Sinthgunt

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Sinthgunt (handwritten Sinhtgunt ) is the name of a presumed Germanic goddess who is only documented in the so-called Second Merseburg Spell . The function of the goddess and the etymology of the name are unclear .

Surname

The incantation of the saying on horse healing describes the Sinthgunt as the sister of the Sunna .

Phôl ende Wuodan fuorun zi holza.
there was demo balderes folon sîn fuoz birenkit.
thû biguol en Sinthgunt , Sunna era swister;
thû biguol en Frîja, Folla era swister;
thû biguol en Wuodan, sô hê wola conda:
sôse bênrenki, sôse bluotrenki,
sôse lidirenki:
bên zi bêna, bluot zi bluoda,
lid zi geliden, sôse gelîmida sîn.
      
Phol and Wodan went into the forest
Then the foot of the foal of the Lord / Balders was dislocated
Sinthgunt, the Sunnah's sister, discussed it
Then Frija , Volla's sister, discussed him .
Wodan then discussed how he could do it.
So drowning in the legs, so drowning in blood
so articulation:
Leg to leg, blood to blood
Link to link, as if they were glued

In handwriting the name as is Sin ht GUNT entered, but is commonly on the Graphie th improved as predominantly a transmission error is assumed. According to Stefan Schaffner, this is mandatory because the handwritten first name member Sinht - no Germanic phonetic form * sinχt - can be continued, which according to the law should have resulted in Old High German * sīht . For the basic form of the name, Heiner Eichner and Schaffner assume a two-part Germanic compound * Senþa-gunþjō , which joins the meanings "gang, campaign" and "fight". The emended (improved) form can also be added to the corpus of female Old High German personal names such as the synonymous form Sindhilt from Germanic * Senþa-χilðijō (cf. -hilt to Old Norse hilðr , Old English hild , all "fight").

interpretation

The mythological and religious-scientific interpretation of the function and nature of the Sinthgunt depended and depends in research on the preferred etymologization of the name and on the interpretation of the surrounding literary context of the Second Merseburg Spell. Since the Sinthgunt appears together with the Sunna, which also only appears by name in the Second Merseburg Spruch as a (literary) personification of the sun , Jacob Grimm was also assumed to be a celestial deity in Sinthgunt in the 19th century . Sophus Bugge referred the name to Sol ("sun") and Mani ("moon") as figures of Norse mythology and etymologized a presumably incorrect (Eichner, Schaffner), complex composition germ. * Sin-naχt-gund while retaining the handwritten graphics as "the night-walker"; the moon would appear here as the moon goddess. The interpretation seems problematic in that neither Sol nor Mani play a relevant role in other surviving mythological sources, and the moon deity Mani is usually male. Rudolf Simek also pointed out the lack of evidence for a personified celestial cult among the Teutons.

As early as the end of the 19th century, Friedrich Kauffmann emphasized that the endings in -gund and -hild in the sources mainly exist as parts of Valkyrie names , so that he assigned Sinthgunt to the circle of Valkyries. He was recently followed by Eichner and Schaffner, with the involvement of Gunter Müller's study of the healing powers of the Valkyries. In contrast, Karl Helm rejected Kauffmann's hypothesis and preferred an assignment of the Sinthgunt to the Idisi of the first Merseburg magic spell as a separate, defined group of Germanic goddesses. Wolfgang Beck interprets Sinthgunt, following a thesis by Siegfried Gutenbrunner , as a subordinate goddess in the wake of the Sunna , who, due to her literary singularity in the context of the entire saying, also appears as a kind of "situation goddess ". Simek remains undecided about the various interpretive approaches and contradicting solutions and refers to the key points of the unresolved questions of etymology and to the unclear function of the name bearer.

literature

  • Wolfgang Beck : The Merseburg Magic Spells (Imagines Medii Aevi 16). Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-89500-300-X .
  • Heiner Eichner : For the second Merseburg magic spell . In: Heiner Eichner, Robert Nedoma (ed.): "Insprinc haptbandun". Lectures of the colloquium on the Merseburg magic spells at the XI. Symposium of the Indo-European Society in Halle / Saale (September 17-23, 2000). Part 2. In: The Language - Journal for Linguistics. Vol. 42, issue 1/2 (2000/2001; published 2003). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2001, ISSN  0376-401X .
  • Michael Lundgreen: Merseburg Magic Spells . In: Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Vol. 19, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, pp. 601-604, ISBN 3-11-017163-5 .
  • Vladimir Orel: A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2003, ISBN 90-04-12875-1 .
  • Stefan Schaffner : The god names of the second Merseburg magic spell. In: Heiner Eichner, Robert Nedoma (ed.): "Insprinc haptbandun". Lectures of the colloquium on the Merseburg magic spells at the XI. Symposium of the Indo-European Society in Halle / Saale (September 17-23, 2000). Part 1. In: Die Sprach - Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft. Vol. 41, Issue 2 (1999; published 2002). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISSN  0376-401X .
  • Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 347.
  2. ↑ Merseburg, Cathedral Abbey Library, Cod. 136, fol. 85 r .
  3. ↑ Heiner Eichner: For the second Merseburg magic spell , pp. 118f.
  4. ↑ Stefan Schaffner: The god names of the second Merseburg magic spell , p. 169.
  5. ↑ Stefan Schaffner: The god names of the second Merseburg magic spell , p. 169f.
  6. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 397.
  7. ↑ Lieder-Edda: Grímnismál 37, 39; Vafthrudnismal 22, 23; Prose Edda: Gylfaginning chap. 11; see. Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , pp. 392f., 263.
  8. ↑ Sophus Bugge: Studies on the origin of the Nordic gods and heroic sagas . Munich 1889, p. 298. Cf. Rudolf Simek: Lexikon der Germanischen Mythologie (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 374.
  9. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , pp. 392, 397.
  10. ^ Friedrich Kauffmann: The second Merseburg magic spell . In: Contributions to the history of German language and literature 15, 1891, pp. 207–210; ders., Again the second Merseburg saying . In: Journal for German Philology 26, 1894, pp. 454–462.
  11. ↑ Gunter Müller: On the healing power of the Valkyries. Special linguistic aspects of magic in continental and Scandinavian certificates . In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien 10, 1976, pp. 358ff.
  12. ^ Karl Helm: Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte , Vol. 2.2, Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1953, pp. 219, 227.
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Beck: Die Merseburger Zaubersprüche, pp. 163–171, here p. 171.