[gothic-l] Gaut, Gapt & the Gepids

[Alburysteve at AOL.COM]

Hi Bertil:

>  On Gapt we disagree as I see the origin
>  of Gaut from  the meaning gjuta, goet, gjutit (pour in
>  English) of course related to the goet/
>  got/gut/geat name.

Disagreement perhaps overstates my position as I cannot speak authoritively
on Gapt one way or the other.  It was my understanding that the derivation of
Gapt from Gaut relies on a common accepted "scribal error" interpretation,
since Gapt occurs only in Jordanes while Gaut is widely attested.  Naturally,
if Gapt were a corruption of Gabid/Gaubid, then such an interpretation is
suspect.

>  The god Gaut is likely a fertility god, a god
>  of creation. The Swedish byword for Gaut is
>  "avlaren" (if such the word exists in English
>  it would be "the begetter" from beget, or maybe
>  the multiplier).

Just so.

>  The only problem is of course
>  the "p" instead of "t", so I don't know if it is
>  linguistically possible.

If we assume scribal error, linguistic considerations are nugatory. I am
hugely ignorant of how Gothic names/words would be expected to be
transliterated into Jordanic latin.

>  Maybe also one has to reflect on the background of the
>  Goetar and Nordic mythology. The Goetar might well have
>  emerged already during the Bronze Age while the Nordic
>  myths are mainly from Snorri Sturlason, that is there are
>  2000 to 3000 years between the emerging Goetar and
>  Snorri.

Certainly true.  My speculation on the Gothic origin story used the later
Norse material to demonstrate that the "creation of the world from a
dismembered body" motif was extant in Germanic Europe (in this case, Norse
mythology) as well as India (Rig Veda 10.90).  This comparison has been made
by a number of scholars and, if valid, would probably necessitate a common IE
origin of sufficiently great antiquity to satisfy your Goetaric origins above.

> The question is if the gepids also if the Gepids
>  existed as a seperate people already in Scandza. They
>  certainly maintained a separate identity throughout,
>  fighting as subjugate, I think, on the side of Attila.
>  In 567 AD they were completely crushed by the Langobards
>  and disappear from history.

A particularly good question since the notion of what constituted a 'separate
people'  no doubt depended on whether one were a third century Goth, a
classical historian, or a 21st century Gothophile.  I have always assumed
(intuitively!) that dialectical variation among eastern Germanic speakers was
slight, that Gothic (all flavors), Lombard, Burgundian, and Vandalic were
mutually intelligible in the first half of the first milennium and that, to
the East Germans themselves, ethnic differences were largely a question of
clan/tribal affinity.

Naturally, I am prepared to have this impression shattered and have greatly
enjoyed your replies.

Sincerely,

Steve O'Brien
Albury, Ontario

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