Numero Uno

Ains

The number one in various indo-european languages.

• *ās (Hittite)
• *ainaz (proto-Germanic)
• ains (Gothic)
• oenus, unus (Latin)
• aīns (Prussian)
• vienas (Lithuanian)

There are also some languages where the -s drops out so that you have a variation of uno or ein (in some Latin, Germanic and Celtic languages, e.g., unan in Breton).  Those probably belong as a subgroup of the above.

It is remarkable that the first group’s “one” corresponds to the name of God, e.g., one Ass or the plural Aesir of Asgard.

Then you have the Slavic languages:

• odin (Russian)
• odyn (Ukrainian)
• adzin (Belorussian)
• jeden (Polish, Kashubian, Slovak
• jaden (Lower Sorbian)
• jedyn (Upper Sorbian)
• (but ena in Slovene)

Here the remarkable thing is that this “one” corresponds to Odin of Asgard.  Now, you might say that the fact that the name for the numeral “one” corresponds to a God’s name is hardly surprising.  However, what is so strange about this is that the Slavic “one” corresponds to what is supposedly a Nordic God.  Did the Slavs not have the concept of one “one” before they ran into the Goths?  Was it ena as preserved by the Slovenes? (in which case the Slovenes would have been the only ones untouched by the Goths?) But the Slovene “one” is likely a later borrowing from Italian.

Note that -in is a typically (though not always) Slavic ending.

And note too that odyniec is the name of the lone male wild boar.  The name is Ukrainian or Russian and a borrowing in other Slavic languages – supposedly.  No proof of this has been given.

Odin is associated with many animals (especially ravens) but generally the boar is more of the animal of Freyr (Gullinborsti) or Freya (Hildisvini)…

(though Varaha the boar is an avatar of Vishnu (albeit only one of ten main ones) and there is also the Govinda > gam vindata explanation).

Boar Worship in Eastern Europe

What is striking is that we know about boar-worship from Tacitus (Germania, 45) that:

“Turning, therefore, to the right hand shore of the Suevian sea, we find it washing the country of the Aestii, who have the same customs and fashions as the Suevi, but a language more like the British. They worship the Mother of the Gods, and wear, as an emblem of this cult, the device of a wild boar, which stands them in stead of armor or human protection and gives the worshiper a sense of security even among his enemies.”

And much later from Thietmar:

“From the olden days, the stories of which were often falsified with all kinds of erroneous tales, we have the testimony that whenever harsh griefs of a civil war rear their heads, so comes out of the above-mentioned lake a mighty boar with foam glistening on white tusks and in front of all eyes he rolls in the puddle among terrible tremors.”

The cantankerous Brueckner thought that Svarozic was fire, i.e., the “little” Svarog (with the “big” Svarog being the heavenly fire of the Sun).  If one were to apply this logic to Odin you would get the following:

• Svarog (Sun?) > Svarozic (fire?)

• Odin > Odyniec

P.S. Then we have the following from Caesar

(Gallic War, Book 6, chapter 21):

“The Germans differ much from these usages, for they have neither Druids to preside over sacred offices, nor do they pay great regard to sacrifices. They rank in the number of the gods those alone whom they behold, and by whose instrumentality they are obviously benefited, namely, the sun, fire, and the moon; they have not heard of the other deities even by report.”

So who were these Germans?

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