- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Largo A. Gemelli, 1
20123 Milano
- Historical Linguistics, Comparative Linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Linguistics, Latin linguistics, Ancient Greek Linguistics, and 102 moreMycenaean, Homer, Latin Literature, Greek Literature, Ancient Religion, Proto Indo-European, Indo-European Studies, Ancient magic, Roman Religion, Vedic Sanskrit, Hittite, Avestan (Languages And Linguistics), Vedic Studies, Sanskrit language and literature, Formulaic Language, Classics, Greek Epic, Greek Lyric Poetry, Indo-european language reconstruction, Homeric poetry, Homeric epic, Poetics, Folklore, Indoeuropean Studies, Indo-Iranian Linguistics, Homeric studies, Indo-European, Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Sanskrit, Ancient Greek Language, Anatolian Studies, Hittitology, Aeschylus, Euripides, Pindar, Epic poetry, Greek Tragedy, Comparative Poetics, Germanic linguistics, Nordic Studies, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Old Germanic Languages, Germanic Philology, Germanic Studies, Old Norse Language, Old Norse Literature, Old Norse, Old Norse literature and culture, Old Norse-Old Icelandic Literature, Scandinavian Studies, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Scandinavian languages, Scandinavian Mythology, Runic inscriptions, Onomastics, Old English Language, Old English Language and Literature, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Old Irish Language and Literature, Celtic Languages, Celtic Linguistics, Celtic Studies, Etymology, Language contact, Latin Language and Literature, Greek Language, Hesiodic Poetry, Ritual, Celtic Mythology, Celtic religion, Old Norse Sorcery, Old Norse Religion, Greek religion (Classics), Greek Linguistics, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, Zoroastrianism, Orality, Oral Traditions, Eddic Poetry, Poetic Edda, Old Norse heroic saga and eddaic literature, Snorra-Edda, Snorri Sturluson, Comparative mythology, Mythology And Folklore, Medieval Scandinavia, Nordic languages, Gothic, Old English, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Viking Age Scandinavia, Anglo-Saxon Studies (History), Icelandic Family Sagas, Mahabharata, Puranas, Ancient myth and religion, Greek Myth, Indian Culture, Hindu Mythology, Comparative Philosophy, Graeco-Roman Religion, and Ancient Greek Religionedit
- I research and teach ("RTDa") Historical and General Linguistics ("Glottologia e Linguistica") at the Università Catt... moreI research and teach ("RTDa") Historical and General Linguistics ("Glottologia e Linguistica") at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), Milan (Italy), where I also teach Sanskrit courses and lead the Milan unit of the project "Linked Wordnets for Ancient Indo-European Languages" (PRIN 2022; PI: C. Zanchi, Pavia).
I am also an editorial team member of the Classics academic journal "Aevum Antiquum" and of Harvard University's platform "Classical Continuum", an advisory board member of the "New Alexandria Foundation", and a team member of the interdisciplinary project "LAMP: Languages and Myths of Prehistory" (RJ 2020; PI: J. Larsson, Stockholm).
I have been:
2022-2023 Associate in Hellenic Studies at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies (Washington, DC, USA).
2022 Fellow at the University of Cologne's Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies (Germany).
2021-2022 Associate in Historical and General Linguistics at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies (Washington, DC, USA).
2021 Adjunct Lecturer for Indo-European Poetics and Mythology at the University of Würzburg's Chair of Comparative Philology (Germany).
2020-2021 Fellow in Comparative Poetics and Comparative Mythology at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies (Washington, DC, USA).
2020-2021 Postdoc Researcher (Marie Curie Fellow) in Indo-European Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics (Denmark).
2019-2020 Fellow in Hellenic Studies at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies (Washington, DC, USA).
2018-2020 Adjunct Lecturer for Comparative Indo-European Poetics and Mythology at the the University of Cologne's Institute of Linguistics (Germany).
2014-2018 PhD in Historical Linguistics at the Università per Stranieri di Siena (Italy) and University of Cologne (Germany).
2012-2014 MA in Ancient Studies at the UCSC Milan (Italy).
2009-2012 BA in Classics at the UCSC Milan (Italy).edit
This work aims to investigate through the tools of historical and comparative linguistics some aspects of poetics and mythology attested in Old Icelandic, a particular variety of the Old Norse language. The research stems from the belief... more
This work aims to investigate through the tools of historical and comparative linguistics some aspects of poetics and mythology attested in Old Icelandic, a particular variety of the Old Norse language. The research stems from the belief that the ancient Germanic poetic traditions, especially those in Old Icelandic and Old English (particularly rich in documentation both for quantity and quality), can offer an important contribution to the comparative study of poetic language, which has become in the course of the last century one of the most interesting lines of research in the field of Indo-European Studies. The study highlights the parallels between, on the one hand, the poetic language and mythology attested in Norse texts and, on the other hand, those that occur in texts written in other Germanic languages, such as Old English and Middle High German, and in the other Indo-European languages of ancient attestation, in particular Hittite, Sanskrit (Vedic and Classical), Ancient Greek, Latin and Old Irish.
In “Part I”, I argue that the Old Norse names of Odin in °fǫðr are reflexes of ancient features of Indo-European social structure. The single chapters comprise discussions of the following formations and conceptualizations:
- Old Norse °fǫðr is a reflex of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *pə́₂trou̯- ‘paternal ancestor’, patriarch’, in its non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’, with a close parallel in the Sanskrit epithet of Brahma (°)pitāmaha- ‘paternal grandfather’, as well as in Indo-European formulas attesting reflexex of PIE *ph₂tér- ‘father’, such as various Old English kennings for [GOD]. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43265424/
- Old Norse Al-fǫðr and Al-faðir reflect the Indo-European conception of the supreme god as a “Cosmic Patriarch”. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43330834/
- Old Norse Alda-fǫðr and Her(ja)-fǫðr can be connected to the Indo-European formula [FATHER – SKY]. Old Norse Herjans-fǫðr may be the only reflex of the literal meaning of °fǫðr as ‘paternal ancestor’. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43449298/
- Old Norse Sig-fǫðr and Val-fǫðr reflect the idea that [VICTORY] and [MASSACRE] are two sides of the same coin, two aspects of the same event. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43508652/
In “Part II”, I argue that the Old Norse dvergar (commonly translated as ‘dwarves’) are Germanic reflexes of Indo-European mythical craftsmen. The single chapters comprise discussions of the following formations and conceptualizations:
- Old Norse dvergr is a reflex of PIE *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’, a root which has various other reflexes in other Germanic and Indo-European languages. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43265879/
- The mythology of the Norse dvergar has an impressive number of parallels with the mythology of the Vedic Sanskrit god Tváṣṭar-. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43343418/
- Further parallels may be found in the names, formulas, and myths associated with the Roman god Picus and with the Greek titan Cronus (Kronos). Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43374223/
- Historical-comparative linguistics and comparative poetics allow us to better understand the etymology and meaning of the names of the dvergar. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43392943/
In “Part I”, I argue that the Old Norse names of Odin in °fǫðr are reflexes of ancient features of Indo-European social structure. The single chapters comprise discussions of the following formations and conceptualizations:
- Old Norse °fǫðr is a reflex of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *pə́₂trou̯- ‘paternal ancestor’, patriarch’, in its non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’, with a close parallel in the Sanskrit epithet of Brahma (°)pitāmaha- ‘paternal grandfather’, as well as in Indo-European formulas attesting reflexex of PIE *ph₂tér- ‘father’, such as various Old English kennings for [GOD]. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43265424/
- Old Norse Al-fǫðr and Al-faðir reflect the Indo-European conception of the supreme god as a “Cosmic Patriarch”. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43330834/
- Old Norse Alda-fǫðr and Her(ja)-fǫðr can be connected to the Indo-European formula [FATHER – SKY]. Old Norse Herjans-fǫðr may be the only reflex of the literal meaning of °fǫðr as ‘paternal ancestor’. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43449298/
- Old Norse Sig-fǫðr and Val-fǫðr reflect the idea that [VICTORY] and [MASSACRE] are two sides of the same coin, two aspects of the same event. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43508652/
In “Part II”, I argue that the Old Norse dvergar (commonly translated as ‘dwarves’) are Germanic reflexes of Indo-European mythical craftsmen. The single chapters comprise discussions of the following formations and conceptualizations:
- Old Norse dvergr is a reflex of PIE *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’, a root which has various other reflexes in other Germanic and Indo-European languages. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43265879/
- The mythology of the Norse dvergar has an impressive number of parallels with the mythology of the Vedic Sanskrit god Tváṣṭar-. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43343418/
- Further parallels may be found in the names, formulas, and myths associated with the Roman god Picus and with the Greek titan Cronus (Kronos). Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43374223/
- Historical-comparative linguistics and comparative poetics allow us to better understand the etymology and meaning of the names of the dvergar. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43392943/
Research Interests: Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreIndo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, History of Religions, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, Compounding, Derivational Morphology, and Comparative Study of World Religions
The Norse mythological poem Vǫluspá and hymn 10.129 of the Rigveda attest to cosmogonic narratives that, as has long been noted, display several correspondences, but also undeniable differences: for instance, the collocation [SKY and... more
The Norse mythological poem Vǫluspá and hymn 10.129 of the Rigveda attest to cosmogonic narratives that, as has long been noted, display several correspondences, but also undeniable differences: for instance, the collocation [SKY and EARTH and WATER/SEA] for [COSMOS] that recurs in Vǫluspá 3 does not seem to have exact parallels within the Vedic hymn.
I propose a new interpretation of this collocation as a merism of structure [A+[B+C]] reflecting the same polar conceptualization of [COSMOS] that underlies the more frequent merism [SKY and EARTH] (i.e., COSMOS as an entity composed of two "halves," an upper one and a lower one); this analysis finds support in the lexicon and phraseology of several other Indo-European languages (Latin, Greek, Hittite, and Armenian, inter alia).
From a cognitive perspective, this conceptualization reflects the application of the UP-DOWN spatial schema to cosmological structure; in the light of this, a further parallel can be identified between the cosmogonic poetics of Vǫluspá 3 and that of Rigveda 10.129.
I propose a new interpretation of this collocation as a merism of structure [A+[B+C]] reflecting the same polar conceptualization of [COSMOS] that underlies the more frequent merism [SKY and EARTH] (i.e., COSMOS as an entity composed of two "halves," an upper one and a lower one); this analysis finds support in the lexicon and phraseology of several other Indo-European languages (Latin, Greek, Hittite, and Armenian, inter alia).
From a cognitive perspective, this conceptualization reflects the application of the UP-DOWN spatial schema to cosmological structure; in the light of this, a further parallel can be identified between the cosmogonic poetics of Vǫluspá 3 and that of Rigveda 10.129.
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Historical Linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, and 14 morePoetics, Comparative Linguistics, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Latin Language and Literature, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Comparative mythology, Indo-European Linguistics, Old Norse Religion, Cognitive Poetics, Cosmology, Indology, Vedic Studies, and Poetic Edda
The Sanskrit poem Mahābhārata is usually regarded to have been composed in the northern part of the Indian sub-continent between 400 BCE and 400 CE, and is probably the closest Indic counterpart to the Greek Iliad. This post deals with... more
The Sanskrit poem Mahābhārata is usually regarded to have been composed in the northern part of the Indian sub-continent between 400 BCE and 400 CE, and is probably the closest Indic counterpart to the Greek Iliad.
This post deals with one of its poetic features and with the importance that it may have for the analysis of an Ancient Greek artefact, whose interpretation has been already discussed in a series of essays originally posted in Classical Inquiries by Gregory Nagy and Gloria Ferrari Pinney.
The artefact at issue is an Athenian red-figure stamnos attributed to the Triptolemos Painter (dated to ca. 500–450 BCE), whose decoration includes a cryptic depiction of (in Nagy’s description) “a dead ram, with his throat slit wide upon, who is being fought over by two contending warriors, to be identified as the heroes Hector and Ajax, fighting on opposing sides in the Trojan War as champions respectively of the Trojans and the Achaeans.”
As argued by Nagy, the painter’s labeling of the ram as ΠΑΤ[…], a fragmentary sequence which can very easily be read as the name of Patroklos, may allow for an interpretation of the sacrificed animal as some sort of representation of the corpse of the dead hero Patroklos. This is, of course, not the only possible interpretation, as pointed out (in her response to Nagy’s essay) by Ferrari Pinney, who, among other things, notes that “in my [i.e. Ferrari Pinney’s] experience, the imagery of the vases is not so straightforwardly poetic, in fact I [i.e. Ferrari Pinney] can think of no other instance.”
For more details on this debate, the reader can refer to the previous posts; the aim of this brief essay is just to point out that the interpretation of the sacrificed ram as some sort of stand-in for the dead hero Patroklos may actually find a poetic parallel in a similar feature occurring in another Indo- European tradition: the conceptualization of the hero’s death in battle as a sacrifice, attested in the Mahābhārata.
This post deals with one of its poetic features and with the importance that it may have for the analysis of an Ancient Greek artefact, whose interpretation has been already discussed in a series of essays originally posted in Classical Inquiries by Gregory Nagy and Gloria Ferrari Pinney.
The artefact at issue is an Athenian red-figure stamnos attributed to the Triptolemos Painter (dated to ca. 500–450 BCE), whose decoration includes a cryptic depiction of (in Nagy’s description) “a dead ram, with his throat slit wide upon, who is being fought over by two contending warriors, to be identified as the heroes Hector and Ajax, fighting on opposing sides in the Trojan War as champions respectively of the Trojans and the Achaeans.”
As argued by Nagy, the painter’s labeling of the ram as ΠΑΤ[…], a fragmentary sequence which can very easily be read as the name of Patroklos, may allow for an interpretation of the sacrificed animal as some sort of representation of the corpse of the dead hero Patroklos. This is, of course, not the only possible interpretation, as pointed out (in her response to Nagy’s essay) by Ferrari Pinney, who, among other things, notes that “in my [i.e. Ferrari Pinney’s] experience, the imagery of the vases is not so straightforwardly poetic, in fact I [i.e. Ferrari Pinney] can think of no other instance.”
For more details on this debate, the reader can refer to the previous posts; the aim of this brief essay is just to point out that the interpretation of the sacrificed ram as some sort of stand-in for the dead hero Patroklos may actually find a poetic parallel in a similar feature occurring in another Indo- European tradition: the conceptualization of the hero’s death in battle as a sacrifice, attested in the Mahābhārata.
Research Interests: Mythology And Folklore, Anthropology, Mythology, Greek Literature, Latin Literature, and 14 moreHomer, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Ideology, Ancient Greek Religion, Formulaic Language, Classical Mythology, Norse mythology, Comparative mythology, Homeric poetry, Indo-European Linguistics, Viking Age Scandinavia, Hindu Mythology, and Ancient Greek Mythology
See also: https://www.academia.edu/105938554/ This contribution aims to show how uniting Comparative Indo-European (IE) Poetics and Cognitive Linguistics is valuable to both disciplines. It first reconstructs, through the methodology... more
See also: https://www.academia.edu/105938554/
This contribution aims to show how uniting Comparative Indo-European (IE) Poetics and Cognitive Linguistics is valuable to both disciplines.
It first reconstructs, through the methodology of Comparative Poetics, a coherent IE figurative system underlying the widespread expressions of the type TO BE ALIVE IS TO BE IN THE LIGHT and the connected figurative usage of TO SEE FOR TO LIVE.
Next, it analyzes this IE system through Conceptual Metaphor Theory and other cognitive linguistic frameworks, arguing that it results from both metaphoric processes ("Event Structure" metaphor) and metonymic ones ("Subevent for Event" metonymy).
This contribution aims to show how uniting Comparative Indo-European (IE) Poetics and Cognitive Linguistics is valuable to both disciplines.
It first reconstructs, through the methodology of Comparative Poetics, a coherent IE figurative system underlying the widespread expressions of the type TO BE ALIVE IS TO BE IN THE LIGHT and the connected figurative usage of TO SEE FOR TO LIVE.
Next, it analyzes this IE system through Conceptual Metaphor Theory and other cognitive linguistic frameworks, arguing that it results from both metaphoric processes ("Event Structure" metaphor) and metonymic ones ("Subevent for Event" metonymy).
Research Interests: Philology, Religion, Classics, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreLiterature, Cognitive Semantics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Conceptual Metaphor, Poetics, Comparative Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Metaphor, Cognitive Linguistics, Linguistics, Indo-European Linguistics, Ancient Greek Language, Metonymy, and Indology
I combine a comparative analysis of 3 Indo-European myths with the findings of prehistoric archaeology, and argue that the integration of archaeological evidence in the reconstruction of Indo-European symbolic culture (“archaeopoetics”)... more
I combine a comparative analysis of 3 Indo-European myths with the findings of prehistoric archaeology, and argue that the integration of archaeological evidence in the reconstruction of Indo-European symbolic culture (“archaeopoetics”) may help us achieve a more advanced understanding of the religious beliefs and practices of the prehistoric speakers of Indo-European languages.
Firstly, a case is made for the Old Norse myth of Thjalfi’s laming of Thor’s goat (chiefly attested in Gylfaginning 44) as a Scandinavian counterpart to two Ancient Greek myths, the myth of Hermes’s theft of Apollo’s cows (and slaughter of two of them), most extensively attested in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, and the myth of Prometheus’s (attempted) deception of Zeus during the slaughter of a cow at Mekone, attested in Hesiod’s Theogony, whose several correspondences allow for the reconstruction of an ancient Indo-European tradition in which the aetiology of a ritual was connected with a mythological incident involving livestock.
Secondly, an attempt is made to reconstruct the corresponding ritual with the aid of insights from prehistoric archaeology, as the ritual procedure reconstructed on the basis of the myths matches the so-called “head-and-hoof deposits”, offerings of livestock bones – more precisely of their heads and hoofs (closely paralleling the Hymn’s detail of Hermes burning the cattle’s bones with “whole heads and whole hoofs”) –, a practice that is archaeologically well-attested among prehistoric Steppe cultures (the most likely speakers of the earliest Indo-European varieties).
Firstly, a case is made for the Old Norse myth of Thjalfi’s laming of Thor’s goat (chiefly attested in Gylfaginning 44) as a Scandinavian counterpart to two Ancient Greek myths, the myth of Hermes’s theft of Apollo’s cows (and slaughter of two of them), most extensively attested in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, and the myth of Prometheus’s (attempted) deception of Zeus during the slaughter of a cow at Mekone, attested in Hesiod’s Theogony, whose several correspondences allow for the reconstruction of an ancient Indo-European tradition in which the aetiology of a ritual was connected with a mythological incident involving livestock.
Secondly, an attempt is made to reconstruct the corresponding ritual with the aid of insights from prehistoric archaeology, as the ritual procedure reconstructed on the basis of the myths matches the so-called “head-and-hoof deposits”, offerings of livestock bones – more precisely of their heads and hoofs (closely paralleling the Hymn’s detail of Hermes burning the cattle’s bones with “whole heads and whole hoofs”) –, a practice that is archaeologically well-attested among prehistoric Steppe cultures (the most likely speakers of the earliest Indo-European varieties).
Research Interests: Mythology And Folklore, Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Mythology, and 15 moreClassics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Medieval Archaeology, Medieval Scandinavia, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Ancient myth and religion, Greek Myth, Greco-Roman Mythology, Norse mythology, Comparative mythology, Viking Age Scandinavia, Old Norse Religion, Ancient Greek Literature, and Archaeology of the Eurasian steppe belt
Can an Ancient Greek goddess die? The only correct answer to this question is no: in early Greek culture as well as in many other ancient traditions, gods were considered the ἀθάνατοι ‘immortals’ par excellence, while human beings, sadly... more
Can an Ancient Greek goddess die? The only correct answer to this question is no: in early Greek culture as well as in many other ancient traditions, gods were considered the ἀθάνατοι ‘immortals’ par excellence, while human beings, sadly enough, were correspondingly referred to as the θνητοί ‘mortals’.
The aim of this contribution, however, is to show that, even within Greek literature, the distinction between immortal gods and mortal humans may not always be as sharp as it first appears: within one of Antiquity’s most famous mythological texts, namely the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the boundaries between mortality and immortality appear to be blurred at times, and the experience of an immortal goddess may come to be described with phraseology that was traditionally associated with death.
This chapter argues for a combined approach to the interpretation of this text that takes into account Greek parallels, comparative data from other Indo-European poetic traditions, and the findings of contemporary Cognitive Linguistics.
The aim of this contribution, however, is to show that, even within Greek literature, the distinction between immortal gods and mortal humans may not always be as sharp as it first appears: within one of Antiquity’s most famous mythological texts, namely the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the boundaries between mortality and immortality appear to be blurred at times, and the experience of an immortal goddess may come to be described with phraseology that was traditionally associated with death.
This chapter argues for a combined approach to the interpretation of this text that takes into account Greek parallels, comparative data from other Indo-European poetic traditions, and the findings of contemporary Cognitive Linguistics.
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Mythology, Classics, Greek Literature, Languages and Linguistics, and 15 moreHistorical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Greek Language, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Comparative Linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Ancient Greek Religion, Ancient myth and religion, Greek Myth, Comparative mythology, Indo-European Linguistics, Ancient Greek Language, Ancient Greek Literature, and Indo-European
The Poetics of Distress, the Rape of the Heavenly Maiden, and the Most Ancient Sleeping Beauty: Oralistic, Linguistic, and Comparative Perspectives on the (Pre-)Historical Development of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter [Indo-European and West-Asian sources of Greek poetry; myth & folktale; Oral Theory]more
Often compared with West Asian and Egyptian texts, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (hereafter Hymn) and the other variants of the myth of Demeter and Persephone-Kore have a number of onomastic, phraseological, and thematic parallels in texts... more
Often compared with West Asian and Egyptian texts, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (hereafter Hymn) and the other variants of the myth of Demeter and Persephone-Kore have a number of onomastic, phraseological, and thematic parallels in texts composed in other Indo-European languages.
By means of an oralistic, linguistic, and comparative approach, my research aims to, firstly, reconstruct the common background of the Hymn and its Indo-European counterparts on the strength of a systematical study of their correspondences and, secondly, analyse the interplay between Indo-European poetic-mythological heritage and other components of different origin (e.g., motifs of West Asian infuence or international folktale patterns) within the compositional devices of Greek oral-traditional poetry.
CONTENTS:
§1. Introduction: the “Withdrawal and Return” theme and the West Asian component of the Hymn
§2. Findings: the Hymn’s Indo-European background
§2.1 The Indo-European “Poetics of Distress”
§2.2. The Indo-European myth of the “Rape of the Maiden who is the Daughter of the Sky”
§2.3 The most ancient “Sleeping Beauty”
§3. Impact of the research
§3.1 The (pre-)historical development of the Hymn
§3.2 The Hymn’s “monumental composition” and its relevance to the Humanities
By means of an oralistic, linguistic, and comparative approach, my research aims to, firstly, reconstruct the common background of the Hymn and its Indo-European counterparts on the strength of a systematical study of their correspondences and, secondly, analyse the interplay between Indo-European poetic-mythological heritage and other components of different origin (e.g., motifs of West Asian infuence or international folktale patterns) within the compositional devices of Greek oral-traditional poetry.
CONTENTS:
§1. Introduction: the “Withdrawal and Return” theme and the West Asian component of the Hymn
§2. Findings: the Hymn’s Indo-European background
§2.1 The Indo-European “Poetics of Distress”
§2.2. The Indo-European myth of the “Rape of the Maiden who is the Daughter of the Sky”
§2.3 The most ancient “Sleeping Beauty”
§3. Impact of the research
§3.1 The (pre-)historical development of the Hymn
§3.2 The Hymn’s “monumental composition” and its relevance to the Humanities
Research Interests: Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Classics, Greek Literature, and 15 moreHomer, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Oral Traditions, Folktales, Ancient Greek Religion, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Formulaic Language, Classical Mythology, Norse mythology, Comparative mythology, Homeric poetry, Hindu Mythology, Ancient Greek Mythology, and Poetic Edda
At the end of the Eddic poem Lokasenna ‘Loki’s flyting’ (65), the god Loki curses Ægir, a personification of the ‘Sea’, to have flames burn ‘on his back’ (Old Norse á baki). This choice of words is to be traced back to the inherited... more
At the end of the Eddic poem Lokasenna ‘Loki’s flyting’ (65), the god Loki curses Ægir, a personification of the ‘Sea’, to have flames burn ‘on his back’ (Old Norse á baki). This choice of words is to be traced back to the inherited poetical image of the [BACK – of the WATERS], a metaphor for the surface of water-basins attested in the same narrative contexts in the poetical phraseology of Germanic languages such as Old Norse (bak báru) and Old English (sǣs hrycg), as well as other Indo-European languages such as Old Irish (fairrge al druim), Ancient Greek (νῶτα θαλάσσης), Classical Latin (terga amnis) and Vedic Sanskrit (salilásya pr̥ṣṭhá-).
