Editing Vanir (section)

===Historicists and structuralists===
Much of the discussion among scholars on the topic of the Vanir has historically been on the question of whether the Vanir are the reflection of a purported historic meeting between different peoples in the ancient past (''historicists'') or an extension of [[Proto-Indo-European mythology]] where such a narrative may have existed for complex social reasons (''structuralists'') among the early Indo-European peoples, and thereafter spread to their descendants. Notable proponents of the historicist position include [[Karl Helm]], [[Ernst Alfred Philippson]], [[Lotte Motz]], and Lotte Headegger, whereas notable proponents of the structuralist view include [[Georges Dumézil]], [[Jan de Vries (philologist)|Jan de Vries]], and [[Gabriel Turville-Petre]]. The structuralist view has generally gained the most support among academics, although with caveats, including among [[Jens Peter Schjødt]], [[Margaret Clunies Ross]], and [[Thomas DuBois]].{{sfn|Schjødt|2014|p=20}}{{efn|For additional discussion on this topic, see {{harvnb|Dumézil|1959}}, {{harvnb|Dumézil|1973}}, and {{harvnb|Tolley|2011|p=22}}.}}

Like the Vanr goddess Freyja, the Vanir as a group are not attested outside Scandinavia. Traditionally, following ''Völuspá'' and the ''Prose Edda'', scholarship on the Vanir has focused on the Æsir–Vanir War, its possible basis in a war between peoples, and whether the Vanir originated as the deities of a distinct people. Some scholars have doubted that they were known outside Scandinavia; however, there is evidence that the god Freyr is the same god as the Germanic deity [[Yngvi|Ing]] (reconstructed as [[Proto-Germanic]] ''*Ingwaz''), and that, if so, he is attested as having been known among the [[Goths]].{{sfn|Grundy|1998|p=65}}