0.0 Prequel

0.1 Before I get started, I can already see where I'm going to lose some people. So while I go into this in some detail within the topic, I'm going to hit the highlights right now to try and prepare people for later.

0.2 First, there is a HUGE difference between official Teutonic/Norse Mythology and what Mr. Fujishima is saying in Oh/Ah! My Goddess! While he does use elements of Teutonic/Norse Mythology as background for his story, he doesn't seem to have felt any need to follow it rigorously and has changed or ignored anything he didn't like. So just because it's the accepted version of the official mythology doesn't mean it applies to Oh/Ah! My Goddess, and vice-versa.

0.3 Second, there is NO absolute version of Teutonic/Norse Mythology! What exists is a generally accepted standard version based on what scholars in that field consider to be the primary resources. And even here they freely admit they have to gloss over the differences between these sources to make it look at all comprehensive. So there is a real purpose behind the question as to what variant of the Teutonic/Norse Mythology Mr. Fujishima may have used for his background information, and the only way of determining that is to see if any of the different versions seem to fit the world of Oh/Ah! My Goddess better than the others. Which is partially what I've tried to do in this project.

0.4 Third, as a consequence of the above situation, there are an incredible number of variant spellings of the names and locations of the people, gods, and events in Teutonic/Norse Mythology. Practically two thirds of the field of Norse scholarship seems to be based on trying to identify who's what in the different sources and disagreeing with someone else's ideas. Part of this of course is due to the old Skaldic tradition of calling someone or something in a saga by everything but their name (it was assumed the audience would figure it out, like if I were to say, "The leader with poor grammar who fought a futile war in search of non-existent weapons of mass destruction" and you'd know who I'd mean. But a hundred years from now...). Another part of it is that the sources were written in different times, places, and stages of those areas' conversion to Christianity and because those versions of the stories we have were written down from an oral tradition decades and centuries after that oral tradition had started fading away. And unfortunately, part of it is because different scholars have a tendancy to prefer using their own phonetic interpretations of things irregardless of what others have used.

The parallels to the joys of translating Japanese into English should be apparent.

0.5 So when I say things like Urdr & Hel and Heid & Angrboda are the same beings and Heid is a ruler of demon-like Jotuns and the mother of Loki's daughter, try to just go along with it for now and read the supporting evidence. I'm not making this stuff up just to impress people. I fully realize that these statements are not in keeping with the standard version, but they are real, legitimate variations to Teutonic/Norse Mythology based on scholarly research by people who have the credentials to do it and a Japanese book based on their opinions could very well be where Mr. Fujishima went hunting for his background information.

And that's a large part of what I've been trying to look into.


Oh/Ah! My Goddess and the Norse Connection.
5/28/06

1.0 When I first started looking under the rocks and behind the trees of the world Mr. Fujishima has created, I started by trying to find out all I could about the Norns of Norse folklore. (It seemed the logical place to start.) This is a revamping and updating of that research.

DISCLAIMER
As always, anything that isn't a direct reference to something in the manga or anime is usually my own fevered interpretations and imaginings (or in this case someone else's) and not to be given any more credence than it's source material. And even the stuff that's well documented isn't necessarily so in the world of Oh/Ah! My Goddess, as Mr. Fujishima always has the right to reinvent anything he's done (and he does).

Also, while there probably isn't much of anything that could be considered a spoiler in THIS article, you never can tell.
So be warned.

1.1 A final bit about Norns and Oh/Ah My Goddess;

I might be wrong (and I'm sure someone will tell me if I am), but the fact that Urd, Belldandy, and Skuld were designated as Norns was only mentioned lately in the Japanese Manga (in the Lind/Rind arc) and never in the movie or OAV. Prior to Lind's thought-comment in that story, Mr. Fujishima never used the title "Norn" for the goddesses, though he does refer to them as "past, present, and future". This supposedly common knowledge comes from outside sources, interviews and introduction notes, not the manga itself. Dark Horse refers to them as Norns in the story where Urd is recalled, but that was their addition and doesn't appear to be in the Japanese text.