Research Interests: Irish Studies, Classics, Greek Literature, Latin Literature, English Literature, and 15 moreLanguages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Medieval Literature, Medieval Studies, South Asian Studies, English language, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Conceptual Metaphor, English, Poetics, Metaphor, Linguistics, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Viking Age Scandinavia, and English language and literature
See also: https://www.academia.edu/114396519/ . The paper argues for the identification of the “Myth of Baldr’s Death,” one of the most famous mythological narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia, as a Norse counterpart to the Vedic “Myth... more
See also: https://www.academia.edu/114396519/ . The paper argues for the identification of the “Myth of Baldr’s Death,” one of the most famous mythological narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia, as a Norse counterpart to the Vedic “Myth of the Wounded Sun,” a mythological narrative already attested in the Rigveda, India’s oldest collection of sacred scriptures (last half of the 2nd millennium BCE). The claim is substantiated by novel formal analyses and semantic interpretations of the name and patronymic of Baldr’s wife Nanna Neps-dóttir (“Maiden Sky’s-daughter”) and of the name of Baldr’s killer Hǫðr (‘Darkness’), proposals that find support in several onomastic, lexical, and phraseological parallels in other Indo-European traditions.
Research Interests: Religion, Mythology, Germanic linguistics, Old Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, and 15 moreSanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Germanic Philology, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Norse mythology, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, Old Norse Religion, Old Norse literature and culture, Indology, and Vedic Studies
See also: https://www.academia.edu/105800052/. Abstract: Etymology is “the branch of linguistics which deals with determining the origin of words and the historical development of their form and meanings” (OED). While the etymological... more
See also: https://www.academia.edu/105800052/. Abstract: Etymology is “the branch of linguistics which deals with determining the origin of words and the historical development of their form and meanings” (OED).
While the etymological link between words in Indo-European languages like Ancient Greek patḗr, Latin pater, Sanskrit pitár-, Old English fæder, all meaning ‘father’, is relatively obvious, easily allowing for the comparative reconstruction of a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor *ph₂tér- ‘father’, the situation is often more complicated on the semantic side: during their adventurous history, words frequently undergo peculiar semantic changes, some of which may appear completely unmotivated to a modern eye.
As already noted by Sweetser (1990: 9) in her volume "From Etymology to Pragmatics", however, “certain semantic changes occur over and over again throughout the course of Indo-European and independently in different branches across an area of thousands of miles and a time depth of thousands of years”.
This is precisely the case for the etymology of the Ancient Greek verb thnḗskō ‘to die’ (and the noun thánatos ‘death’) from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *dʰenh₂- ‘to run off ’, a non-trivial semantic shift that has been subject to criticism, but finds countless parallels in Ancient Greek itself and in other Indo-European traditions.
The aim of the present contribution is to discuss this etymological problem in order to show that “a cognitive semantics that allows for metaphorical mapping within the conceptual system can explain such facts straightforwardly” (Sweetser 1990: 9).
While the etymological link between words in Indo-European languages like Ancient Greek patḗr, Latin pater, Sanskrit pitár-, Old English fæder, all meaning ‘father’, is relatively obvious, easily allowing for the comparative reconstruction of a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor *ph₂tér- ‘father’, the situation is often more complicated on the semantic side: during their adventurous history, words frequently undergo peculiar semantic changes, some of which may appear completely unmotivated to a modern eye.
As already noted by Sweetser (1990: 9) in her volume "From Etymology to Pragmatics", however, “certain semantic changes occur over and over again throughout the course of Indo-European and independently in different branches across an area of thousands of miles and a time depth of thousands of years”.
This is precisely the case for the etymology of the Ancient Greek verb thnḗskō ‘to die’ (and the noun thánatos ‘death’) from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *dʰenh₂- ‘to run off ’, a non-trivial semantic shift that has been subject to criticism, but finds countless parallels in Ancient Greek itself and in other Indo-European traditions.
The aim of the present contribution is to discuss this etymological problem in order to show that “a cognitive semantics that allows for metaphorical mapping within the conceptual system can explain such facts straightforwardly” (Sweetser 1990: 9).
Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Etymology, and 13 moreAncient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Conceptual Metaphor, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Cognitive Linguistics, Linguistics, Construction Grammar, Indo-European Linguistics, Conceptual metaphors, Cognitive Grammar, Ancient Greek Language, Ancient Greek Literature, and Frame Semantics
Proto-Romance *pī̆k(k)- ‘small, little’ and Proto-Indo-European *peiḱ- ‘cut (off), carve, fashion’: on the origin of Italian piccolo, Spanish pequeño, Sicilian picca, Latin *pīcus ‘small’ and Pīcus ‘divine fashioner; woodpecker’ [+ Gk πεικός; Littera / Iuppiter Rule; nouns of CeC-ó- / tem-ó- type]more
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/43374223/ . Abstract: The paper makes the case for Italian (It.) piccolo ‘small’, Spanish (Sp.) pequeño ‘id.’, and several other Romance and Latin formations as reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European... more
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/43374223/ .
Abstract: The paper makes the case for Italian (It.) piccolo ‘small’, Spanish (Sp.) pequeño ‘id.’, and several other Romance and Latin formations as reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *pei̯ḱ- ‘cut (off)’, by means of a twofold historical-comparative approach combining Romance Linguistics and Indo-European Linguistics.
(1) The family of It. piccolo may be traced back to two Proto-Romance (PRom.) variants *pīk-u and *pĭkk-u, the regular outcome and the “littera Rule” outcome, respectively, of Latin (Lat.) *pīc-us ‘small, little’, among whose direct reflexes are:
- Portuguese (Port.) peco ‘stunted, dumb, imbecile’ (*pĭkk-u), cf. parvo ‘idiot’ (: Lat. parvus ‘small’);
- Rumenian pic ‘drop, small quantity’ (*pīk-u), Sicilian (Sic.) picca ‘small quantity, a little’ (*pĭkk-a), and Megleno-Rumenian pică ‘id.’ (*pīk-a), which reflect the use of the Lat. neuter nom.-acc. sg. *pīc-um or pl. *pīc-a as a substantive or adverb meaning ‘a little’, cf. e.g. paulum ‘id.’ (neut. nom.-acc. sg. of paulus ‘small’).
(2) The suffixed derivatives of this lexical family reflect more recent formations built by means of various diminuitive suffixes:
- It. picc-olo is a reflex with post-tonic gemination of *pìc-olo (attesting a reflex of the Latin suffix -ulus), from *pic-o (PRom. *pīk-u).
- Sp. pequ-eño, Port. pequ-eno, and Old Logudorese Sardinian pik-innu (all attesting reflexes of the Latin suffix -innus) must be traced back to PRom. *pĭkku (Sp. *peco and Port. peco) and *pīk-u (Sardinian), respectively.
- It. pìcci-olo and picc-ino and Sic. picci-ottu and picc-iriddu may attest a spread of the palatalized outcome expected in e.g. It. picc-ino; alternatively, they may reflect further PRom. variants, i.e. *pīk-i̯u and *pĭkk-i̯u.
(3) Lat. *pīcus ‘small, little’ is in turn the reflex of *pei̯ḱ-ó-, a CeC-ó- derivative of PIE *pei̯ḱ- ‘cut, carve, fashion, adorn’ with two possible meanings, namely a passive ‘who/that is cut, carved, fashioned, adorned’ and an agentive ‘who/that cuts, carves, fashions, adorns’. The meaning ‘small’ developed from the passive meaning; this semantic development has parallels in both Romance and Indo-European languages, cf. e.g. Italian corto < Latin curtus ‘shortened, mutilated, short’ < PIE *kr̥-tó- ‘who/that is cut, cropped’. The agentive meaning underlies three further formations, namely:
- the Lat. theonym Pīcus (*‘[god] who fashions [objects]’), name of a mythical smith;
- the Lat. bird-name pīcus ‘woodpecker’ (*‘[bird] that carves [trees]’);
- the Ancient Greek adjective πεικός /peikós/ ‘sharp, stinging, bitter’ (*‘who/that cuts, stings’).
Abstract: The paper makes the case for Italian (It.) piccolo ‘small’, Spanish (Sp.) pequeño ‘id.’, and several other Romance and Latin formations as reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *pei̯ḱ- ‘cut (off)’, by means of a twofold historical-comparative approach combining Romance Linguistics and Indo-European Linguistics.
(1) The family of It. piccolo may be traced back to two Proto-Romance (PRom.) variants *pīk-u and *pĭkk-u, the regular outcome and the “littera Rule” outcome, respectively, of Latin (Lat.) *pīc-us ‘small, little’, among whose direct reflexes are:
- Portuguese (Port.) peco ‘stunted, dumb, imbecile’ (*pĭkk-u), cf. parvo ‘idiot’ (: Lat. parvus ‘small’);
- Rumenian pic ‘drop, small quantity’ (*pīk-u), Sicilian (Sic.) picca ‘small quantity, a little’ (*pĭkk-a), and Megleno-Rumenian pică ‘id.’ (*pīk-a), which reflect the use of the Lat. neuter nom.-acc. sg. *pīc-um or pl. *pīc-a as a substantive or adverb meaning ‘a little’, cf. e.g. paulum ‘id.’ (neut. nom.-acc. sg. of paulus ‘small’).
(2) The suffixed derivatives of this lexical family reflect more recent formations built by means of various diminuitive suffixes:
- It. picc-olo is a reflex with post-tonic gemination of *pìc-olo (attesting a reflex of the Latin suffix -ulus), from *pic-o (PRom. *pīk-u).
- Sp. pequ-eño, Port. pequ-eno, and Old Logudorese Sardinian pik-innu (all attesting reflexes of the Latin suffix -innus) must be traced back to PRom. *pĭkku (Sp. *peco and Port. peco) and *pīk-u (Sardinian), respectively.
- It. pìcci-olo and picc-ino and Sic. picci-ottu and picc-iriddu may attest a spread of the palatalized outcome expected in e.g. It. picc-ino; alternatively, they may reflect further PRom. variants, i.e. *pīk-i̯u and *pĭkk-i̯u.
(3) Lat. *pīcus ‘small, little’ is in turn the reflex of *pei̯ḱ-ó-, a CeC-ó- derivative of PIE *pei̯ḱ- ‘cut, carve, fashion, adorn’ with two possible meanings, namely a passive ‘who/that is cut, carved, fashioned, adorned’ and an agentive ‘who/that cuts, carves, fashions, adorns’. The meaning ‘small’ developed from the passive meaning; this semantic development has parallels in both Romance and Indo-European languages, cf. e.g. Italian corto < Latin curtus ‘shortened, mutilated, short’ < PIE *kr̥-tó- ‘who/that is cut, cropped’. The agentive meaning underlies three further formations, namely:
- the Lat. theonym Pīcus (*‘[god] who fashions [objects]’), name of a mythical smith;
- the Lat. bird-name pīcus ‘woodpecker’ (*‘[bird] that carves [trees]’);
- the Ancient Greek adjective πεικός /peikós/ ‘sharp, stinging, bitter’ (*‘who/that cuts, stings’).
Research Interests: Languages, Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 morePortuguese Studies, Semantics, Etymology, Romance philology, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Latin Language and Literature, Romanian Language, Romance Linguistics, Italian (Languages And Linguistics), Latin linguistics, Linguistica italiana, Storia Della Lingua Italiana, Italiano, and Romance Languages and Literatures
The paper proposes a common etymology for Old Norse Njǫrðr, the name of a Norse god associated with travel and wealth, and Vedic Sanskrit Nā́satya-, a byname of the Indic “Divine Horse Twins,” the Aśvins. The current analysis of Njǫrðr... more
The paper proposes a common etymology for Old Norse Njǫrðr, the name of a Norse god associated with travel and wealth, and Vedic Sanskrit Nā́satya-, a byname of the Indic “Divine Horse Twins,” the Aśvins.
The current analysis of Njǫrðr as a cognate of the theonym Nerthus attested in Tacitus’s Germania is rejected as a pseudo-equation (Scheingleichung); Njǫrðr may rather be traced back to a Proto-Germanic formation *nezēþ- (whose acc. sg. *nezēþ-un would have regularly developed into the acc. sg. Njǫrð), the expected reflex of Proto-Indo-European *nes-ḗt-/-ét- ‘(entity or act of) returning (safely home), arriving (at the desired goal)’.
PIE *nes-ḗt-/-ét- may ultimately underlie Vedic Nā́satya- as well, as the reflex of a substantivized lengthened-grade -i̯ó- derivative *nēset-i̯ó- ‘pertaining to the (entity or act of) returning (safely home), arriving (at the desired goal)’.
The etymological connection between Njǫrðr and Nā́satya- is supported by phraseological and mythological correspondences (some already noticed by Dumézil) between the characterizations of Njǫrðr, the Aśvins, and other related IE characters (the Greek Dioskouroi and the Latvian “Sons of Dievs”), allowing for the reconstruction of an inherited mythological figure associated with — among other things — the idea of ‘returning safely home’ and/or ‘arriving at the desired goal’.
The current analysis of Njǫrðr as a cognate of the theonym Nerthus attested in Tacitus’s Germania is rejected as a pseudo-equation (Scheingleichung); Njǫrðr may rather be traced back to a Proto-Germanic formation *nezēþ- (whose acc. sg. *nezēþ-un would have regularly developed into the acc. sg. Njǫrð), the expected reflex of Proto-Indo-European *nes-ḗt-/-ét- ‘(entity or act of) returning (safely home), arriving (at the desired goal)’.
PIE *nes-ḗt-/-ét- may ultimately underlie Vedic Nā́satya- as well, as the reflex of a substantivized lengthened-grade -i̯ó- derivative *nēset-i̯ó- ‘pertaining to the (entity or act of) returning (safely home), arriving (at the desired goal)’.
The etymological connection between Njǫrðr and Nā́satya- is supported by phraseological and mythological correspondences (some already noticed by Dumézil) between the characterizations of Njǫrðr, the Aśvins, and other related IE characters (the Greek Dioskouroi and the Latvian “Sons of Dievs”), allowing for the reconstruction of an inherited mythological figure associated with — among other things — the idea of ‘returning safely home’ and/or ‘arriving at the desired goal’.
Research Interests: Religion, Mythology, Germanic linguistics, Old Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, and 15 moreSanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Germanic Philology, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Norse mythology, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, Old Norse Religion, Old Norse literature and culture, Indology, and Vedic Studies
An Irish-Norse-Sanskrit mythological parallel. See also: https://www.academia.edu/105280524/. The tale of "Balar's killing by Lug" was still present in Irish folktales from the 19th and 20th centuries, but its earliest mention can be... more
An Irish-Norse-Sanskrit mythological parallel. See also: https://www.academia.edu/105280524/. The tale of "Balar's killing by Lug" was still present in Irish folktales from the 19th and 20th centuries, but its earliest mention can be found in the Old Irish epic Cath Maige Tuired (619-45). This traditional tale has been compared to the Norse myth of "Baldr's killing by Loki", which is most extensively told in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (Gylfaginning 49). Building on the author's earlier work, the article argues for a number of linguistic and structural parallels (pointing to a common origin) between the above-mentioned myths and the Indian myth of the "Wounded Sun", a traditional narrative already attested in the Rigveda and analysed in detail by Stephanie W. Jamison in a relevant book.
Research Interests: Celtic Studies, Irish Literature, Etymology, Germanic linguistics, Old Norse Literature, and 15 moreAncient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Sanskrit, Vedic Sanskrit, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Irish Language and Literature, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Comparative mythology, Old Norse Religion, Celtic religion, Indology, Celtic Mythology, and Vedic Studies
Greek ποτα-μός is the outcome of *ku̯oth₂-mó- ‘foamy, foaming’, a primary adjective with structure CoC-mó- (of the same type as Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *gʷʰor-mό- ‘warm’, attested by Vedic gharmá- ‘heat’, Latin formus ‘warm’) of the PIE... more
Greek ποτα-μός is the outcome of *ku̯oth₂-mó- ‘foamy, foaming’, a primary adjective with structure CoC-mó- (of the same type as Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *gʷʰor-mό- ‘warm’, attested by Vedic gharmá- ‘heat’, Latin formus ‘warm’) of the PIE root *ku̯eth₂- ‘foam, seethe’.
The root *ku̯eth₂- is attested (among others) by Vedic Sanskrit kváth-ant- ‘foaming, seething’ and Gothic ƕaþjan* ‘to foam, ἀφρίζειν’; the current reconstruction of the root as *ku̯ath₂- (LIV2: 374), with -a- vocalism, relies on the highly problematic connection with Latin cāseus ‘cheese’ and should be dropped.
The oxytone accentuation of ποταμός, consistent among Greek primary -mό- adjectives (such as θερμός ‘warm’, ὠμός ‘raw’, and δοχμός ‘slant’), speaks against an analysis as a denominative formation derived by means of a secondary suffix -αμoς from, for instance, a noun *πότ-ο- ‘foam’ (PIE *ku̯óth₂-o-) matching Proto-Germanic *hwaþ-a- ‘foam’ (which is reflected by Gothic ƕaþjan* ‘to foam’, ƕaþo ‘foam’, and Swedish kva ‘id.’).
The theonym Τηθῡ́ς is the reflex of *ku̯ēth₂-ú-h₂ ‘foamy-ness, seething-ness’, an abstract derivative of the type of Homeric ἰθῡ́ς ‘direction’ (: ἰθύς ‘straight’) and Vedic tanū́- ‘body’ (*‘length’ : tanú- ‘long’) of an adjective *ku̯ēth₂-ú- ‘foamy, foaming, seething’, which is attested by the Homeric hapax τήθεα ‘sea-squirts’ (Iliad 16.747), animals that violently expel water from their orifices, and by the Hesychian gloss τηθύα ‘lagoons at the mouths of rivers’. The lengthened grade of the root may be due to the influence of a Narten present with ablaut *ku̯ḗth₂-/ku̯éth₂-; alternatively, *ku̯ēth₂-ú- may be analysed as a derivative of the type of Homeric ἤνις ‘of one year, one-year-old (of cows)’ (: ἐνι° in, e.g., ἐνι-αυτός ‘anniversary, lapse of a year’) of the weak stem of *ku̯óth₂-u-/ku̯éth₂-u- ‘(state of) foaming, seething’.
The semantic development from *ku̯oth₂mó- ‘foamy, foaming, seething’ to ποταμός ‘river’ and from *ku̯ēth₂-ú-h₂- ‘foamy-ness, seething ness’ to Τηθῡ́ς, name of the spouse of Ocean and mother of all rivers, reflects the traditional association of rivers, ocean, and bodies of water in general with foaming and seething, attested in the phraseology of Greek itself (for instance, by the Homeric formulaic expression ἀφρῷ μορμύρων ‘seething with foam’, which always refers to rivers and to Ocean) and of other Indo-European traditions, such as Latin (see Vergil and Lucan’s formula spumeus amnis "foamy river"), Vedic (see RV 9.86.43c síndhor ucchvāsé “in the bubbling up of the river”), and Old Norse (see Lausavísur from Magnúss saga berfœtts 6.1-2 viðr þolir nauð í lauðri “the timber [= ship] suffers distress in the foam [= sea]).” The association of PIE *ku̯eth₂‑ ‘foam, seethe’ with the ocean finds further support in Old English phraseology, as another reflex of *ku̯eth₂- is the verb hwaþerian/hwoþerian ‘to foam, seethe, roar’, whose usual subject is precisely the sea (see ÆCHom II, 28 […] Se brym hwoðerode under his fotswaðum […] “the sea roared under his footsteps”).
The root *ku̯eth₂- is attested (among others) by Vedic Sanskrit kváth-ant- ‘foaming, seething’ and Gothic ƕaþjan* ‘to foam, ἀφρίζειν’; the current reconstruction of the root as *ku̯ath₂- (LIV2: 374), with -a- vocalism, relies on the highly problematic connection with Latin cāseus ‘cheese’ and should be dropped.
The oxytone accentuation of ποταμός, consistent among Greek primary -mό- adjectives (such as θερμός ‘warm’, ὠμός ‘raw’, and δοχμός ‘slant’), speaks against an analysis as a denominative formation derived by means of a secondary suffix -αμoς from, for instance, a noun *πότ-ο- ‘foam’ (PIE *ku̯óth₂-o-) matching Proto-Germanic *hwaþ-a- ‘foam’ (which is reflected by Gothic ƕaþjan* ‘to foam’, ƕaþo ‘foam’, and Swedish kva ‘id.’).
The theonym Τηθῡ́ς is the reflex of *ku̯ēth₂-ú-h₂ ‘foamy-ness, seething-ness’, an abstract derivative of the type of Homeric ἰθῡ́ς ‘direction’ (: ἰθύς ‘straight’) and Vedic tanū́- ‘body’ (*‘length’ : tanú- ‘long’) of an adjective *ku̯ēth₂-ú- ‘foamy, foaming, seething’, which is attested by the Homeric hapax τήθεα ‘sea-squirts’ (Iliad 16.747), animals that violently expel water from their orifices, and by the Hesychian gloss τηθύα ‘lagoons at the mouths of rivers’. The lengthened grade of the root may be due to the influence of a Narten present with ablaut *ku̯ḗth₂-/ku̯éth₂-; alternatively, *ku̯ēth₂-ú- may be analysed as a derivative of the type of Homeric ἤνις ‘of one year, one-year-old (of cows)’ (: ἐνι° in, e.g., ἐνι-αυτός ‘anniversary, lapse of a year’) of the weak stem of *ku̯óth₂-u-/ku̯éth₂-u- ‘(state of) foaming, seething’.
The semantic development from *ku̯oth₂mó- ‘foamy, foaming, seething’ to ποταμός ‘river’ and from *ku̯ēth₂-ú-h₂- ‘foamy-ness, seething ness’ to Τηθῡ́ς, name of the spouse of Ocean and mother of all rivers, reflects the traditional association of rivers, ocean, and bodies of water in general with foaming and seething, attested in the phraseology of Greek itself (for instance, by the Homeric formulaic expression ἀφρῷ μορμύρων ‘seething with foam’, which always refers to rivers and to Ocean) and of other Indo-European traditions, such as Latin (see Vergil and Lucan’s formula spumeus amnis "foamy river"), Vedic (see RV 9.86.43c síndhor ucchvāsé “in the bubbling up of the river”), and Old Norse (see Lausavísur from Magnúss saga berfœtts 6.1-2 viðr þolir nauð í lauðri “the timber [= ship] suffers distress in the foam [= sea]).” The association of PIE *ku̯eth₂‑ ‘foam, seethe’ with the ocean finds further support in Old English phraseology, as another reflex of *ku̯eth₂- is the verb hwaþerian/hwoþerian ‘to foam, seethe, roar’, whose usual subject is precisely the sea (see ÆCHom II, 28 […] Se brym hwoðerode under his fotswaðum […] “the sea roared under his footsteps”).
Research Interests: Religion, Classics, Greek Literature, Homer, Southeast Asian Studies, and 15 moreLanguages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Semantics, Etymology, Germanic linguistics, Poetry, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Vedic Language and Classical Sanskrit, Morphology, Linguistics, Classical philology, Ancient Greek Religion, Phraseology, Ancient Greek Language, and Vedic Studies
On the Aśvins, see also https://www.academia.edu/113227984/ . Vedic bhiṣáj- ‘healer’ is the reflex of *bʰh₂s-h₂éǵ- ‘the one who leads to the light (of life, healing, salvation)’, a verbal governing compound with *bʰh₂s° (double zero grade... more
On the Aśvins, see also https://www.academia.edu/113227984/ . Vedic bhiṣáj- ‘healer’ is the reflex of *bʰh₂s-h₂éǵ- ‘the one who leads to the light (of life, healing, salvation)’, a verbal governing compound with *bʰh₂s° (double zero grade of Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂-es- ‘light’ : Vedic bhā́s- ‘id.’) and an agentive root noun *°h₂éǵ- ‘leading’ (: Vedic °áj-, Latin °ex, °ax), of the type of Vedic pr̥tanā́j- ‘driving to battle’.
The semantic shift from ‘the one who leads to the light (of life, healing, salvation)’ to ‘healer’ fits into the figurative use of [LIGHT] as a metonymy for [LIFE], [HEALING] and [SALVATION] attested in the poetic phraseology of several Indo-European languages. Furthermore, a collocation [LEAD (*h₂eǵ-) – to LIGHT (*bʰeh₂-)] which matches *bʰh₂s-h₂éǵ- occurs as a free syntagm in Ancient Greek poetry (cf. Pi. O. 5.14: ἀπ᾽ ἀμαχανίας ἄγων ἐς φάος τόνδε δᾶμον ἀστῶν “leading this host of citizens out of helplessness into the light”) and expresses the act of rescuing a character from the darkness of the Underworld or other distressful conditions of existence.
Further support for the reconstruction *bʰh₂s-h₂éǵ- and for [LEAD (*h₂eǵ-) – to LIGHT (*bʰeh₂-)] is provided by:
- exhortations sung during rituals for the obtainment of long life in the Atharvaveda, as the priests “lead to the light” their patients by telling them to “be in the light”, “go to the light” and “go out of darkness” (cf. among others AVŚ 8.1.8cd ā́ roha támaso jyótir éhy ā́ te hástau rabhāmahe “ascend out of darkness, come to light; we take hold on thy hands”);
- the phraseology of the Rigveda, where the Aśvins, referred to as bhiṣájau ‘the two Healers’, lead characters from the darkness into the light (cf. RV 1.112.5b úd vándanam aírayataṃ súvar dr̥śé “you raised up Vandana to see the sun”), partially matching what their Greek counterparts, the Dioskouroi Kastor and Polydeukes (°δεύκης, cf. Lat. dūcō, -ere ‘lead, drive’), were said to do.
