Name of the Goths

[John Larsson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ingemar Nordgren" <ingemar at nordgren.se>
To: <gothic-l at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2006 11:03 PM
Subject: [gothic-l] Re: Name of the Goths



Hi Dirk,

Could you demonstrate a big flowing stream that explains the island
name of Gutland/Gotland or Eastern Gautland?

Best
Ingemar


> > > Thus, the place name Gutinge (Göttingen) refers to ' the place of
> > the people at the stream of water'. In fact, some sources even refer
> > to a Saxon 'sub-tribe' as the Gudinge from the same area. The name
> of
> > the Goths has clearly the same linguistic roots and it may have had
> > the same development, only that usually the more sophisticated
> > interpretation of 'giessen', i.e. to pour or flow is employed to
> > arrive at  the meaning of 'the once who were created by the flow of
> > semen from a god'.

Good question, Ingemar,

No, the origin of must be older and point at something more siginificant
than living along flowing water. For a long time I kept looking for some
special behaviour, e. g. methods to move along rivers or methods to utilize
seasonal floodings, but with no convincing conclusions. It seems like
"giessen/gyde/gjuta" can be traced back to words meaning "juice" or
"offering/sacrifice". To all lurking ladies: Keep on reading, I'll not try
to explain the connection! ;-) Really, because I doubt such a connection!

Let me instead introduce you, honourable readers, to a new (at least, I
think so!) possible meaning of the origin of the Goths. There might still be
doubt about details, but it seems like the Black Sea area once was flooded
with an enormous "flowing stream", when the Bosphorous Strait was
established. This should have happend ca 7500 years ago. The water fall from
the Mediterranian was 40-50 times the Niagara Falls for several months and
an area of about 150000 sqr km was flooded, thus 5 times the area of the
Netherlands. This area was lowland area, with fine agricultural potential,
so it must have had a more dense population than surrounding areas. All
these people, probably of many ethnic origins, fled the Black Sea area and
by the peoples, which noticed (and suffered from!) their migration they were
called "those who flee the Great Water Fall". Voila!

Regards
John


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