Some Gothic names

[ualarauans]

Hi Le!

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Le Bateman" <LeBateman at ...> wrote:
> 
> I should have said the  names in the manuscript were used in the
> first part of the 9th century in Northumbria. Sorry. So these I 
listed below
> are Northumbrian or Anglian names. Like siguulf, iurminburg, 
Balthere,
> Bealduald, inguburg. Sorry I did not make that understood. Did the 
Goths
have
> similar godnames. god names are names like Oswulf, and Osgar, 
names people
> were given whether because of some heroic deed or at birth. Grimm 
calls
> these god names Cotbert,  Godric etc... Grimm calls these god 
names.

Aha, the names having the element which means "god", be it PG *ansu- 
or PG *guda-? (sorry for re-asking again). Then yes, definitely the 
Goths did have that kind of names. To mention here are Visigothic 
Ansericus (*Ansureiks or, with a "mistaken" stem vowel 
*Ansireiks "prince of the gods", which implicitly points to *Wodans. 
Or maybe *Gauts, if we believe Jordanes' genealogy (Get. 79-80) was 
real and not a learned construction of Cassiodor). Which Ansericus 
parallels OE Osric and OHG Anserich (I wrote the name out a time ago 
without reference to the source, stupid head, but I'll try to find 
where it was attested). Ibidem Jordanes mentions a certain Ansila 
(lit. "small god", "Goettlein" szs.) which could be a colloquial 
form of a name containing the word *ansu-. Also we have Gudilub in 
the Arezzo Deed: Ik Gudilub 'dkn' tho frabauhtaboka fram mis 
gawaurhta jsf. Some think (see 
http://www.wulfila.be/gothic/text/minora/Unterschriften.html) 
Gudilub should be conjectured to *Gudilaib < "Classic" Gothic 
*Gudilaifs "heir(loom) of the gods". And of course there are far 
more attested and perhaps still more non-attested names of this 
sort, not to mention Vandalic, Burgundian, Gepidic and other 
kinsmen's evidence.

> The
> Personal names were Northumbrian that reflect the name of a pagan 
deity,
> or their attributes like siguulf Wolf of Victory Oswulf, Oswald, 
Osgar
etc...
> Which would be Wodan. siguulf would imply Wodan as would Oswulf ,
> or wolf god. etc... 

I too suppose (and I can easily mistake here since I'm not an expert 
on the Germanic anthroponymics) that most Germanic (and thus Gothic 
too) names were in some respect connected with certain pagan myths 
or mythological characters. For instance, Vandalic Godegisclus (< 
*Guda-geisls "hostage of the gods") could refer to the myth as 
documented in Snorra Edda (Gylfaginning 23: en Vanir gisludhu hann 
[sc. Njoerdhr] godhunum...). OE Osgar "god's spear" (best greetings 
to Oscar Herrera!) could particularly imply Odhin's Gungnir ("which 
never misses the target", remember Gothic spear's name runic 
TILARIDS, "High-Gothic" *Tilareiths "riding to the mark" - ?). OHG 
Albarih (Go. *Albareiks) "prince of the Elves" probably hints to 
Wieland the Smith (called visi alfa and alfa ljodhi "idem" in 
Voelundarkvidha 13, 32 resp. 10) or maybe to Alberich of the 
Nibelungenlied? Some could be "multireferential", e.g. Oswulf could 
point to Woden but also to [some OE equivalent of the Norse] 
Fenrisulfr (he's also a "wolf of the gods", isn't he?). Or maybe to 
one of Odhin's wolves Geri and Freki? In the OE Runic Poem the 
stanza to the Os rune implies Woden as a god par excellence.

> I hope I have  cleared up any confusion I caused.
> .Le

No, no, it's my slow wit that is to blame, OK

Ualarauans





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