[gothic-l] Marcomannic Challenge in _Gladiator_

[Bertil Häggman]

Francisc,

Do you have the complete text of the challenge?
The screenplay has been published as a paperback
and there is also an offocial book on the movie itself.

When I saw the film my first reaction was that
it was a Hollywood produced "language" with
a mixture of old Germanic languages. This was
the case in the movie "The Thirteenth Warrior".
The challenge as such is possibly based on
an historical Ostrogothic incident in the fateful
battle of Taginas (Tadinae) waiting for 2 000
Ostrogothic cavalry rode between the battlelines
performing a weapon's play on a shining horse
in a shining suit of armor. He threw his lance
high in the air and caught it in the middle of the
shaft. It is said that his play continued all through
the morning and that he offered to negotiate with
the the Bysantian commander, Narses, who refused.
The battle resulted in a fateful defeat for the
Ostrogoths in 552 AD, if I remember correctly.

There are similar challenges recorded in Iron Age
Scandinavian battles. If I remember correctly there
is also a painting (Norwegian),I think, of a king
challenging the hostile army.

Gothically

Bertil
> >     No, it does not look at all like Marcomannic to me (and before
> anyone
> > asks, I'm basing this on preconceived notions, not on any actual
> attested
> > Marcomannic--I would just assume it would be closer to
> Proto-Germanic and
> > hense Gothic than to a Scandinavian tongue), but it seems more
> likely they
> > arbitrarily used Scandinavian (or non-arbitrarily based on the
> reputation of
> > Icelandic for conservatveness) then that they meant somethign more
> > authentically Marcomannic.
> ......
>
> Since the Marcomanni were (at least partially) the ancestors of the
> Bavarians, their language should be a form of proto-OHG (Old High
> German), that means OHG before the second consonant shift (which
> occured about AD 500, if I'm not wrong). Indeed, such a language
> would
> be phonetically closer to Proto-Germanic and Gothic than to
> Scandinavian, excepting the z>r mutation, which is common to West-
> and
> North-Germanic.
>
> Francisc
>
>
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