[gothic-l] Re: Goths in the East

[Anthony Appleyard]

-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
0% Introductory APR!
Instant Approval!
Aria Visa - get yours today.
http://click.egroups.com/1/7102/8/_/3398/_/969271547/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

: Bertil Häggman <mvk575b at tninet.se> wrote:-
> ... 150 - 350 AD ...
> The Slavic name form for the Goths is starting to form from the Proto-Slavic
> stems *rusu and *rudu (red). *Rusi and *Rudi thus meaning 'the Red-Blond (People)'.
> ...

If you mean the origin of the name "Rus", "Russia", as I understood it, the 
word "Russian " at first meant not Slavs or Goths but the Vikings who set up 
the Rurikid kingdom in parts of what is now Russia. A Byzantine emperor 
(Constantinus Porphyrogenitus?) wrote a book called "Description of Russia", 
including a list of names of several rapids which were navigation hazards on 
the river Dnieper on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople; 
it lists "Slavonic" names and "Russian" names, and the Russian" names are 
distorted versions of Old Norse, e.e. "ulborsi" = "holm-fors" = `island 
cataract'. (The correcponding "Slavonic" name is "ostrobuniprakh" = modern 
"ostrovnyy porog".) Perhaps those Vikings included some from Gotland; but the 
Goths as we know them were likely long gone away west. I read that the word 
"Rus" came from an Old Norse word meaning "rowers", or perhaps"men from 
Rodhrsland"..

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.
Homepage: http://www.stormloader.com/carver/gothicl/index.html