SV: [gothic-l] Your opinions on this site...

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Interesting comment from Lars Munkhammar:
>Dear Vito,
>
>I looked at the midhnottsol site, and like you I read some of it. Yes, it
>seems hard to believe, but we don't have to believe it. It comes from a
>professor at Harvard, yes, but concerning the Gothic manuscripts, we have so
>many professors to refer to, that we don't especially have to refer to one
>of Slavic Languages and Literature.
>
>I have just read what Leo Wiener says about the Gothic Bible and about Codex
>argenteus, since that is what I am specially interested in. Wiener says that
>Wulfila did not invent a Gothic alphabet and that he didn't translate the
>Bible into Gothic. There is just the tradition (some named sources) saying
>that Wulfila made the alphabet and the translation. Yes, it is true that we
>cannot prove Wulfila's copyright here, but there is no one else in history
>claiming this copyright either. The denial of Wulfila's copyright doesn't
>even have a tradition to cite. Probably Wulfila (or whoever was the chief
>translator of the Gothic Bible) had collaborators. One conceivable that is
>named is Selenas, Wulfila's successor as bishop.
>
>More fantastic is Wiener's thesis, that Codex argenteus was not written in
>Italy during the Ostrogothic empire, but somewhere else during the
>Carolingian renaissance. He claims to base this assertion on paleographic
>grounds, and by that he rejects the results of very many scholars of
>paleography and related disciplines with names as (just to name some of
>those from the 20th century) Friesen, Grape, Nordenfalk, Tjäder, Scardigli,
>Andersson-Schmitt and Hermodsson. But, O.K., it is theoretically possible
>that Wiener has seen what all these scolars have not seen. But on the other
>hand, today we have seen something, that Wiener has not seen. In March 1998,
>a C-14- analysis was made at Uppsala University of (among other things) the
>parchment of a leaf of the Codex argenteus. The material turned out to be
>from the early 6th century. So if the codex was not written on three hundred
>years old parchment, Professor Wiener should rather return to Tolstoy and
>related subjects.
>
>Lars Munkhammar
>
>-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
>Från: Vito Evola [mailto:vito.evola at libero.it]
>Skickat: den 28 september 2000 20:25
>Till: gothic-l at egroups.com
>Ämne: [gothic-l] Your opinions on this site...
>
>
>I'd like to have some feedback on this site:
>
>http://www.midhnottsol.org/public/germaniclaw/
>
>I've read some of it. It seems hard to believe, but it does come from
>a professor at Harvard, so there must be *some* credibility.
>
>Could someone please take a look at it and share their thoughts?
>confused, tired, and happy,
>
>Vito (WEITO)

I'd like to add that it is not enough to be a professor at Harvard.
Do you for example know in which Department at Harvard he is professor?

Best regards
Keth



PS Can anybody tell me whether the entire Cod. Arg. is now on-line
or is it just a part of it?

Another question: Has any one tried to translate the first two
chapters of Genesis to Gothic? Would one run into problems
with words? Or do the existing vocabularies already cover the
words needed to translate Genesis from (say) Greek to Gothic?
I would be interested in seeing a Gothic translation of
Genesis 1 and 2.



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