1.2 In general, most everything I'm going to say in this topic is about the Norns in Teutonic/Norse Mythology, not the ones in Tariki-hongan Temple. I may make a comment if it seems necessary to point out a connection or if it would be helpful to relate the two, but this is intended to be background on the mythological system. Also I should strenuously emphasize that just because it's in the mythology doesn't mean the same is true in Mr. Fujishima's world. He's stated emphatically that Oh/Ah! My Goddess! is only LOOSELY related to the real mythology and he feels no compulsion to follow any version of it. He's only borrowed those aspects he though were useful or interesting and is ignoring the rest.

1.3 As a continuation of the above, close analysis seems to show that the metaphysics and cultural background Mr. Fujishima has used in his story is Shinto/Buddhist, not Teutonic/Norse (big surprise there). However, what was surprising was how hard it was to actually tell for sure. The world view and beliefs of the Vikings are remarkably similar to those of the Japanese, and there may be a reason for that which I'll hopefully get into to everyone's satisfaction..


2.1.0 WHOSE EDDA IS IT, ANYWAY?

2.1.1 First, as with Egyptian, Greek and other early pre-Christian mythologies, there is no "one" comprehensive version of Norse mythology (and may never have been one). The various stories and sources that make up what we know of the beliefs of the early Germans/Norse come from different times, locations, language variants, and the gods only know what trail of events that resulted in they're being preserved. This has made each source rather unique, using different variants of the names of the gods, beings, and locations involved and depicting often greatly different versions of the stories involved. And this is only for those elements for which there ARE different versions to compare.

The result is like trying to assemble a complete picture of something with pieces from a dozen different jigsaw puzzles. Each puzzle represents a slightly different version of the final picture, and there are just a few pieces from each that show similar parts of the final picture, other pieces that show areas of the picture from only one version, and lots of places for which there are no pieces from any version. Much like trying to put together the back story of Oh/Ah! My Goddess from the manga, OAV anime, Mini-Goddess anime, TV anime, and movie versions. Guesswork and creative interpretations are going to be the norm, not the exception.

2.1.2 Thus, while there are "official" versions of Norse mythology for educational purposes, they are the result of many years of scholarly discussion, compromise, guesswork, and not a little political pressure. So while we in England and North America have our standard version, there are equally valid standard versions for each of the Scandinavian and Germanic countries, not to mention Russian, Polish, French, and others. And they're all a little (and in some cases a lot) different from each other.

2.1.3 Since we have no knowledge of which of these versions Mr. Fujishima used when he was researching background information for Oh/Ah! My Goddess (I have my opinion, which I'll go into later), it makes drawing parallels between his story and Norse mythology even more iffy. But we can still try.


2.2.0 THE POSSIBLITIES ARE EPIC

So we start with which version of Norse mythology did Mr. Fujishima use when he did his initial research. There are three possibilities, each of which has its pluses and minuses.

2.2.1 First there is the "classical" version. This is the pretty much accepted standard version which is based heavily on Snorri Sturluson's "Prose Edda" written around 1200 AD and ithe earlier "Verse Edda" of 1000 AD, both of which were based on sources which, for the most part, are no longer in existence. These literary works essentially represent the Icelandic variant of an old and varied belief system that once spread across the northern half of Europe and has its roots in the beliefs of the peoples of the great Aryan migration. Since Iceland was the last vestige of the old Viking culture to be Christianized, Mr. Sturluson's version reflects the final vision of that belief system, one created by the last remnants of it's adherents and altered to reflect their attitude of how their world was coming to an end and therefore so should their gods (Ragnarök)..

This is the most likely source of Mr. Fujishima's background "borrowings" for OMG. It's the most common version, the one everyone knows about, and is the source for the standard spellings for the gods and goddesses names. There are elements within it though (names and relationships) that do not fit into Mr. Fujishima's version, meaning he either ignored the "classical" version and just came up with his own variant, or he got them from another source.

