Reiks at war

[Michael Erwin]

To add to Ingemer's notes:

1. Reiks is the nominative singular; the final -s is extremely common  
for Gothic masculine nouns. Reik is the accusative singular.

2. There's a lot of speculation about Gothic political vocabulary.  
Wulfila offers a glimpse of this, but he's one author, with one  
subject, and we don't have the rest.

3. Reiks may be a catch-all, so that anyone with political power,  
whether commander, chieftain or king, would be a reiks.

4. *Drauhtins is an unattested speculative form, based on drauhtinon,  
gadrauhts, etc.

5. A householder might be an andbahts. A subordinate commander might  
be a [unit size]-faþs, e.g. þiusundifaþs, hundafaþs, etc. possibly  
*hansafaþs as well, or even *aihvafaþs and *fotufaþs.

Any thoughts?

Mike Erwin
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