Finally, the semantic shift from ‘the one who leads to the light (of life, healing, salvation)’ to ‘healer’ reflected by the Vedic epithet of the Aśvins bhiṣáj- ‘id.’ is paralleled by Proto-Germanic *naz-ja- ‘to heal, save’, originally *‘to make someone come back (to healthy and safe living)’, and by Vedic Nā́satya-, the by-name of the Aśvins, meaning ‘those pertaining to the return (to healthy and safe life)’.
The semantic shift from ‘the one who leads to the light (of life, healing, salvation)’ to ‘healer’ fits into the figurative use of [LIGHT] as a metonymy for [LIFE], [HEALING] and [SALVATION] attested in the poetic phraseology of several Indo-European languages. Furthermore, a collocation [LEAD (*h₂eǵ-) – to LIGHT (*bʰeh₂-)] which matches *bʰh₂s-h₂éǵ- occurs as a free syntagm in Ancient Greek poetry (cf. Pi. O. 5.14: ἀπ᾽ ἀμαχανίας ἄγων ἐς φάος τόνδε δᾶμον ἀστῶν “leading this host of citizens out of helplessness into the light”) and expresses the act of rescuing a character from the darkness of the Underworld or other distressful conditions of existence.
Further support for the reconstruction *bʰh₂s-h₂éǵ- and for [LEAD (*h₂eǵ-) – to LIGHT (*bʰeh₂-)] is provided by:
- exhortations sung during rituals for the obtainment of long life in the Atharvaveda, as the priests “lead to the light” their patients by telling them to “be in the light”, “go to the light” and “go out of darkness” (cf. among others AVŚ 8.1.8cd ā́ roha támaso jyótir éhy ā́ te hástau rabhāmahe “ascend out of darkness, come to light; we take hold on thy hands”);
- the phraseology of the Rigveda, where the Aśvins, referred to as bhiṣájau ‘the two Healers’, lead characters from the darkness into the light (cf. RV 1.112.5b úd vándanam aírayataṃ súvar dr̥śé “you raised up Vandana to see the sun”), partially matching what their Greek counterparts, the Dioskouroi Kastor and Polydeukes (°δεύκης, cf. Lat. dūcō, -ere ‘lead, drive’), were said to do.
Finally, the semantic shift from ‘the one who leads to the light (of life, healing, salvation)’ to ‘healer’ reflected by the Vedic epithet of the Aśvins bhiṣáj- ‘id.’ is paralleled by Proto-Germanic *naz-ja- ‘to heal, save’, originally *‘to make someone come back (to healthy and safe living)’, and by Vedic Nā́satya-, the by-name of the Aśvins, meaning ‘those pertaining to the return (to healthy and safe life)’.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Classics, Greek Literature, Southeast Asian Studies, and 15 moreLanguages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, History of Medicine, Semantics, Poetry, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Vedic Language and Classical Sanskrit, Conceptual Metaphor, Vedic Sanskrit, Metaphor, Linguistics, Ancient Greek Religion, Phraseology, and Vedic Studies
This study has a twofold aim. The first is to make the case for the reconstruction of an Indo-European myth of the "Fire-God's Binding" with well-preserved reflexes in Old Norse and Sanskrit texts, but also partial reflexes in Ancient... more
This study has a twofold aim. The first is to make the case for the reconstruction of an Indo-European myth of the "Fire-God's Binding" with well-preserved reflexes in Old Norse and Sanskrit texts, but also partial reflexes in Ancient Greek and Old English texts.
The second, methodological aim is to advocate for Cognitive Oral Poetics and Cognitive Linguistics in general as an ideal framework for the synchronic analysis of the linguistic material currently studied in comparative and diachronic perspective within the field of Comparative IE Poetics.
After a methodological introduction explaining the theoretical framework, and in particular the notions of "thematic frame" (combining those of "theme" in Comparative IE Poetics and of "frame" in Cognitive Linguistics) and of "phraseological construction" (combining those of "phraseological collocation" in Comparative IE poetics and of "construction" in Cognitive Linguistics), a set of five such items is identified in the texts of both the Norse myth of "Loki's Binding" and the Indic myth of "Agni's Yoking", allowing for the reconstruction of an IE myth of the "Fire-God's Binding/Yoking", with partial correspondences in the Ancient Greek tradition of "Prometheus's Binding/Yoking" and in various Old English texts structured by a peculiar poetics of "Fire's Binding".
The second, methodological aim is to advocate for Cognitive Oral Poetics and Cognitive Linguistics in general as an ideal framework for the synchronic analysis of the linguistic material currently studied in comparative and diachronic perspective within the field of Comparative IE Poetics.
After a methodological introduction explaining the theoretical framework, and in particular the notions of "thematic frame" (combining those of "theme" in Comparative IE Poetics and of "frame" in Cognitive Linguistics) and of "phraseological construction" (combining those of "phraseological collocation" in Comparative IE poetics and of "construction" in Cognitive Linguistics), a set of five such items is identified in the texts of both the Norse myth of "Loki's Binding" and the Indic myth of "Agni's Yoking", allowing for the reconstruction of an IE myth of the "Fire-God's Binding/Yoking", with partial correspondences in the Ancient Greek tradition of "Prometheus's Binding/Yoking" and in various Old English texts structured by a peculiar poetics of "Fire's Binding".
Research Interests: Classics, Greek Literature, Greek Tragedy, Greek Language, Ancient Greek Religion, and 12 moreGreek, Greek Myth, Classical Mythology, Ancient Greece (History), Greece, Ancient Greek Language, Greek mythology, Ancient Greek Mythology, Ancient Greek Literature, Hellenic Studies, Classical Literature, and Ancient Greek Linguistics
A comparative analysis of Old Norse (Fjǫrgyn, Hlóðyn), Germanic (*ferhwa-), Iranian (*parću-), Greek (πέρκνος, πράκνον), Vedic (Pŕ̥śni-), and Celtic (Hercynia) onomastics and lexicon supports the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) devī́- origin of... more
A comparative analysis of Old Norse (Fjǫrgyn, Hlóðyn), Germanic (*ferhwa-), Iranian (*parću-), Greek (πέρκνος, πράκνον), Vedic (Pŕ̥śni-), and Celtic (Hercynia) onomastics and lexicon supports the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) devī́- origin of the Proto-Germanic (PGmc) suffix *-u-njō- and points to semantic association as one of the causes for its spread within the lexicon.
Old Norse (ON) Fjǫrgyn ‘Earth, land’ (PGmc *fergunjō-), currently analysed as a derivative of *perkʷ- ‘oak’, may be rather traced back to the PIE root *perḱ- ‘to be colourful, spotted, dark’, according to two alternative analyses:
(a) ON Fjǫrgyn may be the reflex of *perḱu-nih₂-/-ni̯éh₂- ‘she of the Earth’, a derivative of PIE *pérḱ-u- ‘Earth, land’, which originally meant ‘colourful, spotted, dark’. This analysis matches the widespread formulaic collocation [DARK – EARTH] (Hitt. dankui tekan, Gk. γαῖα μέλαινα, OIrish domuin duinn) and is supported by parallels in Germanic (PGmc *ferhwa- ‘world, life, person’ : Gothic fairhwus, ON fjǫr, Old English feorh) and Iranian (PIran. *parću- ‘land [of the Iranians]’ : Pashto Pā̆ṣ̌, cf. the Old Persian derivative Pārsa- ‘Persian’).
(b) ON Fjǫrgyn may be the reflex of *pérḱn-ih₂-/perḱn̥-i̯éh₂- ‘she, the Colourful/Spotted/Dark One’, a feminine derivative of *pérḱn-o- ‘Dark One’ (Hom. πέρκνος ‘dark eagle), a substantivation of the PIE adjective *pr̥ḱ-nó- ‘colourful, spotted, dark’ (Greek πράκνον ‘black’ Hsch.). This analysis is supported by the same IE phraseological motif [DARK – EARTH] and by parallels in ON (fjǫrn ‘Earth, land’), Vedic (Pŕ̥śni- ‘the Colourful, Spotted One’), and possibly Celtic (Hercynia).
Both (a) and (b) support the current view that the PGmc suffix *-u-njō- reflects PIE *°nih₂-/°ni̯éh₂-, either already (a) re-analysed as an independent suffix or (b) as a complex suffix in devī́- feminines.
Finally, ON Hlóðyn ‘Earth’ may be traced back to North-West-Germanic *hlōþ-unju ‘the one of the load’ (: *hlōþ-u- ‘load’) which was formed according to the phraseological motif [EARTH – BEAR – WORLD, ALL BEINGS]) and after the model of North-West-Germanic *ferg-unju (ON Fjǫrgyn), the reflex of PGmc *fergunjō- which had been re-analysed as a derivative of the neut. pl. *ferg-u- ‘world, living beings’ (ON fjǫrg).
Old Norse (ON) Fjǫrgyn ‘Earth, land’ (PGmc *fergunjō-), currently analysed as a derivative of *perkʷ- ‘oak’, may be rather traced back to the PIE root *perḱ- ‘to be colourful, spotted, dark’, according to two alternative analyses:
(a) ON Fjǫrgyn may be the reflex of *perḱu-nih₂-/-ni̯éh₂- ‘she of the Earth’, a derivative of PIE *pérḱ-u- ‘Earth, land’, which originally meant ‘colourful, spotted, dark’. This analysis matches the widespread formulaic collocation [DARK – EARTH] (Hitt. dankui tekan, Gk. γαῖα μέλαινα, OIrish domuin duinn) and is supported by parallels in Germanic (PGmc *ferhwa- ‘world, life, person’ : Gothic fairhwus, ON fjǫr, Old English feorh) and Iranian (PIran. *parću- ‘land [of the Iranians]’ : Pashto Pā̆ṣ̌, cf. the Old Persian derivative Pārsa- ‘Persian’).
(b) ON Fjǫrgyn may be the reflex of *pérḱn-ih₂-/perḱn̥-i̯éh₂- ‘she, the Colourful/Spotted/Dark One’, a feminine derivative of *pérḱn-o- ‘Dark One’ (Hom. πέρκνος ‘dark eagle), a substantivation of the PIE adjective *pr̥ḱ-nó- ‘colourful, spotted, dark’ (Greek πράκνον ‘black’ Hsch.). This analysis is supported by the same IE phraseological motif [DARK – EARTH] and by parallels in ON (fjǫrn ‘Earth, land’), Vedic (Pŕ̥śni- ‘the Colourful, Spotted One’), and possibly Celtic (Hercynia).
Both (a) and (b) support the current view that the PGmc suffix *-u-njō- reflects PIE *°nih₂-/°ni̯éh₂-, either already (a) re-analysed as an independent suffix or (b) as a complex suffix in devī́- feminines.
Finally, ON Hlóðyn ‘Earth’ may be traced back to North-West-Germanic *hlōþ-unju ‘the one of the load’ (: *hlōþ-u- ‘load’) which was formed according to the phraseological motif [EARTH – BEAR – WORLD, ALL BEINGS]) and after the model of North-West-Germanic *ferg-unju (ON Fjǫrgyn), the reflex of PGmc *fergunjō- which had been re-analysed as a derivative of the neut. pl. *ferg-u- ‘world, living beings’ (ON fjǫrg).
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreCeltic Studies, History of Religion, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Poetics, Comparative Linguistics, History of Religions, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Norse mythology, Indo-European Linguistics, Old Norse Religion, Old Norse literature and culture, Derivational Morphology, and Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/44641175 . Abstract: The Hittite myth of Telipinu, the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, the Norse myth of Baldr and the Indic myths of Cyavana reflect an inherited Proto‑Indo‑European mythical... more
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/44641175 .
Abstract: The Hittite myth of Telipinu, the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, the Norse myth of Baldr and the Indic myths of Cyavana reflect an inherited Proto‑Indo‑European mythical theme about “Non‑Functioning Fertility Deities”, as shown by the fact that they display several phraseological and thematic parallels in their employment of poetic devices describing the non-functioning, or incapacitated, state of the protagonists and the consequent non‑functioning condition of the cosmos around them.
More precisely, the non functioning main characters appear to share the features [NOT STAND/MOVE UPWARDS], [NOT SEE/BE IN THE LIGHT], [NOT EAT/DRINK], [NOT SPEAK] and [NOT BE (SEXUALLY) VIGOROUS], while the non functioning environments around them share the features [FAMILY TIES DO NOT WORK], [PLANTS DO NOT GROW] and [SACRIFICES DO NOT WORK].
The use of these poetic devices is a reflex of inherited Proto‑Indo‑European poetic culture, as they systematically match phraseological collocations and themes attested in several Indo‑European traditions describing the existential conditions of any non‑functioning character (e.g. dead characters) and of any non‑functioning cosmos (e.g. the world at the End of Time), respectively.
Even though the possibility of borrowing and areal diffusion remains open, the most economical way to explain the numerous parallels between the Hittite, Greek, Norse and Indic myths is to assume that they reflect an inherited PIE mythical theme, in which the (variously described) non-functioning state of one or more main characters was intimately linked with the (variously described) non-functioning condition of the cosmos around them.
The Greek, Norse and (to some extent) the Indic narratives also attest structurally comparable scenes involving horses, whereas the Hittite myth does not, thus reflecting an innovation which must have taken place after the split between Proto‑Anatolian and Core Indo‑European (from which Greek, Old Norse and Sanskrit later developed).
The chariots employed in the Greek and Indic narratives must reflect an even younger innovation (after the 21st century BCE).
Keywords: fertility deities, Indo-European, mythology, poetics, phraseology, thematic structures, type-scenes, horses, chariots.
Abstract: The Hittite myth of Telipinu, the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, the Norse myth of Baldr and the Indic myths of Cyavana reflect an inherited Proto‑Indo‑European mythical theme about “Non‑Functioning Fertility Deities”, as shown by the fact that they display several phraseological and thematic parallels in their employment of poetic devices describing the non-functioning, or incapacitated, state of the protagonists and the consequent non‑functioning condition of the cosmos around them.
More precisely, the non functioning main characters appear to share the features [NOT STAND/MOVE UPWARDS], [NOT SEE/BE IN THE LIGHT], [NOT EAT/DRINK], [NOT SPEAK] and [NOT BE (SEXUALLY) VIGOROUS], while the non functioning environments around them share the features [FAMILY TIES DO NOT WORK], [PLANTS DO NOT GROW] and [SACRIFICES DO NOT WORK].
The use of these poetic devices is a reflex of inherited Proto‑Indo‑European poetic culture, as they systematically match phraseological collocations and themes attested in several Indo‑European traditions describing the existential conditions of any non‑functioning character (e.g. dead characters) and of any non‑functioning cosmos (e.g. the world at the End of Time), respectively.
Even though the possibility of borrowing and areal diffusion remains open, the most economical way to explain the numerous parallels between the Hittite, Greek, Norse and Indic myths is to assume that they reflect an inherited PIE mythical theme, in which the (variously described) non-functioning state of one or more main characters was intimately linked with the (variously described) non-functioning condition of the cosmos around them.
The Greek, Norse and (to some extent) the Indic narratives also attest structurally comparable scenes involving horses, whereas the Hittite myth does not, thus reflecting an innovation which must have taken place after the split between Proto‑Anatolian and Core Indo‑European (from which Greek, Old Norse and Sanskrit later developed).
The chariots employed in the Greek and Indic narratives must reflect an even younger innovation (after the 21st century BCE).
Keywords: fertility deities, Indo-European, mythology, poetics, phraseology, thematic structures, type-scenes, horses, chariots.
Research Interests: Religion, Hinduism, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Mythology, and 15 moreClassics, Greek Literature, Historical Linguistics, South Asian Studies, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Poetics, Oral Traditions, Medieval Scandinavia, Hittite, Ancient Near East, Ancient Greek Religion, Comparative mythology, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Hittite Religion
On Baldr and Balar see also: https://www.academia.edu/114396519/ . Abstract: The paper argues for a common origin for Old Norse (ON) Baldr (name of a Scandinavian god associated with LIGHT), Celtic Belinos (name of a Celtic god identified... more
On Baldr and Balar see also: https://www.academia.edu/114396519/ . Abstract: The paper argues for a common origin for Old Norse (ON) Baldr (name of a Scandinavian god associated with LIGHT), Celtic Belinos (name of a Celtic god identified with Apollo) and its Slovenian reflex Belin (name of a saint associated with SIGHT), and Old Irish (OIr.) Balar (name of a mythical character with possible solar features). New formal analyses and semantic intepretations of the names are provided and supported by means of insight obtained from the comparative study of Indo-European poetic phraseology and mythological narratives.
(1) ON Baldr is the reflex with d-epenthesis of Proto-Germanic *balra- and Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *bʰol(H)-r-ó- ‘provided with light, splendor’, a possessive derivative of *bʰól(H)-r-/bʰélH-n- ‘light’, a heteroclite of the PIE root *bʰelH- (Greek φαλός ‘white’, Old English bæl ‘fire, light’, Proto-Slavic *bělъ ‘white’). This analysis exactly matches Baldr’s association with light in Norse myth and finds support in parallels in Old English (the name of Baldr’s Anglo-saxon counterpart *Bæl-dæg ‘[he who has control over the] shining day’) and in Slavic (the reconstructed theonym *Bělъ bogъ ‘white god’, a kenning referring to the [SUN] or the [SKY]), which are further strengthened by the correspondence between the flower names ON Baldrs brá ‘Baldr’s brow’, Old English dæges eāge ‘day’s eye’ (Modern English daisy) and Vedic Sanskrit divyásya suparṇásya kanī́nikā ‘pupil of the Sun’, all reflexes of an inherited kenning [EYE – of LIGHT/DAY/SUN-god], a poetic phrase which referred to [FLOWERS].
(2) Proto-Celtic *Belīno- (whose scansion with long -i- in the suffix is required by Gaulish Βελεινο-) is a reflex of *bʰelH-ēn-ó- ‘provided with light’ (if possessive) or ‘pertaining to light’ (if pertinentive), a derivative of *bʰ(e)lH-ḗn ‘(in the) light’, a delocatival derivative of PIE *bʰól(H)-r-/bʰélH-n- ‘light’, closely matching Saint Belin’s association with sight in Slovenian folklore.
(3) Old Irish Balar is the reflex of Proto-Celtic *Balaro- (also in Lusitanian and Gaulish), which originally meant ‘provided with light’ (if possessive) or simply ‘light, splendor’ (if functionless thematization), and must be traced back to the analogical strong stem *bʰelH-r- of a reflex of PIE *bʰól(H)-r-/bʰélH-n- (the expected Proto-Celtic outcome *bolar-/balan- may be attested by the variant of the name Bolar).
(4) A possible further parallel may be Homeric Greek φαληριάω*, a denominative verb from *φαληριo- ‘shining, white’, if this must be traced back to a hysterokinetic and possibly delocatival derivative *φαλήρ (*bʰl̥H-ḗr from loc. sg. *bʰl̥H-ér- of *bʰól(H)-r-?).
(5) Parallels in the narrative structure and the onomastics of the Norse myth of Baldr’s killing by Loki (*lug-on-) and of the Irish myth of Balar’s killing by Lug (*lug-u-) allow for the assumption of a direct connection between all these characters and call for a common etymology of all of their names.
(1) ON Baldr is the reflex with d-epenthesis of Proto-Germanic *balra- and Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *bʰol(H)-r-ó- ‘provided with light, splendor’, a possessive derivative of *bʰól(H)-r-/bʰélH-n- ‘light’, a heteroclite of the PIE root *bʰelH- (Greek φαλός ‘white’, Old English bæl ‘fire, light’, Proto-Slavic *bělъ ‘white’). This analysis exactly matches Baldr’s association with light in Norse myth and finds support in parallels in Old English (the name of Baldr’s Anglo-saxon counterpart *Bæl-dæg ‘[he who has control over the] shining day’) and in Slavic (the reconstructed theonym *Bělъ bogъ ‘white god’, a kenning referring to the [SUN] or the [SKY]), which are further strengthened by the correspondence between the flower names ON Baldrs brá ‘Baldr’s brow’, Old English dæges eāge ‘day’s eye’ (Modern English daisy) and Vedic Sanskrit divyásya suparṇásya kanī́nikā ‘pupil of the Sun’, all reflexes of an inherited kenning [EYE – of LIGHT/DAY/SUN-god], a poetic phrase which referred to [FLOWERS].
(2) Proto-Celtic *Belīno- (whose scansion with long -i- in the suffix is required by Gaulish Βελεινο-) is a reflex of *bʰelH-ēn-ó- ‘provided with light’ (if possessive) or ‘pertaining to light’ (if pertinentive), a derivative of *bʰ(e)lH-ḗn ‘(in the) light’, a delocatival derivative of PIE *bʰól(H)-r-/bʰélH-n- ‘light’, closely matching Saint Belin’s association with sight in Slovenian folklore.
(3) Old Irish Balar is the reflex of Proto-Celtic *Balaro- (also in Lusitanian and Gaulish), which originally meant ‘provided with light’ (if possessive) or simply ‘light, splendor’ (if functionless thematization), and must be traced back to the analogical strong stem *bʰelH-r- of a reflex of PIE *bʰól(H)-r-/bʰélH-n- (the expected Proto-Celtic outcome *bolar-/balan- may be attested by the variant of the name Bolar).
(4) A possible further parallel may be Homeric Greek φαληριάω*, a denominative verb from *φαληριo- ‘shining, white’, if this must be traced back to a hysterokinetic and possibly delocatival derivative *φαλήρ (*bʰl̥H-ḗr from loc. sg. *bʰl̥H-ér- of *bʰól(H)-r-?).
(5) Parallels in the narrative structure and the onomastics of the Norse myth of Baldr’s killing by Loki (*lug-on-) and of the Irish myth of Balar’s killing by Lug (*lug-u-) allow for the assumption of a direct connection between all these characters and call for a common etymology of all of their names.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreCeltic Studies, History of Religion, Old Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Poetics, Comparative Linguistics, Old Irish Language and Literature, History of Religions, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Indo-European Linguistics, Old Norse Religion, Vedic Studies, and Slavic Languages and Literatures
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/44641175 . Abstract: In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (lines 227–30 ), Demeter promises to protect the prince of Eleusis, Demophon, from three dangers, namely ἐπηλυσίη ‘witchcraft’, ὑλοτόμος ‘the one... more
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/44641175 .
Abstract: In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (lines 227–30 ), Demeter promises to protect the prince of Eleusis, Demophon, from three dangers, namely ἐπηλυσίη ‘witchcraft’, ὑλοτόμος ‘the one who/which cuts wood’, and ὑποτάμνον ‘that which cuts under’. By employing an interdisciplinary approach combining philology, linguistics, comparative mythology, and folktale studies, the paper argues for ὑλοτόμος and ὑποτάμνον as poetic terms for [AXE] or [METAL], as well as for a new reading of Demeter’s speech in HDem. 227–30 as a promise to make Demophon invulnerable.
The interpretation of ὑλοτόμος ‘the one who/which cuts wood’ as a compositional kenning for [AXE] or [METAL] is supported by phraseological parallels in Archaic Greek epic poetry (inter alia, Il. 23.114 ὑλοτόμους πελέκεας “wood cutting axes”) and in other IE poetic traditions (Vedic abhī́d […] paraśúr yáthā vánam “splitting them like an axe a tree”; Old Norse gýgr […] skógs “ogress of the wood”, i.e. [AXE]).
The analysis of ὑποτάμνον ‘that which cuts under’ as a poetic term for [AXE] or [METAL] finds support in Homeric phraseology (inter alia, Od. 23.204 […] ταμὼν ὕπο πυθμέν᾿ ἐλαίης “cutting under the trunk of the olive”) and in the lexicon of the Septuaginta (ὑποτομεύς ‘the one which cuts under’, translating Hebr. magezērah ‘axe’).
Demeter’s speech in HDem. 227–30 must thus be interpreted as a promise to protect Demophon from both enchantments (ἐπηλυσίη) and axes or metal weapons in general (ὑλοτόμος, ὑποτάμνον), i.e. invulnerable, as these are the two main causes of death for a Greek epic hero. This reading of the passage finds support in the ritual undertaken by Demeter in HDem. 236–39 with the aim of making Demophon immortal and in the goddess’ admission of her own intentions in HDem. 259–62.
The interpretation of HDem. 227–30 as a promise of invulnerability fits into a system of parallels between the Demophon episode, the Norse myth of Baldr’s death and the Vedic mythical narratives on the Sun’s abnormal birth and wounding. The features shared by these three traditions allow for the reconstruction of an inherited mythical theme in which, after concerns arise for the safety of a protagonist characterized by a non-ordinary (late or premature) birth and an (actual and/or onomastic) association with [LIGHT], an unsuccessful attempt is made to ensure his well-being, often by making him invulnerable to anything that may hurt him and in connection with an oath.
