod, which is properly called by the name of Tanais, but was formerly called Tanaquisl, or Vanaquisl, and which falls into the Black Sea. The country of the people on the Vanaquisl was called Vanaland, or Vanaheim; and the river separates the three parts of the world, of which the eastermost part is called Asia, and the westermost Europe” (Snorre Sturlasson: Ynglinge Saga pt. 1).

The Vaner lived adjacent to the Aser, whose chief was Odin:

”The country east of the Tanaquisl in Asia was called Asaland, or Asaheim, and the chief city in that land was called Asgaard. In that city was a chief called Odin, and it was a great place for sacrifice. It was the custom there that twelve temple priests should both direct the sacrifices, and also judge the people. They were called Diar, or Drotner, and all the people served and obeyed them. Odin was a great and very far-travelled warrior, who conquered many kingdoms, and so successful was he that in every battle the victory was on his side” (Snorre Sturlasson: Ynglinge Saga pt. 2).

The Lost Tribes of Israel’s Trek from the Middle East to Northern Europe

After a war between the Aser and Vaner, which ended without anyone of them prevailing, Odin led the tribes to Northern Europe:

”There goes a great mountain barrier from north-east to south-west, which divides the Greater Swithiod from other kingdoms. South of this mountain ridge it is not far to Turkland, where Odin had great possessions. In those times the Roman chiefs went wide around in the world, subduing to themselves all people; and on this account many chiefs fled from their domains. But Odin having foreknowledge, and magic-sight, knew that his posterity would come to settle and dwell in the northern half of the world. He therefore set his brothers Ve and Vilje over Asgaard; and he himself, with all the gods and a great many other people, wandered out, first westward to Gardarike [Russia], and then south to Saxland [Saxony]. He had many sons; and after having subdued an extensive kingdom in Saxland, he set his sons to rule the country. He himself went northwards to the [Baltic] sea, and took up his abode in an island which is called Odin’s Island [Odense] on Funen” (Snorre Sturlasson: Ynglinge Saga pt. 5, my brackets)

The account of this trek is confirmed by important historians such as Peter Friderich Suhm (Denmark, 1728-1798) and Olof Rudbeck the Elder (Sweden, 1630-1702). Suhm and Rudbeck did not trace our origins all the way back to the Israelites, but Suhm did write -- speaking of the Nordic peoples -- that

“the ancestors of us, the Germans, and the Celts lived together in Asia Minor” (P. F. Suhm: Om Odin og den Hedniske Gudelære og Gudstieneste udi Norden (1771), p. 140-141).

The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl also confirmed Snorre Sturlasson’s account in 2002, when he published Jakten på Odin (The Search for Odin), wherein Heyerdahl specifically wrote that the ancestors of the Norsemen came from Azerbaijan.

The Many Odins

There were several Odins. Suhm writes of at least three different Odins. Odin was most likely not a name, but a title, which meant something like “lord, chief, no. one or prime minister”.

In Russian, Odin means “one”. I have asked a Russian lady about this, and she confirmed it.

The Lost Tribes of Israel are Divided in Two Groups

When the lost tribes, led by Odin, came to the Baltic Sea, they divided themselves into two groups. One group went north across the Baltic Sea and became the ancestors of the Nordic tribes, such as the Danes (Daner), Swedes (Svear), Geats (Götar), and Norwegians. The other group went west across what today is Poland and became the ancestors of the Germanic tribes.

Suhm thus writes that it is

“reasonable that our fathers have come here via Russia and the eastern part of Poland. When they came to the Baltic Sea and present-day Livonia, they divided themselves into two great multitudes. The one went north, and our fathers descend from them, and the other went west, and became the ancestors of many German peoples” (P. F. Suhm: Historie af Danmark, Vol. 1 (1782), p. 4-5)

Denmark Called Vanaheim

After the tribes had arrived in Northern Europe, Vanaheim -- the homeland of the Vaner -- was still a geographical place. Suhm mentions a Swedish King Svedger in the 1st century A.D. who went to Vanaheim and married a Vaner woman, and then continued to Germany, the Greater Svithjod and Gothheim, to search for the old Odin, who had been missing for five years. (P. F. Suhm: Om Odin og den Hedniske Gudelære og Gudstieneste udi Norden (1771), p. 99)

From the context, it seems that by Vanaheim is meant Denmark.

