[gothic-l] Gothic religion and magic II

[hrafnsnest]

Hail All!

   I will start off by saying that the following is conjecture.  But, 
in our search for the Gothic gods, we must start with conjecture.  We 
know that Mars is mentioned, we also know that this was not the name 
of their war-god, so we must hypothesize.  But that will be the 
subject of a future posting.  As with all Germanic folk, many gods 
were venerated.  So, this posting will hypothesize on the possible 
Gothic Storm/Thunder god.
   Faírguneis was probably this god.  His name presents interesting 
etymologies that are not without controversy, and it seems as though 
the name is actually "back-engineered" from Old Norse and Slavic.  
Dr. Polomé does present some interesting possibilities: faírguneis 
(Go. "mountain") > Old Norse Fjörgynn (masc. an "earth" god ?) 
Fjörgyn (fem., an earth goddess), related to the Lithuanian Perkunas 
(Latin - quercus) "oak god", Slavic Perun (piorun) "thunder god", Old 
Indic Parjánya, "rain god"; all derived from a common Indo-European 
theme: per-k / per-g-, meaning "hit".  
   A closer look at Perun / Perkunas reveals that certain rites were 
performed before him, such as the placing of arms at his feet, and 
there were special imprecations hurled at anyone who broke a vow. 
   All in all, it is thought that Faírguneis was replaced by þórr in 
Scandinavia leaving the etymologically connected Fjörgyn as the 
mother of the thunder-god, þórr.
 
Jeff



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