[gothic-l] Gothic terms

[matthew carver]

Hails!

For military terms in Germanic, see "Language and History in the 
Germanic World"
I don't recall all the specifics from this book, but it is a really 
interesting read:
Reiks is originally a (?) celtic term which replaced earlier titles of 
tribal (thiudans)
and military leadership. Though *drauhtins (military lord) may not be 
attested
in Gothic, drauhts (soldier) and drauhtinon (to serve as a soldier) are 
(as is
militon, to serve as a soldier [?in a Roman context] and anno [wages]).
Harjatuga (dux) may be based on a Greek source, using an explanatory 
prefix.
Fulk (cf. OE folc) was something like all the armed men of a nation. 
Thiudans (king) is
the ruler of a political unity or nation (thiuda), while kindins 
(prince, lord, ruler)
had kinship associations. A harjis is an army proper, an armed host; 
wairdus
is a more general term for host (of people or armed warriors). The 
spadiggs
was probably originally a soldier armed with a Roman spatha. 
St[i]uriliggs
was used to signify a younger warrior.

Hunter or huntsman is waithja  (WYE-thya). This is attested.
I don't know a Gothic cognate for Jäger, unless 'jiuka-'.

-matthew

On Tuesday, April 22, 2003, at 09:05 PM, iainralph wrote:

> Sorry if this post repeats - I am new to this site and it looks like
> my first post disappeared.
>
> Anyway, introduction:  I am an engineering/management professional in
> Australia with a casual interest in Late Roman History and the
> interaction with the Northern Barbarians, particularly the Goths.
> This interest goes back some 20 years and has involved quite a bit of
> reading on the subject.
>
> I also play board wargames and am in the process of designing a game
> on the Adrianople campaign.  For the sake of authenticity, I would
> like to use Gothic terminology appropriate to the era of Fritigern
> and have come up with the following so far:
>
> Thiufa       standard military unit
> Frijai       Gothic Freemen
> Andbahtos    retainers in the employ of the leader
> Siponjos     retainers-followers
> Reiks        "kinglet"  Fritigern and Alaviv's replacement
> Frauja       other tribal leader
>
> My questions are firstly to comment on the appropriateness of the
> above, also to determine which of the names for retainers would most
> likely apply to a troop of bodyguards and which would be better for a
> detached leader?
>
> Also, can anyone recommend an appropriate word for "hunter"?
> (actually a Gothic equivalent of the German term "Jaeger" would be
> most valuable).
>
> Thanks very much in advance.
>
> Also, I have been putting some notes together for a novel on
> Fritigern, but don't look for anything in the next 15 years.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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