[gothic-l] Greutung, Reidgotland

[Егоров Владимир]

Hi!

George Knysh asked me about my conclusions on origins of the ethnonym Rus. The matter is not so easy to be expounded in a few sentences. Nevertheless, if it is of interest, I try to explain my position in brief.

First of all, the ethnonym Rus can't be evolved from Sweden or some rivers near Kiev. First known mentioning a people Rus (Ros) relate to the sixth century AD (Zakharia Ritor) who placed this people to Northwest from Caucasus. In the seventh century, the Derbent's ruler Shahriar complained that he found himself between two aggressors, Khazars and Russes. I won't list further numerous mentions of Russes as a seafarers' people that ravaged coasts of the Black Sea since VI century and of the Caspian Sea and Mediterranean since VII century. No Swedes existed that time, and the Viking Age didn't begin yet. I'm convicted that sources of the ethnonym Rus should be searched somewhere on Northeast coasts of the Black Sea. Note that the latter had that time two names: Greek Pontus (I use a "Romanized" form) and "Russian" Sea (I quote "Russian" because it had that time another meaning than nowadays). I'm also convicted that sources of the ethnonym Rus should be searched starting from IV-V centuries.

Second. I agree with the commonly accepted point of view that the etycon "rus" is derivative from Finnish "ruotsi" (as Finns name Swedes). For the ancient Russian languafe there is a general paradigm:

сумь < suomi,
русь < ruotsi.
(you need here the Cyrillic alphabet in your computer).

However, I do not accept derivation of "ruotsi" from Swedish "drotts". To my mind, more attractive is derivation from Gothic "rau?s", i.e. English "red". This derivation looks linguistically irreproachable, but any linguistic evolution of ethnonyms must be reliably supported historically, otherwise it is not worth a brass farthing.

Looking for historical proofs of this derivation and bearing in mind the Northeast coasts of the Black Sea led me to Goths of III-IV centuries, more particularly to tribes that conquered the Bospor Kingdom in the middle of the III century AD. This conclusion involves Ostrogoths (Greutungs?) and relates, to a certain extent, to Reidgotaland, which I partially identify with the Hermanaricus' Empire of Jordan. And now I'm searching something common for "rau?s" ("hrau?s"?), "Greutung" ("Hraudung"?), and "Reidgotaland" ("Hraud-Gotaland"?). This is the reason of my initial questions.

Regards,
V. Egorov



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