[gothic-l] Jassarfjoll

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Bertil wrote:
>Troels,
>
>"You shall call them to fight
>on the Dun Heath,
>to a battle below
>the Jassarfjoll;
>there often Goths
>have given battle."

Note: "fj at ll", where i have used the @-character to represent
the so called "hooked-o" of Old Norse" is the PLURAL of "fjall",
which means mountain. Thus, in the poem, the correct translation
is NOT "Jassar Mountain", but rather "the Jassar Mountains".
This shows that it is a mountain RANGE that is intended, rather
than a single mountain. In fact, I believe the ON text says
"Jassarfj at llum", which is the plural dative.

I tried to find out more about this placename, but wasn't very sucessful.
The name itself is mentioned only once in the whole corpus of ON poetry.
Varians lectio is "Jossarfj at ll" and also "Iosurfj at ll".
In another dictionary I also find "J at surfj@ll" and also
"J at surheiðr", a place name. Here it is further pointed to
Norwegian placenames such as "Jusureid" in Kviteseid, Norway,
as well as  "J at sureið" which is an island off the W. coast
of Norway. This just to suggest that the name could have meant
something in Old Norse. It is just that we don't know it any
longer.

Best regards
Keth







>ON "fjoll" is no greater problem being "mountain"
>Heinzel believed there could be a connection between
>the first element of the word Jassarfjoll and the
>Jasi/Alans.
>
>Others have suggested it is the Czech ridge Jasenik=
>German Gesenke, the southeastern part of the
>Erzgebirge/Sudety Mountains. Also Johannson accepted
>this interpretation. However Rosenfeld explained it as
>*Jazaga-felisos, "the mountains of the Jazygi", a range
>to the north of Budapest, between the Bakony Forest and
>the Matra Mountains. On the other hand Otto Maenchen-Helfen
>insisted that Ptolemy was involved (Iasioi) and that the
>Jasi of Pliny, was the Roman trading town of Aquae Iasae
>(modern Varzdinske Toplice). Jassarfjoll was the range
>between the Sava and Drava rivers in Banovina (then communist
>Yougoslavia).
>
>Franz Altheim though, proved beyond doubt that the mountains
>in question are the Alan Mountains mentioned by Ptolemy.
>
>Sarovolsky also suggested that Jassarfjoll were the Alan Mountains
>in the Donec mountain range, south of the Donec and to the north
>of the Suxyj Torec River. It was regarded as holy (Svjatye Gory). In
>its vicinity were located the "Holy Water" Netrigus (Turkic Tengri su
>and the Polovcian imperial city (Carev Gorod).
>
>Gothically
>
>Bertil
>



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