[gothic-l] Re: The Several Shapes of Gaut

[sunburst]

Hails Dirk!

Thank you for you interesting comments!

>However, around the
>head of Mars there is always a braket typ sign on each side, thus
>surrounding and engulfing the head of Mars,  which does not really
>have a correspondence on the model coins. Can anybody think of an
>explanation? You referred to the moon symbol and its
>significance. Could these brakets be half-moons on each side of
>the head?

They could be.  However, this description puts me in mind of some Germanic
artwork found on breactates and other such items in Scandinavia and England
(including the Sutton Hoo purse lid), which depict a man with either two
wolves, and their mouths are often interpreted as ready to devour his head.
They are sometimes associated with the cult of Odin, and could alternately
represent his two pet wolves. The wide open mouths of the creatures are
naturally rather crescent shaped.  The battling of Tiw and/or Odin with
wolves is a common theme in Germanic mythology.  In Norse myth, there are
two wolves chasing the sun and the moon, with the idea that they will one
day catch them at "Ragnarok."  In the mythology of another Indo-European
people (Vedic) the wolves do eventually catch up, and the wolf swallowing
the moon is said in that tradition to be the cause of an eclipse.

So perhaps there is a connection between Odin or Tiw, and the moon, and the
Gothic coins.  The coins, being primitive, as you say, and small, may have
only been able to have the wolves depiced in such a simplified form, the
maker not having the space or skill to detail their full bodies (Germanic
artwork was always highly stylized anyway).

Perhaps they are depicting Gaut.  That the figure on the coins can be
identified with Mars perhaps indicates that the figure with the wolves found
elsewhere is indeed Tiw.  This does not make it any clearer whether Gaut is
Odin or Tiw, because so much blending between the two occured over the
centuries: both are associated with battling wolves, and with war.  If the
figure on the coin was indeed Gaut, the Mars assocation indicates Tiw, while
the spear indicates Odin.   However, it is important to not expect such
things to always be systematic over great amounts of time and in widely
varying locations: Tiw may well have been depicted with a spear in some
places, and Odin may have even absorbed the spear as his chief weapon from
Tiw.  Thanks for the information!

Albareiks


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