[gothic-l] Re: Gothic Gods

Thu Mar 24 20:03:11 UTC 2005

They look fine to me, except that Old Norse -a in feminine and 
neuter weak nouns = Go. -o.  'Sunno' "sun" is attested 3 times in 
this form, once as a feminine accusative: sunnon seina, and twice as 
a ?masculine/neuter dative 'sunnin'.  Wright reconstructs the latter 
as masc. *sunna, but Braune/Helm suggests that a neuter 
alternative 'sunno' would be a more likely, given the similarity to 
the feminine form, and maybe the influence of neuter 'sauil' "sun".

'Mena' I don't recognise, but ON 'Menja' I would guess could be Go. 
*Manjo.  Likewise Fenja, *Fanjo.  Any connection with the Matronae 
Aufanie, Germanic goddesses to whom many Roman Age inscriptions are 
dedicated?

OE Eastre (in Bede's Northumbrian Eostre), OHG Ostara (long 'o') =  
Go. *Austro < Gmc. *Austron.  Her feast, like Yule, would be plural: 
Go. *Austrons, cf. New High German Ostern.

Nairyus, Wulthus.  *Nairþus, Wulþus.  As you're probably aware, the 
<y> and <th> in your spellings stand for the same sound, = <th> in 
English 'thin', represented in the Gothic alphabet with a character 
that looks like the Greek letter psi.

'Enguz' is the form in the Vienna-Salzburg codex, the final <z> 
being an Old High German spelling of [s], as in English "sea".  In 
Wulfilan spelling this would probably be *Iggws = *Ingws < Gmc. 
*Ingwaz.

Connected with Ing in the OE rune poem are the Heardingas, whose 
name appears in ON as the legendary twins the Haddingjar, and in 
Roman writers as the Astingi, the Vandal dynasty who conquered North 
Africa.  Go. *Hazdiggos = Hazdingos.  Regarding these twin gods, see 
Tacitus 43 on the Alci.  Their individual names are known only in 
connection with the Vandals: *Rafts "beam", *Raus "reed" (recorded 
in Greek as Raptos, Raos).  For possible archeological evidence of 
the cult of the twins among the Naharvali, see HR Ellis Davidson, 
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, p. 169.  Jakob Grimm saw this 
tribe, also given as Nahanarvali, as being named after a goddess, 
positing a Gothic *Nawarne-haleis, the people of *Nawarns or 
*Nawairns.  Nawarns would then be a goddess of death, cf. Gothic 
naus corpse (ON nár, OE ne) < Germanic *nawiz, and Lith. nahwe 
(f.) 'death'.  If that's right, the *Nawairns might make more sense 
as the Go. form.  According to Grimm, this deity would be the 
etymological and spiritual precursor of the norns, known to us from 
the later Norse mythology.  But I've no idea if there's anything in 
all this speculation, or whether this ending -rnaz is attested 
elsewhere.  I haven't seen such an explanation of ON 'norn' 
elsewhere.  Could be *Nawairns is a product of philological 
mythology?  Very likely a coincidence (or maybe this was what gave 
Grimm the idea), but there was a Russian death goddess Nav, and an 
Old Bohemian (Czech) Navaza, listed in the Mater Verborum gloss 
among the demons of plague.

I'd also like to propose *Auzawandils (or *Auzawandila?), as a 
Gothic equivalent of ON Aurvandill whose frozen toe was thrown into 
the sky by Thor to become a star -- Venus?  (OE Earendel 'brightest 
of angels', German Orendel the mariner, ON Vandill the sea-king, 
Danish Orvendill the father of Ambløthæ = Hamlet; Langobardic 
Auriwandalo).  Interpretations of this name have been varied.  The 
second element is probably cognate with the name of the Vandal 
tribe.  The first is disputed.  Theories mentioned by Rudolf Simek's 
Dictionary of Northern Mythology include links with ON aurr ('gold' 
related to Latin aureus), giving a meaning 'golden' or 'bright 
Vandal' or 'ray of light' (with the second element from ON vöndr, 
staff); or ON aurr 'wet gravel'; all highly speculative.  Jakob 
Grimm saw it as 'arrow' (ON örr, Gothic arhvazna), since Orvendill's 
father in Saxo is Gervendill, 'spear Vandal' -- but this etymology 
seems particularly strained.  I don't know if anyone else has 
suggested the following, but my guess is that the original Germanic 
form was actually *Auza-wandilaz, with the first element from the 
Indo-European root aus- 'dawn' (found in English east, Latin aurora, 
Sanskrit usha).  This suggests a meaning 'dawn-wanderer' or 'dawn-
turner', an appropriate name for the morning star.  Maybe *wandil- 
meant 'planet' too (cf. Greek. asteres planetai 'wandering stars' 
and Latin stellae errantes, with the same meaning).  Could 
Gervendill (there is a cognate Old High German personal name: 
Kerwentil recorded) have been the evening star?  The Gothic form 
would be *Gaizawandils.

Llama Nom

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