[gothic-l] SV: People Names/GJOTA/CADMUS

[Beril Haggman]

Keth,

Have not written an essay,  only a selected
bibliography. That the latest writings
come from Professor Andersson and not from
me is pretty obvious from the text. I can see
no risk that I would in any way be regarded as the
originator of this material, as I am not mentioned
in the bibliography. 

Thank you for the Noreen addition. Will check it
out and add to my bibliography, which I hope
to make available on the web.

Concerning the verb gjuta it implies, in my opinion,
that it is something liquid: when an iron is cast
that is gjuta and a goet,  (in English it is cast or found)
but Swedish has the same word, gjuta. The expression 
"gjuta olja på vaagorna" also has with líquid to do as
well as semen. Gjuta is "pour" and there is another
Swedish word for pour, that is "haella", which of course
also has a connection to liquid. There is also
the expression "rocken sitter som gjuten" (the coat fits
like a glove).

Of course the relation with semen is not certain but
it fits well with the meaning "man" or "men" for the
Gauts and the Goths.

Gothically

Bertil


In an earlier post I already pointed out to you, that this matter 
of the connection between the "Ablaut" series of the ON vb. 
gjóta and the national names "Gautar" and "Gotar" is not a 
new result, but was already known in 1903, as mentioned by 
your countryman ADOLF NOREEN in his book on Altisländische 
Grammatik, § 160. I think you ought to add this to your list of references, 
since otherwise people might get the impression that this is an idea that 
derives from your essay.


There is however a trick to this, and that is that two words derived 
from different parts of the ablaut series of a verb, do not always have 
the same meaning. There are examples of this. (Does any one have 
an example of this in Gothic?) Hence, in the case of the verb gjóta, 
you cannot conclude that the Gautar are the same as the Gotar just 
because they fit into the same ablaut series. You probably never 
said so. But it might be a good idea to bring this to the reader's 
attention, since the reader might otherwise be inclined to draw that 
conclusion.

Then we come to the "semen" part, which you let follow as the next 
clause, whenever you mention that gjóta means to pour. But it 
could of course also mean "to cast", like in 'casting from metal'. 
In fact, since weapons were highly esteemed in antiquity, and 
especially the weapons cast from bronze, that were probably 
found to be vastly superior to the older weapons made of stone 
and bone, it would be a very natural thing to choose names 
related to certain weapons as the names of nations. 

Likewise "gjóta" is a verb, and Gautar/Gotar might very well derive from it. 
But still, it is far from certain that it has to do with "semen", especially when 
the myth that lies behind it is unknown. The verb "to sow" is in fact a lot 
closser to "semen" than the verb "gjóta" is, and yet "the sown men" 
name is not related to "semen", but rather the teeth of a vanquished 
monster.




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