2.2.2 The second is the Scandinavian version. This also relies heavily on the "Edda's", but also takes into account more of the national and traditional variants based on local legends and myths in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. While not really differing all that much from the "classical" version in its basic structure, there are many distinct local and alternate variations to these basic elements and quite a few stand alone stories that don't quite fit in the standard version. In general though, these two versions coexist fairly comfortably.

While it's not as likely, Mr. Fujishima may have been using a more national version of Viking lore for his reference material. There are elements in the Danish versions that seem much closer to what's shown in OMG. (Hild and Mara's names for one.)

2.2.3 The third is the Old Teutonic version. This version is based on the fragmentary remains of the older belief systems from which the "classical" and Scandinavian versions evolved from. It's elements come from all over Northern, Central, and even Southern Europe, depending on which group of preexisting or invading "Germanic" barbarians (according to the Romans) you care to follow, and is highly fragmented into local variants but still shows a remarkable degree of uniformity at its most basic levels. This is probably because they were all derived from one "central" source, the common home of all the Aryan, or Indo-European, peoples. This "Teutonic," or German, version is probably best known through Richard Wagner's monumental opera cycle "The Ring of the Nibleungens" and a comparison of Wagner's vision to that of the Icelandic Edda's is instructive (do it yourself if you're interested. I'm not going to TRY typing it up.).

But the problem with the Teutonic version is that there is no one relatively unified version, but rather a whole lot of mixed fragments of documentary, archaeological, and mythological elements that provide a sort of tantalizing overview but don't really fit together into a mythic whole. (Even Wagner had to utilize "classical" version elements to fill out his story. Teutonic Valkyrie don't sing and are not at all pleasant to be around.) This is because the bits and pieces come from different times, cultural variants, and stages of development. The gods names and their divine relationships changed greatly as they spread out, with the associated myths evolving to match the environments of the people who believed in them. Actually, in many cases researchers have been able to track where and how the different elements evolved until finally reaching their final forms in Iceland.

Probably the best attempt at coming up with a formal version of the Teutonic variants was done by Victor Rydberg in the 1880s. He went back to as many original sources as he could, established a methodology for reinterpreting the different versions, and came up with something that approximates the "classical" version by fusing the Scandinavian and Teutonic versions. His interpretations have been the source of a great deal of discussion amongst Norse scholars, with advocates, adversaries, compromises, and all the other trappings of a grand intellectual debate. All in all, while the "classical" version of Norse mythology remains securely dominant, its absolute validity as the only "true" form is far from certain.

2.2.4 Interestingly, for our OMG discussion, while most of Rydberg's theories and interpretations had not been formally translated into English until fairly recently and are therefore still relatively unknown to those who speak that language, they WERE translated into JAPANESE fairly early! So it is possible that Mr. Fujishima may have gotten some of his inspirations from a Rydberg version of Norse mythology, or at least a version that utilized some of its elements.

2.2.5 Of equal interest is the fact that the Snorri based version has almost no background information about the Norns. Other than naming them and describing their function, the classical version has next to nothing to say about them. So if we're going to try and examine what mythological background there might be for the goddesses, we're going to have to deal with the Teutonic versions by default. Hence the reason I've spent so much time convincing myself that Mr. Fujishima COULD have used these sources for his background research.


3.0 Go Norse, Young Goddess!

Appolygium - As I explain below, I'm more familiar with early Northern European theology due to my many years in the Society for Creative Anachronism and a personal interest in history and that my knowledge of Japanese Shinto and Buddhist ideology is more recent and of a necessity less extensive then it should be to tackle this line of thought properly. So anyone who feels I'm way off track in the following discourse please feel free to correct me.

3.1 While checking out Norse mythology seemed an obvious place to begin delving deeper into the world of Oh/Ah! My Goddess (since so many of the names and plot elements have been derived from it), it was also obvious the story wasn't really based on it. This was most clearly stated by Toren Smith in a background article he wrote (originally for a story about bringing Oh/Ah! My Goddess to America and later posted on the no-longer-there Studio Proteus website) to explain why he'd translated the names of the goddesses the way he did . According to his response to a question about how he came to translate Berudandei into English, Mr. Fujishima had explained that the story's Norse elements, like the goddesses' characters and names, were only EXTREMELY LOOSELY based on Scandinavian mythology, meaning Mr. Fujishima had used what appealed to him and ignored the rest.

