[gothic-l] Godheimar

[Bertil Häggman]

Keth,



Godheimar = regions where the Goths live.
The literal meaning is "god home".

Gudmund Schuette, who dealt with the fate
of the name of the Goths in Old Norse established
the law if transmogrification of epic names. Under
the influence of the Celtic model, a compound form with -theud, "people",
was introduced for the Gothic name Gut-thiuda, which in
Old Norse developed into  Gothjod > Godthjod. Now there
developed a new sten *God (< Got), from which the
forms God-heimar, God-heimr and God-lond were derived.
Sometimes the original form Gotland was preserved for Denmark.

Snorri's epic source preserves unknowingly the old geographic
nomenclature from Eastern Europe disguised as a popular
etymology, just as the lay The Battle of the Goths and the Huns did.
Godheimar should not be understood as "god home" but as the "home
of the Goths" (see Omeljan Pritsak, _The Origin of Rus_, p. 250.

Gothically

Bertil

Note: Manheima, Goðheima and Goðheimum are plurals!
Manheimar = the regions where men live.
Goðheimar = the regions where gods live.
(mannheimen og gudeheimen)




You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>. 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/