The Iberian Peninsula. From J.
Caesar to Saxo Grammaticus.
(Provisional title)
Abstract
Jordanes wrote in
“Getica” that Getae and Goths were all the same people. This idea has been
debated for years and is dismissed by many scholars as a myth or just nonsens.
The analysis of some archaeological and linguistic material from pre-Roman
populations in the Iberian Peninsula shows a remarkable continuity of some
cultural elements passing to the Baltic area and Scandinavia that cannot be
adscribed to the presence of the Goths. The theory of Jordanes may after all
contents elements of truth.
The intention of
the author of this paper is to call the attention of scholars towards the
existence of these elements in order to bring to light new knowledge of the
origins of German and Balto-Slavic languages.
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to present new
elements and old –from a different perspective- in the study of the pre-Roman
population of the Iberian Peninsula, with the purpose of demonstrating that the
subject should also interest all scholars working with Germanic, Scandinavian,
Baltic and Russian investigations.
In the second half of the XIX C. the German
scholar, Alexander von Humboldt, spred the theory that the ”Iberians”, i.e. one
of the oldest populations from the Iberian Peninsula, were a non-Indo-European
people with remote origins in North-Africa and the ancestors of present-day
Basques, a people speaking a -to linguists puzzeling- non-Indo-European
language.
The theory has been for a long time declared
obsolete in Spain and Portugal, mainly because all the efforts that has been
made to translate the remarcable “Iberian” and “Celto-Iberian” graffities in
metal plates, ceramics, etc. with the help of Basque, has not given any result
deserving to be considered as serious. Despite this fact the theories of von
Humboldt are still popular in learned circles around the world.
Better results were obtained by scholars like
A. Tovar, who focused in the Celtic elements of the language of the inscriptions,
believing that the language was “Celto-Iberian” and therefore Indo-European.
The distinction between “Iberian” and
“Celto-Iberian”, as I will show later, is based in differences between signs
from the alphabets used in the north, north-east, (the Celto-Iberian area) and
the south-east (the Iberian area). The discussion about where Iberians were
Indo-Europeans or not is alive and will continue as long as the inscriptions
remain untranslated as it´s the case with Etruscan.
The powerful technologies of the information
that we posses today, gives us inmediately access to extense data-bases and
electronic-versioned documents, only accessible before by way of book loans
from libraries or time and money expensive visits to University libraries,
archives, museums, etc. These instruments make much easier the task of
collecting dispersed data from different countries around the world offering
the investigator even the non professional an instrument for quick and
effective work.
Wellknown linguistic and archaeological data
can now be put in relation to more recent data, opening new possibilities of
study and interpretation.
But the instruments are at the same time a two
edged weapon. With the coming of the Internet we are witnessing a phenomenon
that could be described as the democratization of knowledge of still unknown
consequences.
Whoever with time and a special interest can f.
e become investigator overnight and publish its results in the Internet.
Conscious that what I am offering here can in principle be considered by the
reader as one more amount of information to add to the already existing
information pile, I hope that the quality of the information collected during
the past ten years will outnumber the quantity.
Prologue
During some studies of Russian in the
University of Copenhagen I started for ten years ago to search for material
about the Goths, after having read something that at that time was new for me:
that the Goths had travelled through Russia before arriving in France and
Spain. I thought at that time that there was a possibility of finding in the
Iberian Peninsula “outlines” of their stay in Russia and even of their
hypothetical land of origin: the Scandinavian Peninsula.
In the same way as Spaniards or Englishmen
brought to the American continent place- and person names, it was maybe
possible to find a similar phenomenon in Iberia.
Soon I discovered the difficulty of the
project, the Goths left very few signs of their sojourn in Russia, where Braun,
a famous Russian archaeologist (IS :
205), declared the Goths "a mystery". Investigations were made yet
more difficult when after World Ward II the subject was declared taboo in the
Soviet Union throughout the Stalinist period and up to the beginning of the
Sixties. At the same time Spain was an
isolated country during the long period of Franco´s regime, when the Gothic
heritage was exalted by the government and funds were canalized to the
investigation of Spains “glorious” past, while in the democratic Europe the
study of the Goths were miscredited during many years as a consequence of the
atrocities of World Ward II. As a result of this turbulence there is in my
opinion a lack of comparative studies between the local investigations in
different countries in Europe. The comparative list of toponyms between Spain
and Sweden, (Hispano-Swedish Toponimy annexe), can be an example of this,
because it comes out with so many similarities, that not all of them can be
explained by coincidence.
Why the Goths are the starting point of a study
that deals with pre-Roman Spain and Portugal can be explained as the beginning
of a travel backwards in time. The turmoil in Europe in the time the Goths
enter in scene in history is a major challenge for historians. The history of
the Goths is closely related to the history of any country in Europe.
The journey begins
The first and necessary step when studying the
Goths is to get acquainted with ”Getica” (JOR), the work of the monk
Jordanes, written in vulgar Latin in the VI A.D., a quite doubtful historical
source for most of historians due to its mythic or legendary character. For
this reason the "official entrance" of the Goths in history is dated
to circa the year 160 A.D. (1).
It´s at this time when they begin to make his
appearance in Latin sources in connection with the beginning of Barbarian
hostilities against Rome in the area of the Black Sea. The Goths initiated the
hostilities in time of the emperor Aurelio, although they reached later an
agreement with the empire.
When I say "official", I refer mainly
to the prevailing thesis of the Swedish scholar, Montelius, based on an
interpretation of the data given by Jordanes:
the migration of this people from the "Island of Scandza",
(the Scandinavian Peninsula was considered an island in old times), on
board of three ships and under the command of their king, “Berig”, to a
place which they called "Gothiscandza" (JOR: §25), wich
some authors assume is the zone of the mouth of the river Vistula, in the coast
of Poland. Gothiscandza could be the present city of Gdansk, according to them.
The reading of Jordanes is difficult. There are
many data based on legends and the chronology is deficient. However the
document excels in concrete names of persons, places and populations, that we
may assume have arrived to the author from trustworth sources, unless he
invented all of them with purposes that either does not have any logic
explanation or for unknown reasons (2). The central question is then one of
credibility, and in the opposite end to the thesis of Montelius the German
scholar, Theodor Mommsen, (JOR: note 828), calculated the migration from
“Scandza” to have taken place around the year 1490 BC.
As in Russia the presence of the Goths in
Spain, set from an archeological perspective, is also a mystery because of the
few material residues leaved to posterity, but they are not from a linguistic
point of view, as it will be shown later.
The cause of the few archaeological traces
could be in my opinion factors like:
Not to have founded cities.
In Spain it has only been possible to state the
foundation of a city: Recópolis, (of late date and of which only there are some
ruins). In Russia according to Vozgrin (KR: 83), mentioning the
historian Procopius, the Goths established in Crimea: " did not support
to live in cities or between four walls and preferred to live in the fields."
According to that author, the only witnesses of their presence in Crimea are a
few ruins.
The fights against Rome and the constant changes of territory.
The fact that being a minority in the
territories they conquered, they did´nt want to get mixed with the population
of the conquered territory (for the total territory of Iberia a number not
greater than 100,000 Goths has been stimated). (ART : 19). Euric, the
first Visigothic king in Spain, prohibited matrimony between Goths and the
local population.
The famous “Treaty of Tudmir” (below) gives an
idea of the internal organization of the Visigoths that introduce feudalism in
the former Roman territories. At the
beginning there were chieftains or small kings that destributed the conquered
land among them and choosed a “primus inter pares” to be the leader of
them all. Later the monarchy became hereditary. The “kingdom” of Tudmir covered
approximately the territory of two present-day Spanish provinces: Alicante and
Murcia (circa 15000 km2). We can assume that noble families without offspring
were in some way doomed to disappear.
This politic of "blood
purity" will have degenerated them in the long term.
