[gothic-l] Re: The Varus Film Project - West Germanic names

[Brian Beck]

Hails Tim,
	It sounds a great idea.  I've always been surprised that no
one has (as far as I know) based a novel or film on this story
before.  The characters of Arminius and Varus will need to be
developed to give some depth to the story.  The problem with
Hollywood when they get hold of a story like this is that, to
paraphrase the journalistic saying, they "never let historical
fact
stand in the way of a good spectacle".
As to the names, Segestes - *Sigigastos, shouldn't that be
*Sigigastis, -i declension?
For Arminius, another suggestion *Ermanawinjaz, lofty friend (I
don't
see the point of following Gothic spelling conventions, *Airmana-,
for Cheruscan).  However, having said that, I have a problem with the
name Arminius.  Firstly, the Romans were in general fairly accurate
at transliterating German and Celtic names into Latin, as far as
their alphabet allowed.  Secondly, Arminius had some Roman education,
was a Roman knight and had served for some time in the Roman army.
So, I feel that it is likely that Romans who knew him would have got
his name right.  Moreover, as a Cheruscan nobleman, I feel that he
would have made sure that Romans he came in contact with were made
aware of the correct pronunciation of his name.  For these reasons, I
personally believe that his Cheruscan name was Arminjaz and that the
name and meaning have been lost.
Another thing which has always puzzled me is that considering the
scale of the victory on the German side, there seems to have been no
Germanic folk tales or poems about Arminius or the incident which
survived to be recorded.  I don't accept the proposition that the
story of Siegfried is an allegorical account of the incident.
Anyway, the best of luck with your project Tim.  Do you have any
actor in mind for Arminius?  Arnold Schwarzenegger perhaps??
Cheers,
	Brian



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