[gothic-l] Haliurunnas = Haljoruna ?

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

David Salo wrote:
>Philip Rusche wrote
>
>[various Germanic analogies to haliurunna]
>>The Beowulf line is "se æglæca [Grendel] ehtende wæs, / deorc deaþscua,
>>duguþe ond geogoþe, / seomade ond syrede,  sinnihte heold / mistige moras;
>>men ne cunnon / hwyder helrunan hwyrftum scrithath", where it clearly means
>>some type of evil spirit too, analagous to Grendel. (If the OE letters
>>present problems for anyone's email system let me know and I can resend it
>>without them).
>
>   The basic meaning of halja/hel is "the concealed, the hidden"; hence
>"the otherworld" (world of departed spirits).  On an etymological basis one
>wouldn't suppose any evil connotation necessarily associated with "hel".
>But is there any use in actual Germanic literature which _doesn't_ suggest
>an evil meaning?  I suppose most uses of the word are post-Christian, in
>which case it's picked up the significance of the (Christian use of)
>"Hades".  But I'd be interested to know if it ever has a more equivocal
>sense.
>
>/\     WISTR LAG WIGS RAIHTS
>\/            WRAIQS NU IST                               <> David Salo
><dsalo at softhome.net> <>
>

There is the Norw. folktradition of the "Huldra"
(a woman) and "huldrefolket". They are supposed
to have very beautiful cows, and sometimes a farmer
may be so lucky to acquire a "huldrecow", which is
a good thing for him. In this sense it is not "evil",
which is what I think you ask. But my impression
is that it can be "dangerous". But if the Huldra
is taken to Church and marries, her tail is supposed
to fall off, and she becomes a good wife.


>From OLD Norse, Jan de Vries has the enties:
Huld f. PN. 'hexe'.
dazu "huldarhçttr" m. = tarnkappe
hulda f. 'bedeckung, schleier'.
nisl. hulda 'schleier, versteck, geheimnis'.

Also "hylja" = weak verb, 'verhülen, bekleiden'.
corresponds to Gothic huljan, Old English hyllan.

I do however not quite grasp the construction of
the Gothic word. A "rune" is a secret. A person
who "makes" secrets, or "does" magic, would then seem
to need a suffix -- like "a rune" -> "a runer / a runeress"
Could it be that the ending -as is already such a suffix?



Keth



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