[gothic-l] Namó Saúrtis jah namna funis

[konrad_oddsson]

Háilái galistans allái!

The following has come to light regarding "Saúrts":

In Norse, the final fire by which the world is burned before the 
birth of a new one for gods and good Goths is called "Surtalogi".
While there is only one Surtr in traditional "Gothdom", the form 
"Surta-" in the word "Surtalogi" would indicate by the rules of 
Norse grammar that there were more than one. "A-" appears in the 
genitive plural of Norse words, not in the gen. or dat. sg. of 
strong masc. nouns as the form "Surta-" would seem to indicate. 
Nevertheless, the form "Surtalogi" is firm and fast by tradition.
On the basis of linguistic research into primitive Norse and Gothic, 
however, we can safely conclude that the dative case was once more 
varied in Norse than later proved true in the written Norse of later 
centuries. Thus, as Saúrts is much older than the Norse of the 
viking age and as Norse has otherwise been shown to retain archaic 
compound words of this type, I am forced to conclude that the 
form "Surtalogi" contains an example of a surviving primitive dative 
construction. This is certainly not without precedent in Norse. 
Also, forms like "Surtalogi" could become fixed by traditional use. 
This would lend strong support to the declension proposed in a 
previous post regarding the form and declension of the name in 
fourth century Gothic:

N. Saúrts
A. Saúrt
G. Saúrtis
D. Saúrta

The dative "Saúrta" thus supported lends credence to a regular 
strong paradigm of this type. 

The second element in the Norse compound "Surtalogi" brings me to 
the other purpose of this post: an inquiry into terms for fire.
Fourth century Gothic must have had many more words for fire than 
appear in the pages of that incomplete translation of a Greek 
translation of an Aramaic book that we are all presumably studying 
very diligently in our collective endeavor to master Gutiska! 

Here are some of the numerous words for fire & flame found in Norse: 

funi, Neut. (compare Goth. Neut. "fón")
tandri, Masc.
fúrr, Masc.
logi, Masc.
eldr, Masc. 
brími, Masc.

These are a few of many such words in Norse. It also appears that 
the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were linguistically wealthy in this 
area as well. As I am no expert in Anglo-Saxon, you are encouraged 
to cite more words of this type if you know of any. Here a couple:

æled, Masc. (long Æ; see Norse "eldr" above)
fýr, Neut. (see Norse "fúrr" above)

Any other words for fire & flame from Anglo-Saxon or any another 
Germanic language would be welcome here. Finally, are there other 
attested words for fire or flame in Gothic than "fón"? 

Here is one possibility for Gothic: Masc. aílds N, aíld A, aílda D, 
aíldis G. Other potential nominitives would be: fura, tandra, luga, 
bríma, and so forth. Let us collect wood for the vocabulary fire!

Regards,
Konrad.




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