[gothic-l] Re: Gautaz - Gaut (Was: To Dirk and Tore)

[Troels Brandt]

Hi Albareiks

I think the connections you mentioned below sound interesting, but I 
am not quite able to follow the logical track all the way:

If we assume the origin of the name Gaut to be an IE verb "Gautaz" 
for "pour" related especially to the sacrifice of blood, I would 
expect it more likely, that Gaut was the priest - meaning all 
priests, the superior priest or a priestking, but not the god 
himself. Actually the Scandinavian word for the superior priest in ON-
religions has since we know been "gode".

We need in my opinion a further transition in this case. If we follow 
the assumption, could he instead have been a famous priestking and 
ancestor in the "original" cult being later worshipped himself by his 
descendants as the gaut - ending as the god Gaut expanding over the 
Baltic area and being mentioned as the ancestor Gapt by Jordanes?

However "Gautaz" related to seed would still explain both the name of 
a god and the name of a divine king - maybe in a more simple and 
clumsy way.

Troels


--- In gothic-l at y..., "sunburst" <sunburst at j...> wrote:
> Hails!
> 
> >Could you, just briefly, hint or discuss what evidence they give 
for
> >their theories on the words god and Gaut?
> 
> Well, I was reading the book in New York City a few weeks ago, 
which means
> it is now more than 4000 miles away, and all I have is my notes.  
However, I
> remember that they don't present much evidence other than related 
words on
> other IE languages; they present their information as if it was 
accepted
> fact.  I feel confident that they know more about it than I do.
> 
> The Proto-Germanic root of Gaut is *Gautaz, (Gothic
`Gáuts' OE 
Geat, ON
> Gautr or Gauti, OHG Kóz.  *Gautaz is "to pour forth" or
"flowing" or
> "flooding;" surviving in the Gothic language
> as giutan (of which gaut is the pret. 3rd sing.); OE géotan, and
OHG
> giozzan, all of which
> mean "pour" or "flow," and ON gjota, "throw
(young)."
> 
> The Encyclopedia of IE Culture states that these words derrive from 
the
> Indo-European root *gheud- "pour," which is an expansion of
*gheu-
 "pour,
> libation,
> priest, one who performs a sacrifice," OInd juhóti-
"sacrifices, 
pours a
> libation into the
> fire," hótar- "priest, one who performs a libation,"
Lat 
fútis "water
> vessel, pitcher,"
> TochB kwalne "libation," and it is noted "widespread
attestation 
assures PIE
> status.  The
> religious associations around this verb in Indo-Iranian are 
striking."
> 
> That considering, I find it strange that *Gautaz is almost always 
associated
> with the flowing of rivers or with biological function.  If Ingemar 
Nordgren
> is right, and I believe he is, that the Goths and Gautic peoples 
were a
> religious confederation of tribes, it seems more natural that 
*Gautaz might
> have refered rather to the pouring of libations, and/or also the 
flowing and
> pouring of the blood in sacrifice which was so popular among the 
ancient
> peoples.  Grimm says that OHG coz refers to a vessel.  If *Gautaz 
could mean
> the pouring, that which is poured, and the vessel into which 
something is
> poured, considering that the old sacral kings were blood descended 
from
> Gaut, and also the high priests of their tribes, thus the 
officiators of the
> sacrifice, a new picture of potential interconnected multiple 
meaning for
> *Gautaz begins to emerge, which seems more in line with Ingemar's 
theory.
> At least that is the idea that came to me when examining the IE 
roots and
> related words in other IE languages.
> 
> Albareiks


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