Drus Griutinge - swesa namna

[ualarauans]

Well, I think that finally we've got a (master-!)piece of true 
Gothic poetry whatever Elfriede Stutz may have stated. Where in the 
dark cellars of antiquarian bibliothecae did Llama find the last 
surviving manuscript of an unknown Ostrogothic Homer? Or were they 
communicating in sleep? Or maybe we should believe in reincarnation? 
Whatever the truth, the poem is great, "both in quantitative and 
qualitative aspect" as someone used to say :-). Let me start with 
proper names only, I've got some questions to the liuþareis.

Aistjus "Ests" – has this clan name something to do with Aestii of 
Tacitus and Jordanes? In which case it could be an –i-stem, *Aisteis 
pl.?

What's the meaning of Idumiggos?

Iþ galgin ridun / Gunþirunos "But upon the gallows rode Godrun's"
– I guess there's some ON or OE or maybe Gothic metaphor behind it? 
Could you please tell us? Gunþiruna – *walakuzjo?

Ana Danaprais staþam (et passim) "on the banks of the Dniepr" – it's 
after ON Danparstaðir, isn't it? *Danaprs as I can gather is thought 
to be an –i-stem fem. Jordanes used Danaper masc. and one time 
Danaprum neutr. (Get. 30: magnumque illud Danaprum Taurumque 
montem..., if illud is not a typo for illum acc. masc. here). The 
formation is probably the same as in Danaster /-trum. In ON a re-
distribution (Neuverteilung) of morphemes took place and the final
–r- of the stem became a flective ending, hence Danpr, gen. Danpar. 
Cf. also later Slavic forms: ORuss. DnEpru > Russ. Dnepr, Ukr. 
Dnipro  - all masc. All this leads me to think that Gothic had a 
form like *Danaprus M.-u or *Danaprs M.-a/-i, in which case gen. 
would be *Danapraus or *Danapris. BTW., are you sure that it was 
staþa "banks", not stadeis "places" (as in ON). Ana Danapraus 
stadim? Or better as a compound *Danaprustadeis/-staþa?

Augeis kunjis "of Augis's kin"; Imrikins banins "of Imrika's 
slayer" – what are these names? Are they attested (and what do they 
mean)?

þairh Mairqiwidu "through the Dark Forest" – aha, here is Gothic 
Myrkviðr finally! So you think that was originally a forest between 
Goths and Huns (like in Hlöðskviða)? I heard a lot of theories about 
its supposed historical location. One of them is that it = 
Herodote's hYLAIH "forested region" between Dnieper and Don.

faur Salwo swumfsl "by the Murky Lake" – and is there a proto-type 
of this?

Hraide "of the Hred-Goths" – I guess you have an example of such a 
usage in ON or OE?

und Hailago hlaiw, / þarei und hita standiþ "unto the Holy Howe, 
there where it stands to this day" <= (Hlöðskviða 10) gröf þá ina 
helgu, / er stendr á Goðþjóðu, right?

Uldinis ... arbjans "Uldin's heirs" – I guess it's the same Uldin 
who was mentioned as a leader of the Danube Huns about 400 CE. Could 
the Huns of the Invasion time (375 CE) be called "Uldin's heirs"?

Balþs Balambairis "Bold Balamber". Jordanes' Balamber which also 
reads in codices as Balamir and Balamur has been often thought to be 
a distortion of Gothic Walamers (through Greek intermediation, cf. 
BALAMEROS in Priscus 28 – a "Scythic" name). Maybe there was a 
Hunnish name later Gothicized (like in the case of Attila, Rugila 
etc)? I'd use *Balamers, if not Walamers. Keeping the rhyme, Balþs 
Balamers...

Alisins geza "Alisa's stronghold" – again a name which I 
can't "decipher".

Humlins magiwe "of Humla's boys" – maybe Humila is better for ON 
Humli? Or that would yield *Hymli?

Unwen – Jordanes Hunuil? I heard there was an OE parallel name, 
right?

ibnan / Airpamarhin "Erpamarha's equal". In the text (Get. 43) it 
stands as Eterpamara. What is this Et-, if we accept your 
reconstruction? Are there other examples where marha is attested as 
a weak noun in Germanic names?

Ualarauans (with admiration)

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