The Treaty of Tudmir/Pacto
de Tudmir
(A rough
translation)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful one, the
Merciful one. Edict of ` al-`Aziz Abd ibn Musa ibn Nusair to Tudmir ibn Abdush
[Teodomiro, son of the Goths]. This last one obtains peace and receives the
promise, under the guarantee of Allah and its Prophet, that his situation and
the one of his people will not be altered; that his subjects will not be dead, neither made prisoners, nor separated
from their spouses and children; that the practice of thier religion will not
be prevented them, and that their churches will not be burned down nor prived
of the cult objects that are in them; as long as he satisfies the duties that
we impose him. Peace is granted to him against the delivery of the following
cities: Uryula [ Orihuela ], Baltana, Lakant [ Alicante ], Mule, Villena,
Lawraka [ Lorca ]. In addition, he does not have to give asylum to anybody
flying us or being our enemy; nor to produce damage to anybody who enjoys our
amnesty; nor to hide any information on our enemies that can arrive to his
knowledge. His subjects will pay an annual tribute, each person, of one dinar
in metalic, four measures of wheat, barley, juice of grape and vinegar, two of
honey and two of olive oil; for the slaves only one measurement.
Given in the month of Rayab, year 94 of the
Hégira [ i.e. 713 A.D.. ]. As witnesses, ` Uzmán ibn Abi ` Abda, Habib ibn Abi
` Ubaida, Idrís ibn Maisara and Abul Qasim al-Mazáli."
(Source: Web Page of the Islamic Cultural Center
of Valencia at
http://www.webcciv.org/cultura/sharq/sharq_historia_pactodeTudmir.htm)
Isolated documents like the treaty of Tudmir
give us a glimpse of the existence of this people entoured by mistery. At least
the name Tudmir will be preserved in this document in his original form,
otherwise only the latinized form, Teodomiro, will have been known today. This
is an important detail, because the Goths arriving to Italy, France and Spain
use Latin as official language, a Latin that includes Germanic terms indicating
that they still are speaking their language. It´s almost unthinkable that they
could loose their language so quickly. According to Jordanes a group of Goths
didn´t move westward, but remained in the Black Sea area and “Moesia” (3). A passage in Jordanes shows how they
presumably kept some king of contact with their coussins in the South of
Europe. Jordanes narrates (JOR
§174-176) how Bermund and his son, Bitirig, with family roots in the
royal branch of the Amal, flying the Huns took refuge in the court of Toulouse.
There Bermund attended the coronation of
Theodorid (419-451 A.D.) as king of the Visigoths after the death of Valia
(415-419 A.D.), but without revealing its noble identity (that of belonging to
the Amal branch, the oldest, the most noble), indicating thus that Bermund had
more right to the crown than Theodorid, the king elected.
These "Gotii Minores” remained isolated
and surrounded by enemies in the zone of Crimea and managed to preserve a
certain independence towards the Tartars first and the Ottoman Turks last,
until they desapeared of history together with their language in the XVIII Th
century.
A rest of this population, almost completely
helenized in S. XVI, according to the Dutch Busbeq (1522-1592), king Ferndinand
of Austrias ambassador to the court of Soliman the Magnificent, were still
speaking a Germanic language, author of the so called Busbecq Letter.
The author describes in a letter to a friend an
interview with two persons of Germanic origin from the town of Cherson in the
Taurus (Crimea), "…quae etiamnum incolit Tauricam Chersonesum."
These two legates traveled to the court of
Soliman on government issues, "qui nescio quas querelas name eius
gentis ad principem deferrent". They speak in Greek or Turkish,
but they say to preserve their
vernacular language "in pectoribus …reconditam".
It is under these circumstances that they give
to Busbecq a number of terms in their Gothic language, that must produce in
germanists the same effect as the "rediscovering" of the ”ladino”
language, (the language of the Jewish expelled from Spain in XVI A.D.) among
Spanish scholars.
The Busbecq Letter
Line of edition: 19 Broe. Panis.
Line of edition: 20 Plut. Sanguis.
Line of edition: 21 Stul. Sedes.
Line of edition: 22 Hus. Domus.
Line of edition: 23 Wingart. Vitis.
Line of edition: 24 Reghen. Pluvia.
Line of edition: 25 Bruder. Frater.
Line of edition: 26 Schvveter. Soror.
Line of edition: 27 Alt. Senex.
Line of edition: 28 Wintch. Ventus.
Line of edition: 29 Siluir. Argentum.
Line of edition: 30 Goltz. Aurum.
Page of edition: 306
Line of edition: 1 Kor. Triticum.
Line of edition: 2 Salt. Sal.
Line of edition: 3 Fisct. Piscis.
Line of edition: 4 Hoef. Caput.
Line of edition: 5 Thurn. Porta.
Line of edition: 6 Stein. Stella.
Line of edition: 7 Sune. Sol.
Line of edition: 8 Mine. Luna.
Line of edition: 9 Tag. Dies.
Line of edition: 10 Oeghene. Oculi.
Line of edition: 11 Bars. Barba
Line of edition: 12 Handa. Manus.
Line of edition: 13 Boga. Arcus.
Line of edition: 14 Miera. Formica.
Line of edition: 15 Rinck. siue / or
Line of edition: 16 Ringo. Annulus.
Line of edition: 17 Brunna. Fons.
Line of edition: 18 Waghen. Currus.
Line of edition: 19 Apel. Pomum.
Line of edition: 20 Schietę. Mittere sagittâ.
Line of edition: 21 Schlipen. Dormire.
Line of edition: 22 Kommen. Venire.
Line of edition: 23 Singhen. Canere.
Line of edition: 24 Lachen. Ridere.
Line of edition: 25 Eriten. Flere.
Line of edition: 26 Geen. Ire.
Line of edition: 27 Breen. Assare.
Line of edition: 28 Schvvalth. Mors.
Line of edition: 29 Knauen tag erat illi Bonus dies: Knauen
Line of edition: 30 bonum dicebat, et pleraque alia cum nostra
Page of edition: 307
Line of edition: 1 lingua non satis congruentia usurpabat,
Line of edition: 2 ut
Line of edition: 3 Iel. Vita siue sanitas.
Line of edition: 4 Ieltsch. Vivus sive sanus.
Line of edition: 5 Iel uburt. Sit sanum.
Line of edition: 6 Marzus. Nuptić.
Line of edition: 7 Schuos. Sponsa.
Line of edition: 8 Statz. Terra.
Line of edition: 9 Ada. Ovum.
Line of edition: 10 Anus Gallina.
Line of edition: 11 Telich. Stultus.
Line of edition: 12 Stap. Capra.
Line of edition: 13 Gadeltha. Pulchrum.
Line of edition: 14 Atochta. Maum.
Line of edition: 15 Wichtgata. Album.
Line of edition: 16 Mycha. Ensis.
Line of edition: 17 Baar. Puer.
Line of edition: 18 Ael. Lapis.
Line of edition: 19 Menus. Caro.
Line of edition: 20 Rintsch. Mons.
Line of edition: 21 Fers. Vir.
Line of edition: 22 Lista. Parum.
Line of edition: 23 Schediit. Lux.
Line of edition: 24 Borratsch. Voluntas.
Line of edition: 25 Cadariou. Miles.
Line of edition: 26 Kilemschkop.
ebibe calicem.
Line of edition: 27 Tzo Warthata. tu fecisti.
Line of edition: 28 Ies Wathata. Ille fecit.
Line of edition: 29 Ich malthata. Ego dico.
