Sandraudiga

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Sandraudiga (inscribed Dea Sandraudiga ) is the name of a Germanic goddess who is only known from the inscription on a votive stone from the 2nd to 3rd centuries from the Dutch Zundert in the North Brabant region .

Discovery and Inscription

The stone was in the 1812 peasants discovered Tiggelt near the village of Rijsbergen in the direction of Zundert in the construction of "Napoleonsweg" road and is now in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden. It is made of limestone (139 × 81 × 41 cm), above the profiled, all-round base there is the inscription panel, above it a cornice corresponding to the base with a top with foliage or scaled decorated scrolls on both sides. The narrow sides each show different cornices as decor. The four-line inscription is slightly disturbed and clearly legible. The final A and E of the theonym are executed as a ligature Æ.

"Deae / Sandraudigae / cultores / templi"

Formally, the inscription testifies to the fact that “Cultores”, cult personnel or functionaries, donated the stone, which is connected to a temple. According to the region of discovery, (Romanized) Batavians are to be assumed as Germanic dedicators . The remains of a possible temple were discovered during subsequent excavations at the site of the stone in the 1950s. Wall-painted remains of the wall, brick fragments, Roman and local ceramics and a number of iron products such as nails and hooks were found that can be dated to the 2nd century. Not far from the Tiggelter site, a Roman-era Germanic settlement from the middle of the 2nd century to the middle of the 3rd century was uncovered in the Rijswijker district “de Bult”, which consisted of three courtyards.

Name and interpretation

The two-part name shows Germanic lexemes in its respective parts . Theodor von Grienberger sees the derivation Sandr (i) - from Germanic * sanþ (with grammatical alternation d <þ) in the first term , and compares it with the evidence in Old Norse sannr , Old English sóð = true, really . Furthermore, he compares the link with the Visigothic personal name Sandri-mer ("the truly famous") from the early 7th century. He puts the second link -audiga to Gothic audags and other related evidence in the old Germanic languages ​​with the meaning of rich, blessed, happy .

Richard M. Meyer rejected Grienberger's explanations as too abstractly constructed, considers the connection to the personal name Sandrimer to be problematic, since the r in the theonym has to become stem-based. The copulation of an abstract concept of "true" with the real concept of "wealth" is unusual for naming Germanic deities. Meyer sees a local special phenomenon in the goddess that is associated with the place name Zundert and creates the name from the terms Old Saxon, Old English * sand = sand and Gothic rauds and Old Norse rauðs = "reddish, red" as the "goddess who reddens the sand" represent.

Siegfried Gutenbrunner goes a different way with the connection to Germanic * Sundra for special and is considering a reference to the name of the place where it was found Zundert as * Sundrauda = divine special , so that the name could mean “the truly rich”.

Norbert Wagner sees an -ra extension in the first member of the name. In the addition of Grienberger's personal name Sandrimer to the theonym Sandraudiga , he sees only a Romance sonorisation in both documents in the -d- , a vulgar Latin appearance as in the epithet of Mars Halamardus (đ <þ). He therefore does not see Grienberger's assumption of a grammatical change as given.

For von Grienberger, who emphasized that the stone is decorated with cornucopia on both sides, the name is evidence of a goddess of abundance and fertility. Jan de Vries also sees a "goddess of abundance" in the name, but he is skeptical of Grienberger's linguistic conclusions and leans towards Gutenbrunner's approach; Rudolf Simek on the synthesis.

Lauran Toorians derives the name of Sandraudiga from a Celtic (substratum) place or place name. He specifically sees in the Germanic form sand-raud-iga = "red sand" a Germanization of the older Celtic place name * sfonda-roudo = "red pole", whereby he does not explain the striking repositioning of the adjective. He also argues that the soil in the vicinity of the site is rich in iron, giving it a red color, which is also continued in the color of the local rivers. Thus, the topical reference of the name shows the goddess as the protector of the place / settlement. He also sees the same process in the name of Zundert as the adaptation of a Celtic predecessor name by Germanic-speaking (new) settlers.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CIL 13, 8774
  2. ^ Richard M. Meyer: Old Germanic history of religion. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1910, p. 401.
  3. ^ Richard M. Meyer: Contributions to old Germanic mythology. - Dea Sandraudtga. In: Axel Kock, et al. (Ed.): Arkiv för nordisk filologi (ANF) . New episode, volume 19 (= band 23 of the complete edition). CWK Gleerups förlag, Lund 1907, p. 249-250 (multilingual, runeberg.org ).
  4. ↑ Norbert Wagner: The names of Lakringen, Sabalingen and Inkrionen. In: Historical linguistic research . 111, 1 (1998), pp. 169-176; here 170. Ders. In: Vulgar Latin in Germanic names by classical authors. In: Historische Sprachforschung 116, 1. (2003), pp. 132–141; here 137.
  5. ^ Ranko Matasovic: Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1 , pp. 315, 334.
  6. ↑ Arend Quak : Lauran Toorians: Keltisch en Germaans in de Nederlanden. Taal in Nederland en België gedurende de Late IJzertijd en de Romeinse period. Brussels 2000. In: Amsterdam contributions to older German studies 54 (2000), pp. 208–210; here 210.