[gothic-l] Re: Proto-Germanic names of mythological figures (Mjollnir)

[Francisc Czobor]

--- In gothic-l at y..., MCLSSAA2 at f... wrote:
> ...
> Thir's hammer Mjollnir seems to mean "the miller or grinder", a
> suiteble personal name for a heavy hammer used as a weapon, but not
> until the Roman Latim word [molina] got into Germanic; but the word
> also looks like Slavonic words, e.g. Russian [molniya] =
"lightning".

It is not necessary to assume that Mjollnir comes from Latin.
*mel- is an old Indo-European root meaning "to grind".
It is found in Latin (molere "to grind", mola & molina "mill") but
also in other Indo-European languages. Some examples that I can quote
now, without looking in any book:
Greek: myle "mill"
Germanic: Gothic malan "to grind", malma "sand", malo "moth";
          German mahlen "to grind", Mehl "flour"
Slavic: Russian molot "big hammer", molotok "hammer", moli "moth"

Francisc


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