Page of edition: 308
Line of edition: 1 Iussus ita numerabat. Ita, tua, tria,
Line of edition: 2 fyder, fyuf, six, seuene,
prorsus, ut us
Line of edition: 3 Flandri. Nam vos Brabanti, qui vos Germanice
Line of edition: 4 loqui vos factice, hic magnifice efferre,
Line of edition: 5 et nos soletis habere derisui, ac si
Line of edition: 6 istam vocem pronunciemus rancidius, quam
Line of edition: 7 vos Seuenffertis. Prosequebatur deinde,
Line of edition: 8 Athenyne, thiine, thiinita, thunetua,
thunetria,
Line of edition: 9 etc. Viginti dicebat stega, triginta
Line of edition: 10 treithyen, quadraginta furdeithien, centum
Line of edition: 11 sada, hazer mille. Quin etiam cantilenam
Line of edition: 12 eius linguć recitabat, cuius initium erat
Line of edition: 13 hujusmodi:
Line of edition: 14 Wara Wara ingdolou:
Line of edition: 15 Scu te gira Galizu
Line of edition: 16 dorbiza Hemisclep ea.
Line of edition: 17 Hi Gothi an Saxones sint, non possum dijudicare.
Line of edition: 18 Si Saxones, arbitror eo deductos
Line of edition: 19 tempore Caroli magni, qui eam gentem
Line of edition: 20 per varias orbis terrarum regions dissipavit.
Line of edition: 21 Cui rei testimonio sunt Transilvanić urbes
Line of edition: 22 hodieque Saxonibus incolis habitatć.
Line of edition: 23 Atque ex- iis ferocissimos fortasse longius
Line of edition: 24 etiam summoveri placuit in Tauricam usque
Line of edition: 25 Chersonesum, ubi quidem Inter hostes
Line of edition: 26 religionem adhuc retinent Christianam.
Line of edition: 27 Quod si Gothi sunt, arbitror jam olim eas
Line of edition: 28 sibi sedes tenuisse Getis proximas. Nec
Line of edition: 29 erraturum fortasse, qui sentiat majorem
Line of edition: 30 partem eius intervalli, quod est inter Gothiam
Line of edition: 31 insulam et Procopiam, quam hodie
Line of edition: 32 vocant, a Gothis aliquando insessam. Hinc
Line of edition: 33 diverse Gothorum, Westgothorum et
Line of edition: 34 Ostrogothorum nomina: hinc peragratus
Line of edition: 35 orbis victoriis et seminarium ingens barbaricć
Line of edition: 36 multitudinis. Habes quć de Taurica
Line of edition: 37 Chersoneso ex- his Procopiensibus didici.
Source: The Account of Crimean Gothic contained
in Busbecq's to letter
Electronic text prepared by Sigurđur H.
Pálsson,
Vienna 1995; TITUS
(http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/indexe.htm) original version reformatted
according to the edition Augerii Gislenii Busbequii Omnia quć extant, Basel:
Jo. Brandmüller, 1740/Reprint
Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1968 by Jost Gippert, Frankfurt
a/M, 3.10.1999/1.6.2000
The authenticity of the document has
beem impugnated by some germanist with arguments like that the two legates
interviewed by Busbecq were Jews emigrated to Crimea or German citizens, and
defended by others with arguments of linguistic type. In that case the list of
the ten numerals and the term ada meaning egg, are for example quite
convincing arguments for the last ones (4).
THE SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA
This lack of traces in Russia made me to follow
the track backwards, towards, according to Jordanes, the place of origin of the
Goths: The Scandinavian Peninsula.
It is after all here where f. e., the Danish
monarchy still keeps among others the title of ”Sovereign of the Goth people”,
although Sweden has most vestiges of them, at least as far as place names
concerns. It is here where we find the island of Gotland, the Göta river, and
the dividing regions of the country in Öster Götland and Väster Götland (with
Gotenburg as the main city). The Scandinavian languages are in addition those
that are nearest to the extincted Gothic (5).
The Goths are seen today with very critical
eyes in present Scandinavian academic circles, due to the so-called
"gothicism" or exaltation of Sweden as engender of noble
peoples/nations in parity with the classical Greek and Roman, originated by the
dispute between the Swedish and Spanish delegations to the Council of Basel in
1434 about which delegation had the highest rank in order to distribute the
seats. The Swedish archbishop, Nicolaus Ragvaldi, vindicated in that occasion
the highest nobility for Sweden on base of the famous passage from Getica
"Scandza ...vagina nationum" (JOR:
§25).
This episode was followed by a period of
exaltation of the role played by Sweden in world history with works like ”History
of omnibus gothorum sveonumque regibus” of Johanes Magnus (1554) or the ”History
of gentibus septentrionalibus” of Olaus Magnus (1555), and culminated later
with a work like ”Atlantica” of the Swedish scientist Olof Rudbeck
(1679-1702). All of them were directly inspired by the work of Jordanes.
The doctoral thesis of a Danish historian, Arne
Sřby Christiansen (6), published in English in 2002, is the most recent
document that in my opinion illustrates the change from exaltation to an
extreme critical attitude towards everything ”Goth” and towards the historical
value of Jordanes. One of the main conclusions of Arne Sřby Christiansen´s
thesis is then:
”The basic contenction of this book is that
nothing in the first third of Jordane´s Getica has anything whatsoever to do
with a history of the Goths…” (CASS : 317)
The well meant intention from some historians
side of cleansing history for anything that is not strictly “historic” is
perfectly defined by Omeljan Pritsak, the author of The Origins of Rus (RUS):
History begins -and I stress the word begins-
with written evidence. It is impossible to extend hisrory back to a period for
which there are no written sources, although archaeological and linguistic data
can be very useful in elucidating certain facts and situations. Contrary to the
conviction of East European scholars, however, archaeology cannot be regarded
as pre-history. There is no causal connection between archaeology and history.
History, which reflects the highest stage of human experience, cannot appear
deus ex machina from archaeology. Only people with with history can bring it to
territories without historical conciousness ...
History, like any other exact science, is an
abstract, intellectual discipline … (RUS : 8-9)
This rigorous attitude is probably sound for
the theoretical and scientific method of history at university level, (a
potential “ivory tower” for this science), but it may cause ”lateral damages”
of blindness for other facts not transmitted in written form. Thus when Arne
Sřby Christiansen speaks about the controverse mentioned above between the
Swedish and the Spanish legation in Basel, he asks f. e. following question:
” ...Considering the vast geographical distance involved, how
could the delegates of both these countries possibly claim to be descendents of
the same people?” (CASS : 7- 8)
In my opinion a rhetorical question wrapping a
hidden aprioristic argument: the geographical distance. But the argument cannot
be valid for linguists or archaeologists, as geographic distances are mostly
the rule than the execption. More than an argument it´s a local-centered way of
thinking, as this is the reason why I bring it here. Taking in consideration
the sparse documentation existing about the Goths, or about any other Germanic
people for the matter of fact, it´s comprehensible that Jordanes Getica will
continue to be an important source worth to be consulted if not by historians
at least by archaeologists and linguists. We may pay attention here how the
myth of the Amazons is being looked at with new eyes after the unearthing of
women warriors skeletons in Russia.
Because of the difficulties of proving any
historical presence of Goths in Scandinavia, the interests of scholars has been
focused in the Viking period, closer in time but also surrounded by mystery and
lack of data. How Goths and Vikings are connected to each other is still a
debated matter, but both are closely related to the origins of the Scandinavian
states and Russia through trade along the Volga and Dnieper rivers to the Black
Sea and the Mediterranean.
In Russia the interest has been centered to the
discussion around the origin of Russia as an independent nation and the origin
and meaning of the name Russia, that since 1749 (7) has divided the
investigators in two fractions:
"normanists" and "slavists".
For the slavists the term "rus" would
have its origin in the tribe/people of the "Roxolani",
mentioned in Jordanes as "aroxolani" (JOR: §74), a name
that Russian authors like Miller (JOR: note 247) explain as a term
composed of the old-Iranian "ruks", clear (color), and the
name of a more well-known tribe/people: the Alanni or Alans; it is to say:
"the Alans of light color or the light Alans".
