[gothic-l] Heyerdahl, the Goths and the Aesir

[bertil]

Keth,

Thank you for your interesting linguistical
comments. As you may have seen from my latest
contribution (if you have not seen it I would
be happy to send you a copy) Dr. Heyerdahl
has mentioned the possibility of ans-. But the
main alternative would in my opinion be as- although
oss- of course corresponds closely with the fact
the connection Aser/Asar - Alans - Ossetians.

Finally one can only hope that the planned expedition
of Dr. Heyerdahl in the project "Odin in Azov" is
successful and furthermore this has much to do also with the Goths and the Eruli in the area, especially the
Eruli. He refers to a number of medieval sources. One can only wish Dr. Heyerdahl success and it is
not surprising that he in his interpretation looks to
the great Snorri Sturluson of Iceland. I think it is
important to remember that Snorri probably had access
to information on the Caucasus region and Tanais/Azov, when he wrote the Ynglingasaga.

Best Gothic regards

Bertil

> Since it is so long ago, I think there are many possibilities.
> Recall that I initially said "there should be an "n" there".
> But I think "Ans-" is only one of the possibilities.
> (I think it was Edgar Polomé who compared with Hittite,
> and found the oldest form of the name on record in that language)
> 
> Another possibility would be in the name "azur", which
> is the name of a blue color that derives from a certain
> stone found in Persia. We know the sky is sometimes called
> "azure blue", and in India there was also a class of gods
> called "Asuras". (the conception of which later became negatively charged)
> 
> There was also talk about some group of peoples called "Ossetes",
> also in the Kaukasus. There are presently around 5oo ooo Ossetes
> and it is a people of Iranian origin. The Ossetes are a group
> of tall people, dark and blond, brown-eyed and blue-eyed intermixed.
> 
> Also, in Old Norse there is not only the form "áss, ásar/áss, æsir",
> but also the alternative form "óss" (m.)
> 
> I am in particular thinking about the phenomenon of "attraction",
> i.e. how two words of similar meaning and sound, but of different
> origin, may become assimilated because of folk-etymological thinking
> that identifies them as the same.
> 
> So the question is to what degree we can trust etymology alone
> when there is very little data available, because we have entered
> far into pre-literary time epochs. It seems to me that etymology
> then needs support from other facts.


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