The Original Danes and Jutes

The Gothic historian Jordanes writes in De origine actibusque getarum (The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, 551 A.D.) that the Danes came out of the Swedes. (The original Swedes and the Geats later formed Sweden.) The Danes were of the tribe of Dan, who came to the Scandinavian peninsula along with the other tribes of Bilhah and Zilpah, Naphtali, Asher, and Gad.

The original Jutes, on the other hand, were of the tribe of Judah, who along with other tribes of Leah made up the Germanic tribes that settled on the European continent and the Jutland peninsula.

The Name Danmark (Denmark)

Above: Denmark in the Middle Ages. The two eastern provinces Blekinge and Bornholm are inserted in the upper right corner. (From A. Fabricius: Illustreret Danmarkshistorie for Folket Vol. 1 (1914), p. 539)

The Danish historiographer Iver Nielsen Hertzholm (1635-1693) wrote that the Danes’ and Denmark’s name comes “from the Hebrew word Dan: meaning to judge, investigate, and believes that we are called so because of our wisdom” (according to P. F. Suhm: Critisk Historie af Danmark (1774), p. 144).

In the days of the Old Testament, the tribe of Dan had a habit of naming places after their father Dan, the son of Israel. Dan originally lived in a territory next to Ephraim, Benjamin, Judah and the Philistines. In the early 12th century [B.C.] 600 Danites sought a new territory in the north of Canaan, where there lived Phoenicians, next to Naphtali and the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan. On their way, they camped in a place in Judah, which the Danites called Mahaneh-dan, meaning “Camp of Dan”:

“And there went from thence of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men appointed with weapons of war. And they went up and pitched in Kirjath-jearim, in Judah: wherefore they called that place Mahaneh-dan unto this day: behold, it is behind Kirjath-jearim” (Judges 18:11-12).

After they had smitten the peaceful Phoenicians of Laish with the sword and burned the city, they called the new city Dan:

“And they built a city, and dwelt therein. And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first” (Judges 18:28-29).

In 1219 King Valdemar II of Denmark led a successful crusade in Estonia to convert the Estonians to the Christian faith. Besides King Valdemar and the Danish army, the Crusaders also included Archbishop Sunesen of Denmark, Bishop Theodorik of Estonia, a German army, and a Slavonic Sorb army. The Crusaders encamped at Lyndanisse and began to build a castle which they called Dane Castle (Castrum Danorum), which became the city Tallinn, which in Estonian means Dane City, and today is the capital of Estonia. (It was at the battle of Lyndanisse that a flag -- which probably had belonged to some of the Crusaders and had gotten hurled up in the air -- fell down from the sky, and became Dannebrog, the Danish flag.)

Today Danes likewise have a habit of using the name Dan in their firms. If you type in “Dan” in the Danish online yellow pages, there comes out a long list of firms, such as:

Rota-Dan -- they make different kinds of wheels

Dan-Color -- they produce different kinds of paints

Dan Dryer -- they produce dryers for bathrooms

Dan-markering -- they make road signs and other forms of road markings

DanTrailers -- they make trailers for cars

Advodan -- a firm of lawyers (advocates)

Baby Dan -- they develop, produce, and sell safety equipment for children age 0-5

Dan Auto Parts -- they sell auto parts

Danfoss -- they make thermostats and other products

Dan Group Alarm -- they set up alarms

Bibliography

Authorized King James Version of the Bible

Adam Fabricius: Illustreret Danmarkshistorie for Folket, Vol. 1 (Copenhagen and Oslo: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, 1914)

Snorri Sturlasson: Heimskringla or the Chronicles of the Kings of Norway translated by Samuel Laing (London, 1844) Mikkel Stjernholm Kragh has made a few corrections to the English translation.

Peter Friderich Suhm: Historie af Danmark, Vol. 1 (Copenhagen: Brødrene Berling, 1782)

Peter Friderich Suhm: Om Odin og den Hedniske Gudelære og Gudstieneste udi Norden (Copenhagen: Brødrene Berling, 1771)

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