[gothic-l] blótlundr coganate

[M. Carver]

Hails!

*Lunds is not attested but might be posited due to the lexical gap which Gothic there exhibits. But is ON
'blotlundr' a replacement for lost alh- reflex? Go. 'alhs' (f. cons.) is temple. Koebler suggests a (? false)
cognate alh- "god". Anyway, a resulting combination would likely be *blotalunds. alh- can be traced to Germ. alh-
'protection, building, house' from PIE *alek-, cf. Gk. 'Alexander.' Thus alhs could be seen as both physical and
divine shelter, though the root in OE and Go. both suggest rather the divine aspect, as probably was the case in
Gmc. earlier. alh- doesn't seem to occur in any other Gothic words (except proper names perhaps) I can't find any
words related to 'alh' meaning holy grove specifically, though a grove certainly may be seen as a sheltering place
or "structure."

-Matthew

Alfta wrote:

> Greetings all,
>
> I was wondering if anyone knows if there is a Gothic cognate for the Old
> Norse “blótlundr” ? used to mean a sacred grove.  Turville-Petre says
> (quoting from chapter 12 of Myth and Religion of the North ? quote
> included below) that “alhs” may be related to words meaning “holy
>  grove.”  Does anyone have any ideas on this?
>
> regards,
>
> - Alfta
> Northvegr: The Northern Way
> http://www.northvegr.org <http://www.northvegr.org/>
>
> “It is noteworthy that words used in Germanic languages for ‘place of
> worship’ or ‘temple’ often had the meaning ‘grove’ as well. The O.H.G.
> harug is rendered in Latin as fanum, lucus, nemus, and the corresponding
> O.E. hearg, commonly used for ‘temple’ or ‘idol’, also had the meaning
> ‘grove’. The O.E. hearu and words related to it alternate between such
> meanings as ‘forest, holy grove, temple’. The Gothic alhs (temple) is
> said also to be related to words which mean ‘holy grove’. (2)”
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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