So while it makes sense to investigate those elements and see if they might give any insights into the story and its characters, fans must never forget that Mr. Fujishima didn't and doesn't feel in any way bound by any of it. This becomes especially clear once you realize the gods, goddesses, demons and spirits of Ah/Oh! My Goddess behave far more like their Shinto versions than Norse (not surprising since it's set in Japan). But even so, there are connections between the goddesses and their Viking ancestors, although some of them are rather surprising and I'm fairly sure Mr. Fujishima never thought of them (but you never can tell with him).

3.2 Because of my personal fascination with the dark ages and that transitional period of western civilization, I was already somewhat familiar with early Germanic/Celtic theology. So when I first began investigating the use of tree symbolism in A!MG, the movie and how it related to our goddesses being norns, I automatically started comparing the two. The relationship of sacred trees and Shinto shrines is a deep and complex one, but I was rather surprised to realize how many similarities there were between the structural symbolism of the Japanese shrines and that of the early Teutonic and Celtic ones. Further research seems to show that once you get past the differences in names and titles, the basic symbolism and theological structures of Norse/Teutonic mythology and their Japanese Shinto/Buddhist versions have a lot in common, especially in such areas as sacred trees and natural objects, shrine and temple construction, and the nature of divine beings.

For example, in both Teutonic and Shinto belief systems, religious structures had to be taken down and rebuilt periodically (purified) to ensure they remained sacred, and included a tall pole as part of their temple structures to symbolize a sacred world tree that the gods used to travel and communicate between the heavens and the earth below them. Sacred trees and objects were considered homes to divine spirits and often associated with shrines and temples, and both theologies held that the shrine or temple's deity (or deities) were often not in permanent residence, but only visited on certain dates or conditions, so festivals and ceremonies were needed to please and honor the deity while he/she was there, or to lure/convince him/her to show up on schedule (and /or LEAVE on schedule).

Later on I'll be posting a comparison of the Japanese Shinto creation myth and the Teutonic/Norse version so you can compare them for yourselves.

That Mr. Fujishima was aware of these similarities cannot be discounted, and may be a clue as to why he choose to use Norse terminology and mythology for his goddesses. But it is more likely he's just using what for him is common Japanese theological background information and is unaware of any deeper connections to the Scandinavian mythology he's borrowed. Either way, I now believe the world of Oh/Ah! My Goddess may have more in common with its Northern European roots than was previously supposed.



4.1 The Japanese - Viking Connection, or me sticking my neck W - A - Y out.

WARNING - This is going to be a rather intellectual excursion into showing what I think I've discovered in trying to trace the connection between Mr. Fujishima's use of Norse mythology and why it's hard to separate out the Shinto elements that are obviously included as part of Kosuko-san's cultural heritage.
You can skip all this, go to paragraph 4.6.1 and just accept my conclusions, but I feel obligated to explain how I came to them.

4.1.0 Japanese is classified as belonging to the Ural-Altaic family of languages, which came out of central Eurasia and spread east, west, and north (along the Volga river) making it a relative of Mongolian, Manchurian, Korean, Turkish, Baltic Finnish, Hungarian(?), and the native languages of some of the arctic peoples of Siberia, Finland, and even Alaska.

4.1.1 Indo-European or Aryan, in comparison, came out of the European Ukraine area (which is right next door to the Ural-Altaic homeland) and swung Southeast through Iran and Northern India, West through the Mediterranean, and Northwest through Northern Europe and Scandinavia. Thus Norse and the other Germanic/Teutonic languages can be shown as having originated linguistically in the same general part of the world that would eventually spawn Japanese.

4.1.2 Indo-Chinese, which includes nearly all the other languages that surround Japan, seems to have come out of Afghanistan/Tibet and moved south through India, Indochina, China, and the rest of that part of the world.