The correspondences between the Demophon episode and its IE counterparts also match features of the folktales of the type ATU 410 “Sleeping Beauty” (e.g. Perrault’s “La Belle au bois dormant”), in which, inter alia, the protagonist is characterized by a non-ordinary (late) birth, followed by concerns for her safety (her doom being prophesized as in Baldr’s myth) and by a failed attempt to ensure her well-being by protecting her from anything that may hurt her, often in association with a public decree (matching the oath attested in Demophon and Baldr’s narratives). Finally, the princess conceives with her saviour two children who have an onomastic connection with [LIGHT], matching the (actual and/or onomastic) association with [LIGHT] of the protagonists of the IE myths.
Abstract: In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (lines 227–30 ), Demeter promises to protect the prince of Eleusis, Demophon, from three dangers, namely ἐπηλυσίη ‘witchcraft’, ὑλοτόμος ‘the one who/which cuts wood’, and ὑποτάμνον ‘that which cuts under’. By employing an interdisciplinary approach combining philology, linguistics, comparative mythology, and folktale studies, the paper argues for ὑλοτόμος and ὑποτάμνον as poetic terms for [AXE] or [METAL], as well as for a new reading of Demeter’s speech in HDem. 227–30 as a promise to make Demophon invulnerable.
The interpretation of ὑλοτόμος ‘the one who/which cuts wood’ as a compositional kenning for [AXE] or [METAL] is supported by phraseological parallels in Archaic Greek epic poetry (inter alia, Il. 23.114 ὑλοτόμους πελέκεας “wood cutting axes”) and in other IE poetic traditions (Vedic abhī́d […] paraśúr yáthā vánam “splitting them like an axe a tree”; Old Norse gýgr […] skógs “ogress of the wood”, i.e. [AXE]).
The analysis of ὑποτάμνον ‘that which cuts under’ as a poetic term for [AXE] or [METAL] finds support in Homeric phraseology (inter alia, Od. 23.204 […] ταμὼν ὕπο πυθμέν᾿ ἐλαίης “cutting under the trunk of the olive”) and in the lexicon of the Septuaginta (ὑποτομεύς ‘the one which cuts under’, translating Hebr. magezērah ‘axe’).
Demeter’s speech in HDem. 227–30 must thus be interpreted as a promise to protect Demophon from both enchantments (ἐπηλυσίη) and axes or metal weapons in general (ὑλοτόμος, ὑποτάμνον), i.e. invulnerable, as these are the two main causes of death for a Greek epic hero. This reading of the passage finds support in the ritual undertaken by Demeter in HDem. 236–39 with the aim of making Demophon immortal and in the goddess’ admission of her own intentions in HDem. 259–62.
The interpretation of HDem. 227–30 as a promise of invulnerability fits into a system of parallels between the Demophon episode, the Norse myth of Baldr’s death and the Vedic mythical narratives on the Sun’s abnormal birth and wounding. The features shared by these three traditions allow for the reconstruction of an inherited mythical theme in which, after concerns arise for the safety of a protagonist characterized by a non-ordinary (late or premature) birth and an (actual and/or onomastic) association with [LIGHT], an unsuccessful attempt is made to ensure his well-being, often by making him invulnerable to anything that may hurt him and in connection with an oath.
The correspondences between the Demophon episode and its IE counterparts also match features of the folktales of the type ATU 410 “Sleeping Beauty” (e.g. Perrault’s “La Belle au bois dormant”), in which, inter alia, the protagonist is characterized by a non-ordinary (late) birth, followed by concerns for her safety (her doom being prophesized as in Baldr’s myth) and by a failed attempt to ensure her well-being by protecting her from anything that may hurt her, often in association with a public decree (matching the oath attested in Demophon and Baldr’s narratives). Finally, the princess conceives with her saviour two children who have an onomastic connection with [LIGHT], matching the (actual and/or onomastic) association with [LIGHT] of the protagonists of the IE myths.
Research Interests: Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Greek Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, and 15 moreFolktales, Ancient Greek Religion, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Formulaic Language, Classical Mythology, Norse mythology, Comparative mythology, Homeric poetry, Indo-European Linguistics, Homeric Hymns, Hindu Mythology, Ancient Greek Mythology, Ancient Greek Linguistics, Vedic Studies, and Poetic Edda
On Loki, see also: https://academia.edu/113916063/ . A series of parallels in the narrative structure, the ritual associations and the phraseology of the Norse myth of Brokk and the Sanskrit myth of Bhr̥gu allow for the assumption of a... more
On Loki, see also: https://academia.edu/113916063/ . A series of parallels in the narrative structure, the ritual associations and the phraseology of the Norse myth of Brokk and the Sanskrit myth of Bhr̥gu allow for the assumption of a direct connection between these characters and call for a common etymology for both their names as reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g- ‘crackle, roar’.
Old Norse (ON) Brokkr is the name of a mythical dwarf-smith who wins the head of the Norse fire-god Loki in a wager in the Skáldskaparmál (35), while Sanskrit (Skt.) Bhr̥gu- is the name of a seer who curses the Indian fire-god Agni to be sarvabhakṣa- ‘all-eating, all-devouring’ in the Mahābhārata (1.5–7; 9.46.12–20). Skt. Bhr̥gu- can hardly be kept apart from Vedic (Ved.) Bhŕ̥gu-, the name of a class of mythical beings who are constantly associated with fire in the Rigveda (RV).
ON Brokkr and Ved. Bhŕ̥gu-, Skt. Bhr̥gu- may be traced back to *bʰr̥g-nó- (originally *bʰr̥h₂g-nó-) ‘crackling, roaring’ and *bʰŕ̥g-oṷ-/bʰr̥g-ṷ-´ ‘id.’ (originally *bʰŕ̥h₂g-oṷ-/bʰr̥h₂g-ṷ-´), respectively. These are derivatives of one and the same root, namely *bʰr̥(h₂)g- ‘crackle, roar’, which I interpret as the variant without s-mobile of the PIE root *spʰr̥h₂g- ‘crackle, roar’. The reconstruction of two derivatives, in -nó- (ON Brokkr) and in -u- (Ved. Bhŕ̥gu-), both meaning ‘crackling, roaring’, fits into the pattern of the Caland system which may be assumed for PIE *(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g- ‘crackle, roar’.
Reflexes of *bʰr̥(h₂)g- and of *spʰr̥h₂g- allow to state further semantic and formal matches:
- Gk. βαρυσφάραγος ‘with heavy roar’ and Ved. giribhráj- ‘heavy-roaring’ (collocation [HEAVY (*gʷerh₂-) – ROAR (*(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g-)]);
- Gk. ἀνεμοσφάραγος ‘with roar of wind(s)’ and Ved. vā́tabhrajas- ‘with roaring of wind(s)’ (collocation [WIND – ROAR (*(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g-)]);
- Hom. σφαραγέομαι ‘crackle, sizzle’, Ved. sphūrjáyant- ‘crackling, sizzling’ and bhūrjáyant- ‘id.’ (PIE *(s)bʰr̥h₂g-éi̯e- ‘crackle, sizzle’).
This analysis finds support in the semantic associations of these characters and of the PIE root. ON Brokkr, Ved. Bhŕ̥gu- and the reflexes of PIE *(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g- ‘crackle, roar’ (such as Gk. σφαραγέομαι and Ved. sphūrjáyant-) seem to share an association with [FIRE], as shown by mythology, phraseology and ritual. Also, ON Brokkr and derivatives of PIE *(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g- (such as Gk. βαρυσφάραγος and Ved. vā́tabhrajas-) seem to share an association with [THUNDER], which, however, seems to be lacking for Ved. Bhŕ̥gu-.
Old Norse (ON) Brokkr is the name of a mythical dwarf-smith who wins the head of the Norse fire-god Loki in a wager in the Skáldskaparmál (35), while Sanskrit (Skt.) Bhr̥gu- is the name of a seer who curses the Indian fire-god Agni to be sarvabhakṣa- ‘all-eating, all-devouring’ in the Mahābhārata (1.5–7; 9.46.12–20). Skt. Bhr̥gu- can hardly be kept apart from Vedic (Ved.) Bhŕ̥gu-, the name of a class of mythical beings who are constantly associated with fire in the Rigveda (RV).
ON Brokkr and Ved. Bhŕ̥gu-, Skt. Bhr̥gu- may be traced back to *bʰr̥g-nó- (originally *bʰr̥h₂g-nó-) ‘crackling, roaring’ and *bʰŕ̥g-oṷ-/bʰr̥g-ṷ-´ ‘id.’ (originally *bʰŕ̥h₂g-oṷ-/bʰr̥h₂g-ṷ-´), respectively. These are derivatives of one and the same root, namely *bʰr̥(h₂)g- ‘crackle, roar’, which I interpret as the variant without s-mobile of the PIE root *spʰr̥h₂g- ‘crackle, roar’. The reconstruction of two derivatives, in -nó- (ON Brokkr) and in -u- (Ved. Bhŕ̥gu-), both meaning ‘crackling, roaring’, fits into the pattern of the Caland system which may be assumed for PIE *(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g- ‘crackle, roar’.
Reflexes of *bʰr̥(h₂)g- and of *spʰr̥h₂g- allow to state further semantic and formal matches:
- Gk. βαρυσφάραγος ‘with heavy roar’ and Ved. giribhráj- ‘heavy-roaring’ (collocation [HEAVY (*gʷerh₂-) – ROAR (*(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g-)]);
- Gk. ἀνεμοσφάραγος ‘with roar of wind(s)’ and Ved. vā́tabhrajas- ‘with roaring of wind(s)’ (collocation [WIND – ROAR (*(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g-)]);
- Hom. σφαραγέομαι ‘crackle, sizzle’, Ved. sphūrjáyant- ‘crackling, sizzling’ and bhūrjáyant- ‘id.’ (PIE *(s)bʰr̥h₂g-éi̯e- ‘crackle, sizzle’).
This analysis finds support in the semantic associations of these characters and of the PIE root. ON Brokkr, Ved. Bhŕ̥gu- and the reflexes of PIE *(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g- ‘crackle, roar’ (such as Gk. σφαραγέομαι and Ved. sphūrjáyant-) seem to share an association with [FIRE], as shown by mythology, phraseology and ritual. Also, ON Brokkr and derivatives of PIE *(s)bʰr̥(h₂)g- (such as Gk. βαρυσφάραγος and Ved. vā́tabhrajas-) seem to share an association with [THUNDER], which, however, seems to be lacking for Ved. Bhŕ̥gu-.
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Mythology, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, and 15 moreOld Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Sanskrit, Vedic Sanskrit, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Comparative mythology, Indo-European Linguistics, Proto Indo-European, Old Norse Religion, Mahabharata, Old Norse literature and culture, Ancient Greek Linguistics, and Vedic Studies
(On Loki, see also https://academia.edu/113916063/ . On this type of theonym, see also https://www.academia.edu/57732401 ) In Old Norse mythology, Sigyn is the name of the wife of the god Loki. According to the current etymology, the... more
(On Loki, see also https://academia.edu/113916063/ . On this type of theonym, see also https://www.academia.edu/57732401 )
In Old Norse mythology, Sigyn is the name of the wife of the god Loki. According to the current etymology, the name Sigyn must be traced back to a determinative compound *Sig-yn, earlier *Sig-vin, meaning ‘victory-friend’ or being the feminine derivative of a masculine personal name †Sig-vinr ‘victory-friend’. This analysis raises several difficulties both from a formal and a semantic point of view: for instance, in Old Norse onomastics, °yn and its earlier form °vin are actually the reflexes of Proto-Germanic *wenjō- ‘meadow’ (: Gothic winja ‘id.’), and exclusively occur as second elements of compound place names; rather than the name of a goddess, a determinative compound Sig-yn should therefore be a place-name meaning ‘victory-meadow’.
As a matter of fact, Sigyn’s main role in Norse myth consisted in collecting and pouring out the poison dripping from a snake into the face of her husband, Loki, who was originally a fire god. This activity may reflect pre-Christian Scandinavian ritual practices involving the pouring of liquids onto the fire. On the strength of the insight obtained from the analysis of the myth, it is possible to investigate the formation of the name Sigyn both within its Norse and Germanic context and from an Indo‑European perspective.
An inner-Germanic analysis of Sigyn as the outcome of *sig-unjō- ‘she of the trickling (liquid)’ (a derivative of *sig-a- ‘trickling (liquid)’) raises severe problems from the perspective of Skaldic meter (Þjóð. Haustl. 72 farmr Sígynjar arma, which requires long -í-) and Proto-Germanic prosody (*sigun-jō- would have become *sigun-ijō- and Old Norse †Sigynn by Dahl’s Law), which require the first syllable of Sigyn to be heavy, i.e. Sígyn.
Old Norse Síg-yn (Proto-Germanic *sīg-un-jō-) is best analysed as the reflex of the weak stem of Proto-Indo-European *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂-/-n̥-i̯éh₂- ‘she of the pouring’, a devī́- derivative of *sei̯kʷ-eno- ‘pouring’ (: Vedic Sanskrit °sécana- ‘id.’), whose strong stem *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂- exactly matches Vedic Sanskrit °sécanī- in upa-sécanī- ‘pouring, pouring ladle’. The formation of Sígyn closely parallels that of the Celtic river name and theonym Sēquana (present-day river Seine in France), which is the reflex of *sei̯kʷ-en-eh₂- ‘she of the pouring’.
The meaning of the reconstruct *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂-/-n̥-i̯éh₂- ‘she of the pouring’ (Old Norse Sígyn) thus corresponds exactly to the main role of Sigyn within the Norse mythical narrative, namely the collecting and pouring out of a liquid. Furthermore, the possible association of her myth with pre-Christian Scandinavian fire rituals involving the pouring of liquids finds support in the association of the Vedic reflexes of Proto-Indo-European *sei̯kʷ- with the pouring of ritual liquids, inter alia in the context of fire rituals.
In Old Norse mythology, Sigyn is the name of the wife of the god Loki. According to the current etymology, the name Sigyn must be traced back to a determinative compound *Sig-yn, earlier *Sig-vin, meaning ‘victory-friend’ or being the feminine derivative of a masculine personal name †Sig-vinr ‘victory-friend’. This analysis raises several difficulties both from a formal and a semantic point of view: for instance, in Old Norse onomastics, °yn and its earlier form °vin are actually the reflexes of Proto-Germanic *wenjō- ‘meadow’ (: Gothic winja ‘id.’), and exclusively occur as second elements of compound place names; rather than the name of a goddess, a determinative compound Sig-yn should therefore be a place-name meaning ‘victory-meadow’.
As a matter of fact, Sigyn’s main role in Norse myth consisted in collecting and pouring out the poison dripping from a snake into the face of her husband, Loki, who was originally a fire god. This activity may reflect pre-Christian Scandinavian ritual practices involving the pouring of liquids onto the fire. On the strength of the insight obtained from the analysis of the myth, it is possible to investigate the formation of the name Sigyn both within its Norse and Germanic context and from an Indo‑European perspective.
An inner-Germanic analysis of Sigyn as the outcome of *sig-unjō- ‘she of the trickling (liquid)’ (a derivative of *sig-a- ‘trickling (liquid)’) raises severe problems from the perspective of Skaldic meter (Þjóð. Haustl. 72 farmr Sígynjar arma, which requires long -í-) and Proto-Germanic prosody (*sigun-jō- would have become *sigun-ijō- and Old Norse †Sigynn by Dahl’s Law), which require the first syllable of Sigyn to be heavy, i.e. Sígyn.
Old Norse Síg-yn (Proto-Germanic *sīg-un-jō-) is best analysed as the reflex of the weak stem of Proto-Indo-European *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂-/-n̥-i̯éh₂- ‘she of the pouring’, a devī́- derivative of *sei̯kʷ-eno- ‘pouring’ (: Vedic Sanskrit °sécana- ‘id.’), whose strong stem *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂- exactly matches Vedic Sanskrit °sécanī- in upa-sécanī- ‘pouring, pouring ladle’. The formation of Sígyn closely parallels that of the Celtic river name and theonym Sēquana (present-day river Seine in France), which is the reflex of *sei̯kʷ-en-eh₂- ‘she of the pouring’.
The meaning of the reconstruct *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂-/-n̥-i̯éh₂- ‘she of the pouring’ (Old Norse Sígyn) thus corresponds exactly to the main role of Sigyn within the Norse mythical narrative, namely the collecting and pouring out of a liquid. Furthermore, the possible association of her myth with pre-Christian Scandinavian fire rituals involving the pouring of liquids finds support in the association of the Vedic reflexes of Proto-Indo-European *sei̯kʷ- with the pouring of ritual liquids, inter alia in the context of fire rituals.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreCeltic Studies, History of Religion, Old Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Poetics, Comparative Linguistics, History of Religions, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Norse mythology, Indo-European Linguistics, Old Norse Religion, Old Norse literature and culture, and Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . This work aims to investigate through the tools of historical and comparative linguistics some aspects of poetics and mythology attested in Old Icelandic, a particular... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
This work aims to investigate through the tools of historical and comparative linguistics some aspects of poetics and mythology attested in Old Icelandic, a particular variety of the Old Norse language. The research stems from the belief that the ancient Germanic poetic traditions, especially those in Old Icelandic and that in Old English (particularly rich in documentation both for quantity and quality), can offer an important contribution to the comparative study of poetic language, which has become in the course of the last century one of the most interesting lines of research in the Indo-European field. In this study we will therefore try to highlight the parallels between, on the one hand, the poetic language and mythology attested in Norse texts and, on the other hand, those that recur in texts written in other Germanic languages, such as Old English and Middle High German, and in the other Indo-European languages of ancient attestation, in particular Hittite, Sanskrit (Vedic and Classical), Ancient Greek, Latin and Old Irish.
The corpus of this study are the Norse texts of the so-called Poetic Edda, a collection of anonymous poems of mythological and heroic subject mainly attested (after a long period of oral transmission) in a manuscript compiled around the thirteenth century, the Codex Regius (GKS 2365 4to; also known as Konungsbók), and the Prose Edda, a manual of Scandinavian poetics and mythology written by Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), based both on poems attested in the Codex Regius and on other unattested poetic texts. One of the best-known mythological Eddic poems, of fundamental importance for the purposes of this study is the so-called Vǫluspá 'Prophecy of the Seer', a synthesis of Scandinavian mythology from the origin of the universe to its destruction. The sections of Snorri's Prose Edda which are most relevant to this research are those entitled Gylfaginning 'Gylfi's Deception' and Skáldskaparmál 'Discourse on Poetic Art'. The latter also contains several traditional catalogues of mythological names and poetic terms, the so-called þulur, and also describes some compositional principles of the so-called Scaldic poetry, an Old Norse poetic tradition similar to the Eddic one in certain respects, such as the use of kenningar, but very different under others, such as the sometimes extremely complex syntax and the absence of anonymity; albeit to a lesser extent, þulur and Scaldic poems will also be among the sources cited in this work.
This work aims to investigate through the tools of historical and comparative linguistics some aspects of poetics and mythology attested in Old Icelandic, a particular variety of the Old Norse language. The research stems from the belief that the ancient Germanic poetic traditions, especially those in Old Icelandic and that in Old English (particularly rich in documentation both for quantity and quality), can offer an important contribution to the comparative study of poetic language, which has become in the course of the last century one of the most interesting lines of research in the Indo-European field. In this study we will therefore try to highlight the parallels between, on the one hand, the poetic language and mythology attested in Norse texts and, on the other hand, those that recur in texts written in other Germanic languages, such as Old English and Middle High German, and in the other Indo-European languages of ancient attestation, in particular Hittite, Sanskrit (Vedic and Classical), Ancient Greek, Latin and Old Irish.
The corpus of this study are the Norse texts of the so-called Poetic Edda, a collection of anonymous poems of mythological and heroic subject mainly attested (after a long period of oral transmission) in a manuscript compiled around the thirteenth century, the Codex Regius (GKS 2365 4to; also known as Konungsbók), and the Prose Edda, a manual of Scandinavian poetics and mythology written by Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), based both on poems attested in the Codex Regius and on other unattested poetic texts. One of the best-known mythological Eddic poems, of fundamental importance for the purposes of this study is the so-called Vǫluspá 'Prophecy of the Seer', a synthesis of Scandinavian mythology from the origin of the universe to its destruction. The sections of Snorri's Prose Edda which are most relevant to this research are those entitled Gylfaginning 'Gylfi's Deception' and Skáldskaparmál 'Discourse on Poetic Art'. The latter also contains several traditional catalogues of mythological names and poetic terms, the so-called þulur, and also describes some compositional principles of the so-called Scaldic poetry, an Old Norse poetic tradition similar to the Eddic one in certain respects, such as the use of kenningar, but very different under others, such as the sometimes extremely complex syntax and the absence of anonymity; albeit to a lesser extent, þulur and Scaldic poems will also be among the sources cited in this work.
Research Interests: Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreIndo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, History of Religions, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, Compounding, Derivational Morphology, and Comparative Study of World Religions
2. Fathers, ancestors, patriarchs, and gods: Old Icelandic °fǫðr and Proto-Indo-European *pə́₂trou- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side' (Greek πάτρως, Vedic pitr̥vya-, Latin patruus; Old English kennings; epithets of Norse supreme god Odin; patriarchy & clan-based society; Roman pater familias)more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . Old Icelandic °fǫðr, attested as second element of various compound epithets of the Norse supreme deity Odin, is the reflex of Proto-Germanic *faþru- (or *fadru-) and PIE... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
Old Icelandic °fǫðr, attested as second element of various compound epithets of the Norse supreme deity Odin, is the reflex of Proto-Germanic *faþru- (or *fadru-) and PIE *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’, whose direct reflex is Greek πάτρως ‘grandfather; uncle’ and whose indirect reflexes are, for instance, Vedic pitr̥vya- and Latin patruus, both meaning ‘uncle’, reflexes of two derivatives of this word (*ph₂tr̥u̯-ii̯o- and *ph₂tr-eu-ó-, respectively) meaning ‘(son) of the grandfather’.
The variation attested by the second element of e.g. Al-fǫðr : Al-faðir and Sig-fǫðr : Sig-faðir (a trivial substitution of the archaic °fǫðr with the easier °faðir ‘father’) points to a functional equivalence between these two terms, which finds further support in the Eddic prose text Frá dauða Sinfjǫtla “On Sinfjǫtli’s death”, in which the latter calls his own father (faðir) Sigmundr ái ‘ancestor’.
A literal meaning ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’ has parallels in theonyms and divien epithets attested in various Indo-European traditions, cf. the Hittite theonyms Ḫanna-ḫanna- ‘Grandmother-grandmother’ (related to Latin anus ‘old woman’) and Ḫuḫḫa- ‘Grandfather’, as well as the Greek supreme god Zeus’s epithets Παππῶος ‘Ancestral’ and Πατρῷος ‘id.’
Within Indo-European patriarchal and clan-based societies, however, it is likely that the term *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’ would come to refer to the male head of the household, i.e. the ‘patriarch’, and thus be also used in a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’. This was probably the meaning of Old Icelandic °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets as well: formations like Al-fǫðr, literally meaning ‘paternal ancestor of everything’, must clearly be interpreted in a non-literal sense as ‘he who has authority, control on everything’, just like Al-faðir (which obviously does not mean ‘biological father of everything’).
An even closer Indo-European match for this meaning is thus found in the epithet of the Sanskrit supreme god Brahma pitāmaha-, literally ‘grandfather on the father's side’, which probably has a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’ in compound epithets like sarva-loka-pitāmaha- ‘he who has authority, control on all worlds’, given that Brahma was not the literal ‘grandfather of all worlds’.
Furthermore, it is clear that, in several Indo-European and Germanic formulas, terms for ‘father’ must not be understood literally: see, for instance, the Gallic priestly title gutu-ater ‘father of prayer’, or the Old English kenningar for [CHRISTIAN GOD], which are the closest inner-Germanic parallels for the Old Norse compounds in °fǫðr, in which Old English fæder ‘father’ regularly has the same function of terms for ‘he who has authority, control’, e.g. cyning ‘king’, drihten ‘lord’, frēa ‘id.’ e fruma ‘prince’.
Old Icelandic °fǫðr, attested as second element of various compound epithets of the Norse supreme deity Odin, is the reflex of Proto-Germanic *faþru- (or *fadru-) and PIE *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’, whose direct reflex is Greek πάτρως ‘grandfather; uncle’ and whose indirect reflexes are, for instance, Vedic pitr̥vya- and Latin patruus, both meaning ‘uncle’, reflexes of two derivatives of this word (*ph₂tr̥u̯-ii̯o- and *ph₂tr-eu-ó-, respectively) meaning ‘(son) of the grandfather’.
The variation attested by the second element of e.g. Al-fǫðr : Al-faðir and Sig-fǫðr : Sig-faðir (a trivial substitution of the archaic °fǫðr with the easier °faðir ‘father’) points to a functional equivalence between these two terms, which finds further support in the Eddic prose text Frá dauða Sinfjǫtla “On Sinfjǫtli’s death”, in which the latter calls his own father (faðir) Sigmundr ái ‘ancestor’.
