[gothic-l] Re: Neil Acherson's Crimea (MYHA)

[Brian Beck]

--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, dirk at s... wrote:
> This proposition would be supported by the fact that the Russian 
word 
> for helmet, 'shlem' (I hope my transliteration is vaguely correct) 
is 
> likely of Germanic origin. See German 'Helm'. On the other hand it 
> worries my a bit that a word similar to mekeis or myha does not 
seem 
> to appear in other Germanic languages for sword, and given that 
> according to Vernadsky the Anti were famous for their swords 
(Beowulf 
> quote) a borrowing into the Gothic language should be considered.
> 
Dirk,
  There are, in fact, several cognates to mekeis in other Germanic 
languages.  Someone has already mentioned Old Saxon 'maki'.  There is 
also Old English 'mece'.  So it is unlikely to be a borrowing from 
Slavic.  In regard to your reference to the Anti in Beowulf, I think 
you are referring to word 'ent' which actually means 'giant'.  There 
are several references to 'enta geweorc', 'the work of giants' and to 
'entiscne helm', 'helmet made by giants' in Beowulf. But the only 
reference I know to swords made by giants is in the phrase 'eald 
sweord eotonisc', 'ancient sword made by the eotonas'; and, of 
course, 'eoton' is another word for giant (ON. jötunn), though I
am 
not sure whether they represented a different race of giants or just 
a different name for the same entity. I don't know whether Vernadsky 
regarded the Anti as a real people or whether he is referring to the 
same mythological race as the Ents in Beowulf.
Entishly,
  Brian


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