[gothic-l] God-thiod/ Godheimar

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Hails Bertil!

You do not consider the Mss. situation. But I  did set up
a detailed list of all Mss. occurrences of the words.

In general you can expect a word to have a different meanings
in different contexts.

Add to this that the Ms. spelling is not always uniform,
but is, as a rule, variable; a question that also needs
to be considered. The editors of the Mss. who produced
the so called "normalized" editions, were usually guided
by certain, then current, opinions, in their choices of
spellings.

I will repeat here the occurrences of Goð-þjóð that I found:

>>1) Goð-þjóþ:  it occurs in:
>>Volospá 30
>>Helreið Brynhildar 9
>>Guðrúnarhvot 8, 16
>>Hloðskviða 10, 14.

These are all occurrences in poetry!
The word is *not used in Heimskringla, as far as I can see.
Just for the record, here are the names beginning with a
similar stem that occur in Heimskringla:

Gautdalr:  once
Gautelfr: 7 times
Gautland: more than 30 times
Goðey: at least once
Goðeyjastraumr: once
Goðheimar = Sviþjóð hin mikla: twice
Goðnarfjorðr: once
1 Gotland: once (in Ynglingasaga frá Dag spaka)
2 Gotland: 7 times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surely all these place-names do not have anything to do with the Goths?

I think the best approach will be to concentrate about one word at the time;
for example "Goð-þjóð" or whatever way it is spelled in the
different places. I will begin below your Pritsak quote:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>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)

>From the context in Yngingasaga, the contrast Man versus God,
it follows that Goðheimar there (in Ynglingasaga) must refer
to "The Gods", (who are there called "Æsir", and who live on
Earth, just to make things more difficult).
But the Æsir are not the same as the Goths !!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once again:
>>1) Goð-þjóþ:  it occurs in:
>>Volospá 30
>>Helreið Brynhildar 9
>>Guðrúnarhvot 8, 16
>>Hloðskviða 10, 14.

Here we have 3 groups of poems.
1. Voluspá = mythological poem in the poetic Edda
2. Helreið Brynhildar & Guðrúnarhvot = heroic poems of poetic Edda.
3. Hloðskviða = also heroic poem, but is found ouside the Edda,
                in the socalled "Fornaldrsögur".

To begin with group one (Voluspá), the occurrence of "Goð-þioð"
is only once, viz. in verse 30, and that is the only occurrence
of this word in the group of mythological poems in the poetic
Edda:
       Sá hon valkyrjur     vítt of komnar,
       gorvar at ríða     til goðþjóðar.
       Skuld helt skildi     en Skogul onnur,
       Gunnr, Hildr, Gondul     ok Geirskogul;
       mú eru talðar     nonnur Herjans,
       gorvar at ríða     grund valkyrjur.

I am not at all convinced that this arrival of the Valkyries,
that signals the coming of Ragnarok, and is seen by the prophetess
of Voluspá in a vision, has anything to do with the land of
Ermanarik and the other Goths, who must have lived a long time
before Voluspá was written.

With the other group of poems, the heroic group, the situation
must however be different. And here we may expect to find references
to the land of the historic Goths...  I will try to continue later.


Golja þuk,
Keþ.



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