[gothic-l] Re: Lay of Theodoric the Goth

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Hail Anthanareiks!
You wrote:
> Daa raadde Tjodrik
> den dristige,
> sjoekrigarnas hoevding
> oever Reidhavets kust.
> Nu sitter han rustad
> paa sin gotiska haest,
> med skoeld oever axeln,
> den fraemste av maeringar.
> These are lines 9-11 of in all 28.
> See in English Loennroth, Lars, "The Riddles of the Roek-Stone:
> A Structural Approach", Lund (1977)
>
>ik qaþ:
>Thankyou for the Modern Swedish translation and the additional
>references.
>
>Raiþ  þiaurikz bin þurmuþi
>Stiliz flutna strandu Hraiþmaraz.
>Sitiz nu garuz a guta sinum

Note here that it only says "guta".
The translation, however, says that "he is now sitting
girth(?) on his gothic horse". Thus the "horse" has been added
in the translation. I recall from the sagas that "Goti" was
the name of the horse of some hero. But it wasn't Sigurd,
for his horse was called "Grane".


>Skialdi ub fatlaþz skati Maringa.
>
>Are you saying this is a derivative version of Gothic or Gothic
>proper, or Proto-Norse/Gothic.  What is Loenroth´s conclusion about
>this aspect. Unfortunately, I do not have this work.

Last year I got hold of an interesting little book
about runes: "Runristningar. Från spjutspetsen i Stabu
till Anna i Älvdalen.", by Göran Stålbom. (Fabel, 1994,
206 pages). It is not a very big book, but it gives a
good overview. It also has some pages about the Rök stone.
It says "Rök-stenen, Östergötland Omkr år 800. From this
may be concluded that the language is nothing but an
early form of Old Norse, or perhaps better "Fornsvänsk".

Efter Vamod stå dessa runor,
Men Varin skrev dem, fadern,
efter dödsvigd son.

Sägom de unga i ätten,
vilka de två stridsbyten voro,
som tolv gånger togos
som valrov,
båda samman
från olika män.

Sägom för det andra,
vem som för nio släktled sedan
miste livet bland reidgoterna
och dömdes hos dem
för brotts skull:

(after this comes the famous strophe about Tjodrik
on his horse. If it was Gothic I'd quote it all)


The interesting part is that he speaks about
a great battle that took place nine generations
earlier. That would have been around A.D. 500.
(maybe these were Bertil's returning Heruls ? ;)

He (Varin) also mentions the land "Reidgotaland".
Snorri in his Edda gives the solution to this riddle,
for there he explains that it is the "meginland"
(=mainland) where Odinn once ruled. The other lands
that Odinn ruled were called Eygotaland; i.e.
The "Gothland of the Isles", which was everything
that wasn't mainland. Snorri then  mentions Sweden and Dennmark
as  "Eygotaland". Reidgotaland must then simply be all
the Northen European lands South of Jutland. And so it
would have included Saxony as well as Pommern. Poland too
I supose.

Best regards
Keth



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