A literal meaning ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’ has parallels in theonyms and divien epithets attested in various Indo-European traditions, cf. the Hittite theonyms Ḫanna-ḫanna- ‘Grandmother-grandmother’ (related to Latin anus ‘old woman’) and Ḫuḫḫa- ‘Grandfather’, as well as the Greek supreme god Zeus’s epithets Παππῶος ‘Ancestral’ and Πατρῷος ‘id.’
Within Indo-European patriarchal and clan-based societies, however, it is likely that the term *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’ would come to refer to the male head of the household, i.e. the ‘patriarch’, and thus be also used in a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’. This was probably the meaning of Old Icelandic °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets as well: formations like Al-fǫðr, literally meaning ‘paternal ancestor of everything’, must clearly be interpreted in a non-literal sense as ‘he who has authority, control on everything’, just like Al-faðir (which obviously does not mean ‘biological father of everything’).
An even closer Indo-European match for this meaning is thus found in the epithet of the Sanskrit supreme god Brahma pitāmaha-, literally ‘grandfather on the father's side’, which probably has a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’ in compound epithets like sarva-loka-pitāmaha- ‘he who has authority, control on all worlds’, given that Brahma was not the literal ‘grandfather of all worlds’.
Furthermore, it is clear that, in several Indo-European and Germanic formulas, terms for ‘father’ must not be understood literally: see, for instance, the Gallic priestly title gutu-ater ‘father of prayer’, or the Old English kenningar for [CHRISTIAN GOD], which are the closest inner-Germanic parallels for the Old Norse compounds in °fǫðr, in which Old English fæder ‘father’ regularly has the same function of terms for ‘he who has authority, control’, e.g. cyning ‘king’, drihten ‘lord’, frēa ‘id.’ e fruma ‘prince’.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 11 moreIndo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Comparative Study of World Religions
3. The cosmic patriarch: Al-fǫðr ‘patriarch of all’ and Al-faðir ‘father of all’ (°fǫðr and PIE *pə́₂trou-; Ǫl-valdi and All-valdi; Old English God-kennings [al-walda, etc.]; Old Irish Oll-athair; Zeus πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε and Jupiter pater deum hominumque; Brahma sarvaloka-/sarvabhūta-pitāmaha-)more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . Old Icelandic °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets is the reflex of Proto-Indo-Europeant *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’, which, within Indo-European patriarchal... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
Old Icelandic °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets is the reflex of Proto-Indo-Europeant *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’, which, within Indo-European patriarchal and clan-based societies, likely came to refer to the male head of the household, i.e. the ‘patriarch’, and thus be used in a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’.
Odin's epithet Al-fǫðr and its innovative variant Al-faðir are endocentric determinative compounds of the type of Gothic *Ala-reiks ‘ruler of all’ (Latinized as Ala-ricus). They do not refer to Odin as the literal ‘biological paternal ancestor of all’ or ‘biological father of all’ (meanings which find no support in Scandinavian mythology), but rather as ‘he who has authority, control over all’, a meaning which exactly matches Odin's role as the cosmic ruler in Norse mythological texts.
The supreme god Odin's epithet Al-fǫðr ‘he who has authority, control over all’ may thus be compared with Old English kennings for [CHRISTIAN GOD] such as al-walda ‘he who rules all’ and the correspondent syntagms ealles wealdend “ruler of all” e ealra ān-waldend “reggitore di tutto”. The well-attested and productive collocation [RULER (dryhten, frēa, waldend, etc.) – of ALL] for [CHRISTIAN GOD], which clearly underlies all of these kennings, might reflect the re-employment in a Christian context of a pre-Christian kenning for [SUPREME GOD]. This hypothesis is supported by the exact correspondence between Old English al-walda and Old Icelandic Ǫl-valdi (with innovative variant All-valdi) ‘he who rules all’, the name of an (unfortunately little known) character in Scandinavian pre-Christian mythology and a reflex of the same Proto-Germanic compound *ala-waldan- ‘id.’ which also underlies Old English al-walda.
These and other considerations rule out the possibility that Old English al-walda is a loan translation from Latin omni-potens Deus "all-mighty God" (which has – perhaps correctly – been proposed to underlie Germanic formations like Gothic all-waldands, Old Icelandic alls-valdandi, Old Saxon alo-waldand and Old High German ala-waltenti). In contrast, given that Old English fæder ‘father’ is functionally equivalent to terms for [RULER] such as waldend with the kennings for [CHRISTIAN GOD], it is actually rather surprising that a compound *al-fæder ‘father of all’ or a synonymic syntagm *ealles fæder for [CHRISTIAN GOD] (functionally equivalent to al-walda and ealles wealdend) do not occur in Old English, an absence which might be due to the heathen associations which an Old English counterpart to Odin's epithet Al-fǫðr might have had for Christian speakers.
Several parallels for Old Icelandic Al-fǫðr in various other Indo-European traditions are discussed:
(1) Old Irish Oll-athair ‘great father’, an epithet of the Irish great god Dagda (or Eochaid) which has often been compared with Al-fǫðr, actually displays a first element oll° ‘great’ which does not etymologically nor semantically match Old Icelandic al° ‘all’, and thus does not reflect the same conceptualization which underlies Odin's epithet.
(2) The Homeric epithet of Zeus πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε “father of men and gods” (for which Greek myth requires an interpretation as “patriarch of humans and gods”) and the Latin epithet of Jupiter pater deum hominumque “father of gods and humans" reflect a collocation [PATRIARCH (*ph₂tér-) – of ALL INTELLIGENT BEINGS (GODS and HUMANS)] which partially matches Old Icelandic Alfǫðr.
(3) The most exact parallel is, however, that with the Sanskrit epithet of the supreme god Brahma, sarvaloka-pitāmaha- ‘paternal grandfather of all worlds’, together with its variant sarvabhūta-pitāmaha- ‘paternal grandfather of all creatures’:
- the same collocation [PATRIARCH (*pə́₂trou̯- or *ph₂tér-) – of ALL] underlies both these Sanskrit formations and Old Icelandic Al-fǫðr and Al-faðir;
- the ultimate meaning ‘he who has authority, control of all worlds/creatures’ closely matches Old English kennings for [CHRISTIAN GOD] such as frēa ealra gesceafta “lord of all creatures” and onwealda ealra gesceafta “single ruler of all creatures”.
Old Icelandic °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets is the reflex of Proto-Indo-Europeant *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’, which, within Indo-European patriarchal and clan-based societies, likely came to refer to the male head of the household, i.e. the ‘patriarch’, and thus be used in a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’.
Odin's epithet Al-fǫðr and its innovative variant Al-faðir are endocentric determinative compounds of the type of Gothic *Ala-reiks ‘ruler of all’ (Latinized as Ala-ricus). They do not refer to Odin as the literal ‘biological paternal ancestor of all’ or ‘biological father of all’ (meanings which find no support in Scandinavian mythology), but rather as ‘he who has authority, control over all’, a meaning which exactly matches Odin's role as the cosmic ruler in Norse mythological texts.
The supreme god Odin's epithet Al-fǫðr ‘he who has authority, control over all’ may thus be compared with Old English kennings for [CHRISTIAN GOD] such as al-walda ‘he who rules all’ and the correspondent syntagms ealles wealdend “ruler of all” e ealra ān-waldend “reggitore di tutto”. The well-attested and productive collocation [RULER (dryhten, frēa, waldend, etc.) – of ALL] for [CHRISTIAN GOD], which clearly underlies all of these kennings, might reflect the re-employment in a Christian context of a pre-Christian kenning for [SUPREME GOD]. This hypothesis is supported by the exact correspondence between Old English al-walda and Old Icelandic Ǫl-valdi (with innovative variant All-valdi) ‘he who rules all’, the name of an (unfortunately little known) character in Scandinavian pre-Christian mythology and a reflex of the same Proto-Germanic compound *ala-waldan- ‘id.’ which also underlies Old English al-walda.
These and other considerations rule out the possibility that Old English al-walda is a loan translation from Latin omni-potens Deus "all-mighty God" (which has – perhaps correctly – been proposed to underlie Germanic formations like Gothic all-waldands, Old Icelandic alls-valdandi, Old Saxon alo-waldand and Old High German ala-waltenti). In contrast, given that Old English fæder ‘father’ is functionally equivalent to terms for [RULER] such as waldend with the kennings for [CHRISTIAN GOD], it is actually rather surprising that a compound *al-fæder ‘father of all’ or a synonymic syntagm *ealles fæder for [CHRISTIAN GOD] (functionally equivalent to al-walda and ealles wealdend) do not occur in Old English, an absence which might be due to the heathen associations which an Old English counterpart to Odin's epithet Al-fǫðr might have had for Christian speakers.
Several parallels for Old Icelandic Al-fǫðr in various other Indo-European traditions are discussed:
(1) Old Irish Oll-athair ‘great father’, an epithet of the Irish great god Dagda (or Eochaid) which has often been compared with Al-fǫðr, actually displays a first element oll° ‘great’ which does not etymologically nor semantically match Old Icelandic al° ‘all’, and thus does not reflect the same conceptualization which underlies Odin's epithet.
(2) The Homeric epithet of Zeus πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε “father of men and gods” (for which Greek myth requires an interpretation as “patriarch of humans and gods”) and the Latin epithet of Jupiter pater deum hominumque “father of gods and humans" reflect a collocation [PATRIARCH (*ph₂tér-) – of ALL INTELLIGENT BEINGS (GODS and HUMANS)] which partially matches Old Icelandic Alfǫðr.
(3) The most exact parallel is, however, that with the Sanskrit epithet of the supreme god Brahma, sarvaloka-pitāmaha- ‘paternal grandfather of all worlds’, together with its variant sarvabhūta-pitāmaha- ‘paternal grandfather of all creatures’:
- the same collocation [PATRIARCH (*pə́₂trou̯- or *ph₂tér-) – of ALL] underlies both these Sanskrit formations and Old Icelandic Al-fǫðr and Al-faðir;
- the ultimate meaning ‘he who has authority, control of all worlds/creatures’ closely matches Old English kennings for [CHRISTIAN GOD] such as frēa ealra gesceafta “lord of all creatures” and onwealda ealra gesceafta “single ruler of all creatures”.
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, and 10 moreHistory of Religion, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Comparative Study of World Religions
4. The lord of men, the ancestor of kings: Alda-fǫðr, Her-fǫðr, Herja-fǫðr, and Herjans-fǫðr (Odin as highest authority for human beings; Old Eng. kennings for Christian god; reconstructed Proto-Indo-European vocative formula *diéu pə́₂ter “O Sky, father [of human beings]”; Greek διοτρεφής βασιλεύς)more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . Old Icelandic (OIc.) °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets is the reflex of Proto-Indo-Europeant *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’, which, within Indo-European... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
Old Icelandic (OIc.) °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets is the reflex of Proto-Indo-Europeant *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’, which, within Indo-European patriarchal and clan-based societies, likely came to refer to the male head of the household, i.e. the ‘patriarch’, and thus be used in a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’.
The same collocation [PATRIARCH (OIc. fǫðr) – of HUMAN BEINGS] underlies the following epithets of Odin:
- Alda-fǫðr ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over human beings’ is a case compound (probably originated by univerbation) with a first element alda°, which is the genitive plural OIc. ǫld, meaning ‘age, time, generation’ but also ‘people, human beings’, especially in the plural, cf. e.g. alda synir “sons of men” (Alvíssmál +).
- Her-fǫðr ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over the people, the armies’ is a determinative compound with a first element her° which is the bare stem of OIc. herr ‘host, multitude, army’, which, within the kenning system, is functionally equivalent to collective nouns referring to a plurality of [HUMAN BEINGS];
- Herja-fǫðr ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over the people, the armies’ is a variant of Her-fǫðr, a case compound whose first element herja° is the genitive plural of herr ‘host, multitude, army’.
These epithets refer to Odin as the highest cosmic authority for human beings, an interpretation which finds support in Old Norse literature, in contrast with the literal meaning ‘biological ancestor of humanity’, which has no parallels in Norse myth (the first two humans, Askr and Embla, are created by Odin and two other gods, not biologically fathered by them). Norse poets did not usually employ kenningar of this type [PATRIARCH (OIc. fǫðr) – of HUMAN BEINGS] to refer to the Christian god, probably because of its strong associations with pre-Christian religion.
A close parallel may be found within the system of Old English kennings for the Christian god of the type herġa fruma ‘prince of hosts’, fæder folca gehwæs “father of each folk" and ealles folces fruma “prince of each folk”. A combinatorial analysis allows to hypothesize that a kenning *herġa fæder “father of hosts” (a close etymological match for OIc. Herja-fǫðr) may have been easily created to refer to the Christian god in Old English poetry, and its non-attestation may be due to its strong associations with pre-Christian religion.
The etymological and semantic parallels between the Old English kenningar and Odin's epithets allow for the reconstruction of a Germanic kenning used to refer to the [SUPREME GOD] as the [PATRIARCH (Proto-Germanic *fader-, *faþru-) – of HUMAN BEINGS].
This may be the reflex of an already Indo-European collocation [PATRIARCH (Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tér-, *pə́₂trou̯-) – of HUMAN BEINGS], with parallels in various Indo-European traditions.
A close, but partial, correspondence is that with the Homeric epithet of Zeus πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε “father of gods and men” and with the Latin epithet of Jupiter pater deum hominumque “id.”, which both reflect a collocation [PATRIARCH (*ph₂tér-) – of ALL INTELLIGENT BEINGS (GODS and HUMAN BEINGS)].
The closest parallel, however, is less obvious. The appositional vocative formula [SKY (*di̯éṷ-) – FATHER (*ph₂tér-)] attested by the Homeric invocation Ζεῦ πάτερ “O Zeus, father”, the Vedic Sanskrit invocation díyauṣ pítaḥ “O Sky, father”, and the Latin theonym (only attested in the vocative and nominative) Iū-piter, which is the reflex of a vocative form Iou-pater ‘O Sky/Jove, father’.
As attested in Homeric and Vedic poetry and as may be reconstructed for Latin on the basis of the comparison with Umbrian, prayers and invocations to the deity by human beings were the main pragmatic context in which these invocations were uttered. Given that pragmatics and linguistic typology clearly tell us that in such a context the specification of the element [HUMAN BEINGS] would have been communicatively redundant, the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European vocative formula *di̯éu̯ pə́₂ter “O Sky, father” may be interpreted as “O Sky, father (of human beings)” and analyzed as a variant, born in a specific pragmatic context, of the same collocation [PATRIARCH (*ph₂tér-) – of HUMAN BEINGS] which underlies Old Icelandic Alda-fǫðr and Her(ja)-fǫðr as well.
The case compound Herjans-fǫðr (perhaps with innovative variant in °faðir) is of uncertain attestation and often emendated to Herja-fǫðr, but it is also the only name of Odin which may attest the literal meaning ‘paternal ancestor’ of OIc. °fǫðr. Given that an inner-Norse analysis points to a paradoxical meaning ‘paternal ancestor of Herjann’ (another name of Odin), OIc. herjann must be interpreted with its etymological meaning ‘king, head of the army’, attested, for instance, by the Greek cognate κοίρανος.
Herjans-fǫðr must thus be interpreted as ‘paternal ancestor of the king, of the head of the army’, a meaning which finds support not only in Scandinavian texts (for instance in the genealogies of the Scandinavian royal houses of the Ynglingar and Skjǫldungar, which begin with Odin himself), but also in parallels in other Germanic traditions (for instance, in Old English, where genealogies of royal houses often listed Woden as a forefather) and in other Indo-European traditions (for instance in Homeric Greek, where formulaic expressions like διοτρεφής βασιλεύς “king raised by Zeus” are widely attested).
Old Icelandic (OIc.) °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets is the reflex of Proto-Indo-Europeant *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’, which, within Indo-European patriarchal and clan-based societies, likely came to refer to the male head of the household, i.e. the ‘patriarch’, and thus be used in a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’.
The same collocation [PATRIARCH (OIc. fǫðr) – of HUMAN BEINGS] underlies the following epithets of Odin:
- Alda-fǫðr ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over human beings’ is a case compound (probably originated by univerbation) with a first element alda°, which is the genitive plural OIc. ǫld, meaning ‘age, time, generation’ but also ‘people, human beings’, especially in the plural, cf. e.g. alda synir “sons of men” (Alvíssmál +).
- Her-fǫðr ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over the people, the armies’ is a determinative compound with a first element her° which is the bare stem of OIc. herr ‘host, multitude, army’, which, within the kenning system, is functionally equivalent to collective nouns referring to a plurality of [HUMAN BEINGS];
- Herja-fǫðr ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over the people, the armies’ is a variant of Her-fǫðr, a case compound whose first element herja° is the genitive plural of herr ‘host, multitude, army’.
These epithets refer to Odin as the highest cosmic authority for human beings, an interpretation which finds support in Old Norse literature, in contrast with the literal meaning ‘biological ancestor of humanity’, which has no parallels in Norse myth (the first two humans, Askr and Embla, are created by Odin and two other gods, not biologically fathered by them). Norse poets did not usually employ kenningar of this type [PATRIARCH (OIc. fǫðr) – of HUMAN BEINGS] to refer to the Christian god, probably because of its strong associations with pre-Christian religion.
A close parallel may be found within the system of Old English kennings for the Christian god of the type herġa fruma ‘prince of hosts’, fæder folca gehwæs “father of each folk" and ealles folces fruma “prince of each folk”. A combinatorial analysis allows to hypothesize that a kenning *herġa fæder “father of hosts” (a close etymological match for OIc. Herja-fǫðr) may have been easily created to refer to the Christian god in Old English poetry, and its non-attestation may be due to its strong associations with pre-Christian religion.
The etymological and semantic parallels between the Old English kenningar and Odin's epithets allow for the reconstruction of a Germanic kenning used to refer to the [SUPREME GOD] as the [PATRIARCH (Proto-Germanic *fader-, *faþru-) – of HUMAN BEINGS].
This may be the reflex of an already Indo-European collocation [PATRIARCH (Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tér-, *pə́₂trou̯-) – of HUMAN BEINGS], with parallels in various Indo-European traditions.
A close, but partial, correspondence is that with the Homeric epithet of Zeus πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε “father of gods and men” and with the Latin epithet of Jupiter pater deum hominumque “id.”, which both reflect a collocation [PATRIARCH (*ph₂tér-) – of ALL INTELLIGENT BEINGS (GODS and HUMAN BEINGS)].
The closest parallel, however, is less obvious. The appositional vocative formula [SKY (*di̯éṷ-) – FATHER (*ph₂tér-)] attested by the Homeric invocation Ζεῦ πάτερ “O Zeus, father”, the Vedic Sanskrit invocation díyauṣ pítaḥ “O Sky, father”, and the Latin theonym (only attested in the vocative and nominative) Iū-piter, which is the reflex of a vocative form Iou-pater ‘O Sky/Jove, father’.
As attested in Homeric and Vedic poetry and as may be reconstructed for Latin on the basis of the comparison with Umbrian, prayers and invocations to the deity by human beings were the main pragmatic context in which these invocations were uttered. Given that pragmatics and linguistic typology clearly tell us that in such a context the specification of the element [HUMAN BEINGS] would have been communicatively redundant, the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European vocative formula *di̯éu̯ pə́₂ter “O Sky, father” may be interpreted as “O Sky, father (of human beings)” and analyzed as a variant, born in a specific pragmatic context, of the same collocation [PATRIARCH (*ph₂tér-) – of HUMAN BEINGS] which underlies Old Icelandic Alda-fǫðr and Her(ja)-fǫðr as well.
The case compound Herjans-fǫðr (perhaps with innovative variant in °faðir) is of uncertain attestation and often emendated to Herja-fǫðr, but it is also the only name of Odin which may attest the literal meaning ‘paternal ancestor’ of OIc. °fǫðr. Given that an inner-Norse analysis points to a paradoxical meaning ‘paternal ancestor of Herjann’ (another name of Odin), OIc. herjann must be interpreted with its etymological meaning ‘king, head of the army’, attested, for instance, by the Greek cognate κοίρανος.
Herjans-fǫðr must thus be interpreted as ‘paternal ancestor of the king, of the head of the army’, a meaning which finds support not only in Scandinavian texts (for instance in the genealogies of the Scandinavian royal houses of the Ynglingar and Skjǫldungar, which begin with Odin himself), but also in parallels in other Germanic traditions (for instance, in Old English, where genealogies of royal houses often listed Woden as a forefather) and in other Indo-European traditions (for instance in Homeric Greek, where formulaic expressions like διοτρεφής βασιλεύς “king raised by Zeus” are widely attested).
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, and 10 moreHistory of Religion, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Comparative Study of World Religions
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . The same conceptualization of Odin as a god who decides the outcomes of battles underlies the epithets Sig-fǫðr, Sig-faðir and Val-fǫðr: - Old Icelandic (OIc.) °fǫðr in... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
The same conceptualization of Odin as a god who decides the outcomes of battles underlies the epithets Sig-fǫðr, Sig-faðir and Val-fǫðr:
- Old Icelandic (OIc.) °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets is the reflex of Proto-Indo-European *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side, paternal ancestor’, which, within Indo-European patriarchal and clan-based societies, likely came to refer to the male head of the household, i.e. the ‘patriarch’, and thus be used in a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’.
- Sig-fǫðr is a determinative compound whose first element is a reflex of sigr ‘victory, battle’, the reflex of Proto-Germanic (PGmc) *segiz- ‘id.’ and Proto-Indo-European *séǵʰ-es- ‘victory’ (: Ved. sáhas- ‘strength, victory’), an -s- neuter of the root *seǵʰ- ‘overcome, conquer’; Sig-faðir is an innovative variant with substitution of °fǫðr by means of the less archaic °faðir.
The literal meanings of Sig-fǫðr ‘(biological) paternal ancestor of victory’ and Sig-faðir ‘(biological) father of victory’ are not supported by Norse literature (Odin is not biologically related to any personifications of victory); both compounds must be rather interpreted in a figurative sense ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over victory’, which has indeed several parallels in Old Norse literature, see for instance Ynglinga saga 9 “The Svíar often thought he (Odin) appeared to them before great battles were to take place. Then he gave victory to some of them”.
- Val-fǫðr is a determinative compound whose first element is the reflex of valr ‘the mass of fallen in battle, massacre, battle-field’; its Germanic cognates (e.g. OE wæl ‘id.’) allow us to reconstruct PGmc *wal-a-, which may in turn by analyzed as the reflex of an action noun of the type τόμος of the root *u̯elh₃- ‘hit, kill’ (Hittite walḫ-zi ‘hit’, Tocharian A wälläṣtär ‘die’), namely *u̯ól(h₃)-o-, originally meaning ‘hit, killing’, and later shifting to a more concrete meaning in the same way as Greek φόνος ‘killing, massacre, corpse’, the reflex of PIE *gʷʰón-o- ‘hit, killing’ (a τόμος derivative of PIE *gʷʰen- ‘hit, kill’). While a semantic interpretation ‘patriarch of the fallen in battle’ would fit Snorri’s interpretation of the compound, given that the primary meaning of OIc. valr is ‘massacre’, the compound is more likely to mean ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over death in battle’ and be the antonymic counterpart to Sig-fǫðr ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over victory’, an interpretation which finds support in Norse literature, where Odin assigns victory to one side, but also death to the other, see for instance Ynglinga saga 9 “The Svíar often thought he [Óðinn] appeared to them before great battles were to take place. Then he gave victory to some of them, and others he summoned to himself (to Valhǫll = he made them die)”.
Sig-fǫðr and Val-fǫðr may thus be analyzed as an antonymic pair, an analysis which finds support in Old Norse literature, where Odin has the power to, on the one hand, grant victory in battle to one side, but correspondingly, on the other hand, to assign defeat and death to the other side. Notably, the act of assigning victory is figuratively expressed in Old Norse texts by means of a collocation [GIVE (OIc. gefa : PGmc *geba-) – VICTORY (sigr : *segiz-) – to HUMAN BEING], whereas the opposite act is conceptualized as an invitation to come and live with Odin in the Val-hǫll ‘massacre-hall’.
Parallels in Germanic include:
- The role of the Langobardic counterpart of Odin, Godan, who, in traditional narratives attested in Latin, is said to “give victory” (dare victoriam) to human beings.
- Various (also etymological) parallels in Old English literature, where the Christian God is asked to [GIVE (OE gifan : PGmc *geba-) – VICTORY (sigor : *segiz-) – to HUMAN BEINGS], to be connected with Old English kennings for [CHRISTIAN GOD] which are functionally equivalent to OIc. Sig-fǫðr ‘he who has authority, control over victory’, for instance OE sigora sōð-cyning “true king of victories” and sigora frēa “lord of victories”; the functional equivalence between fæder and terms like cyning and frēa allows to speculate that an OE kenning *sigora (sōð)fæder “(true) father of victories” for [CHRISTIAN GOD], etymologically related to OIc. Sig-fǫðr and Sig-faðir, would have been easily generated in Anglo-Saxon poetry, and that its conspicuous absence may be due to its associations with pre-Christian religion.
As for the other Indo-European traditions, very interesting parallels are found in the Homeric Greek tradition, where the supreme god Zeus is said to [GIVE – VICTORY] to one of the sides in a battle, correspondingly assigning πῆμα ‘ruin’ (a term which is sometimes associated with massacres) to the other side.