For the normanists the term "rus"
is the same that appears in Greek sources as “ρως”, a
people
“…et
folk, der overgĺr alle andre i grusomhed of blodtörstighed. Efter at have
undertvunget de dem omgivende folkeslag har disse Rhös nu drevet deres
anmassende overmod sĺ vidt, at de endogsĺ har lřftet deres hĺnd imod det
romerske rige…
…a people, who surpases all the others in
cruelty and blodthirst. After subduing
all the other peoples around them, these Rhös have driven their arrogance so
far that they have even raised their hands against the Roman Empire… ” (Vilhelm Thomsen quoting a Greek manuskript from Patriarch Photios
mentioning the attack of Constantinople by the Russians/Norsemen in 865).
(VT. Vol.I : 255)
1) The Rus´received therir name from Ruotsi,
which was in the mid-ninth century what the Finns called the Swedes. The name
was derived from the Swedish maritime district in Uppland, Roslagen
(Róđslagen), whose inhabitants were called Róđskarlar (<róđr
“a rowing or pulling”).
2) The Primary Chronicle includes the Rus´
among the Varangian peoples from beyond the sea, the Svie (Swedes), Urmane
(Norwegians), Angljane (English), and Gote (Gauts or Goths). (RUS : 5).
For the first fraction the matter is clear: the
chronicle of the monk Nestor about the origins of Russia, quoted by the Danish
linguist Vilhelm Thomsen (VT. Vol.I: 244), narrates how the Slavic
princes/war lords were so tired of internal fights that they crossed the sea
and went to
"the country of the Varjager
or Rus"
with following invitation:
"Our country is great and fertile, but
the order does not reign; come to govern us. "
That´s how three brothers, Rurik, Sineus and
Truvor, were chosen as their leaders and together with the “Rus people”
moved down to the cities of Novgorod, Bjelozero and Izborsk respectively, in
the region near the lake Ladoga. And that´s how later, in 882 A.D. the
successor of Rurik, Oleg, seized the city of Kiev, which became the capital of
the new kingdom known as “Kievan Rus”.
Thus for the "normanists" there is no
doubt about the Nordic origin of the kingdom of "Rus" and the many
rests that have been discovered in the excavations, mainly in the zone of
Novgorod, show a close connection between both sides of the Baltic Sea.
During the time of the Vikings the imperial
guard of Byzantium will be made up until the fall of the eastern empire of the
above mentioned varjager, word of unknown origin or etymology (VT.
Vol. I : 357), although it is still
used in modern Russian as synonym for vagabond.
Jordanes narration, (JOR: §111-112),
about the aid granted by the Goths to the emperor Constantin (312 - 337 A.D.)
(8) in his civil war against Licinius, (40,000 soldiers and one personal
guard), shows a Scandinavian/Nordic presence in the court of Byzantium long
before the Vikings, this possible early connexion between the Goths from the II-III
centuries A.D. and the later period of the Vikings is reinforced by presumable
Gothic origins of objects and techniques of incrustation of precious stones and
filigrees in jewelry works, the abundant zoomorphic decorative motivs and even
the Scandinavian runic characters (SK : 50-53), whose oldest exemplars
(III A.D.) are found in the island of Gotland, an important cross point in the
trade route between the Baltic and the Black Sea.
At the end of the journey the Goths arriving to
France, Italy and Spain seems to be a heterogenous group searching for places
to settle down.
The burial slab of bishop Martín Dumiensis (†
580 A.D.), bishop of Braccara (Braga, Portugal), has engraved an inscription in
Latin explaining how this bishop:
"...sojuzu s plemena Xristom raznye
svirepye (...united with Christ diverse Barbarian people...)... Alamannus,
Saxo, Toringus, Pannonius, Rugus, Sclavus, Nara, Sarmata, Datus, Ostrogotus,
Burgundio, Dacus, Alanus." (JOR
: note 108)
If we add to this group the group of "arctoi
gentes", that were previously subjected to the Gotha by king
Hermanarig (351-376 A.D.):
"... Golthescytha, Thiudos, Inauxis, Vasinabroncas, Merens, Mordens, Imniscaris, Rogas, Tadzans, Athaul, Navego, Bubegenas, Coldas... Heruli/Eluri..." (JOR. §116-117) (9)
To those the Vandals who also arrived to the
northwest corner of Spain, we can imagine the chaotic situation of Europe at
that time. A chaos threatening the work of anyone who wants to investigates
this period, because the questions overnumber the answers few. Can we find the
Germans among these peoples? The Swedes? The Danes? The Russians? Where are the
Slaves? and the Balts?, etc. It´s impossible to give a clear answer to any of
these questions, so the study of the Goths is the study of a time and the
peoples living in a vast territory across Europe in a long process of formation
of national states we know today.
The book of Jordanes narrates the history of a
royal house more than the history of a people or a nation in the sense we
understand and define it today, but the legends that includes are maybe the
instrument people had to pass a common culture from mouth to mouth.
Possible
connections between Iberia and Scandinavia and Baltic area
But
first some words about modernocentrism.
The history of the Goths is closely related to
the origins of Russia as pointed before. The role played by the Iberian
Peninsula is what I intend to show in the next chapters.
This is
a relatively unknown aspect of European history due in my opinion to the subjectivity
of historians, linguists and European humanists when treating with matters
related to Portugal and Spain even when pursueing objectivity.
This is the reason I start this chapter
speaking of “modernocentrism”, quoting another Scandinavian scholar, the
Norwegian Hĺkon Stang (HS) in his paper “The Naming of Russia” (RUS),
that treats exhaustively the matter and who has an innovative approach to
history writing essentialy different to the doctoral thesis of Arne Sřby
Christiansen, mentioned before. Where the last intends to kill myths, the first
one wants to let the reader hear distant voices speaking to us from a distant
past.
My wish is to catch hold of some magical moment or
moments, in a time quite other than ours, to hear and behold others than us
speaking and acting - and coming alive again, alive and understandable still
today -enriching our lives by weaving a waft, beginning in the other end, with
them, of which both they and we are a part.
Only then, by understanding them, and indeed as many
”thems” as possible, can we best comprehend ourselves. (RUS :
14-15)
So against “modernocentrism”, where
historic events circle around of what the historian considers as the centre, HS
proposes “altrocentrism” and “multidisciplinary demand” for
history writing. Using the debate between Slavists and Normanists as example HS
writes:
The modern historian must, from the very outset, avoid
one manner of "centrism" - but not another one! He or she should
consciously shun modernocentrism; yet equally strenuously pursue,
vicariously so to speak, altrocentrism, seeking out what was of central
concern to others, thus speaking - with our words, to our times
(and later ones) - on behalf of other minds now dead and mute.
The sole way of coming to grips with modernocentrism
is by defining what is central to modern minds. And in matters of state
politics (to which the question of the naming of the Russian state naturally
belongs) the central concerns have long been the Siamese twin ones of ethnicity
and territoriality. In fact, roughly, these concerns
(as dominant intellectual themes of the times), and
the debate on the naming of Russia, are of equally long standing. It is hardly
a mere coincidence that both predominant opinions on the latter give
acute expression to this twin/entwined modernocentrism, viz. Ethno-centrism
( ruotsi = ”Swede”, or Rus«/Ros« as a self-appellation for the Polyane tribe of
the Slavs) coupled with territory-centrism (the Stockholm area, versus
the Kiev area). (RUS :11)
These words of HS are for me an expresion of
how the past should be investigated starting from its own premises as far as
possible. In the case of the Iberian Peninsula it means that the scholar should
avoid to contemplate the great migrations time and earlier times with today eyes
to understand its role in the Europe during
The Iberian Peninsula was in the antique world
a part of the barbarous world at the edge of the known world in the western,
northwestern periphery of Europe closer to the modern understanding of the
northern-Atlantic part of the continent:
It seems in fact that by some earlier
geographers, notably Ephorus, the barbarian world was conceived descriptively
as divided into four corresponding to the points of the compass, as seen from
Greece. To the north were the Scythians, to the east the Persians, to the south
the Lybians and to the west the Celts. (AL : 219)
This image changed in modern times to the one
of being almost part of the African world as a result of the Arab invasion in
711 A.D. to end up as a territorial entity isolated from the rest of Europe.
After the fall of the Roman Empire the territory becomes a no mands land with a
mixed population of Roman colonist and those who survived the Roman
colonization of whom we don´t know much.
