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[Guenther Ramm]

Hi!
  I will try to answer both, but you should look in other replies cause I am not most competent here.
  1. I am not sure Erpr is referred to as Jörmunreks son in any of the existing sources. In Guðrunarhvöt he is a son of Guðrún and king Jónakr. In Hamðismál you can meet two distinct persons called Erpr – Erpr Jónakrs sonr ok Guðrunar (together with Sörli and Hamðir) and Erpr Atla sonr (together with Eitill his brother). The latters were killed by Guðrún herself to make Atli suffer for the murder of her kin as it is said in Atlakviða (“Kallar-a þú síðan / til knéa þinna / Erp né Eitil / ölreifa tvá” Ak. 38) and Hamðismál (“Atla þóttisk þú stríða / at Erps morði / ok at Eitils aldrlagi” Hm. 8). If you mean them or those three brothers (Erpr, Sörli and Hamðir), who in Hamðismál rode out to kill Jörmunrekr and thus avenge their sister Svanhildr (“at hefna Svanhildar” Hm. 2), I can offer following ideas (sorry for eventual absence of proper references as I have no large library at hand in the moment):
  PG. *erpaz meant “brown”, swarthy”, “dark-haired” (of persons), cf. OE eorp; OHG erpf etc. In Old Norse jarpr (e > ja) was the common form. Erpr as a name seems to have been borrowed from the continent as well as the whole plot of the story, where this name was originally applied to one of the sons of Attila (ON Atli). Erpr and Eitill are most often supposed to be Germanic substitutes for actual names of Attila’s sons as recorded by Jordanes ([H]ernac and Ellac – Getica 266 resp. 262) and Priscus (’Ηρνάχ – Fragmenta 36). What these had meant to Huns or rather Alans (if Iranic as I heard) I don’t know (it would be very interesting to learn). But Erpr was definitely given the meaning “swarthy”, “dark-haired” with special reference to anthropological peculiarities of Huns as compared with contemporary Teutons. This can be seen from calling Erpr “swarthy boy” (“jarpskammr” Hm. 12) and “bastard” (“hornungr” Hm. 14) by his brethren before they slew him. Note that
 he was born “of another mother” (“inn sundrmæðri” Hm. 13), maybe she was thought to be of Hunnish origin.
  Sörli and Hamðir are also mentioned by Jordanes as Sarus and Ammius (Getica 129). These at least seem to be Germanic. G. Köbler (Köbler Gerhard. Gotisches Wörterbuch.  – 2. Auflage, 1989 at http://www.koeblergerhard.de/) derives lat.-germ. Sarus from Gothic sarwa pl. “arms”, “war equipment”. If so, it would be *Sarws (?) in Gothic. Diminutive *Sarwila would regularly produce Sörli in ON.
  Ammius is supposed to be *Hamjis (ibidem). Somewhere else I saw *Hamathius (from non-attested *hama- “cloth”, “body” and thius “servant”) that would better correspond with ON Hamðir.
   
  2. OE Geatas (= ON Gautar) are NOT Goths though relative to them. Gautar were a tribe that did not move from Sweden. The names *Gauta- and *Guta- are certainly close cognate but still distinct (different stages of the second Ablaut class – is this the proper English terminology?)
   
  By the way, colleagues, did anyone try to reconstruct Gothic “liuth” of that sad story about Sarus and Ammius and their sister?
   
  Best regards
  Ualarauans


michalcigan <michalcigan at yahoo.com> wrote:  Could someone help me? 
I have two questions, problems...
1/I search for the meaning, or ethymology of the names of Jormunrek's
sons, especially Erpr. Any ideas?
2/And secon one, from wikipedia I have an information, that old
english Geates/jeates/- in Beowulf located in Scandinavia - are Goths
/it should be a reminiscence on their original homeland befor "the
exodus" southward from south scandinavia/.
Can I Belive this idea?  








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