This opposition is metaphorically represented by the scale which Zeus uses to decide the result of each battle: in Greek (just like in Norse), one side’s victory in battle and the other side’s defeat and massacre are two complementary sides of the same event, and it makes sense that the same deity has authority and control over both.
Finally, the same conceptualizion which underlies Odin’s epithets Sig-fǫðr and Sig-faðir, namely [PATRIARCH – of VICTORY], may also be attested by Hesiod’s Theogony: the goddess Nike ‘Victory’ is entrusted by her mother Styx to Zeus, in whose mansion Victory will live forever. Zeus’s role as the god who assigns victory in battle is mythologically represented by describing the god as a sort of foster-father of the goddess Victory.
The same conceptualization of Odin as a god who decides the outcomes of battles underlies the epithets Sig-fǫðr, Sig-faðir and Val-fǫðr:
- Old Icelandic (OIc.) °fǫðr in Odin’s epithets is the reflex of Proto-Indo-European *pə́₂trou̯- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side, paternal ancestor’, which, within Indo-European patriarchal and clan-based societies, likely came to refer to the male head of the household, i.e. the ‘patriarch’, and thus be used in a non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’.
- Sig-fǫðr is a determinative compound whose first element is a reflex of sigr ‘victory, battle’, the reflex of Proto-Germanic (PGmc) *segiz- ‘id.’ and Proto-Indo-European *séǵʰ-es- ‘victory’ (: Ved. sáhas- ‘strength, victory’), an -s- neuter of the root *seǵʰ- ‘overcome, conquer’; Sig-faðir is an innovative variant with substitution of °fǫðr by means of the less archaic °faðir.
The literal meanings of Sig-fǫðr ‘(biological) paternal ancestor of victory’ and Sig-faðir ‘(biological) father of victory’ are not supported by Norse literature (Odin is not biologically related to any personifications of victory); both compounds must be rather interpreted in a figurative sense ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over victory’, which has indeed several parallels in Old Norse literature, see for instance Ynglinga saga 9 “The Svíar often thought he (Odin) appeared to them before great battles were to take place. Then he gave victory to some of them”.
- Val-fǫðr is a determinative compound whose first element is the reflex of valr ‘the mass of fallen in battle, massacre, battle-field’; its Germanic cognates (e.g. OE wæl ‘id.’) allow us to reconstruct PGmc *wal-a-, which may in turn by analyzed as the reflex of an action noun of the type τόμος of the root *u̯elh₃- ‘hit, kill’ (Hittite walḫ-zi ‘hit’, Tocharian A wälläṣtär ‘die’), namely *u̯ól(h₃)-o-, originally meaning ‘hit, killing’, and later shifting to a more concrete meaning in the same way as Greek φόνος ‘killing, massacre, corpse’, the reflex of PIE *gʷʰón-o- ‘hit, killing’ (a τόμος derivative of PIE *gʷʰen- ‘hit, kill’). While a semantic interpretation ‘patriarch of the fallen in battle’ would fit Snorri’s interpretation of the compound, given that the primary meaning of OIc. valr is ‘massacre’, the compound is more likely to mean ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over death in battle’ and be the antonymic counterpart to Sig-fǫðr ‘(patriarch =) he who has authority, control over victory’, an interpretation which finds support in Norse literature, where Odin assigns victory to one side, but also death to the other, see for instance Ynglinga saga 9 “The Svíar often thought he [Óðinn] appeared to them before great battles were to take place. Then he gave victory to some of them, and others he summoned to himself (to Valhǫll = he made them die)”.
Sig-fǫðr and Val-fǫðr may thus be analyzed as an antonymic pair, an analysis which finds support in Old Norse literature, where Odin has the power to, on the one hand, grant victory in battle to one side, but correspondingly, on the other hand, to assign defeat and death to the other side. Notably, the act of assigning victory is figuratively expressed in Old Norse texts by means of a collocation [GIVE (OIc. gefa : PGmc *geba-) – VICTORY (sigr : *segiz-) – to HUMAN BEING], whereas the opposite act is conceptualized as an invitation to come and live with Odin in the Val-hǫll ‘massacre-hall’.
Parallels in Germanic include:
- The role of the Langobardic counterpart of Odin, Godan, who, in traditional narratives attested in Latin, is said to “give victory” (dare victoriam) to human beings.
- Various (also etymological) parallels in Old English literature, where the Christian God is asked to [GIVE (OE gifan : PGmc *geba-) – VICTORY (sigor : *segiz-) – to HUMAN BEINGS], to be connected with Old English kennings for [CHRISTIAN GOD] which are functionally equivalent to OIc. Sig-fǫðr ‘he who has authority, control over victory’, for instance OE sigora sōð-cyning “true king of victories” and sigora frēa “lord of victories”; the functional equivalence between fæder and terms like cyning and frēa allows to speculate that an OE kenning *sigora (sōð)fæder “(true) father of victories” for [CHRISTIAN GOD], etymologically related to OIc. Sig-fǫðr and Sig-faðir, would have been easily generated in Anglo-Saxon poetry, and that its conspicuous absence may be due to its associations with pre-Christian religion.
As for the other Indo-European traditions, very interesting parallels are found in the Homeric Greek tradition, where the supreme god Zeus is said to [GIVE – VICTORY] to one of the sides in a battle, correspondingly assigning πῆμα ‘ruin’ (a term which is sometimes associated with massacres) to the other side.
This opposition is metaphorically represented by the scale which Zeus uses to decide the result of each battle: in Greek (just like in Norse), one side’s victory in battle and the other side’s defeat and massacre are two complementary sides of the same event, and it makes sense that the same deity has authority and control over both.
Finally, the same conceptualizion which underlies Odin’s epithets Sig-fǫðr and Sig-faðir, namely [PATRIARCH – of VICTORY], may also be attested by Hesiod’s Theogony: the goddess Nike ‘Victory’ is entrusted by her mother Styx to Zeus, in whose mansion Victory will live forever. Zeus’s role as the god who assigns victory in battle is mythologically represented by describing the god as a sort of foster-father of the goddess Victory.
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, and 10 moreHistory of Religion, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Comparative Study of World Religions
6. The dwarves who fashion poetry: Old Icelandic dvergr, Proto-Germanic *d/þwerg-a- and Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’ (Old Eng. dweorh ‘dwarf’, ġeþūren ‘fashioned’; Norse kennings for [POETRY]; Vedic theonym Tváṣṭar-, Avestan ϑβōrəštar- ‘craftsman’, Greek σάρξ ‘flesh’; PIE *tem-ó- type)more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . Old Icelandic dvergr (commonly translated as ‘dwarf’), name of a category of mythical craftsmen in Scandinavian mythology, must be traced back to Proto-Indo-European... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
Old Icelandic dvergr (commonly translated as ‘dwarf’), name of a category of mythical craftsmen in Scandinavian mythology, must be traced back to Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ-ó-, a derivative (of the so-called *tem-ó- type) of the root *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’, also attested by (among others) the Vedic theonym Tváṣṭar- ‘(Divine) Craftsman’, Avestan ϑβōrəštar- ‘craftsman, carpenter’ and Greek σάρξ ‘meat’. More precisely, Old Icelandic dvergr and the other reflexes of Proto-Germanic *dwerg-a- (Old English dweorg/h, Old Saxon gi-dwerg, Old High German [gi-]twerg/c) may reflect a secondary variant of an original formation *þwerg-a- (a variation attested by Norwegian), the regular outcome of Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ-ó-.
Two meanings may be reconstructed for a formation like *twerḱ-ó-:
(a) An active meaning ‘he who cuts, fashions’, which exactly matches the main (almost exclusive) function of dvergar ‘dwarves’ in Norse mythology as craftsmen (‘those who fashion’) and donors of mythical artifacts (like swords, jewels, etc), i.e. linguistically as subjects of collocations [dvergr – FASHION – OBJECT].
(b) A passive meaning ‘he who is cut’ may underlie the meaning ‘small person, dwarf’ attested by reflexes of Proto-Germanic *dwerg-a- (for instance, Old English dweorh which translates Latin nanus), an unproblematic semantic shift which has several parallels in Indo-European, see for instance Latin curtus ‘short, small’, the reflex of Proto-Indo-European *(s)kr̥-tó- ‘which has been cut’ or *kʷr̥-tó- ‘id.’.
The characterization of the Norse dvergar ‘craftsmen’ as ‘small people’ (widely recognized by scholars as a secondary feature of these mythical beings) must probably be traced back to a convergence of these two meanings.
The attestation of the initial cluster *dw- instead of Proto-Germanic *þw- for Proto-Indo-European *tw- may be the combined result of two different developments: on the basis of a pre-existent phonological fluctuation between *þw- and *dw- (well attested in Old Norse and other Germanic languages), the *dw- variant would have been selected to allow alliteration (a fundamental principle of Germanic poetry) within poetic collocations which may be assumed on the basis of Germanic and Indo-European phraseology, such as *þwergōz/dwergōz dedun “the craftsmen made (something)”, a process which has several parallels in Indo-European (see, for instance, the modification of the Middle Welsh mythological name Nudd in Lludd to allow alliteration with the epithet llaw-ereint ‘silver-handed’ or with his brother's name Llefelys).
This analysis is supported by the reconstruction of a Proto-Germanic strong verb of the third class *þwerh/g-a- ‘cut, fashion’ on the basis of Middle High German zwergen ‘press, pinch’ and twergen ‘id.’ (reflexes of *þwerg-a- ‘cut’; for the semantics, cf. Proto-Germanic *knippan- ‘cut, tear, castrate’ and *knīpan- ‘pinch’) and Old English ġe-þūren ‘fashioned’ (reflex of *þwurh-ana- ‘id.’; said of a sword in Beowulf).
Further parallels are attested in other Indo-European traditions: the name of the Vedic divine craftsman Tváṣṭar- and the Avestan epithet of the supreme god ϑβōrəštar-, ϑβarəštar- ‘craftsman, carpenter’ (both reflexes of another agentive formation *twr̥ḱ-tér- ‘he who cuts, fashions’); the Homeric term σάρκες ‘(human) flesh’ (*twr̥ḱ-) and the Old Avestan aorist ϑβarōždūm ‘you did cut, fashioned’.
Finally, Scandinavian kennings for [POETRY] of the type of Old Icelandic dverga drekka “drink of the dvergar” reflect the combination of two metaphors:
- the metaphorical use of [DRINK] for [POETRY] (cf. the Indo-European formula [POUR (*ǵʰeu-) – PRAYERS] and the conceptualization of [VOICE] as a [LIQUID];
- the metaphor [FASHION – WORDS] for [MAKE POETRY] (cf. e.g. the Greek phrase ἐπέων τέκτονες “fashioners of words” for [POETS]).
Old Icelandic dvergr (commonly translated as ‘dwarf’), name of a category of mythical craftsmen in Scandinavian mythology, must be traced back to Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ-ó-, a derivative (of the so-called *tem-ó- type) of the root *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’, also attested by (among others) the Vedic theonym Tváṣṭar- ‘(Divine) Craftsman’, Avestan ϑβōrəštar- ‘craftsman, carpenter’ and Greek σάρξ ‘meat’. More precisely, Old Icelandic dvergr and the other reflexes of Proto-Germanic *dwerg-a- (Old English dweorg/h, Old Saxon gi-dwerg, Old High German [gi-]twerg/c) may reflect a secondary variant of an original formation *þwerg-a- (a variation attested by Norwegian), the regular outcome of Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ-ó-.
Two meanings may be reconstructed for a formation like *twerḱ-ó-:
(a) An active meaning ‘he who cuts, fashions’, which exactly matches the main (almost exclusive) function of dvergar ‘dwarves’ in Norse mythology as craftsmen (‘those who fashion’) and donors of mythical artifacts (like swords, jewels, etc), i.e. linguistically as subjects of collocations [dvergr – FASHION – OBJECT].
(b) A passive meaning ‘he who is cut’ may underlie the meaning ‘small person, dwarf’ attested by reflexes of Proto-Germanic *dwerg-a- (for instance, Old English dweorh which translates Latin nanus), an unproblematic semantic shift which has several parallels in Indo-European, see for instance Latin curtus ‘short, small’, the reflex of Proto-Indo-European *(s)kr̥-tó- ‘which has been cut’ or *kʷr̥-tó- ‘id.’.
The characterization of the Norse dvergar ‘craftsmen’ as ‘small people’ (widely recognized by scholars as a secondary feature of these mythical beings) must probably be traced back to a convergence of these two meanings.
The attestation of the initial cluster *dw- instead of Proto-Germanic *þw- for Proto-Indo-European *tw- may be the combined result of two different developments: on the basis of a pre-existent phonological fluctuation between *þw- and *dw- (well attested in Old Norse and other Germanic languages), the *dw- variant would have been selected to allow alliteration (a fundamental principle of Germanic poetry) within poetic collocations which may be assumed on the basis of Germanic and Indo-European phraseology, such as *þwergōz/dwergōz dedun “the craftsmen made (something)”, a process which has several parallels in Indo-European (see, for instance, the modification of the Middle Welsh mythological name Nudd in Lludd to allow alliteration with the epithet llaw-ereint ‘silver-handed’ or with his brother's name Llefelys).
This analysis is supported by the reconstruction of a Proto-Germanic strong verb of the third class *þwerh/g-a- ‘cut, fashion’ on the basis of Middle High German zwergen ‘press, pinch’ and twergen ‘id.’ (reflexes of *þwerg-a- ‘cut’; for the semantics, cf. Proto-Germanic *knippan- ‘cut, tear, castrate’ and *knīpan- ‘pinch’) and Old English ġe-þūren ‘fashioned’ (reflex of *þwurh-ana- ‘id.’; said of a sword in Beowulf).
Further parallels are attested in other Indo-European traditions: the name of the Vedic divine craftsman Tváṣṭar- and the Avestan epithet of the supreme god ϑβōrəštar-, ϑβarəštar- ‘craftsman, carpenter’ (both reflexes of another agentive formation *twr̥ḱ-tér- ‘he who cuts, fashions’); the Homeric term σάρκες ‘(human) flesh’ (*twr̥ḱ-) and the Old Avestan aorist ϑβarōždūm ‘you did cut, fashioned’.
Finally, Scandinavian kennings for [POETRY] of the type of Old Icelandic dverga drekka “drink of the dvergar” reflect the combination of two metaphors:
- the metaphorical use of [DRINK] for [POETRY] (cf. the Indo-European formula [POUR (*ǵʰeu-) – PRAYERS] and the conceptualization of [VOICE] as a [LIQUID];
- the metaphor [FASHION – WORDS] for [MAKE POETRY] (cf. e.g. the Greek phrase ἐπέων τέκτονες “fashioners of words” for [POETS]).
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, and 15 moreHistorical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Greek Language, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Comparative Study of World Religions
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . The analysis of Old Icelandic (OIc.) dvergr ‘dwarf, mythical craftsman’ as the reflex of Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ-ó- ‘he who fashions’ is supported not only by these... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
The analysis of Old Icelandic (OIc.) dvergr ‘dwarf, mythical craftsman’ as the reflex of Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ-ó- ‘he who fashions’ is supported not only by these characters's characterization within the Eddic tradition, but also by correspondences in the mythology of the Vedic (Ved.) god called Tváṣṭar‑ ‘Craftsman’ (*twr̥ḱ‑tér‑ ‘he who fashions’, another derivative of the root *twerḱ‑ ‘cut, fashion’).
The myths of the Norse dvergar and of the Vedic god Tváṣṭar- share several features:
(a) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – FASHION – OBJECT]
The dvergar are almost always subjects of this type of collocations in Eddic myth, as is the god Tvaṣṭar in Vedic mythology. A great number of different objects is fashioned by these characters.
(b) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – FASHION – HUMAN BEING]
The dvergar fashion “human figures” (manlícon) in Vǫluspá (9.5-6+10.5-7; a new interpretation of the whole passage is provided); Tvaṣṭar is the god who fashions human embryos in the Rigveda (e.g. 10.184.1ab tváṣṭā rūpā́ṇi piṃśatu).
(c) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – FASHION – WEAPON OF THE THUNDER-GOD]
The dvergar Sindri and Brokkr fashion Mjǫllnir, Thor’s weapon (Skáldskaparmál 35); Tvaṣṭar fashions the mace of Indra (e.g. RV 10.48.3).
(d) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – UPHOLD – SKY]
Four dvergar (Vestri, Austri, Suðri, and Norðri) uphold the sky in Norse myth (e.g. Skáld. 23). Tvaṣṭar upholds sky and earth in Vedic myth (e.g. RV 4.42.3).
(e) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – KNOW – ALL]
The dvergr Alvíss knows everything (Alvíssmál passim). Tvaṣṭar knows all living beings (RV 4.42.3a tváṣṭeva víśvā bhúvanāni vidvā́n).
(f) [DRINK – of the MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-)]
The mjǫðr ‘mead’ (PIE *medhu-) of poetry is called “drink of the dvergar” (cf. Skáld. G57). The Indic ritual drink soma is said to be the mádhu- ‘honey’ (PIE *medhu-) of Tvaṣṭar (cf. RV 1.117.22).
The several parallels between the characterizations of the dvergar in Norse myth and of Tvaṣṭar in Vedic myth allow for the assumption of a common origin for both and for the reconstruction of an Indo-European mythical character, a divine ‘craftsman’, associated with the reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European root *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’ (OIc. dvergr : *twerḱ-ó- ‘he who fashions’; Ved. Tváṣṭar- : *twr̥ḱ-tér- ‘id.’).
The development from a singular mythical character (like Vedic Tvaṣṭar) to a plural class of mythical beings (like the Norse dvergar) has various parallels in Indo-European traditions, cf. e.g. the Roman Sēmōnes, who developed from the singular god Sēmō, whose parallels in Italic and Celtic allow for the reconstruction of an original singular Proto-Italo-Celtic deity *Segomō ‘Strong’ (as shown by Michael Weiss).
The analysis of Old Icelandic (OIc.) dvergr ‘dwarf, mythical craftsman’ as the reflex of Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ-ó- ‘he who fashions’ is supported not only by these characters's characterization within the Eddic tradition, but also by correspondences in the mythology of the Vedic (Ved.) god called Tváṣṭar‑ ‘Craftsman’ (*twr̥ḱ‑tér‑ ‘he who fashions’, another derivative of the root *twerḱ‑ ‘cut, fashion’).
The myths of the Norse dvergar and of the Vedic god Tváṣṭar- share several features:
(a) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – FASHION – OBJECT]
The dvergar are almost always subjects of this type of collocations in Eddic myth, as is the god Tvaṣṭar in Vedic mythology. A great number of different objects is fashioned by these characters.
(b) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – FASHION – HUMAN BEING]
The dvergar fashion “human figures” (manlícon) in Vǫluspá (9.5-6+10.5-7; a new interpretation of the whole passage is provided); Tvaṣṭar is the god who fashions human embryos in the Rigveda (e.g. 10.184.1ab tváṣṭā rūpā́ṇi piṃśatu).
(c) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – FASHION – WEAPON OF THE THUNDER-GOD]
The dvergar Sindri and Brokkr fashion Mjǫllnir, Thor’s weapon (Skáldskaparmál 35); Tvaṣṭar fashions the mace of Indra (e.g. RV 10.48.3).
(d) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – UPHOLD – SKY]
Four dvergar (Vestri, Austri, Suðri, and Norðri) uphold the sky in Norse myth (e.g. Skáld. 23). Tvaṣṭar upholds sky and earth in Vedic myth (e.g. RV 4.42.3).
(e) [MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-) – KNOW – ALL]
The dvergr Alvíss knows everything (Alvíssmál passim). Tvaṣṭar knows all living beings (RV 4.42.3a tváṣṭeva víśvā bhúvanāni vidvā́n).
(f) [DRINK – of the MYTHICAL CRAFTSMAN (OIc. dvergr, Ved. Tváṣṭar-)]
The mjǫðr ‘mead’ (PIE *medhu-) of poetry is called “drink of the dvergar” (cf. Skáld. G57). The Indic ritual drink soma is said to be the mádhu- ‘honey’ (PIE *medhu-) of Tvaṣṭar (cf. RV 1.117.22).
The several parallels between the characterizations of the dvergar in Norse myth and of Tvaṣṭar in Vedic myth allow for the assumption of a common origin for both and for the reconstruction of an Indo-European mythical character, a divine ‘craftsman’, associated with the reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European root *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’ (OIc. dvergr : *twerḱ-ó- ‘he who fashions’; Ved. Tváṣṭar- : *twr̥ḱ-tér- ‘id.’).
The development from a singular mythical character (like Vedic Tvaṣṭar) to a plural class of mythical beings (like the Norse dvergar) has various parallels in Indo-European traditions, cf. e.g. the Roman Sēmōnes, who developed from the singular god Sēmō, whose parallels in Italic and Celtic allow for the reconstruction of an original singular Proto-Italo-Celtic deity *Segomō ‘Strong’ (as shown by Michael Weiss).
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, and 15 moreHistorical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Medieval Scandinavia, History of Religions, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Comparative Study of World Religions
8. The names and myths of the Roman god Pīcus (*peiḱ-ó- ‘who/that cuts, fashions’) and of the Greek titan Cronus (Κρόνος) compared with those of the Norse dvergar ‘dwarves’ and of the Vedic god Tváṣṭar- (type *tem-ó-; roots *peiḱ- ‘cut, fashion’ + *[s]ker- ‘cut’; separation Heaven+Earth; Zeus+Indra)more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . See also: https://www.academia.edu/41440890/ . Abstract: Latin Pīcus, name of a god who in Roman myth travels all over Italy with his father Faunus practicing "the art of... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . See also: https://www.academia.edu/41440890/ .
Abstract: Latin Pīcus, name of a god who in Roman myth travels all over Italy with his father Faunus practicing "the art of the Idaean Dactyls" (Plutarch Numa 15.3-5), = metallurgy (cf. Plinius Naturalis Historia 7.80), is the reflex of a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) formation *pei̯ḱ-ó- ‘who/that cuts, fashions’ which also underlies Latin pīcus ‘wood-pecker’ (*‘[the bird] that carves [trees]’) and Greek πεικός ‘sharp, stinging, bitter’ (*that cuts, stings’).
PIE *pei̯ḱ-ó- is an agentive derivative (of the type *tem-ó-) of the root *pei̯ḱ- ‘cut, fashion’ with a close semantic and morphological parallel in Old Icelandic dvergr ‘mythical craftsman, dwarf’, the reflex of PIE *twerḱ-ó- ‘he who cuts, fashions’, another *tem-ó- derivative.
This correspondence is supported by thematic parallels between the Roman myth of Picus's capture by Numa who wanted to obtain exclusive (ritual) knowledge (Ovid Fasti 3.289ff) and various Norse myths concerning the capture of dvergar ‘dwarves’ by human characters who want to obtain an exclusive (mythical) weapon (Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra 2; (Saxo, Gesta Danorum 3.2.6).
Greek Κρόνος Krónos (Latinized Cronus), name of the father of Zeus who castrates his own father Heaven with a sickle (Hesiod Theogony 159-181), is the reflex (by means of a metathesis of the type of θρόνος ‘seat’ : PIE *dʰór[h₂]-no- ‘support’) of PIE *(s)kór-no- ‘cutting’, which may also underlie the Hesychian glosses κόρνος ‘Ruscus aculeatus, butcher's-broom’ and σκόρνος ‘id., myrtle’.
PIE *(s)kór-no- ‘cutting’ is a derivative of the root *(s)ker- ‘cut’ and thus a partial synonym of OIc. dvergr (*twerḱ-ó- ‘he who cuts, fashions’) and Vedic Sanskrit Tvaṣṭar- ‘Craftsman’ (*twr̥ḱ‑tér‑ ‘he who cuts, fashions’). This onomastic parallel finds support in the correspondences between:
- Cronus's roles in Greek myth (firstly) as the character who separates Heaven and Earth (‘cutting’ away Heaven's genitals and thus severing their original connection) and (then) as the enemy of his own son Zeus, the king of the gods (e.g. Hesiod Theogony 70-72);
- Tvaṣṭar's roles in the Rigveda as the upholder of Heaven and Earth (and thus as the character who separates them; RV 4.42.3cd) and as the enemy of his own son Indra (RV 3.48.4cd), the king of the gods;
- partially, the role of the four dvergar Austri, Norðri, Suðri and Vestri as the upholders of Heaven in Norse mythology (e.g. Gylfaginning 8).
Abstract: Latin Pīcus, name of a god who in Roman myth travels all over Italy with his father Faunus practicing "the art of the Idaean Dactyls" (Plutarch Numa 15.3-5), = metallurgy (cf. Plinius Naturalis Historia 7.80), is the reflex of a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) formation *pei̯ḱ-ó- ‘who/that cuts, fashions’ which also underlies Latin pīcus ‘wood-pecker’ (*‘[the bird] that carves [trees]’) and Greek πεικός ‘sharp, stinging, bitter’ (*that cuts, stings’).
PIE *pei̯ḱ-ó- is an agentive derivative (of the type *tem-ó-) of the root *pei̯ḱ- ‘cut, fashion’ with a close semantic and morphological parallel in Old Icelandic dvergr ‘mythical craftsman, dwarf’, the reflex of PIE *twerḱ-ó- ‘he who cuts, fashions’, another *tem-ó- derivative.
