a Gothic poem (verse 3)--syntax, word usage

[Jacob L. Bateman III]

     If the Romans and Greeks had a concept of the soul, I would bet the
Goths did to. There was contact between the two, and I am certain a exchange
of ideas. Pneuma, and Psyche, are both Graeco-Roman. The word Gæst, and
Sawol of the Old English were similar in meaning. If the English and the
Saxons had the notion, then their relatives the Goths were more than likely
too as well.
Le
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roman Rausch" <aranwe at mail.ru>
To: <gothic-l at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 8:04 AM
Subject: [gothic-l] Re: a Gothic poem (verse 3)--syntax, word usage


>The genitive plural of 'guþ' "god" would be 'gude', a neuter a-stem,
>but takes masculine attributes in singular when applied to the
Christian
>god. Perhaps you were remembering *Gutane "of the Goths" (from the
>Pietroassa inscription <gutani>)?

Oh, an a-stem.. Probably I keep confusing the two because both are
_Got-_ in German..

>I take it you mean "quick" in the archaic English sense of "living" -
>- in which case, that's right.

Yes - archaic words favored in poetry, though this one will surely be
misunderstood, so 'a living spirit' should be sufficient.

Regarding _saiwala_:
Is it possible that the concept of an immortal soul was applied to
this word during the christianization? So the pagan Germanic tribes
didn't know such a thing; at the early stage of chrisitiniaztion it
was still used for a bit different things; but later, when the
Catholic church became predominant its meaning was further restricted.
Well, and my text isn't really Christian in content..

>Sentences in OE poetry can be very long and
>loose, with much paratactic incrementation, so I think what you've
>done is quite in keeping with that.

Well, except for the ending-rhymes instead of alliterantions. :-)

>du leitilamma mela raihtis bruks was ... iþ...
>In this last example, RAIHTIS seems to have strayed quite far into
>the sentence, but in fact I think this still counts as "second
position"

It has also ventured farther than usual in _ikei ana andaugi raihtis
hauns im in izwis_ 'who in presence am base among you' (Cor.II,10:1).
But with the usual second position the only way to keep it in the end
of the line seems to be a breaking up of the sentence over two lines..
And this is getting too complicated, mhm.. let's try something else:

Þaírh ita diwand mahteis,
Akei galiuhtjiþ nahtins

Or would _Jah sik galiuhtjand nahteis_ be also possible for the second
line?





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