[gothic-l] Re: A Few Placenames on Got-, Goet-

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

--- In gothic-l at y..., keth at o... wrote:
> Hi Dirk!
> What you write below is of course very interesting!
> I do not for a moment believe that "Gautvík"
> in Iceland has anything to do with the ancient Goths.
> But it was rather created by the same name-producing
> mechanism that created the many other similar names.
> If Gautvík in the Iceland saga is the same as the port
> of the same name in East Iceland, just South of the
> characteristic Reydarfjord (see map of E. Iceland),
> then that became one of the important ports for
> the North-Atlantic trade in the 14th century, and
> it *could* have received that name because men from
> Gautland/Gotland used to trade there. But it can
> also have had a more simple local reason, such as
> simply being named after a person with the name "Gauti".
> "Gauti" was quite a common man's name in West Norway in
> the middle Ages. And I assume that it was therefore
> common in Iceland too, simply because most of the
> immigrants did in fact come from West Norway.
> Thus it appears that such generalizing statements as
> "everything points to Gaut" evaporate upon closer
> invetigation.
> 
> As another example from Iceland, we might take a look at
> the Landnámabook which gives us detailed records about
> the details of the settlement process on Iceland. 
> The existence and preservation of Landnámabók then 
> causes the naming process that led to the various
> place-names, to become a historic process in which the
> records can tell us and names of the persons who were involved,
> rather than, as in mainland Scandinavia, being a prehistoric
> process.
> 
> The interesting thing about the Icelandic naming process
> is that it resulted in place names of exactly the same type
> as exist in West Norway. Therefore, I think the Icelandic
> naming process throws a lot of light on the corresponding
> but earlier naming processes on mainland Scandinavia.
> 
> If I read through the Landnámabók, I do indeed find that 
> there was a man whose name was "Gaut" who settled in
> the Laxá-valley in the Eastern Húnaþing area, and called
> his settlement by the name "Gautsdal". In fact there were
> 3 men called Gunsteinn, Audolfr and Gauti, who accompanied
> their relative Ævar, son of Ketill helluflagi, son of
> king Harald goldbeard from Sogn in W. Norway, to Iceland.
> Ævar called his own land Ævarskard, while Gunnsteinn
> called his land Gunnsteinsstad, Karli called his land
> Karlastad, Torð called his land Mikilsstad, Audolfr
> Audolfsstad and finally Gaut called the place *he*
> built for himself "Gautsdal".
> 
> Here is another example from West Norway:
> 
>   GAUDLAND -- pronounced "gau'dlann". In records
>   from 1567 it is spelled Gudelannd. Guddelannd
>   1616. Goudeland 1668. Goudland 1723. One
>   here assumes an original form *Gautland.
>   It is near the place where a little river
>   runs out of a lake.  Another explanation
>   that deviates from the topographic explanation
>   (river mouth) has been indicated by P.A.Munch
>   who in 184x guessed on Gautaland, from the man's
>   name Gauti.
> 
> There are quite a few examples of this kind in Norway.
> 
> 


Hi Keth, 

that is interesting. So in addition to the likely existence of a 
common Germanic or even Indo-European root like gaut or similar which 
seems to be associated with river names and place names derived from 
these rivers, there are also personal first names Gauti and similar 
which I guess can account for many Gaut-place names. Thus, the 
concentration of placenames with Gaut in one area does not mean that 
this was the centre of a Gautic cult, but may simily be an area were 
the personal name Gauti or so was popular.

cheers,

Dirk




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