We would be left then with Njörðr as the primary repository of the Soma mythos in Norse mythology, as the presumptive “soma” plant (whatever its Norse equivalent was) and moon god and, if the Norse model matches the Indian, lord of the liquid of immortality, and a lord of the liquid element generally, of the waters. This would connect very well with Njörðr's close association with the sea, the moon seen as the master of the waters of the ocean and of waters generally. Encyclopedia Britannica describes the deity Soma thus:
The personified deity Soma was the “master of plants,” the healer of disease, and the bestower of riches... The pressing of soma was associated with the fertilizing rain, which makes possible all life and growth.
Njörðr is repeatedly associated with wealth as well as the sea, as when he and Skadi go to live at the sea periodically during their marriage. His home by the sea, Noatun, means “ship-enclosure.” In Gylfaginning 23 he is said to be prayed to for sea voyages, fishing, and wealth: “He is invoked by seafarers and by fishermen. He is so rich and wealthy that he can give broad lands and abundance to those who call on him for them.” In the same passage Snorri says has the power to still sea and fire. He is called “the giving god” in Skaldskaparmal, and in Heimskringla is called “wealthy” again and is said to have power over general prosperity and the growth of crops (another perennial lunar power). Similarly, endless associations of the Vedic god Soma to both wealth and waters can be found by a brief perusal of book 9 of the Rig Veda, the book of the Rig Veda entirely dedicated to Soma (also called here "Pavamana" and "Indu"):
"The mighty waters, yea, the floods accompany thee Mighty One” (9.2.4)
“The lake is brightened in the floods. Soma, our Friend
this God dives into waters, and bestows
Rich gifts upon the worshipper
Away he rushes with his stream, across the regions, into heaven,
And roars as he is flowing on.” (9.3.5-7)
“O Indu, bring us wealth in steeds, manifold, quickening all life.” (9.4.10)
“Flow on to us and make us rich.
Send down the rain from heaven, a stream of opulence from earth. Give us,
O Soma, victory in war.” (9.8.7-8)
“In the stream's wave wise Soma dwells, distilling rapture” (9.12.3)
“O Pavamana, bring us wealth bright with a thousand splendours.” (9.12.9)
“May they in flowing give us wealth in thousands, and heroic power,—
These Godlike Soma-drops effused.” (9.13.5)
“Comprising all the treasures that are in the heavens and on the earth,
Come, Soma, as our faithful Friend.” (9.14.8)
“Becoming Sovran of the streams.
“He, over places rough to pass, bringing rich treasures closely packed.
Descends into the reservoirs.
Men beautify him in the vats, him worthy to be beautified,
Him who brings forth abundant food.” (9.15.5-7)
“He who containeth in his hands all treasures much to be desired:
All-bounteous art thou in carouse.” (9.18.4)
“O Pavamana, find us wealth.” (9.19.6)
“For he, as Pavamana, sends thousandfold treasure in the shape
Of cattle to the singing-men.” (9.20.2)
“Pour lofty glory on us, send sure riches to our liberal lords,
Bring food to those who sing thy praise.” (9.20.4)
“Thou, Soma, boldest wealth in kine which thou hast seized from niggard churls" (9.22.7)
Perhaps most striking,
"Soma, Lord of wealth:
Fill full the sea that claims our praise.” (9.29.3)
“O Indu, as thou flowest on bring us the wealth of earth and heaven,
And splendid vigour, in thy stream.” (9.29.6)
“THE, Soma-drops, benevolent, come forth as they are purified,
Bestowing wealth which all may see.” (9.31.1)
“the rivers flow to thee Soma” (9.31.3)
“LIKE waves of waters, skilled in song the juices of the Soma speed
Onward" (9.33.1)
And:
"From every side, O Soma, for our profit, pour thou forth four seas
Filled full of riches thousandfold.” (9.33.6)
“Pour forth on us abundant wealth, O Pavamana, with thy stream.
Wherewith thou mayest find us light
O Indu, swayer of the sea, shaker of all things, flow thou on,
Bearer of wealth to us with might.” (9.35.1-2)
“May Soma pour all treasures of the heavens, the earth, the firmament
Upon the liberal worshipper.” (9.36.5)
“FLOW On, O thou of lofty thought
Preparing what is unprepared, and bringing store of food to man,
Make thou the rain descend from heaven.” (9.39.1-2)
“O Indu, Soma, send us now great opulence from every side, Pour on us treasures thousandfold.
O Soma Pavamana, bring, Indu, all splendours hitherward:
Find for us food in boundless store.
As thou art cleansed, bring hero strength and riches to thy worshipper,
And prosper thou the singer's hymns.
O Indu, Soma, being cleansed, bring hither riches doublypiled,
Wealth, mighty Indu, meet for lauds.” (9.40.3-6)
“Pour out on us abundant food, when thou art pressed, O Indu wealth
In kine and gold and steeds and spoil.
Flow on thy way, Most Active, thou. fill full the mighty heavens and earth,
As Dawn, as Sūrya with his beams.
