This subtopic didn’t “take off” in this thread – just as well, perhaps, as all the conjectures seem so speculative – but I should comment as regards the Q Y-Dna haplogroup. (Or rather Q1a2 and/or Q1a3 since subclades are needed to deal with detail.)
The actic nomads, including Saami, are largely of N haplogroup, not Q. In Scandinavia, Q population correlates with R1a population, not the N in the North.
Speculation about the origin of Norse Q includes the Huns and Etruscans! There is a forum for discussing this haplogroup, though you may need a (free) account just to read it.
I do not do genetics, I do dig in the dirt archeology.
What genetic typing are the Ramda Chert/Red Paint People? They went around from New England to Europe. I have gotten into several arguments with archeologists about their beliefs with respect to settlement movement dating, sort of chicken and egg [why does a group that starts in europe have a ritual item that is only able to be made with material from the new world - though it does involve needing to find the swamped settlements under the north sea]
I think one of the posts in the forum I mentioned did suggest them as the possible source of Scandinavian Q, and I think one of the replies suggested their haplogroup was unknown or unclear.
Did you read Faux’ paper by the way? It mentions dirt diggings as well, e.g.
I’ve no clue whatsoever whether the guy is a genius or a crackpot … that’s why I asked.
This is a nice idea but rather unlikely. There’s over a thousand years between the last time the Dutch worshipped their Odin cognate and the creation of Santa Claus as we know him. It’s not impossible, but it seems more like someone noticing a neat but coincidental parallel and assuming a connection.
There is a direct tie between Norse mythology and Cecil Adams. According to Paul S. Piper’s “What Makes Cecil Adams the world’s greatest reference librarian”, from the February 1995 American Libraries, “How did he get into this profession? Reputedly it is a divine calling, with the archetype of Cecil, a relative of the Norse god Odin, coming to him in a dream and saying ‘take the helm’.”