Athanareiks = Heidrek?

[autoreport]

Norse m. Heiðr "honour" is the Norse form of the root appearing in English as the suffixes -head, and -hood "condition, rank, quality". The (Visi-)Gothic form is haidus "manner". This word seems to have been continually confused with the similar "heath", Gothic haiþi "field", Norse f. heiðr "heath".

Athana- may seem similar to English Æðele "noble", but is actually a Latinized version of uniquely Gothic *athn "year" the dative form of which is recorded in the compound at-athni "this year". Thus the Gothic form of Athanaricus is Athnareiks. In other contexts Gothic uses yér, cognate with the words for "year" in the other Germanic languages. The Latinized form Athana- appears to be influenced by the Greek name Athanasios "undying". The only known cognate of Gothic athn is Latin annus (reduced from a primitive *atnos) with the same meaning.

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "M. Carver" <matt at ...> wrote:
>
> on 11/30/00 6:15 PM, Frank Kermes at gevurah at ... wrote:
> 
> > Greetings all,
> > 
> > What's the likelihood that "Heidrek" is the Old Norse form or syntagenym of
> > Gothic "Athanareiks?"  (please excuse my spelling, I hope my question is
> > clear).  I'm not sure if the themes of the two names match up (Heid- =
> > Athana-, -rek = -reiks) phonologically, though they seem to semantically
> > (Heid- and Atha- meaning noble?)
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Frank
> 
> 
> I'm not sure Frank, but the meanings are slightly different. Heidur, which
> means honor, were probably Go. hauhiþs "exalted" or similar. Athana- would
> be more related to atta, athala- "patrimonial inheritance" = inherited
> wealth or title. Go. has *aiza- "honor" cf. OE a'r and wulthu- though
> neither apparently occur in patronymic context.
> 
> Matþaius
>


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