On every side, O Soma, flow round us with thy protecting stream,
As Rasā flows around the world.” (9.41.4-6)
“Soma, while purifying, sends hither all things to be desired
Soma, effused, pour on us wealth in kine, in heroes, steeds, and spoil,
Send us abundant store of food.” (9.42.5-6)
“O Soma Pavamana, find exceeding glorious wealth for us,
Wealth, Indu, fraught with boundless might.” (9.43.4)
“So, to increase our wealth to-day, Inspirer” (9.44.6)
“Unbar for us the doors of wealth.” (9.45.3)
“Thus, Soma, Conqueror of wealth! flow, finding furtherance for us,
Giver of ample opulence.
Lord over riches” (9.46.5)
“WEALTH-WINNER, dwelling in the sky” (9.52.1)
“Pourst down the rain upon us, pour a wave of waters from the sky,
And plenteous store of wholesome food.” (9.49.1)
“Indu, Wealth-giver” (9.52.5)
“pour forth the food that streams with milk
Increase the sea that merits laud.” (9.61.15)
“Soma who rainest gifts, may we win riches with our hero sons" (9.61.23)
As Eliade sums it up, the moon governs the seas and the rains, and all fertility is its gift (Eliade, Patterns, §§ 49 ff). "The organic connection between the moon and vegetation is so strong that a very large number of fertility gods are also divinities of the moon," he says, further asserting that "In almost all the gods of vegetation there persist lunar attributes or powers -- even when their divine "form" has become completely autonomous"(Eliade, 162). The moon was seen as an agricultural god (by Indo-Europeans as well as other peoples), a source of vegetative powers, rains, and the wealth they bring, just as Njörðr is most prominently known to be god of the sea and of wealth.
Njörðr's unsuccessful marriage to Skaði, where three nights would be spent at sea and nine would be spent on the mountain tops could then indicate an understanding of the seasons or lunar phases, certain ones ruled by the moon, others more dominated by the ray of sun which rises above the mountain peaks and gleams down their snowy slopes like a skier. Indeed, wolves disturb Njörðr in the mountains by their howling (a striking lunar image), and it is said that he loves rather the placid lunar animal the swan. Skaði is awoken each morning by gulls, as could be said of the sunbeam. Their failed marriage then would be seen on the material level either as the waning and vanishing of light from the moon, or as the transition from night to day, where the sunbeam must be wed to other husbands, or as some seasonal or lunisolar change.
It may be objected here that if the son of Njörðr, Freyr, is supposed to be the Horse Twin god, then he ought to be the son of Father Sky, as seen in Vedic, Greek, and Irish myth, or at least the son of the Sun god, as in some versions of the Vedic tradition. After all, the Twins, and indeed Freyr himself, seem to be very solar gods. How then could a Horse Twin have been born of a moon god?
The more specific evidence for Freyr as a Horse Twin will be presented in the subsequent parts. One possibility is that, by the Asvins' important association with Soma as seen in the primary myth we have been discussing, the Horse Twin(s) and Moon god maybe have become so closely linked to one another as to become considered father and son in the Norse version. Alternately, the moon as father of the Horse Twins could have been the more archaic and original parentage, though this can only be speculated upon. Ultimately, the fact that both the Horse Twins and the Soma god have close associations to plentifulness, wealth, and other such "third function" domains, and that their central myth involves them teaming up against the higher gods in order to win admittance to the sacrifice, makes the pair a natural grouping and gives them a true familial character.
It must be remembered that Njörðr is almost never proposed to be Father Sky or the Sun god in the first place, but is generally supposed simply to be a sea deity or perhaps a god of the plentifulness of both land and sea, pictured as a hypothetical mate to the theorized Earth goddess Nerthus. Thus to claim Njörðr is in fact Soma, the plant and moon god, is no more a problem for Freyr's proposed Horse Twin parentage than the usual interpretations are. And as we can see from the fact that Vedic tradition already shows examples of the Horse Twins' parentage changing from Sky to Sun, it is evident their parentage was not unchangeable. The Moon god, after all, a great celestial deity already closely associated with them in myth, would be a more logical alternate of the Sky Father than a “sea god” would. In fact, the Horse Twins are not purely solar gods, and are more accurately markers of the transitional state between night and day, associated with morning and possibly evening stars as well as sunrise and possibly sunset, known primarily as bringers of light from the darkness. Hence, the Horse Twin Freyr could be seen as son of the Moon in this sense, following his father's setting by rising as the morning star and leading the way for day via his wedding to another of the shining maidens of the house of the sun god.
One very strong support for the Horse Twin-Moon god pairing is the Irish Midir, who we have identified with Chyavana and Njörðr. While the Father Sky god the Dagda is the father of the Horse Twin Aengus, Midir is said to be Aengus' foster father. Thus Father Sky and the Soma Moon God share the paternal role in relation to the Horse Twin in the Irish version. This may be evidence that the Moon god and Father Sky were originally seen as sharing parentage of the Horse Twin in a certain way. Furthermore, in the Welsh version, the figure known as Pwyll, father to Pryderi the "Young Son" Horse Twin born on the same night as a horse to his horse goddess mother, seems also to be a lunar god, either the Soma-associated Gandharva or the Moon god himself, as we will see. Thus the Welsh version would also break the tradition of Horse Twin as son of Father Sky, instead making him son of a lunar-related deity once again. The Norse, Irish, and Welsh cases all showing moon-related gods as father figures to the Horse Twin(s) would constitute a veritable trend in this direction, indicating that in Northwestern European this lunar heritage of the Horse Twin(s) was well understood
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