To understand under their premises the arrival
of the Goths to this part of the world it was necessary for me to go further
back in time trying to find their roots.
One of he most controversial passages in
Jordanes Getica is the equation Goths = Getae, that identifyies these two
peoples; a theory he loaned from Orosius and Isidorus of Seville, who had
probably received from sources unknown to us, maybe transmitted by oral
tradition. It should be remarked that both Orosius and Isidore of Seville were
born in Spain like the “Roman” poets Martial and Lucan, quoted later that give
us key references for the knowledge of the earliest Germanics.
The Getae are associated to the Traco-Illyrian
Indo-European branch that invaded the most of Europe in the Bronze Age. In the
Iberian Peninsula there are, as far as I know, two documented tribes that
probably bear the ”surname” Getae: the Ilergetae or Ilergetes and the
Indigetes, both dwelling in the northeast corner of Spain. How long had those
Ilergetae been in this part of Spain? perharps since the first Indo-European
invasions. We only know of them because they made ferocious resistence to the
Roman invasion in the II century BC. If we think in Indo-European terms a
remote connection between the Goths from the V century A.D. and Indo-European
tribes spreading from the Danube, the Black Sea area or South Scandinavia does
not need be such an extraordinary phenomenon. The key to loose the problem
could be found in the Iberian Peninsula, and this is the work frame of the next
chapter.
Linguistic elements
There is a testimony that points to the
settlement of Germanic peoples/tribes in the Iberian Peninsula before the Roman
invasion: Plinius wrote about the Oretani, the pre-Roman inhabitans of the
inland between Madrid and Andalusia,
…Oretani qui et Germani
cognominantur,… L. III,
25.
It´s very well known that Celtic tribes settled
during the VIII-VI centuries BC. in parts of Spain, but we don´t know much
about them. Germanic tribes could have settled in the Iberian Peninsula alredy
during the Bronze Age as I pointed before. There exists an extensive epigraphic
heritage left in Spain and Portugal by the different that has been deciphered
thanks to the many coins with runic inscriptions of toponyms, but still waits
to be translated. Its importance as
historic document is poorly known outside Spain and Portugal. . The matter has
been extensively investigated in Spain by authors like Bosch Gimpera and A.
Tovar. The last mentioned gives in The Ancient Language of Spain and Portugal
(LSP) for the newcomer to Celto-Iberian studies an excellent introduction to
the question. It was published in 1961 but it is still a key work. Tovar
represents the opposite current to von Humbolds theory of Iberian = Basque
mentioned before and he documented that most of the epigraphy from the east and
southeast of Spain was Indo-European.
Now, to
spring forth and back from the VI century AD. to pre-Roman times can sound
extreme but it´s nevertheless necessary, when dealing with some linguistic
elements I will show now.
For those who are not familiar with the
question about the impact of the Goth invasions in The Iberian Peninsula, the
following document will sound exotic and to some extent completely extranneous
to Spain and Portugal. A document from the year 842 AD.. includes the following
signatures:
”Gondulfus,
Leouegildus, Biddi, Sindiuerga, Anilo, Uistragildus (cognomento Gotinus),
Gundisalvus, Rindotertir, Gemundus, Uiuildus, Salamirus, Rodericus, Emmarius,
Ranilo, Adefonsus, Adosindus.” (ELH
: 421)
(In fact a great number of the Spanish and
Portuguese population bears Germanic surnames without being aware of it and I
refer to the study of Germanic andronyms and toponyms in Iberia by the German
scholar J. Piel resumed in the annexe Hispano-Swedish toponimy).
Another document from 960 A.D.,
describing the objects donated by the king to a monastery, provides the
investigator with another interesting linguistic date: the word rengus
related to the term ring in modern Germanic languages:
“…spata ubi non habebat rengu
nec eltrum nisi de aurum habeba…” (ELH : 286)
Lockwoods explanation, (IE : 68-69), on
the relationship between the present-day Finnish rengas : ring and a
theoretic Proto-Germanic *hriggs (gg=ng) brings up a extrange relationship between
Germanic and Finno-Ugrian languages, practically unknown outside Scandinavian
circles. The Finnish word rengas is not found in Wulfilas Gothic but it
is recorded in Crimean Gothic as rinck (see the Busbecqs letter above).
How this word appears in a vulgar Latin “version” in Spain is due to rests of
Gothic vocabulary in this language. Not knowing about the Finnish rengas
the Spanish scholars name the Old French term renge : belt, girdle, of
probably the same origin, but the question is that there is an amount of
Germanic loan words in modern Finnish that are so old, that they can help the
linguist to study the phonetical and grammatical evolution of Germanic
languages. In the case of rengas, Finnish, according to Lockwood, shows
that:
“In borrowing the word in Primitive Germanic
times, Finnish naturalized it to some extent, i.e. it reduced the exotic hr-
to r- and substitudted s for z, a voiced sibilant being
unknown in Finnish, but otherwise rengas must be held to represent
faithfully the phonetics of the word at the time of borrowing. It demonstrates
that Pr. Gmc. *hringaz, deducible from the oldest surviving forms in the
derivative languages, was in fact preceded by the form *hrengaz.”
(IE : 69)
I came here to a serie of interesting
observations reading in the ELH, (the Spanish Linguistic Encyclopedia
–pages 27-149-), a study about a group of Spanish terms of very old, unknown or
problematic origin. The poet Martial (40 – 104 AD.), a Celtiberian from
Bilbilis, present-day Calatayud, recorded some of them. He wrote that in the
Celtiberian language the term paeda denoted a short jacket. A quick
search in a Finnish dictionary gave the term paita that translates to
the term shirt! The first surprise faded when finding it included in the list
of about 500 Germanic loan words in Finnish compiled by the Danish scholar Vilhelm Thomsen (VT, II : 168-232):
“paita f., veps. paid gen. –an; n.-lap. bajdde indusium v. subucula virilis et mulieribus, skjorte, sćrk (49. 55. 62. 79 106) = got. paida χιτóν, oht. pheit, oldsaks. pęda, oldeng. Pád.” (VT, II : 203)
The interesting point with paeda is a
linguistic relationship between the language of the Goths from the IV-VI
centuries A.D. and the language of the pre-Roman population in Iberia. Another
interesting word mentioned by Martial is rana, meaning the level line of
the water in the bath tube. This is a term that coincides with the ranne from
VT´s list:
“ranne gen. ranteen f. carpus,
brachium inferius; stria coloris; locus ad litus; hĺndled; stribe; strandbred,
est. ranne gen. rande hĺndrod (91) = oldn. rönd fem. (pl. rendr);
sml. oht. rant, oldeng. rand m.” (VT, II : 209)
When VT published his list (1920) he was not
aware of the existence of those examples or others discovered later as in the
case of the personal name, Ambatus, that appears in several inscriptions in
Iberia connected by linguist to the Gohic term andbahti : office,
function, ministry (modern German and Scandinavian amt, (administrative
area), modern Finnish ammati, (civil servant).
VT observes how little the Finnish language has
changed in the last 1500 years to judge after how exactly modern Finnish
mirrors these extremly old Gothic loans (older then Wulfilas Gothic), when
Finno-Ugric speaking tribes were living close to Gothic speaking peoples somewhere
in the easter part of the present-day Finland in what is actually the
Russian-Karelian territories or maybe further east and south-east (VT :
160-163).
