ROMAN INFLUENCES
The archaeological finds provide little information on the earliest forms of Old Norse religion. Some scholars favoured the idea that the fertility gods, the Vanir, represented an older religious stratum, while Odinn was a younger element, introduced into the Norse pantheon in the sixth century CE.
The historical origins of the various Old Norse gods and goddesses are still shrouded in mystery, but the hypothesis that Odinn was a late arrival has been abandoned (Turville-Petre 1964: 35-74; for a discussion of this issue, see Lassen 2006: 280).We are on historically safer ground in identifying the distinct cultural influence of the Roman and Byzantine Empires during late antiquity; for example the runic alphabet, which was borrowed from Greek and Latin. In 321 CE Emperor Constantine created the modern week with Sunday as the day of rest. The people of the north took over this system, changing the day of the Roman war god Mars into Tuesday, that is, Tyr’s dag, replacing Mercury by Odinn, Jupiter by Torr, and Venus by Frigg. Apparently, the Scandinavians could not find an appropriate replacement for Saturn, so his day, Saturday, was called laugardagr (probably “the day of washing”). Sunday and Monday were the day of the sun and the moon, as in the Roman week (Jansson 1975).
Trade, immigration and the activities of mercenaries from the Norse-speaking regions contributed to establishing early contacts between Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. These contacts continued after the breakdown of the Roman Empire during the fifth century and may have influenced the pre-Christian north (see chapter 2 in Kaliff & Sundqvist 2004).