4.2.0 As the situation with its language might hint at, Japan is an interesting place culturally and linguistically. The islands themselves were populated in three fairly distinct waves:

4.2.1 Initially Japan was inhabited by the Anui, a light skinned people who seem to have been an off-shoot of the Ural-Altaic language group that traveled from the Eastern Ukraine up the Volga to Finland, then along the Siberian coast and down the Pacific shoreline to wind up in Japan. They appear to have settled in Japan from the North down, meaning Northern Hokaido was the site of both their first and last settlements.

4.2.2 They were later joined by another branch of the Ural-Altaic language group that had left the eastern Ukraine and traveled east through Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea to the Pacific coast and from there to Japan. They had absorbed many of the people native to the areas they passed through and as a result were more Mongolian Oriental in appearance than the Anui. (The original inhabitants of Korea were nearly completely displaced by them, then they were swamped by Indo-Chinese from the Southwest.) These invaders first landed on the central island of Japan and headed south, only to run into and be intermixed with an influx of Pacific island Polynesians coming from the south. The three races became thoroughly intermixed on the lower islands of Japan, with the original Anui retaining their racial and cultural identity only on the northern island of Hokaido.

4.2.3 The resulting racial blend on the lower islands remained fairly stable, with further immigrations seemingly being assimilated with little effect. Thus, while obviously Oriental, the Japanese became a physically, culturally, and linguistically distinct people from the Chinese, Koreans, Philippinoes, and Polynesian peoples that surround them.

4.3.0 What's really unusual about this situation is that the dominant language that formed from this, Japanese, is not a true variant of any of the languages immediately around it. While heavily influence by Chinese (Indo-Chinese) and Polynesian, it's core structure is still distinct from either. It's closest local relative is Korean, also a Ural-Altaic language but so heavily modified by Chinese that Japanese and Korean speakers can't understand each other (think of the relationship between Dutch and Swedish, only more so).

4.3.1 As an aside, while Korean does have a written form (from modified Chinese characters), it never evolved much as a source of literature. As in Japan, Chinese characters were used for most Korean writing, with a correspondingly heavy use of Chinese language elements. The Japanese kana however, while also of Chinese origin, were highly modified for purely Japanese language use and thus managed to hold its own somewhat, while the Korean version was overwhelmed by the Chinese. To put it more simply, in Korea, the Chinese system of writing altered the Korean language to make it more suitable for literary use. In Japan, the same system was itself altered to make it more suitable for use with Japanese.

4.4.0 At this point I need to point out a of couple things. Cultures spawn languages, and peoples who share a similar language class almost always share a great deal of similar cultural baggage. And while the variants of a language class may be incomprehensible to to each other because of all the "borrowed" words and the way the meanings, pronunciations, and use structures of the words may have changed, the basic sounds, syllables, and fundamental structures will remain similar. Which is how they are defined as part of a language group. This applies to the associated culture as well, meaning that, for example, while the names and number of the gods worshiped may change along the way, the rituals, metaphysics and symbolic acts involved (such as creation myths and teaching stories) will remain fairly comparable with only the cast being revised. (i.e. the use of salt as a purifying agent. Nearly all cultures use salt in some form in mystical rituals to drive away evil spirits. Tossing salt over the shoulder to drive off the misfortune lurking behind you, Shinto exorcists tossing sea salt to repel demons, and (in case you didn't know) holy water is basically a salt solution.)

4.4.1 And while languages and cultures tend to travel together, the racial make-up of the people spreading them doesn't have to remain the same. As a migrating race of people moved through different areas they'd pick up new recruits from the locals (both willingly and not) who would then be eventually absorbed genetically into the group. That means the physical appearance of the people speaking a migratory language at the end of its travels doesn't have to even vaguely resemble that of the people who started it. This gradual evolution also results in the language and culture picking up "borrowed" words and elements from those it passes through (and is one method linguists use to trace such things) but the core symbolism and vocalizations tend to remain fairly stable. (Of course if they didn't, we'd have no way of knowing it was all one language family.)

