[gothic-l] A Million Questions (Skereins, Gepids, Syntax, Bagme Bloma, Kusma)

[llama_nom]

Sijaiþ allai jus hailai!

Hva?  Hvaiwa?  Hvan?  Duhve?  A miscelleny of my confusion...

1. Can anyone tell me anything about Theodorus of Heracleia and his 
gospel commentary on which the Skeireins is said to be based.  Does 
the relevant portion survive?  Is is online anywhere?!

2. What have scholars said about the syntax of the Skeireins?  All 
I've seen so far are the brief comments in Streitberg's 
Elementarbuch.  Of the few articles I've been able to find on Gothic 
syntax, most don't allude to the Skereins at all – which is odd, 
especially considering how different it is in style and word order to 
the Gothic Bible.  Streitberg says there might be certain Greek 
rhetorical devices used, and that there have been found echoes of the 
Epistles.  But that's about all I know.

3. The Gepids, Gepidae.  `The Tardy Ones' according to Jordanes 
(4,17).  OE: mid gefþum (Widsiþ, 60); to Gifðum (Beowulf, 2494).  
Have there been any etymologies suggested for this name?  Gothic 
reconstructions?  *Gifidai? *Gafidai? (as though from a verb *gafjan, 
cf. OE giefian `give, bestow gifts on').  Just a guess.

4. Does anyone know of any good online resources for Germanic 
personal names?  Something that might give details such as source, 
date recorded, spelling variants, etc.

5. I asked this a while ago to resounding silence, but just on the 
off chance...  Brewer's `Dictionary of Phrase & Fable' – a 19th 
century compendium of curiosities – refers to a Vandal idol at 
Lucerne, draped in a lion skin, represented death – name of Flins.  
Does anyone know where he might have got this from?

6. Does anyone know of any online resources for Gothic syntax?  Shame 
that section of Streitberg's Elementarbuch is off limits for 
copyright reasons.  I've so far found two full articles, and a small 
number of abstracts (I've put links to them here: 
http://freeserve.virgin.net/o.e/egd/Links Page.html ).

7. One of the lesser known works of JRR Tolkien is the Gothic poem 
Bagme Bloma `flower of trees', printed in TA Shippey's The Road to 
Middle Earth with prose translation – can also be seen at Matthew 
Carver's website.  The first line of the second verse goes: wopjand 
windos, wagjand lindos, which Shippey renders `the winds call, they 
shake gently'.  But judging by OE liþe, we would expect a 
masc.nom.pl. *linþjai `gentle', agreeing with windos – or adverbial ?
linþjaba/?linþiba.  Also, wagjan by itself is transitive (the 
intransitive being made with passive inflexions, or a reflexive 
pronoun).  Could lindos in fact mean `linden/lime trees' (OE, OIc. 
lind, f.) or, as this word is also applied in OE, `shields'?  Or 
maybe Tolkien meant linþjai?

8. *KUSMA.  Gothic letter name in the Vienna-Salzburg Codex: (Chozma) 
& Norwegian for `the mumps'.  Since the letter name is normally 
interpreted to mean `swelling', I assume there is a connection – but 
how old is the Norwegian word?  Does anybody have an etymology for it?

9. I have read that the Vienna-Salzburg Codex actually has "two 
Gothic alphabets".  Are these effectively the same?


Oh, only nine after all.
Golja izwis.  Gawairþi allaim.

Llama Nom






------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/wWMplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>. 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    gothic-l-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/