[gothic-l] Re: Snorri on Reidgotaland (Vindland)
Francisc Czobor
czobor at CANTACUZINO.RO
Wed Jun 20 09:25:06 UTC 2001
--- In gothic-l at y..., keth at o... wrote:
> ...
> Oh yes, here is another reference in Hauksbók: (in the Heimlýsing
> section) "austr frá Polena er Reiðgotaland ok Vindland ok þá
Húnland."
> So it lies "east of Poland". "Vindland" is probably "Wenden".
> ...
Vindland could mean also Russia (cf. Finnish Venäjä "Russia", venäläis
"Russian"). The Germanic term Wend-, Wind- is derived from the
name of the ancient Slavic tribe of "Venethi/Venedi" and initially was
probably referring to the Slavs in general. Later the term was
restricted, in the individual Germanic languages, to their direct
Slavic neighbors.
For instance, in German, the term refers to the Sorbs (Lusacian
Serbs) of NE Germany. In Austria, and hence also in Hungarian, it was
referring to the Slovens. The word was borrowed also in Finnic, where
it is referring to the Slavic neighbors of the Finns - the Russians.
Francisc
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