4.4.2 There are even recorded instances of languages and cultures spreading over a vast range without any actual people doing much moving at all. The artifacts, symbols, and by inference, language are introduced to a native people, and for some reason it replaces the local versions. The now "converted" inhabitants then pass the culture along to THEIR neighbors. This results in a slow evolution of the parent language and culture as each new group of recruits adds some new elements retained from the old version. Thus a language and culture, while remaining linguistically and artifactually distinct, can change and adopt itself over large areas and numerous peoples.

(Example - For years archaeologists tried to identify the spread and origins of the "Beaker People" by examining the skeletons found in their distinctive graves (they contained a unique form of pottery, or "beaker"). Failing to find a coherent pattern to the body types, it was finally realized that the "Beaker Culture" was actually the technology of brewing an early form of beer which groups of traders would take with them to new territories. Then as locals learned the art, they would carry it on further to new peoples. The best modern example might be to discuss the spread of the "MacDonald's People" based on finding distinctive clamshell containers, inscriptions of the phrase "supersize it?", and temples with "golden arches.")

4.5.0 Now for something that at first seems completely unrelated to both Oh/Ah! My Goddess and the previous subject but actual does in a strange way. The Japanese - Nazi/Aryan connection.

__PLEASE NOTE!!!!_

Much of the following is NOT the author's opinion, but rather is presented as a historical artifact to explain a further historical effect. So please don't accuse me of being a racist! While much of the old Aryan migration archaeological and ethnic research and the theories based on them are still completely valid, thanks to their being used by the Nazis for their own purposes the words and terms have been severely demonized. Even the term "Aryan" has been deleted from recent literature, being replaced by the less offensive "Indo-European."

The biggest part of this problem lies in that while the legitimate researchers were talking in trends and very large generalizations, the Nazi's took it all at face value and twisted the meaning to fit their own ideas of racial superiority. While it is true that cultures and languages do compete for dominance and that some come out on top while others fade away, the reasons for which ones win or lose have nothing to do with the value of the peoples involved or their racial make-up and everything with historical, economic, and environmental factors.

For purposes of simplifying the discussion, the following is purposely written to primarily reflect the ideas and opinions of Ethanology in the 20s and 30s.

4.5.1 It's fairly common knowledge amongst anyone who's looked into it that the Nazi vision of a "Greater Germany" or "The Thousand Year Reich" involved restoring all the Gemanic speaking people of Europe into one great nation. If any significant portion or area of a country's population spoke German or a German related language, they felt it should be "rejoined" with their cultural homeland. Hitler actually had no intention of "conquering the world", he just wanted to redress the "historical accidents" that had separated the Teutonic Aryans from each other and recombine them into the perfect nation state they should be. This "restoration" also included reoccupying the original Aryan homelands (such as the Russian Ukraine) and any lands that "HAD" at one time been occupied by Teutonic Aryans with people of the correct ethnic background. Any other "foreign" inhabitants who'd just wandered in accidentally (for no matter how many generations) would have to be "gently" relocated. (This, by the way, had nothing to do with the "Final Solution.")

4.5.2 It was also a well known fact (at least amongst Teutonic racial theorists of the 1920s and 30s) that having been the last group of Aryans to leave their ancestral homeland in the Ukraine and having isolated themselves in the Baltic Sea area for awhile, the Teutonic Aryans were the most racially pure and their language and culture the most direct descendant of that old "super race" that had created all the known "Great" civilizations. The other branches of the Indo-Aryans (which had left the Ukraine much earlier to create the civilizations of India, the Middle East, and Egypt) had eventually succumbed to the degrading effects of racial "mongrelization" by foreign peoples and cultures and no longer possessed the "true" Aryan blood and spirit.

