[gothic-l] Gotnar, nicht “Gaut”!

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

>Dear List Members,
>        I was leafing through an American textbook called "Deutsche
>Kulturgeschichte" by Hans-Wilhelm Kelling of Brigham Young University
>(copyrighted in 1985 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston,Inc., USA), and in
>a footnote under the section titled "Die Volkerwanderung",
>there is an explanation of the origin of the names of various German
>tribes, including  "die Ost- und Westgoten", which are
>defined as being derived from "Gote Manner (gotnar = Manner) oder
>der aus gutem Lande stammende (Gotland)."
>Sincerely yours,
>Cory
>
>
This is a misunderstanding based on the use of "gotnar"
in skaldic poetry as a synonym for "men". See Lexicon
Poeticum under "gotnar, goter": mænd, egtl. = Gotar = folket
Goter. For example "himins gotnar"=the angels or holy men.
(in poetry)

This is a poetic convention used by the Icelandic and Norse
scalds, that they could call any group of men "gotnar".

I guess it would be like you call anybody "indians";
for example if they play a wild game of hockey,
you say "I saw them injuns flying over the ice".
It doesn't mean that they were etnic indians,
just that they conveyed an image of colorful
savagery. Hope you understood at least something
of that :) Look in Skáldskaparmál for more
concise formulations w. better examples.
If I had more time I would probably give a better
explanation. But Lex.poet. does say "mænd"
and it is usually right.


Keth



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/