Georges Dumézil: (died 1986) Most relevant to our study, his theory of an essential structure in Indo-European religion characterized by three social functions: 'sovereignty', 'force', and fertility (roughly representing priests, warriors and farmers). In Germanic myth, sovereignty is vested in Tyr and Odin (indeed this pinnacle of the hierarchy is usually vested in two figures); 'force' is, of course, Thor (principally); and fertility, Freyr and Freya. The priestly/shaman side of sovereignty is often marked by self-sacrifice and mutilation (shown by both Tyr and Odin).