4.5.3 The European Aryans were thought to have moved north to the Baltic Ocean, stayed there for awhile, then a splinter group moved south to found the civilizations of Greece and the Mediterranean. And since they were of a much purer racial stock than their "mongrelized" cousins in the area, it was only natural that they would eventually conquer and rule all their neighbors. (Alexander the Great supposedly had blond hair, and Cleopatra is said to have been actually a blond Macedonian who wore a black wig to show solidarity with her people.) The supremacy of Grecian and then Roman cultures remained firm until they too fell victim to the affects of "mongrelization", at which point the mainstream Teutons who'd stayed north and spread more slowly to the North and West came down and took over the Mediterranean areas to create modern Europe. It was further felt by Teutonic/Aryan theorists that "mongrelization" was still taking affect in the southern regions and that the further north you went in Europe, the purer the racial stock became and the more capable and effective the people and nations located there were. (Hence the reason the Vikings were such effective raiders and conquerors.)

(As an aside, it was thought that the ancestors of the Anui either traveled with (or were a sub-tribe of) the Teutons on this northern migration, left some stragglers in Hungary and Finland, then turned east to follow the Russian coast until they reached Japan where they merged with their cousins who took a slower route through Mongolia and Manchuria.)

4.5.4 This "racial" theory of human evolution and the supremacy of the Aryan language branch was widely accepted prewar. It was used to support the legitimacy of colonial empires, racial segregation, and political policies. And not just based on skin color. The "Saxon-Aryan" British used it to justify their ruling the Celts of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. A newspaper article bemoaned the loss of a couple dozen Swedish steerage passengers on the Titanic who could have become "useful citizens" as opposed to the loss of all the swarthy Mediterranean and Irish immigrants. You'll find the concept throughout the literature of the period, including Edger Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conen Doyle, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

4.5.5 The Japanese were also subscribers to these theories. They felt it supported their claim to be the "Aryan Race" of Asia. It first inspired a plan to "reclaim" their old homelands in Korea and Manchuria, finish bringing the Anui into the fold, (it's instructive to note they never considered actual genocide with the Anui, only absorbing them culturally) and finally kick the European overlords out of the area and replace them as the rightful rulers of "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". While they appreciated China's contributions to civilization, they considered the current China decadent and mongrelized and in dire need of new management. Someone who'd kept their culture pure through isolation on an island.

4.5.6 With this attitude, the Japanese government and the Nazi government found they had a great many common goals. Germany had no Asian Colonies anymore to worry about losing and Hitler had no interest in Asian politics except as they might weaken his enemies in Europe. Japan had no interest in European Politics after being essentially snubbed by the League of Nations, but liked the idea of the colonial powers being weakened so they could take their colonies over. And since they shared so many fundamental social beliefs (a topic for discussion by itself) relations between Nazi Germany and Japan were much closer than you'd think from what's generally implied about World War II.

4.5.7 German and Japanese scientists, industrialists, and military observers spent an enormous amount of time in each others countries and shared much of their technological and industrial developments with each other (including jet aircraft, missiles, synthetic oils and explosives, and, SUPRISE!, nuclear weapons. Betcha' didn't know the Japanese were working on an A-Bomb too, did ya'.) This situation has actually been depicted in anime and manga (Amongst other things, why do you think all those blond girls from Germany are living in Japan with old family friends. Miyazaki even used the situation as a major plot point in one of his movies. The one with the cat statue of the Baron in it.), especially the ones that are supposed to take place pre-war. German scientists were held in high regard, as were their theories, including those concerning ancient Aryan culture. So while it was Snorri's Icelandic version of Norse mythology that became dominant in Europe and America, it was the more Teutonic versions (such as expressed by scholars like Rydberg) that made it into the Japanese textbooks.

4.6.0 Finally, the conclusion!!!

4.6.1 All of the above is my attempt to explain why I feel that Mr. Fujishima may have been using a non-Icelandic version of Viking mythology when he was researching and planning his story. Thus the Danish version of Hel (Hildemore) with a daughter (Irpa) who used lightening, or the Rydberg version of Hel/Urda being the same person and ruling the entire underworld on an equal status level with Odin while also being the chief Norn could have equally been his inspirations for the background of Oh/Ah! My Goddess.

4.6.2 Exactly which or what of these alternate elements might apply to O/AMG will be gone into later on, for now this is basically just my justification for even looking at them.