The appearance of this terms in the Iberian
Peninsula are in fact amazing and I hope that they can inspire others to make
more exhaustive studies, because the entire question needs to bee updated since
the work of VT.
For maybe the oldest substratum in Europe is to
find in the Finno-Ugrian languages, although it´s no longer possible to prove
it. Trying to find proves in support of this theory I made a comparison between
the corpus of terms in modern Spanish of difficult ethymological explanation
compiled by the ELH (edited in the 1950ies) and terms found in a Finnish
dictionary (together with some Old Prussian examples) with following results:
|
Words documented as Celtiberians by Martial: |
Finnish terms
|
|
balux: gold nugget |
valu: casting, foundry |
|
bascauda: bath tube, large jar |
vaski?: copper |
|
paeda: short jacket |
paita: shirt |
|
veredus: riding horse |
veri: blood, vigor "a pureblooded"? |
|
From a document about minig
from Vipascum (Portugal): |
|
|
lausia: slab, flat stone |
lousa: flat stone |
|
rutramen, recisamen: rests of
mineral |
res/u: small stones |
|
Other non- Latin words collected in ELH of unknown origin |
|
|
andare: to go, to walk |
antaa: to abandon, to leave |
|
bacca: luggage space in a carriage |
vakka: box, basket |
|
barca: boat |
parkki: cortex, boat |
|
baranna : veranda, terrace |
vara:
room, space |
|
fimare : to fertilize fimo : fertilizer |
viemäri: sewer |
|
gurdus : thick |
kurttu: fold |
|
mauricellum : colour (unknown) of a horse |
mauri: black colour kellan: yellowish |
|
muta : set of clean underwear to change |
muutan: I change |
|
mustela : ferret |
muste?:
black colour |
|
tilgo: colour (unknown) of a horse |
tilke: burlap |
Words compared in
ELH with Basque or Gaelic roots (central column) and my extended comparison
with Finnish and Old Prussian (right column):
|
carrasca, carrascal: pin-oak,
pin-oak plantation cerro: (stony hill) |
*arri
(Basque): stone *kario *kari/ker (Gaelic): stone |
karahka: dead branch kari: stone |
|
andarra/endarra : cheese residues after its fabrication |
ondar (Basque): residues |
antautua: to leave autio: empty ontto: empty |
|
alud : avalanche |
|
lietty, lietteinen: be covered by mud, alluvion |
|
cadec (Catalonian): fruit of the juniperus |
|
kataja: Juniperus kadegs: Juniperus (Old Prussian) |
|
calma: hill |
|
Kalmus, gen
Kalmas Kalmus E 633:
Baumstumpf / stub (stump) (Old
Prussian) |
|
cencerro : bell worn by the
leading wether/cow |
|
kenkäin: ferrule, thumb stall |
|
chaparrón : heavy rain chipiarse : to get very wet |
|
tipua : to drip |
|
cirińa: very thin rain |
zirin: very thin rain (Basque) |
sirinä :whisper |
|
lastra: flat stone |
arlasta: flat stone (Basque) |
lasta :spatula |
|
lastre : ballast |
|
lastaus : last |
|
fana:
landslide |
*wanno vane (Valais) : very narrow place |
vana: furrow |
|
fature : prunes (Ligurian) faton: prune afatovo (Alps): wild prune |
*fattua *wattua |
vattu : raspberry |
|
falun (Valais): depot marin avec debris de
coquilles |
|
valua : to flow, rush down |
|
marra, marroc, morro, muro, murra, murro : words with a semantic content of enbankment or bulwark. |
|
mura, murroko, murros : words with a semantic content of enbankment or bulwark
made of logs. |
|
mota : low enbankment that borders the pastures
(Catalonian, Basque) |
|
motti: inclosure, border. |
|
moga, muga, mugue : stone pile used as milestone
or mark the path under the snow.. |
moko : top, end. (Basque) muga : frontier (Basque) |
mukura: mound, small hill. |
|
rica, reca : furrow |
|
rike : breach |
|
sobo, zipu : cleft, deep gorge. |
zupu : cleft, gorge (Basque): |
suppu: deep cleft in the ice. |
|
sare, sari, saro, , sarobe: border,
edge of the field. |
sare : net (Basque) |
sarja : willow |
|
sutja : sod (Catalonian) sucio : dirty |
*sudia suithe : sod (Gaelic) |
sutia : dirt |
|
urium (Plinius) : mud residues left back after
gold washing |
ur : water (Basque) |
ura : small rivulet, channel |
|
The
toponymes Samos, Sama set in relation with somago:
mud, slime (by
Hubschmidt, ELH : 447-493) |
|
sameus : slush, mire same/a : muddy zame : soil, earth (Old
Prussian) |
The Finnish language has some specialy
interesting peculiarities: for example it does not accept double occlusives in
initial position, so Finnish words looking very apart at first sight are in
fact not so different from their English counterparts. Some examples from a
group formed of two consonants pl/fl (b is p or v
in Finnish) will give an idea:
laaka : flat stone (compare with plaque).
laakea :
flat
laatta : plate
lankku : plank
leimus : flame
loisk/e : plash
group kl/kr (g is k
in Finnish)
lasi : glass
lause : clause
liito : glide (subs.)
rako : crack
group br/pr
rikkoa: break
reikä: breach
reipas: prepared?
virike:
vigor (drive, fuel, impetus, impulse, incitement, stimulus).
Not knowing the Finnish language I cannot
answer to a question that comes to my mind: Who loans words from whom? We may
consider the following facts:
”All
Indo-European languages contain a contingent of words which cannot be
etymologised, but the proportion of these in Germanic is exceptionally high,
about one-third of the basic stock being of unknown origin.” (IE : 123)
”… Since Germanic was in contact with dialects of
this family in antiquity, one may regard the Germanic two-tense system as a
typological calque on Finno-Ugrian. Furthermore, this family of lanuages is
characterised by initial stress. It is not unthinkable that Germanic stress is
due to influence from the same quarter.” (IE : 123-124)
”On this basis, scholars argue that
Proto-Indo-European bears similarities to Proto-Finno-Ugric, a language
ancestral to Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, and Lappic,25 and to
Proto-Kartvelian, from which the Caucasian languages developed.26…”
(The Search for Common Origins: A survey of the history of Indo-European studies. K. Hagemajer. Cite of W. P.
Lehmann: ”The Current Thrust of Indo-European Studies.)
“…The modern English “mead” is transparently part of the same
series that gives us Sanskrit “madhu”, Greek “methy”, Old Church Slavonic
“medu”, Lithuanian “medus”, Old Irish “mid” and Tocharian B “mit”, all of which
provide us with our word for the Proto-Indian-European alcoholic and ritual
drink *medhu “mead”.
(SI : 136)
Mallory quotes here Jaan Puhvels analysis of the Indo-European horse
sacrifice-ritual called in India asvamedha<*ekwo-meydho (Proto-Indo-European =
‘horse-drunk’). Curiously the Finnish term for juice, sap is mehu.
There is material here for future studies that
will bring more light to this aspect of Indo-European linguistics.
A Finno-Ugrian pre-Indo-European layer in south
Europe is an interesting thought although yet more difficult to explain than
Vilhelm Thomsen´s list of Gothic terms in Finnish and Lappish. It will be a
very remote one and will go back in time at least maybe to the Ligurians, of
whom we don´t know if they were Indo-European or pre-Indo-European, but who are
considered as the oldest substratum in Iberia (apart from Basque of course).
Where and how contacts between the two groups took place is out of the scope of
this paper, but from the perspective of the clear relationship with Baltic
elements shown in the Iberian Peninsula later in the paper and with the
Finno-Ugrians as neighbours of the Balts from remote times, these contacts may
go longer back in time than the Bronze Age.