This correspondence is supported by thematic parallels between the Roman myth of Picus's capture by Numa who wanted to obtain exclusive (ritual) knowledge (Ovid Fasti 3.289ff) and various Norse myths concerning the capture of dvergar ‘dwarves’ by human characters who want to obtain an exclusive (mythical) weapon (Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra 2; (Saxo, Gesta Danorum 3.2.6).
Greek Κρόνος Krónos (Latinized Cronus), name of the father of Zeus who castrates his own father Heaven with a sickle (Hesiod Theogony 159-181), is the reflex (by means of a metathesis of the type of θρόνος ‘seat’ : PIE *dʰór[h₂]-no- ‘support’) of PIE *(s)kór-no- ‘cutting’, which may also underlie the Hesychian glosses κόρνος ‘Ruscus aculeatus, butcher's-broom’ and σκόρνος ‘id., myrtle’.
PIE *(s)kór-no- ‘cutting’ is a derivative of the root *(s)ker- ‘cut’ and thus a partial synonym of OIc. dvergr (*twerḱ-ó- ‘he who cuts, fashions’) and Vedic Sanskrit Tvaṣṭar- ‘Craftsman’ (*twr̥ḱ‑tér‑ ‘he who cuts, fashions’). This onomastic parallel finds support in the correspondences between:
- Cronus's roles in Greek myth (firstly) as the character who separates Heaven and Earth (‘cutting’ away Heaven's genitals and thus severing their original connection) and (then) as the enemy of his own son Zeus, the king of the gods (e.g. Hesiod Theogony 70-72);
- Tvaṣṭar's roles in the Rigveda as the upholder of Heaven and Earth (and thus as the character who separates them; RV 4.42.3cd) and as the enemy of his own son Indra (RV 3.48.4cd), the king of the gods;
- partially, the role of the four dvergar Austri, Norðri, Suðri and Vestri as the upholders of Heaven in Norse mythology (e.g. Gylfaginning 8).
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Classics, Languages and Linguistics, and 15 moreHistorical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, History of Religions, Ancient myth and religion, Greek Myth, Greek Linguistics, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Latin linguistics, Greek mythology, and Comparative Study of World Religions
9. The names of the dvergar: an etymological dictionary of Old Norse dwarf-names attested in the Vǫluspá (Dvergatal; Dolgþrasir : Vedic Trasádasyu-; Þorinn, Thorin; Eikinskjaldi, Oakenshield; Gandalf; Háarr, Hárr; Haugspori; agentive *°tug-an- type; Mjǫðvitnir : OEng Bēowulf; Sindri : Ved. Áṅgiras)more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . After a brief description of the main processes of word-formation (derivation and composition) attested by them, all dwarf-names which occur in the Vǫluspá (especially... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
After a brief description of the main processes of word-formation (derivation and composition) attested by them, all dwarf-names which occur in the Vǫluspá (especially 10-16, the so-called Dverga-tal ‘List of the dvergar’) are alphabetically listed and analysed (when possible) from both formal and semantic perspectives, including (but not limited to):
- Dólg-þrasir (Vsp. 15.2), a compound of dolgr ‘enemy’ and Þras-ir (cf. þrasa ‘threaten’) meaning ‘he who threatens enemies’ and thus an exact semantic and partially etymological match for the Vedic name of a glorious king Trasá-dasyu- ‘he who makes the dásyu- tremble’.
- Há(a)rr, name of a dvergr (Vsp. 15.3) and of Odin (Vsp. 21.5), currently analysed as a reflex of *haira- ‘grey’ or as a compound *haiha-harja- ‘one-eyed fighter’, is instead analysed as the regular outcome of Proto-Germanic *hanh-ara- ‘(the god) of the hanging’, an *-Vra- derivative of *hanh-a- ‘hanging’, closely matching Odin's association with hanging and hanged in Norse poetics and myth (see for instance Odin's name Hangi ‘Hanged One’ and Hanga-týr and °goð ‘god of the hanged ones’).
- Haug-spori (Vsp. 15.4), is a compound of haugr ‘hill, mound’ (also a poetic synonym of [EARTH]) and °spori ‘kicking, treading’ (an agentive noun of the type of Proto-Germanic *°tug-an- ‘leading’), meaning ‘he who kicks/treads the hills’, closely matching an Eddic collocation [TO TREAD (aisl. sporna) – the EARTH] which means [TO (BEGIN TO) LIVE] in Vsp. 24.5-8 and Oddrúnargrátr 8.1-4 and which parallels the Indo-European collocation [WALK – on the EARTH] for [TO LIVE] attested in Greek, Old Norse and Lithuanian. Haug-spori ‘he who treads the hills’ may thus mean ‘the living one’.
- Mjǫð-vitnir (Vsp. 11.8), a compound of mjǫðr ‘mead’ (originally ‘honey’, cf. Vedic mádhu-, Lithuanian medùs) and vitnir ‘wolf, sword, creature’ possibly meaning ‘wolf of the mead’, may be a kenning for [BEAR] parallel to Old English Bēo-wulf ‘wolf of the bees’ = [BEAR].
- Mót-sǫgnir (Vsp. 10.1) is attested in various variants. A new reading as /Mótsǫgnir/ allows for an analysis as a compound of mót° ‘sign, figure’ and °sǫg-nir, a derivative of sǫg ‘saw’, meaning ‘he who has a saw (sǫg) for (cutting) figures (mót)’; for a parallel, cf. the ship-name Sess-rúmnir ‘that which has room (rúm) for (containing) seats (sess)’. This semantics would exactly match Mót-sǫgnir's role as one of the dvergar who “fashioned human figures” (manlícon […] gorðo) in the Vǫluspá.
- Sindri (Vsp. 37.4), name of the dvergr who together with his brother Brokkr wins a bet against the god Loki in Skáldskaparmál 35, is an -i derivative of sindr ‘glowing sparkle, slag or dross from a forge’ (cf. Old English sinder ‘id.’ : English cinder). Its meaning ‘he of the glowing forge-slag’ closely matches the (probably para-etymological) interpretation attested in Vedic texts for the name of the seer Áṅgiras- ‘he of the glowing coal’ (áṅgāra- ‘glowing coal’). The names of Sindri's brother Brokkr and of the Vedic seer (who sometimes occurs as brother of Aṅgiras) Bhŕ̥gu- are etymologically related, see Ginevra 2018 (on academia.edu).
- Þorinn (Vsp. 12.3), is a possible reflex of Proto-Germanic *þur-ana- and Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂-Vno-, a metathetic variant of *tn̥h₂-Vro- ‘(god of) thunder’ (reflected by the name Þórr : Proto-Germanic *þun-ara- ‘id.’) to which are currently traced back the Gallic theonym Taranis ‘god of thunder’ and Middle Welsh taran ‘thunder’ .
After a brief description of the main processes of word-formation (derivation and composition) attested by them, all dwarf-names which occur in the Vǫluspá (especially 10-16, the so-called Dverga-tal ‘List of the dvergar’) are alphabetically listed and analysed (when possible) from both formal and semantic perspectives, including (but not limited to):
- Dólg-þrasir (Vsp. 15.2), a compound of dolgr ‘enemy’ and Þras-ir (cf. þrasa ‘threaten’) meaning ‘he who threatens enemies’ and thus an exact semantic and partially etymological match for the Vedic name of a glorious king Trasá-dasyu- ‘he who makes the dásyu- tremble’.
- Há(a)rr, name of a dvergr (Vsp. 15.3) and of Odin (Vsp. 21.5), currently analysed as a reflex of *haira- ‘grey’ or as a compound *haiha-harja- ‘one-eyed fighter’, is instead analysed as the regular outcome of Proto-Germanic *hanh-ara- ‘(the god) of the hanging’, an *-Vra- derivative of *hanh-a- ‘hanging’, closely matching Odin's association with hanging and hanged in Norse poetics and myth (see for instance Odin's name Hangi ‘Hanged One’ and Hanga-týr and °goð ‘god of the hanged ones’).
- Haug-spori (Vsp. 15.4), is a compound of haugr ‘hill, mound’ (also a poetic synonym of [EARTH]) and °spori ‘kicking, treading’ (an agentive noun of the type of Proto-Germanic *°tug-an- ‘leading’), meaning ‘he who kicks/treads the hills’, closely matching an Eddic collocation [TO TREAD (aisl. sporna) – the EARTH] which means [TO (BEGIN TO) LIVE] in Vsp. 24.5-8 and Oddrúnargrátr 8.1-4 and which parallels the Indo-European collocation [WALK – on the EARTH] for [TO LIVE] attested in Greek, Old Norse and Lithuanian. Haug-spori ‘he who treads the hills’ may thus mean ‘the living one’.
- Mjǫð-vitnir (Vsp. 11.8), a compound of mjǫðr ‘mead’ (originally ‘honey’, cf. Vedic mádhu-, Lithuanian medùs) and vitnir ‘wolf, sword, creature’ possibly meaning ‘wolf of the mead’, may be a kenning for [BEAR] parallel to Old English Bēo-wulf ‘wolf of the bees’ = [BEAR].
- Mót-sǫgnir (Vsp. 10.1) is attested in various variants. A new reading as /Mótsǫgnir/ allows for an analysis as a compound of mót° ‘sign, figure’ and °sǫg-nir, a derivative of sǫg ‘saw’, meaning ‘he who has a saw (sǫg) for (cutting) figures (mót)’; for a parallel, cf. the ship-name Sess-rúmnir ‘that which has room (rúm) for (containing) seats (sess)’. This semantics would exactly match Mót-sǫgnir's role as one of the dvergar who “fashioned human figures” (manlícon […] gorðo) in the Vǫluspá.
- Sindri (Vsp. 37.4), name of the dvergr who together with his brother Brokkr wins a bet against the god Loki in Skáldskaparmál 35, is an -i derivative of sindr ‘glowing sparkle, slag or dross from a forge’ (cf. Old English sinder ‘id.’ : English cinder). Its meaning ‘he of the glowing forge-slag’ closely matches the (probably para-etymological) interpretation attested in Vedic texts for the name of the seer Áṅgiras- ‘he of the glowing coal’ (áṅgāra- ‘glowing coal’). The names of Sindri's brother Brokkr and of the Vedic seer (who sometimes occurs as brother of Aṅgiras) Bhŕ̥gu- are etymologically related, see Ginevra 2018 (on academia.edu).
- Þorinn (Vsp. 12.3), is a possible reflex of Proto-Germanic *þur-ana- and Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂-Vno-, a metathetic variant of *tn̥h₂-Vro- ‘(god of) thunder’ (reflected by the name Þórr : Proto-Germanic *þun-ara- ‘id.’) to which are currently traced back the Gallic theonym Taranis ‘god of thunder’ and Middle Welsh taran ‘thunder’ .
Research Interests: Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreIndo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, History of Religions, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, Compounding, Derivational Morphology, and Comparative Study of World Religions
10. Conclusion: Norse reflexes of Indo-European cosmic patriarchs and mythical craftsmen [book on Odin All-father and the name of the dwarves; Old Norse °fǫðr and Proto-Indo-European *pə́₂trou- ‘ascendant kinsman on the father's side’; Old Norse dvergr and Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’]more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ . Summary of the results of the research presented in the single chapters of the book. In “Part I”, I argue that the Old Norse names of Odin in °fǫðr are reflexes of ancient... more
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
Summary of the results of the research presented in the single chapters of the book.
In “Part I”, I argue that the Old Norse names of Odin in °fǫðr are reflexes of ancient features of Indo-European social structure. The single chapters comprise discussions of the following formations and conceptualizations:
- Old Norse °fǫðr is a reflex of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *pə́₂trou̯- ‘paternal ancestor’, patriarch’, in its non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’, with a close parallel in the Sanskrit epithet of Brahma (°)pitāmaha- ‘paternal grandfather’, as well as in Indo-European formulas attesting reflexex of PIE *ph₂tér- ‘father’, such as various Old English kennings for [GOD]. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43265424/
- Old Norse Al-fǫðr and Al-faðir reflect the Indo-European conception of the supreme god as a “Cosmic Patriarch”. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43330834/
- Old Norse Alda-fǫðr and Her(ja)-fǫðr can be connected to the Indo-European formula [FATHER – SKY]. Old Norse Herjans-fǫðr may be the only reflex of the literal meaning of °fǫðr as ‘paternal ancestor’. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43449298/
- Old Norse Sig-fǫðr and Val-fǫðr reflect the idea that [VICTORY] and [MASSACRE] are two sides of the same coin, two aspects of the same event. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43508652/
In “Part II”, I argue that the Old Norse dvergar (commonly translated as ‘dwarves’) are Germanic reflexes of Indo-European mythical craftsmen. The single chapters comprise discussions of the following formations and conceptualizations:
- Old Norse dvergr is a reflex of PIE *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’, a root which has various other reflexes in other Germanic and Indo-European languages. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43265879/
- The mythology of the Norse dvergar has an impressive number of parallels with the mythology of the Vedic Sanskrit god Tváṣṭar-. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43343418/
- Further parallels may be found in the names, formulas, and myths associated with the Roman god Picus and with the Greek titan Cronus (Kronos). Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43374223/
- Historical-comparative linguistics and comparative poetics allow us to better understand the etymology and meaning of the names of the dvergar. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43392943/
Summary of the results of the research presented in the single chapters of the book.
In “Part I”, I argue that the Old Norse names of Odin in °fǫðr are reflexes of ancient features of Indo-European social structure. The single chapters comprise discussions of the following formations and conceptualizations:
- Old Norse °fǫðr is a reflex of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *pə́₂trou̯- ‘paternal ancestor’, patriarch’, in its non-literal meaning ‘he who has authority, control’, with a close parallel in the Sanskrit epithet of Brahma (°)pitāmaha- ‘paternal grandfather’, as well as in Indo-European formulas attesting reflexex of PIE *ph₂tér- ‘father’, such as various Old English kennings for [GOD]. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43265424/
- Old Norse Al-fǫðr and Al-faðir reflect the Indo-European conception of the supreme god as a “Cosmic Patriarch”. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43330834/
- Old Norse Alda-fǫðr and Her(ja)-fǫðr can be connected to the Indo-European formula [FATHER – SKY]. Old Norse Herjans-fǫðr may be the only reflex of the literal meaning of °fǫðr as ‘paternal ancestor’. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43449298/
- Old Norse Sig-fǫðr and Val-fǫðr reflect the idea that [VICTORY] and [MASSACRE] are two sides of the same coin, two aspects of the same event. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43508652/
In “Part II”, I argue that the Old Norse dvergar (commonly translated as ‘dwarves’) are Germanic reflexes of Indo-European mythical craftsmen. The single chapters comprise discussions of the following formations and conceptualizations:
- Old Norse dvergr is a reflex of PIE *twerḱ- ‘cut, fashion’, a root which has various other reflexes in other Germanic and Indo-European languages. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43265879/
- The mythology of the Norse dvergar has an impressive number of parallels with the mythology of the Vedic Sanskrit god Tváṣṭar-. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43343418/
- Further parallels may be found in the names, formulas, and myths associated with the Roman god Picus and with the Greek titan Cronus (Kronos). Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43374223/
- Historical-comparative linguistics and comparative poetics allow us to better understand the etymology and meaning of the names of the dvergar. Full abstract of the chapter: https://www.academia.edu/43392943/
Research Interests: Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreIndo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, History of Religions, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, Compounding, Derivational Morphology, and Comparative Study of World Religions
See the complete book here: https://www.academia.edu/65115593/ .
The book's bibliography and indexes of cited passages and words.
The book's bibliography and indexes of cited passages and words.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 11 moreIndo-european language reconstruction, History of Religion, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, Old Norse Language, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Scandinavian Studies, Comparative mythology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Comparative Study of World Religions
Grazie all'Associazione Itzokor da parte mia e di Luca Misculin per l'invito a questa splendida edizione del Sardinia Archeo Festival, dal titolo "Mediterraneo immaginato", tenutasi a Cagliari l'8 e il 9 giugno. L'8 giugno Luca e io... more
Grazie all'Associazione Itzokor da parte mia e di Luca Misculin per l'invito a questa splendida edizione del Sardinia Archeo Festival, dal titolo "Mediterraneo immaginato", tenutasi a Cagliari l'8 e il 9 giugno. L'8 giugno Luca e io abbiamo dialogato sul podcast "L'invasione" con Francesca Mulas e il 9 giugno ho tenuto un intervento dal titolo "Parole preistoriche – dalle steppe al Mediterraneo".
Research Interests: Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, and 10 moreAncient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Comparative Linguistics, Linguistics, Indo-European Linguistics, Proto Indo-European, Indo-European, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Indo-European Etymology, and Archaeology of the Eurasian steppe belt
L’invasione è il nuovo podcast del Post di storia molto molto antica, che racconta come gruppi di persone arrivate in Europa circa cinquemila anni fa abbiano lasciato una traccia indelebile. Fra le altre cose perché parlavano l’antenata... more
L’invasione è il nuovo podcast del Post di storia molto molto antica, che racconta come gruppi di persone arrivate in Europa circa cinquemila anni fa abbiano lasciato una traccia indelebile. Fra le altre cose perché parlavano l’antenata di quasi tutte le lingue europee, chiamata protoindoeuropeo. Se l’avete già ascoltato, potrebbe esservi venuta voglia di approfondire alcune delle storie citate.
Research Interests: History, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Classics, Languages and Linguistics, and 14 moreHistorical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Comparative Linguistics, Linguistics, Archeologia, Indo-European Linguistics, Prehistory, Prehistoric Rock Art, Lingüística, Prehistoric Archeology, Linguistica, and Preistoria e protostoria
Metà della popolazione mondiale, quindi circa 3 miliardi di persone, parla una lingua che discende da un’unica lingua originaria. Questa lingua arrivò in Europa cinquemila anni fa e diede origine a molte lingue che parliamo oggi:... more
Metà della popolazione mondiale, quindi circa 3 miliardi di persone, parla una lingua che discende da un’unica lingua originaria. Questa lingua arrivò in Europa cinquemila anni fa e diede origine a molte lingue che parliamo oggi: l’italiano, l’inglese, il francese, lo spagnolo, ma anche l’islandese, il lituano, il russo, e molte altre ancora. Se ci allontaniamo di qualche chilometro anche la hindi, la lingua più parlata in India, e il farsi, cioè il persiano, discendono da quest’unica lingua antenata, che chiamiamo protoindoeuropeo. Le persone che la diffusero si portarono dietro anche una serie di miti, un certo modo di pensare, un’idea molto precisa di società, con gli uomini saldamente al comando.
L’invasione è un podcast del Post che ricostruisce la storia di queste persone, e della loro lingua. È stato scritto e raccontato da Luca Misculin, giornalista del Post, e Riccardo Ginevra, ricercatore e docente di Glottologia e Linguistica all’Università Cattolica di Milano. Le puntate sono disponibili sul Post e sulle principali piattaforme di podcast, ad esempio:
IL POST: https://www.ilpost.it/episodes/podcasts/l-invasione/
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/6QrdBI77Kwg5rFjQwaeByQ?si=04f371c5e93c42aa
APPLE PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/linvasione/id1722613807
L’invasione è un podcast del Post che ricostruisce la storia di queste persone, e della loro lingua. È stato scritto e raccontato da Luca Misculin, giornalista del Post, e Riccardo Ginevra, ricercatore e docente di Glottologia e Linguistica all’Università Cattolica di Milano. Le puntate sono disponibili sul Post e sulle principali piattaforme di podcast, ad esempio:
IL POST: https://www.ilpost.it/episodes/podcasts/l-invasione/
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/6QrdBI77Kwg5rFjQwaeByQ?si=04f371c5e93c42aa
APPLE PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/linvasione/id1722613807
Research Interests: History, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Classics, Languages and Linguistics, and 14 moreHistorical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Comparative Linguistics, Linguistics, Archeologia, Indo-European Linguistics, Prehistory, Prehistoric Rock Art, Lingüística, Prehistoric Archeology, Linguistica, and Preistoria e protostoria
A blog post summarizing my early research on Loki's myths and their parallels to the mythology of characters associated with fire in other Indo-European traditions. For the full papers see: - on Brokkr:... more
A blog post summarizing my early research on Loki's myths and their parallels to the mythology of characters associated with fire in other Indo-European traditions.
For the full papers see:
- on Brokkr: https://www.academia.edu/38016821/
- on Sigyn: https://www.academia.edu/38197759/
For some Old Norse parallels for the myths of Hermes and Prometheus, see: https://www.academia.edu/44304200/
Originally posted on: https://blog.philsoc.org.uk/2020/06/10/how-linguistics-helps-us-reconstruct-ancient-fire-mythology/
For the full papers see:
- on Brokkr: https://www.academia.edu/38016821/
- on Sigyn: https://www.academia.edu/38197759/
For some Old Norse parallels for the myths of Hermes and Prometheus, see: https://www.academia.edu/44304200/
Originally posted on: https://blog.philsoc.org.uk/2020/06/10/how-linguistics-helps-us-reconstruct-ancient-fire-mythology/
Review of two monographs by Michael Janda (both published in 2022 in Münster by Kubo). The first monograph, "Kentauren und Gandharven", deals with the much discussed reconstruction of an inherited mythological figure underlying the Greek... more
Review of two monographs by Michael Janda (both published in 2022 in Münster by Kubo).
The first monograph, "Kentauren und Gandharven", deals with the much discussed reconstruction of an inherited mythological figure underlying the Greek Centaurs, the Indic Gandharvas, and the Avestan Gaṇdərəβa.
The second monograph discussed in this review, "Apollon und Dionysos", deals with a quite different topic, namely the celestial origins of the two most famous sons of Zeus, Apollo and Dionysus, and with their relation to the Orion and Canis constellations, respectively.
The first monograph, "Kentauren und Gandharven", deals with the much discussed reconstruction of an inherited mythological figure underlying the Greek Centaurs, the Indic Gandharvas, and the Avestan Gaṇdərəβa.
The second monograph discussed in this review, "Apollon und Dionysos", deals with a quite different topic, namely the celestial origins of the two most famous sons of Zeus, Apollo and Dionysus, and with their relation to the Orion and Canis constellations, respectively.
Research Interests: Classics, Greek Literature, Greek Language, Sanskrit language and literature, Iranian Studies, and 15 moreSanskrit, Avestan (Languages And Linguistics), Classical philology, Ancient Greek Religion, Greek Myth, Indo-Aryan Linguistics, Indo-Iranian Linguistics, Greek religion (Classics), Iranian Languages, Ancient Greek Language, Ancient Greek Mythology, Ancient Greek Literature, Indology, Vedic Studies, and Avesta
Courses Course 1: Anatolian - Guglielmo Inglese (University of Turin) Course 2: Mycenaean - Daniel Kölligan (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg) Course 3: Avestan - Benedikt Peschl (Freie Universität Berlin) Course 4: Italic -... more
Courses
Course 1: Anatolian - Guglielmo Inglese (University of Turin)
Course 2: Mycenaean - Daniel Kölligan (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)
Course 3: Avestan - Benedikt Peschl (Freie Universität Berlin)
Course 4: Italic - Michael Weiss (Cornell University)
Course 5: Indo-European Mythology and Poetics - Riccardo Ginevra (UCSC Milan)
Invited lecture: The Yamnaya Impact on Prehistoric Europe - Volker Heyd (University of Helsinki)
Course 1: Anatolian - Guglielmo Inglese (University of Turin)
Course 2: Mycenaean - Daniel Kölligan (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)
Course 3: Avestan - Benedikt Peschl (Freie Universität Berlin)
Course 4: Italic - Michael Weiss (Cornell University)
Course 5: Indo-European Mythology and Poetics - Riccardo Ginevra (UCSC Milan)
Invited lecture: The Yamnaya Impact on Prehistoric Europe - Volker Heyd (University of Helsinki)
Research Interests: Indo-European Studies, Anatolian Languages, Hittite, Avestan (Languages And Linguistics), Italic Languages, and 7 morePrehistoric Europe (Archaeology), Indo-European Linguistics, Ancient Greek Linguistics, Proto-Indo-European Mythology, Indo-European poetic language, Yamnaya culture, and Indo-European Poetry
Please register through the following link:... more
Please register through the following link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=8fmaVYeGHEOLqGzA2nad1G0XGZOWHvlPk8jxbt-_xKBUN1hYQkQyRFE2WldLV1lURFdWRlczV1FXNi4u&origin=QRCode&fbclid=PAAaZSG0hfDrfBoIr-BqiPrKAmdhq8YjOCWYMW3HSLIaUinA_Ayancz2VBeHc
Event organized in the framework of the MSCA_0000083-project LORACOLA, funded through PNRR M4C2 (EU Next Generation).
Event organized in the framework of the MSCA_0000083-project LORACOLA, funded through PNRR M4C2 (EU Next Generation).
Research Interests:
Hermes and Prometheus in Scandinavia: Reconstructing Indo-European Myth and Ritual [Norse myth of Thjalfi's laming of Thor's goats; prehistoric ritual feasts and bone offerings] ("Indo-European Interfaces: Building Bridges between Mythology, Linguistics & Archaeology", Uppsala/Zoom, 15-16/10/2020) "more
See now the published version here: https://www.academia.edu/120927992 .
