Travelling myths or Indo-European tradition? The Irano-Scandinavian correspondences

The presence of striking similarities between Scandinavian and Iranian myths has long attracted the curiosity of scholars. The attempts of explaining them follow mainly two lines of reasoning. The first one holds that traditions from Iran spread to northern Europe through different ways in the first millennium CE. The other way round was not proposed – unless we mention Olof Rudbeck and his Atlantica of the 17th century. The second one emphasizes the idea of common Indo-European roots. In this chapter the arguments of both explanation models are discussed and evaluated. Some of the correspondences that have been previously known and discussed by scholars, such as the great winter and the mythic wisdom contest, will be reconsidered. Attention will also be paid to some similarities so far not elaborated, e.g. the anthropogonic myth and the eschatological battle. In the discussion I will point out the problems of the comparative approach but also its advantages. The conclusion to be drawn is that the similarities between Scandinavian and Iranian mythology essentially go back to a shared heritage of myths belonging to the Indo-European period.