With respect to the Ligurians nobody knows how
old they are. Some scholars like Krahe, the author of the theory of an
“Old-European” language out of common *river names in Europe, considered them
as related to the Ilirians.
*1 “The distribution areas of the Old_European river names (hydronimia)
stretches from Scandinavia to south Italy and from Western Europe, included the British Islands, to the Baltic
countries Of the three south European peninsulas Italy is the most intensively
represented and the Balkan the less (only in its northern territories).” (Krahe 1963, p. 4; 1964, p. 32-33).
(Here quoted by Manfred Faust in ACS
: 179)
Ulrich Smoll quotes in Die Sprachen der
Vorkeltischen Dialekte (SCH) the theory of Menéndez Pidal who considered
Ligurian and Ambrons related to each other out of a serie of toponyms in Spain
like:
Ambrona (Soria province), Hambrón (Salamanca), Ambroa
(Ambrona, La Coruńa), Ambroës (two, close to Porto)…
Sufixes –asc (proto-Ligurian),
-ati (Ligurian, Illyrian), -az, -ez, -iz, -oz,
-uz (Badajoz – Badaiuz (Udine, Italia)), -ant, -ont,
-unt, -elo.
Roots like *ganda =
debris, *carav- = stone (Ligurian, Illyrian),
*borm- = warm (Ligurian), *lama = marsh
(Ligurian, not Illyrian).
Ligurian roots like alb-, vind-, berg-, sego-, argant- .
Names like Belasc-,
Balasc- (Ligurian), Benasc- (Ligurian), Magasc-
(Ligurian), Lang- (Ligurian), Tolet- (Ligurian),
Lucent- (Ligurian), Corc-, Corcont- (Illyrian),
Badal- (Ligurian). (SCH :108 – 119)
Similarly to the extrange coincidences in
vocabulary mentioned above, a parallel case seems to occur when looking at the
Swedish and Spanish toponymy. While nearly identical toponyms in both
peninsulas may be explained as coincidences, some can be explained by
historical documents as is the case of the Swedish Frommesta (Fromista
in 1525) and the
Spanish Fromista (Fromista, personal name, one of the first abbots of a closter
in San Vicente de Oviedo –VIII AD.), while others as in the case of toponyms like
Berga – Berga and Ausa - Ausa, (Ausa the documentation for the Spanish Berga
goes back to pre-Roman times, where Berga was the stronghold of the Bergistani
tribe and Ausa that of the Ausetani), which can be explained by the Ligurian
roots just mentioned. This brings us presumably to the times in the II
millenium BC when:
“
...from Scandinavia to Southern Italy and from the Baltic to the British Isles
and Spain, and old stratum of river-names as evidence of an undivided Old
European or , in W. P. Schmidt´s words, plainly I. Eur. Language. It further
assumes that this language, which preceeds the historically known Baltic,
Germanic, Celtic, Italic and Illyrian dialects of I. Eur., must have spread
early in the second millennium B. C. to most parts of Europe including the
British Isles and certain areas of Spain.”
ACS (Acta Salmántica. H. Wagner. Common problems concerning the early language. p. 389)
J. Caro Baroja
pointed too to similar cultural elements like the plough, the sickle, the swan,
the worship of the sun, etc. in rock carvings in Liguria and in Scandinavia.
“In the Bronze Age there existed in Liguria … a
characterístic culture … the bronze sickle and engravingss in the rocks
representing oxen yokes dragging ploughs…they have the clearest parallel in
Scandinavia …To this culture belonged too
the worship of the sun and of a bird, related to it, the swan.”
(PE : 84)
The following
pictures show in my opinion clearly that the linguistic relationship can be
based in something real, makin the theory of a ”Getic” ancestry for the Goths
(for their ruling class) not so absurd or illogical after all. The Iberian
Peninsula was politically isolated from the rest of Europe in the 50s and 60s,
years of great activity in the fields of archaeology and linguistics. Many of
these studies only exist in Spanish and therofor outside the Indo-European
debate.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
ELEMENTS
THE BALTIC SEA AREA
Forgotten peoples
Keeping thus the Goths and the “Rus” as the red
line that stretches from west to east, we can move back and froth in time to
acquire a clearer picture of the different peoples moving around along the
continent. Perharps one of the less known but the one with the closest
relations to both Goths and Rus, a kind of missing link between pre-Roman
Iberia and European Germans and Slavs is to be found in one of the many
European minorities fighting today against oblivion and annihilation of
identity.
The Ruthenes has today many names, depending on
the place where they live. Because they are scattered among different countries
like Poland, Hungary, Romania, ex-Yugoeslavia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Bielorusia
and of course the United States where many people from Central Europe emigrated
in the 20th. Century. They are known as "Ruzins or Rusins"
“4.Ruthenes also called Rusyns, Rusins,
Rysin, Carpatho-Rusin, Russniaks. Are several East Slavonic ethnic
groups speaking dialects related to Ukrainian.”
(http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Ruthenes),
They are also known as
"Lemkos/Ruznak" in Poland or "Carpato-Rutenes" in Hungary,
due to the region Carpato-Rutenia, a territory/province under the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Different emigrant communities in the United States
seems to be very active using the Internet to revitalize this common identity
(http://carpatho-rusyn.org), where an important issue are the lists of
Ruthenian/Carpato-Ruthenian surnames that have survived in archives or have
been transmitted from family members to family members. As a curiosity is worth
to mention here two famous members of this minority: Andy Warhol (his real
surname was probably Varhola, according to those lists of surnames) and Bela
Lugesi (his real surname was Blasko, but adopted the artist name from Lugos,
his birth place in present-day Hungary).
The Ruthenes are mentioned several times in
Saxo Grammaticus (XIII C. A.D.). They appear already in connection to Odin,
when he in one occasion fell in love with:
"... Rinda, the daughter of the king of the Ruthenes..." (SAX: Vol.I: 138-145)
Odin will met Rinda disguised as an old man, a
girl, etc. until Rinda gav up and accepted his courtship. The fruit of the
matrimony was a son, called Bue, whose destiny was to revenge the death of
Balder, Rindas brother, killed by Hother. Bue will die of his wounds the day
after the battle, where he killed Hother. His army bore home the deadly wounded
Bue in his shield and:
"... his body was buried by the Ruthene army ... " (SAX: Vol.I: 138-145)
Later Saxo narrates how:
"There was by that time viking rutene of
name Rřdd, that brought many misfortunes to our country..."
"Nu var paa den
Tid ein Rutenisk Viking, ved Navn Rodd, der..." (SAX: Vol. II: 48)
Nevertheless this same king doesn´t hesitate in
stablishing later an alliance with the Ruthenes:
“In
the meantaime war had been declared between king Alver of Sweden and the
Ruthenes, so the Danish king Halvdan, [enemy of the Swedish king] went
immediately to "Russia", where he was received warmly."
"Imidlertid to var
to der udbrudt in Krig mellem Rutenernes og Kong Alver i Sverrig..." (SAX: Vol. II: 51)
In this passage Saxo identifies the Ruthenes
with Russia but not with the Slaves, as we could expect. In other passage, as
HS remarks, Saxo makes a distintion between the two:
Frode when going east to do battle with the Huns,
encounters vessels from the ’Ruthenian’ fleet
(meaning allies of the Huns, whereas the Slavs are said to be subservient to
Frode). (NR : 254)
Who were those Ruthenes Saxo refers to?
Hĺkon Stang, the above-mentioned historian,
tries to give an answer after having considered more or less the same passages
in Saxo. His study goes much deeper than mine and his goal different, so the
passage about the Ruthenians looks like this in NR : 255:
In those days a Ruthenian Viking by the name of Red
harried our fatherland shamefully with plundering and cruelty. He was so rapacious
that, whereas others could not get themselves to plunder their prisoners to the
very skin, he felt it not inappropriate to rid them even of the apparel
covering those parts of the body which modesty dictates to be hidden. Therefore
we still have the habit of using the word ’Red Plunder’ to denote a very brutal
and inhumane robbery.