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Mythology, and 11 moreClassics, Greek Literature, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, History of Religion, Ritual, Old Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Medieval Scandinavia, Greek Myth, and Comparative mythology
Shining through the Millennia: Old Norse Baldr, Celtic Belinos, Slovenian Belin, Old Irish Balar, and PIE *bʰelH‑ ‘be white, shine’ ("IG Arbeitstagung – A Ljubilee", Ljubljana 4-7/6/2019) [Old English *Bæl-dæg; Slavic *Bělъ bogъ ‘white god’; Norse myth of Baldr vs Loki; Irish myth of Balar vs Lug]more
See now the published version here: https://www.academia.edu/59611519/
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreCeltic Studies, History of Religion, Slavic Languages, Old Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Poetics, Comparative Linguistics, Old Irish Language and Literature, History of Religions, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Indo-European Linguistics, Old Norse Religion, and Vedic Studies
See published version (in English): https://www.academia.edu/41440890/ .
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/43374223/ .
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/43374223/ .
Research Interests: Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Italian Studies, Portuguese Studies, Etymology, and 15 moreAncient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Spanish Linguistics, Latin Language and Literature, Romanian Language, Latin Language, Word-Formation, Romance Linguistics, Indo-European Linguistics, Latin linguistics, Romance Languages, Italian Linguistics, Dialetto Siciliano, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Dialetto Napoletano
See published version here: https://www.academia.edu/57732401
Research Interests: Celtic Studies, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Celtic Linguistics, and 15 moreVedic Sanskrit, Morphology, Old Norse Language, Old Germanic Languages, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Indo-Iranian Linguistics, Indo-European Linguistics, Iranian Languages, Old English Language, Old Norse, Old Norse Religion, Ancient Greek Language, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Vedic Studies, and Derivational Morphology
See published version (in English): https://www.academia.edu/38815944/ .
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/44641175/ .
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/44641175/ .
Research Interests: Mythology And Folklore, Mythology, Greek Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, and 11 moreFolktales, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Formulaic Language, Homeric poetry, Indo-European Linguistics, Homeric Hymns, Ancient Greek Mythology, Ancient Greek Linguistics, Vedic Studies, Homeric studies, and Poetic Edda
The Norse myth of Loki’s imprisonment with Sigyn and the Sanskrit myth of Agni’s mating with Svāhā or Gaṅgā share several correspondences in their phraseology, narrative structure and association with ritual, which allow for the... more
The Norse myth of Loki’s imprisonment with Sigyn and the Sanskrit myth of Agni’s mating with Svāhā or Gaṅgā share several correspondences in their phraseology, narrative structure and association with ritual, which allow for the reconstruction of a “Myth of the Wife of the Fire god,” whose main mythical role consisted in collecting and pouring out a liquid which had been poured on the fire god, possibly reflecting actual prehistoric ritual practices involving the pouring of liquids on the fire.
An inner-Germanic analysis of Sigyn raises severe problems from the perspective of Skaldic meter (Þjóð. Haustl. 72 farmr Sígynjar arma, which requires long -í-) and Proto-Germanic prosody (*sigun-jō- would have become *sigun-ijō- and Old Norse †Sigynn by Dahl’s Law), which require the first syllable of Sigyn to be heavy, i.e. Sígyn.
Old Norse Síg-yn (Proto-Germanic *sīg-un-jō-) is best analysed as the reflex of the weak stem of Proto-Indo-European *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂-/-n̥-i̯éh₂- ‘she of the pouring’, a devī́- derivative of *sei̯kʷ-eno- ‘pouring’ (: Vedic Sanskrit °sécana- ‘id.’), whose strong stem *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂- exactly matches Vedic Sanskrit °sécanī- in upa-sécanī- ‘pouring, pouring ladle’. The formation of Sígyn closely parallels that of the Celtic river name and theonym Sēquana, which is the reflex of *sei̯kʷ-en-eh₂- ‘she of the pouring’. The meaning of Sígyn thus corresponds to the association of the goddess and her Indian counterparts Svāhā and Gaṅgā with the pouring of liquids in their respective mythical narratives.
Given that the reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European root *sei̯kʷ- often share an association with bodies of water (cf. Proto-Germanic *saiw-i/a- ‘lake, sea’ < Proto-Indo-European *soi̯kʷ-í/ó- ‘seep water’; RV 5.85.6d āsiñcántīr avánayaḥ “[river-]streams, pouring out”; the Celtic river-name Sēquana), comparative evidence supports the reconstruction of Sigyn as both the wife of the fire-god and a water-deity, matching the Indo-European mythological and cosmological theme of [FIRE] as the [LOVER – of WATER], attested in Vedic (RV 1.46.4a jāró apã́m) and Epic Sanskrit (MBh. 3.209.19 ([…] nadī yasyābhavat priyā), Latin (Varr. Ling. Lat. 5.61 mas ignis […] aqua femina) and Ancient Greek (A. Pr. 560 ἄγαγες Ἡσιόναν πείθὼν δάμαρτα).
An inner-Germanic analysis of Sigyn raises severe problems from the perspective of Skaldic meter (Þjóð. Haustl. 72 farmr Sígynjar arma, which requires long -í-) and Proto-Germanic prosody (*sigun-jō- would have become *sigun-ijō- and Old Norse †Sigynn by Dahl’s Law), which require the first syllable of Sigyn to be heavy, i.e. Sígyn.
Old Norse Síg-yn (Proto-Germanic *sīg-un-jō-) is best analysed as the reflex of the weak stem of Proto-Indo-European *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂-/-n̥-i̯éh₂- ‘she of the pouring’, a devī́- derivative of *sei̯kʷ-eno- ‘pouring’ (: Vedic Sanskrit °sécana- ‘id.’), whose strong stem *sei̯kʷ-én-ih₂- exactly matches Vedic Sanskrit °sécanī- in upa-sécanī- ‘pouring, pouring ladle’. The formation of Sígyn closely parallels that of the Celtic river name and theonym Sēquana, which is the reflex of *sei̯kʷ-en-eh₂- ‘she of the pouring’. The meaning of Sígyn thus corresponds to the association of the goddess and her Indian counterparts Svāhā and Gaṅgā with the pouring of liquids in their respective mythical narratives.
Given that the reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European root *sei̯kʷ- often share an association with bodies of water (cf. Proto-Germanic *saiw-i/a- ‘lake, sea’ < Proto-Indo-European *soi̯kʷ-í/ó- ‘seep water’; RV 5.85.6d āsiñcántīr avánayaḥ “[river-]streams, pouring out”; the Celtic river-name Sēquana), comparative evidence supports the reconstruction of Sigyn as both the wife of the fire-god and a water-deity, matching the Indo-European mythological and cosmological theme of [FIRE] as the [LOVER – of WATER], attested in Vedic (RV 1.46.4a jāró apã́m) and Epic Sanskrit (MBh. 3.209.19 ([…] nadī yasyābhavat priyā), Latin (Varr. Ling. Lat. 5.61 mas ignis […] aqua femina) and Ancient Greek (A. Pr. 560 ἄγαγες Ἡσιόναν πείθὼν δάμαρτα).
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 moreCeltic Studies, History of Religion, Old Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Poetics, Comparative Linguistics, History of Religions, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Norse mythology, Comparative mythology, Indo-European Linguistics, Old Norse Religion, and Mahabharata
See published version here: https://www.academia.edu/42060646/ .
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/44641175/ .
See also now: https://www.academia.edu/44641175/ .
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 14 moreHistory of Religion, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Poetics, History of Religions, Ancient Near East, Ancient Greek Religion, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Ancient myth and religion, Classical Mythology, Comparative mythology, Indo-European Linguistics, and Hittite Religion
See published version here: https://www.academia.edu/42615773/
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Classics, Greek Literature, Languages and Linguistics, and 15 moreHistorical Linguistics, History of Medicine, Semantics, South Asian Studies, Poetry, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Vedic Language and Classical Sanskrit, Conceptual Metaphor, Vedic Sanskrit, Metaphor, Linguistics, Ancient Greek Religion, Phraseology, and Vedic Studies
Dear all, on October 30th and 31st, 2024, you are all welcome to join us for the cross-disciplinary workshop "Reconstructing Indo-European Prehistory: Lessons from Linguistics, Archaeology, and Genetics" organized by the Scuola Superiore... more
Dear all, on October 30th and 31st, 2024, you are all welcome to join us for the cross-disciplinary workshop "Reconstructing Indo-European Prehistory: Lessons from Linguistics, Archaeology, and Genetics" organized by the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa and the UCSC Milan.
The workshop will take place in person at the Scuola Sant'Anna and will also be livestreamed on YouTube. The aim of the workshop is to advocate for an integrated approach to Linguistics, Archaeology, and Genetics towards the reconstruction of prehistoric migrations, social structure, ecology, and culture.
The workshop will be inaugurated by Mario Enrico Pè (Pisa Sant'Anna) and will include talks by Paolo Ajmone Marsan (UCSC Piacenza), Paola Dardano (Siena Stranieri), José Luis García Ramón (AIBL Paris), Riccardo Ginevra (UCSC Milan), Kristian Kristiansen (Gothenburg), Guus Kroonen (Leiden/Copenhagen), Laura Massetti (Napoli L’Orientale), Alissa Mittnik (MPI Leipzig), Thomas Olander (Copenhagen), Birgit Olsen (Copenhagen), Matilde Serangeli (Jena), and Eske Willerslev (Cambridge/Copenhagen).
To attend in person please register in advance by sending an email to segreteria.iep@santannapisa.it .
To attend online please use the following links:
- October 30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxixwriZSmM
- October 31: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PGEkONm8NY
The workshop will take place in person at the Scuola Sant'Anna and will also be livestreamed on YouTube. The aim of the workshop is to advocate for an integrated approach to Linguistics, Archaeology, and Genetics towards the reconstruction of prehistoric migrations, social structure, ecology, and culture.
The workshop will be inaugurated by Mario Enrico Pè (Pisa Sant'Anna) and will include talks by Paolo Ajmone Marsan (UCSC Piacenza), Paola Dardano (Siena Stranieri), José Luis García Ramón (AIBL Paris), Riccardo Ginevra (UCSC Milan), Kristian Kristiansen (Gothenburg), Guus Kroonen (Leiden/Copenhagen), Laura Massetti (Napoli L’Orientale), Alissa Mittnik (MPI Leipzig), Thomas Olander (Copenhagen), Birgit Olsen (Copenhagen), Matilde Serangeli (Jena), and Eske Willerslev (Cambridge/Copenhagen).
To attend in person please register in advance by sending an email to segreteria.iep@santannapisa.it .
To attend online please use the following links:
- October 30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxixwriZSmM
- October 31: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PGEkONm8NY
Research Interests: Genetics, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Paleontology, Mythology, and 14 moreLanguages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Bioarchaeology, Population Genetics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Archaeogenetics, Linguistics, Ancient myth and religion, Ancient DNA (Archaeology), Ancient DNA Research, Comparative mythology, Indo-European Linguistics, and Prehistory
Dear all, on December 12th, 2023 (starting at 2:30 PM, Milan time) you are all welcome to join us for a commemoration of Giancarlo Bolognesi (first full professor of Historical Linguistics at the UCSC Milan and renowned Armenologist,... more
Dear all, on December 12th, 2023 (starting at 2:30 PM, Milan time) you are all welcome to join us for a commemoration of Giancarlo Bolognesi (first full professor of Historical Linguistics at the UCSC Milan and renowned Armenologist, among other things) on the occasion of his centenary.
The celebration is organized (both in person and online) at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics and will include talks by Emanuele Banfi, Giovanni Gobber, Birgit Anette Olsen, Andrea Scala, Paola Tornaghi and Lucia Innocente.
To attend online please register in advance by sending me an email (the address is on the poster). You will receive a Microsoft Teams link.
The celebration is organized (both in person and online) at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics and will include talks by Emanuele Banfi, Giovanni Gobber, Birgit Anette Olsen, Andrea Scala, Paola Tornaghi and Lucia Innocente.
To attend online please register in advance by sending me an email (the address is on the poster). You will receive a Microsoft Teams link.
Research Interests: Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Armenian Studies, Ancient Indo-European Languages, and 12 moreIndo-European Studies, Comparative Linguistics, Armenian History, Armenian Culture, Linguistics, Indo-European Linguistics, Armenian Language, Proto Indo-European, Linguistica italiana, Linguistica, Indo-European, and Comparative Indo-European Linguistics
The poster for the third edition of the lecture series “Historical Linguistics and Philology” that shall take place between October 2023 and April 2024 at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical... more
The poster for the third edition of the lecture series “Historical Linguistics and Philology” that shall take place between October 2023 and April 2024 at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics (both in person and online).
To participate please register in advance for each lecture by sending me an email, specifying if you plan to attend in person or online. Online participants will receive a Microsoft Teams link.
- First lecture: Kim McCone (Maynooth University) on October 25th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Indo-European sodalities and age-sets: the origins of Rome's curiae and Curia”.
- Second lecture: Anna Bonifazi (Universität zu Köln) on November 15th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Filologia greca, pragmatica e cognizione: spunti teorici e pratici”
- Third lecture: Rosa Bianca Finazzi (UCSC Milan) and Paola Tornaghi (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca) on March 18th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Sulle orme dei Goti: manoscritti, palinsesti, graffiti”.
- Fourth lecture: Velizar Sadovski (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) on April 10th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Vedic ritual texts in Indo-Iranian comparison: terminology, phraseology, composition”.
To participate please register in advance for each lecture by sending me an email, specifying if you plan to attend in person or online. Online participants will receive a Microsoft Teams link.
- First lecture: Kim McCone (Maynooth University) on October 25th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Indo-European sodalities and age-sets: the origins of Rome's curiae and Curia”.
- Second lecture: Anna Bonifazi (Universität zu Köln) on November 15th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Filologia greca, pragmatica e cognizione: spunti teorici e pratici”
- Third lecture: Rosa Bianca Finazzi (UCSC Milan) and Paola Tornaghi (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca) on March 18th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Sulle orme dei Goti: manoscritti, palinsesti, graffiti”.
- Fourth lecture: Velizar Sadovski (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) on April 10th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Vedic ritual texts in Indo-Iranian comparison: terminology, phraseology, composition”.
Research Interests: Philology, Classics, Roman History, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 15 morePragmatics, Germanic linguistics, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Iranian Studies, Indo-European Studies, Comparative Linguistics, Old Germanic Languages, Social History, Linguistics, Classical philology, Germanic Philology, Ancient Greek History, Historical Pragmatics, and Vedic Studies
The poster and programme of the conference "Early Germanic Poetics and Religion from Linguistic and Comparative Perspectives", which is planned to take place on September 18-19, 2023, at the University of Copenhagen. Info and abstracts... more
The poster and programme of the conference "Early Germanic Poetics and Religion from Linguistic and Comparative Perspectives", which is planned to take place on September 18-19, 2023, at the University of Copenhagen. Info and abstracts are available at: https://rootsofeurope.ku.dk/english/calendar/2023/early-germanic-poetics/
A two-day academic meeting that will immerse participants in the compelling world of early Germanic poetics and religious beliefs. During the conference, scholars and interested parties will come together to explore the interplay of language, culture, and religion in the Germanic world.
This two-day academic gathering will delve into the captivating realms of early Germanic poetics and its connections to religious beliefs from an interdisciplinary perspective combining philology, linguistics, and comparativism. The conference will serve as a pivotal platform for interdisciplinary discussions and multifaceted research findings.
The conference will cover a range of compelling topics including:
- Poetic features and religious significance of texts in early Germanic languages, including Old Norse, Old English, and Old Saxon
- Comparative analysis of Germanic texts and myths with those of other European and non-European traditions
- Linguistic analysis of early Germanic mythological names and religious terminology
- Rituals and ceremonies in early Germanic traditions and their relevance to poetics and myth
- Germanic deities, their representation in Germanic sources, and their counterparts in other traditions
A two-day academic meeting that will immerse participants in the compelling world of early Germanic poetics and religious beliefs. During the conference, scholars and interested parties will come together to explore the interplay of language, culture, and religion in the Germanic world.
This two-day academic gathering will delve into the captivating realms of early Germanic poetics and its connections to religious beliefs from an interdisciplinary perspective combining philology, linguistics, and comparativism. The conference will serve as a pivotal platform for interdisciplinary discussions and multifaceted research findings.
The conference will cover a range of compelling topics including:
- Poetic features and religious significance of texts in early Germanic languages, including Old Norse, Old English, and Old Saxon
- Comparative analysis of Germanic texts and myths with those of other European and non-European traditions
- Linguistic analysis of early Germanic mythological names and religious terminology
- Rituals and ceremonies in early Germanic traditions and their relevance to poetics and myth
- Germanic deities, their representation in Germanic sources, and their counterparts in other traditions
Research Interests: Mythology, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Germanic linguistics, and 15 moreOld English Literature, Old Norse Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, English, Poetics, Comparative Linguistics, Medieval Scandinavia, Old English Poetry, Old Germanic Languages, Germanic Philology, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Norse mythology, Viking Age Scandinavia, and Old Norse Religion
This is the Book of Abstracts submitted by the speakers of the 7th Indo-European Research Colloquium, which took place on April 26-28, 2023, at the UCSC Milan and on Microsoft Teams.
Research Interests: Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Slavic Languages, Germanic linguistics, and 15 moreAncient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Comparative Linguistics, Anatolian Languages, Tocharian, Baltic languages, Linguistics, Indo-European Linguistics, Proto Indo-European, Ancient Greek Language, Latin linguistics, Indo-European, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, and Indo-European Etymology
The poster and schedule of the 7th Indo-European Research Colloquium (IERC7), which took place on April 26th-28th, 2023, at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano (UCSC Milan).
Research Interests: Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Slavic Languages, Germanic linguistics, and 15 moreAncient Indo-European Languages, Sanskrit language and literature, Indo-European Studies, Comparative Linguistics, Anatolian Languages, Tocharian, Baltic languages, Linguistics, Indo-European Linguistics, Proto Indo-European, Ancient Greek Language, Latin linguistics, Indo-European, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, and Indo-European Etymology
The poster for the twofold “Germanic Seminar” that Patrick V. Stiles (University College London) taught on March 22nd and 23rd, 2023, at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics (both in... more
The poster for the twofold “Germanic Seminar” that Patrick V. Stiles (University College London) taught on March 22nd and 23rd, 2023, at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics (both in person and online).
The seminar touched upon several topics, including the importance of poetics for Germanic etymology (on March 22nd) and the origin and development of the runic alphabet (on March 23rd).
The seminar touched upon several topics, including the importance of poetics for Germanic etymology (on March 22nd) and the origin and development of the runic alphabet (on March 23rd).
Research Interests: Philology, Languages, Religion, Comparative Religion, World Literatures, and 15 moreComparative Literature, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, History of Religion, Literature, Germanic linguistics, Old English Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Old Norse Language, Old English Poetry, Linguistics, Old Norse Religion, Old English Language and Literature, and Runes
The poster for the second edition of the lecture series “Historical Linguistics and Philology” that took place between October 2022 and April 2023 at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical... more
The poster for the second edition of the lecture series “Historical Linguistics and Philology” that took place between October 2022 and April 2023 at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics (both in person and online).
- First lecture: José Luis García Ramón (UCSC Milan) on October 20th (2:30-5:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Leggendo testi oschi e umbri: lingue sabelliche in contatto col latino”.
- Second lecture: Marina Benedetti (Siena Stranieri) on November 21st (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Tra linguistica e filologia: “Amore insegna” (Euripide Fr. 663 Nauck) e i costrutti risultativi”.
- Third lecture: Patrick V. Stiles (UCL) on March 22nd (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Two texts (Old English Elene, Old Norse Grímnismál), one strong verb (Proto-Germanic *hlō(j)anan ‘to low’)”.
- Fourth lecture: Stephanie W. Jamison (UCLA) on April 18th (5:30-7:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Vedic Philology and Textual Interpretation”.
- First lecture: José Luis García Ramón (UCSC Milan) on October 20th (2:30-5:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Leggendo testi oschi e umbri: lingue sabelliche in contatto col latino”.
- Second lecture: Marina Benedetti (Siena Stranieri) on November 21st (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Tra linguistica e filologia: “Amore insegna” (Euripide Fr. 663 Nauck) e i costrutti risultativi”.
- Third lecture: Patrick V. Stiles (UCL) on March 22nd (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Two texts (Old English Elene, Old Norse Grímnismál), one strong verb (Proto-Germanic *hlō(j)anan ‘to low’)”.
- Fourth lecture: Stephanie W. Jamison (UCLA) on April 18th (5:30-7:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Vedic Philology and Textual Interpretation”.
Research Interests: Philology, Languages, Religion, Comparative Religion, World Literatures, and 15 moreComparative Literature, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, History of Religion, Literature, Germanic linguistics, Old English Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Linguistics, Italic Languages, Classical philology, Old Norse Religion, Ancient Greek Language, and Vedic Studies
The poster for the twofold “Seminario Italico” that José Luis García Ramón taught on October 19th and 20th, 2022, at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics (both in person and online).... more
The poster for the twofold “Seminario Italico” that José Luis García Ramón taught on October 19th and 20th, 2022, at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics (both in person and online).
The seminar touched upon several topics, including the history of Italic languages and their contacts with Latin as attested in Oscan and Umbrian texts.
The seminar touched upon several topics, including the history of Italic languages and their contacts with Latin as attested in Oscan and Umbrian texts.
Research Interests:
The poster for the lecture series “Historical Linguistics and Philology” that took place between March and April 2022 at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics (both in person and... more
The poster for the lecture series “Historical Linguistics and Philology” that took place between March and April 2022 at the UCSC Milan’s Department of Classical Philology, Papyrology and Historical Linguistics (both in person and online).
The first speaker was Prof. Jeremy Rau (Harvard), who gave a lecture on March 14th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Archaism, Innovation, and Modernization in Homeric Language”.
The second speaker was Prof. Daniel Kölligan (Würzburg), who gave a lecture on March 22nd (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Conceptual metaphors and historical linguistics – some case studies”.
The third speaker was Prof. Paola Dardano (Siena Stranieri), who gave a lecture on April 4th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Fraseologia ittita e fraseologia indoeuropea: questioni di metodo e prospettive di ricerca”.
The fourth speaker was Prof. José Luis García Ramón (UCSC Milan), who gave a lecture on April 27th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Sui nomi degli dèi in Grecia e Italia antiche: linguistica, filologia, ricostruzione comparativa”.
The first speaker was Prof. Jeremy Rau (Harvard), who gave a lecture on March 14th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Archaism, Innovation, and Modernization in Homeric Language”.
The second speaker was Prof. Daniel Kölligan (Würzburg), who gave a lecture on March 22nd (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Conceptual metaphors and historical linguistics – some case studies”.
The third speaker was Prof. Paola Dardano (Siena Stranieri), who gave a lecture on April 4th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Fraseologia ittita e fraseologia indoeuropea: questioni di metodo e prospettive di ricerca”.
The fourth speaker was Prof. José Luis García Ramón (UCSC Milan), who gave a lecture on April 27th (2:30-4:30 PM, Milan time) on the topic “Sui nomi degli dèi in Grecia e Italia antiche: linguistica, filologia, ricostruzione comparativa”.
Research Interests: Philology, Languages, Religion, Comparative Religion, World Literatures, and 14 moreComparative Literature, Anthropology, Homer, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Anatolian Studies, History of Religion, Literature, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Indo-European Studies, Anatolian Languages, Linguistics, Classical philology, and Homeric poetry
Research Seminar Series. Ancient Myths in Modern Art: Comparative Perspectives on Micro and Macro Structures Ancient myths are omnipresent in 20th and 21st century literature and art. In this colloquium scholars from comparative... more
Research Seminar Series. Ancient Myths in Modern Art:
Comparative Perspectives on Micro and Macro Structures
Ancient myths are omnipresent in 20th and 21st century literature and art. In this colloquium scholars from comparative literature and linguistics as well as from related disciplines will present their research on the subject. Both myths in ancient cultures and the history of their reception in the arts will be addressed. In addition to the detailed analysis of individual myths (e.g. the hero's return home), the comparative examination of mythical figures and their reception (e.g. Orpheus) as well as the macrostructural view of Indo-European mythology will be discussed. Students can take this opportunity to present and discuss their own research projects within the (broad) framework of myth reception.
Comparative Perspectives on Micro and Macro Structures
Ancient myths are omnipresent in 20th and 21st century literature and art. In this colloquium scholars from comparative literature and linguistics as well as from related disciplines will present their research on the subject. Both myths in ancient cultures and the history of their reception in the arts will be addressed. In addition to the detailed analysis of individual myths (e.g. the hero's return home), the comparative examination of mythical figures and their reception (e.g. Orpheus) as well as the macrostructural view of Indo-European mythology will be discussed. Students can take this opportunity to present and discuss their own research projects within the (broad) framework of myth reception.
Research Interests:
The Call for Papers for the 7th Indo-European Research Colloquium, which took place on April 26th-28th, 2023, at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano (UCSC Milan).