AW: [gothic-l] Naming practices

[Andreas Schwarcz]

Dear Tom,

 

Alaric is a name, not a title, and Balthus is the (royal or noble) family he
was from (the Latin source calls him “genere Baltha”, “from the family of
the Balthi”, and Jordanes writes that this family is only second in nobility
to the family of the Amali, the family of Theoderic the Great). The name
Balthus may also indicate some ethnic connection of the family. Other
members of this family may have been Ariaric, Aoric, Athanaric and Alaviv,
who were leaders of the Tervingi before Alaric. So to call him Alaric the
Bold or Bold Alaric would both be wrong.

 

All the best,

             Andreas Schwarcz

 

 

Ao.Univ.Prof.Dr. Andreas Schwarcz

Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung

Universität Wien

Dr. Karl Lueger-Ring 1

A 1010 Wien

Austria

Tel. 0043-1-42-77/272-16

Fax 0043-1-42-77/92-72

andreas.schwarcz at univie.ac.at

  _____  

Von: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com [mailto:gothic-l at yahoogroups.com] Im Auftrag
von Thomas
Gesendet: Dienstag, 21. Dezember 2010 16:01
An: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com
Betreff: [gothic-l] Naming practices

 

  

Greetings.

I am working on a novel about Alaric. In my research, I read in one place
that Alaric may not have been his name, but that Alaric was a distortion by
contemporary writers of his title, Ala Reiks (prince of princes).

I suspect that this is not true because there were many Gothic names which
included the suffix ric, Athanaric for instance.

I have also read that he had an appellation, the bold (balthi).
To complicate that, I read that Balthi was the title of a sub-tribe of the
Tervingi.

My goal in writing is to not only entertain, but to educate.
So, I have a question. If Balthi were an appellation to Alaric's name, would
it have been:
Alaric the Bold (Like Eric the Red)
or
Bold Alaric (like Red Eric)

Thank you guys very much.
I have asked questions here before and got very helpful responses. You guys
are great.

Tom





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