Vikings (Al-Majus) and Iranians

I came across this for Iranian origins of the Vikings: http://azerbaijan24.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/255-thor-heyerdahl-vikings-and-azerbaijan.html

I think the idea that Zoroastrian duality between God and the Devil influenced the pairs of opposite gods that battle at the end of the world cycle has been around for a while.  Joseph Campbell discusses it briefly in his Occidental mythology.    

Maybe, but this former has quoted a published work which claims that the Germanic people came from Iran and India, too, to explain where the Zoroastrian ideas in Nordic mythology originated.  Its worth reading for anyone interested in Zoroastrian Nordic parallels.  

Haven't seen World War Z yet. Waiting for it to come out on DVD.  In any case, I'm neutral on the subject matter.  The idea that the Vikings migrated out of an Iranic zone is new to me.  This may or may not be of some consequence, but I was studying DNA and it seems that a lot of Swedish and Norwegian kings bore haplogroup I and according to wikipedia haplogroup I is frequent in Iran making it a possible origin of the I haplogroup.  I think paleontologically the Iranians (at least the Pashtuns) have always been classified Nordic too.  If I come across more sources for an Iranian origin of the Vikings I'll be sure to post them.  But like I said I'm new to the idea, and I'm not really sure whether there is a lot of info on the subject out there.  Nevertheless it appears to be convention that at some point the Germanic people were in contact with the Iranians and this explains Iranian influence on Nordic apocalyptic literature.   

"Ancient Aliens" and the History Channel in general is a joke.  They just did a series on the Bible.  What does the Bible have to do with history?  I also saw one "Ancient Aliens" documentary on the underground tunnels in Turkey.  They tried to connected these tunnels to Yima's Var, which is kind of interesting, they did mention that Zoroastrianism had some influence on Judeo-Christianity, but instead of doing a serious investigation into Zoroastrianism and its influences on Judeo-Christianity they tried to transform the cosmic battle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu into a battle between good aliens and bad aliens.  

The reason I make a point of Zoroastrian influence on Nordic apocalyptic literature is because this similarity is different.  There established parallels between the Avesta and the Eddas such as Yima and Yimr, the birth of man and woman out of a tree, and the aesir-bridge/chinvat bridge, then there are actual influences such as a final battle at the end of time between opposites.  For there to have been a Zoroastrian influence on Nordic literature the Nordic people must have been in contact with the Iranians at some point early on after both groups had split from the Proto-Indo-Europeans.  

I believe the name of Vikings relates to the name of Wakhi people, according to etymonline website: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=viking&searchmode=none Viking means "one who came from the fjords," from vik "creek, inlet, small bay" (cf. Old English wic, Middle High German wich "bay," and second element in Reykjavik). [Fjords are underwater U-shaped valleys]

 

I have read different things about the meaning of "Vakh", especially in the names of some rivers such as Vakhan, Vakhjir, Vakhshu (Oxus) in the Central Asia, about the last one, as you read here: http://amudaryo.uz/?p=2601&lang=en it says in the Bactrian language "Vakh" meant “water-nymph” or “the God of water”

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakhan : The Wakhan is located in the extreme north-east of Afghanistan. It contains the headwaters of the Amu Darya (Oxus) River, and was an ancient corridor for travellers from the Tarim Basin to Badakshan. Until 1883 the Wakhan included the whole valley of the Panj River and the Pamir River, as well as the upper flow of the Panj River known as the Wakhan River.

 

The eastern extremity of Upper Wakhan is known as the Pamir Knot, the area where the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges meet. West of the Pamir Knot is the Little Pamir, a broad U-shaped grassy valley 100 km long and 10 km wide,[3] which contains Chaqmaqtin Lake, the headwaters of the Aksu or Murghab River. At the eastern end of the Little Pamir is the Tegermansu Valley, from where the closed Tegermansu Pass (4,827 m) leads to China. The Great Pamir or Big Pamir, a valley 60 km long valley south of Zorkol lake, drained by the Pamir River, lies to the northwest of the Little Pamir.

I think his point was that at one time the Hittites and Troy were thought to be fictional, but now we have evidence to prove that they were real.

You can find connections between all cultures, but there is a method that determines whether these connections descended from a common ancestor or whether they were borrowed.  I presume that scholars believe that the Nordic apocalyptic literature borrowed from Zoroastrian literature because the motif in question can only be found in Nordic and Iranian literature, not all Indo-European literature, hence the borrowing occurred after the Proto-Indo-European split.  

I just happened to come across a source that is now claiming DNA evidence of a link between the Vikings and Iranians.  DNA evidence is pretty conclusive if you ask me.  

Like I said I have even done some research into Viking and Iranian DNA and this is what I found:

When haplogroup made their way out of Iran is another question.  Could it have been after the PIE split? And after the Nordic people borrowed apocalyptic ideas from the Zoroastrians?  I don't know, but it does appear pretty conclusive that the Iranians and Vikings share the same DNA.  

 

Of course some similarities can be found among different remote cultures and they don't prove anything but we are talking about two cultures which have certainly a common Indo-European origin, some of these Indo-European cultures have more things in common and it is meaningless to say these are just coincidences!

 

Many things in the Germanic and Iranian cultures are not just similar but the same and it is easy to find the differences between them and other Indo-European cultures, for example look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warg

 

In Old Norse, vargr is a term for "wolf" (ulfr). The Proto-Germanic *wargaz is related to proto-Iranian *verk "wolf", Avestan vehrka, Mazandarani varg, Zazaki verg, Old Persian varka-, Persian gorg etc. In line 1514 of Beowulf, Grendel's mother is described as a grund-wyrgen or "warg of the depths."

 

In the first part you are right, but it is difficult to say which one was borrowed from another one, for some reasons I think the more northern one is older, for example one of important common things in the Norse and Iranian cultures which can not be found in other Indo-European cultures is Fimbulvetr (three successive winters), according to Avesta, it was the most important event in the original land of Iranians, the Airyana Vaeja (Iran-Vej), it is clear this event couldn't happen in the southern lands.

 

Rostam & Div