[gothic-l] A Question for Experts Regarding Parallel Mountains

[konrad_oddsson]

Greetings my fellow students!

  I wish to respond to the following exert from an older post by 
Jeff and solicit any views or opinions you might have on this topic:

>  So, this posting (I)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."

Here is my thought: the Goths would probably have used a genitive 
construction followed by the word "baúr", just as in Norse. In Norse 
we have Fjörgynjar Burr ("borr" may well have been an alternate form 
found in other west-norse dialects). What is important in this 
construction is that it uses the genitive of a feminine noun as a 
modifier. In Norse, Frigg is also called "Fjörgyns Mær" - this is an 
example of a similar construction employing the genitive of the 
masculine as a modifier. The nominitive forms are Fjörgyn for the 
feminine and Fjörgynr for the masculine. In Gothic we find the 
word "faírguni", which is a neuter noun. While it would be quite 
grammatically correct to use the Gothic form "Faígunjis Baúr", it 
would seem that Gothic must have had masculine and feminine forms of 
the word "faíguni" much as in Norse. Here is my question: what would 
these forms have looked like, and how would they have declined?

Here is something similar: Gothic has neuter "kuni"(race/tribe) and 
masculine "kindins"(ruler/governor), showing the same shift from "u" 
to "i" which is found in parellel Norse words like "kyn"(kin/kindred/
kind/sort/gender) and the masculine "konr"(son/descendant/kinsman). 
However, in Gothic we find no forms in the feminine echoing the 
Norse "kind"(kind/race/creature/being). As "kuni" and "faírguni" in 
Gothic are both neuters with endings in "-uni", what what a feminine 
noun in Gothic look like along the lines of the Norse "kind"?

Please post any comments or sources which you may have regarding 
this issue. Thank you.

Regards,
Konrad.







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