The Great Lunar Cycle: The Horse Twins and the Grail [ A glossary of relevant names and charts of parallels appear at the end of this article.] The Aesir-Vanir War and the Holy Grail The Aesir-Vanir War's place in comparative mythology has perplexed and misled interpreters for a long time now, not least because it is somewhat unclear if there is an exact example of the same motif in any other branches. Some point to the Deva-Asura conflict of the Vedic religion, but this can be shown to have at its root an internecine dispute possibly stemming from the time of Indo-Iranic unity, out of which arose, over time, the demonization of the favorite gods of the Iranics by the Vedics as “asuras” and the demonization of the favorite gods of the Vedics by the Iranics as “devas.” The division between the Asuras and Devas fails to match the division between the groups of gods who make war in the Norse myth. These are not the same groups of gods coming in conflict. To greatly simplify the matt...