Germanic god name

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In name research, a Germanic god name belongs to the genus of sacral names in Germanic and names a deity with a noun proprium (proper name) or with a cognomen (surname). Mainly in place names and personal names of the Germanic languages, but also in other languages, e.g. B. in Latin , a Germanic god name occurs as a component. Such names are interpreted as theophore names in name science.

In anthroponymy , names for mythical beings - such as demons, personified animals or deities of the Germanic cultural area - are personal names.

Etymological

The Indo-European word for “God” * deiṷos - from which in Sanskrit deva , in Old Irish día and in Latin deus - changed to týr in Old Norse . However, týr as an appellative designation of a single god is only documented in the oldest Skaldendicht .

The later skalds and the Edda, on the other hand, only use the plural tívar in the appellative sense as a collective name . They use the singular týr exclusively as a proper name and in compound words as an epithet of the god Óðinn - such as in Hangatýr ("hanging god").

The names bǫnd , b Kollept , ráð , regin and goð , all neuter, can also be found as pluralia tantum and collectiva in the Skaldendichtung . The term goð, on the other hand, is used later, as before, the Gothic guþ as a masculine singular to denote the Christian god.

As a term for deities as a collective, the pagan skaldic poetry also knows the name of the Aesir , which, contrary to the name of the Wanen gods, should go back to the Common Germanic period due to numerous equivalents outside of Old Norse .

For the transmission of Germanic god names

From the Germanic cultural area, names of gods have been passed down through the few reports from ancient authors, Roman inscriptions and written sources from the time of Christianization, and in particular from Old Norse from the extensively preserved scald poetry to the Edda to the name catalogs of the Þulur . The linguistic connections to many of these names can no longer be elucidated, but there are also no reliable non- Germanic equivalents for names with a convincing Indo-European etymology.

Within the Germanic itself, too, many epithets attested by inscriptions remain without any recognizable correlation in the later tradition. However, numerous North Germanic god names handed down from a late date do not find a convincing connection outside of Old Norse. Within Old Norse, at least one can distinguish between the older usage of the skalds and the younger usage of the Edda.

The latest tradition occasionally preserved antiquity, but viewed as a whole, according to Bernhard Maier , it only produced a collection of purely literary new creations without any religious historical source value.

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Thorsten Andersson :  Theophore names. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 30, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018385-4 , pp. 442-452.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Cf. Bernhard Maier :  Götternamen. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 12, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-016227-X , pp. 295-296.
  3. ↑ See Andrea Brendler, Silvio Brendler: Europäische Personalennamensysteme. A handbook from Abasic to Centraladin . Baar, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-935536-65-3
  4. ↑ a b Cf. Russell Poole:  Skaldic Poetry. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 28, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018207-6 , pp. 562-568.
  5. ↑ Old Norse asir , singular ass : see. Hans Kuhn :  Asen. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1973, ISBN 3-11-004489-7 , pp. 457-458.
  6. ↑ See Bernhard Maier :  Interpretatio. § 2. I. Graeca / Romana. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 15, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-016649-6 , pp. 461-463.

literature

  • Bernhard Maier :  names of gods. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 12, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-016227-X , pp. 295-296.
  • Siegfried Gutenbrunner : The Germanic god names of the ancient inscriptions. Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1936.
  • Hans Kuhn : Philological to the old Germanistic religious history. V. God in Old Norse . In: Hans Kuhn: Small writings. Vol. 4. 1978, pp. 258-265.
  • Hans Kuhn: Philological to the old Germanic religious history. XI. Iǫrmunr and the lists of names in the Younger Edda . In: Hans Kuhn: Small writings. Vol. 4, 1978, pp. 289-294.
  • Edith Marold : The Skaldendichtung as a source of religious history. In: Heinrich Beck (Hrsg.): Germanic religious history . 1992, pp. 685-719.
  • Edgar C. Polomé : god names of the Germanic peoples. In: Ernst Eichler, Gerold Hilty , Heinrich Löffler, Hugo Steger, Ladislav Zgusta (eds.): Name research. An international handbook on onomastics. 2nd half volume (= handbooks for language and communication science (HSK) 11.2). Mouton / de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 978-3-11-020343-1 , pp. 1838-1846.
  • Elmar Seebold : The sky, the day and the gods among the Indo-Europeans . In: Historical linguistic research. Vol. 104, 1991, pp. 29-45.
  • Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 2nd, supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-520-36802-1 .