When he [Halfdan] heard that a war was raging between
the Swedish king Alver and the
Ruthenians, he at once went to Russia, offered the common man there his
assistance, and was received by all with the greatest honour...
The question HS makes to the Ruthenian passages in
Saxo is:
Are the ’Ruthenians’ simply an anachronism for
’Russians’ in a Viking-Age or later sense?
And the answer is as follows:
No: With the above events we are in the age of the
Huns and the Eruls. ’Rutheni’ is of course in itself an anachronism; it
originally referred to a people in Gallia Aquitania, the Ruteni (living in and
around Rodez), mentioned by Caesar (51 BC),4Pliny (79
A.D.),5 and the poet Annaeus Lucanus (65 A.D.).6
The phrase ‘…is of course in itself an
anachronism…’ is a deception because it illustrates that HS has fallen in
the same trap as he warned against. I named before how Sřby Christiansen
considered impossible a relationship between Sweden and Spain, an expression of
HS´s “modernocentrism”. Like to the case of the Goths, the track of Saxo´s
Ruthenes points towards the Iberian Peninsula, but considering the
‘Balto-Iberian’ connection impossible, HS arrives to a pictoresque conclusion:
the reason why Saxo uses an anachronism as the Ruthenes in stead of
using the term Russians, is because Saxo wished to show to the readers his
knowledge of the Latin classic authors:
So why call a Migration Age people - in this case
evidently the Eruls - Rut[h]enians? Saxo is ever set on proving his erudition.
Yet what led him to choose precisely this anachronism?
The natural guess is: an association with rutilus ’of
a warm or glowing red colour, ruddy (inclining to gold or orange) … of hair,
esp. among Germanic races)’, and associated words (rutilans, etc.)1 Yet what
made for this association? It turns out that Saxo did indeed have his grounds.
There is nothing of interest in Caesar or Pliny. Lucanus is the only one to
characterize the Rut[h]eni; which he however does in a to us most relevant way:2
The classic in this case is the poet Lucanus:
2 Lucanus, Bellum Civile, ed. W Ehlers, Munich 1973, 30-31: "Caesar
ut acceptum tam prono militates bellum fataque ferre videt, ne quo languore
moretur Fortunam, sparsas to per Galica rura cohortes evocat et Romam motis
petit undique signis.(...) solvuntur flavi longa statione Ruteni. (NR:
255. note 2)
When Caesar saw that his soldiers greeted the war so
willingly and that Fate thus decreed,he did not wish to stand in the way of
Fortune for one single moment, and hence called upon the cohorts spread about
across the land of Gallia that they from all sides march against Rome. (...)
The blond Rutenians were freed from a long occupation.
The word used, flavus, means ‘golden yellow,
reddish yellow, flaxen-hued’,3 as in the expression
in Seneca:4 cur iracundissimi sint flaui rubentesque. Its
use is “mostly poetical”.5
From this we are entitled to conclude: Making himself
learnedly costly, playing peekaboo with posterity, Saxo by speaking of the
Ruteni has the Russi = the ’ruddyblonds’ of the Migration Age in mind. (NR :
256).
Contrary then to HS´s opinion I mean that there is
indeed something of interest in Caesar, Plinius and Lucan (10), but as I have
mentioned it falls outside the scope of HS, centred in finding in the term
Ruthenian a possible ethnonym for Scandinavians because of the red colour of
their hair. The possibility of proving to connect Saxos Ruthenes and Caesars
Ruteni exists and I will in the next pages try to prove it.
The name
Tatinos
It is of course surprising to find a people in
the south part of Gallia bearing the same name as the people living as Vikings
some centuries after in the opposite corner of Europa. The obvious question is
of course if we are talking about the same people.
The search is intricated and starts having
observed the existence of extremely similar surnames in both former
Chekoslovakia and Spain without any logical explanation. Only recently thanks
to the above mentioned genealogical websites from different Carpato-Ruthenian
organizations in the USA, I could get a list of Carpato-Ruthenian surnames.
There are surnames like Blasko, Belasko, Varga, Vasko found in present-day in
Hungary or Slovakia and their nearly identical ‘counterparts’ Blasco, Velasco,
Vargas and Vasco in Spain or Portugal. One plausible explanation was to
adscribe them to the Jewish Sephardite
migration of the XVI century. A.D.
A look at the web pages of the
Sephardite community (www.sephardim.com)
showed indeed people with these surnames among
the Jews expelled from Spain, although
it should be necessary to make an independent study to distinguish which of the
surnames were genuine Hebrew and which ‘Christian’ surnames adopted by Jews
families. On the other side the Carpato-Ruthenian names have a linguistic
feature that coincides very much with what the Spanish scholar Menéndez Pidal,
(SCH : 108-119), considered as the oldest Indo-European substratum in
the Iberian Peninsula: the suffixs in –asc found in toponyms as Benasque
or Vindasco of Ambro-Illyrian and Ligurian origin:
”Names as Belasc-, Balasc-
(Ligurian), Benasc- (ligur), Magasc- (Ligurian),
Lang- (Ligurian), Tolet- (Ligurian), Lucent- (Ligurian),
Corc-, Corcont- (Illyrian), Badal- (Ligurian).” (SCH : 108-119)
But the best prove of the antiquity of the
Carpato-Ruthenian surnames was the surname Tatinetz, that put me on the
track of the Ruteni mentioned in Latin sources.
List of Carpato-Ruthenian surnames
Andrasko Tatinetz
Barna Urda
Blasko Varga
Beno Vasko
Bilas Virotsko
Biros Onesko
Botos Ordas
Daley Rosko/Ruska
Elko Saka
Estok Sura
Lesondak
Tatinetz is surprisingly similar to the
inscription TATINOS and/or TAUTINOS/TANTINOS in two coins attributed to the
Gaulish tribe of the 
Ruteni and this could be the first sign of the ‘Ruteno-Ruthenian’
relationship that I want to demonstrate.
Sur ce bronze, les
lettres A et T de TATINOS semblent ligaturées et pourraient ętre lues TAVTINOS
ou TANTINOS qui constituerait alors une lecture nouvelle pour ce type qui est
interprété comme TATINOS depuis plus d’un sičcle.
(http://www.cgb.fr/monnaies/vso/v15/fr/monnaies26c0.html?depart=312&nbfic=1515)
It struck me that the text in the French web
site describing the second “Ruthenian” coin mentioned the possibility of the
reading of the inscription as TAUTINOS, because the name TAUTIN,
as Tovar already observed, (LSP : 81),
can be spotted in the Ascoli Bronze -the famous document written in
Latin and dated back to the year 89 BC, that commemorates the Roman citizenship
received by a group of Celtiberians soldiers. Tovar remarked among the names
the Indo-European root * TEUT : people
in one of the soldiers name form the Ascoli Bronze: ATULLO TAUTINDALS,
(Gaulish Tout -, Teuto -: * toutâ, people; Latin Umbrian. toto,
state, túvtú Oscan, populus, Latin tôtus, all; ţiuda
Gothic, people, Teutonic, Deutsch, German, Dutch; Lettic táuta,
people, Old Prussian tauto, land, modern Lithuanian tautinis adj.
national, etc.).
The
Ascoli bronze plate
|
Tvrma Sallvitana |
Ilerdenses |
Bagarensis |
*Baltic
surnames |
|
Sanibelser
Adingibas f. |
Otacilius Suisetarten f. |
Cocusin Chadar f. |
|
|
Illurtibas Bilustibas f. |
Cn. Cornelius Nesille f. |
|
Bilas, Bilostenos, Bilis |
|
Estopeles Ordennas f. |
P. Eabius Enasagin f. |
|
Peles |
|
Torsinno Austinco f. |
|
|
Tursiene Austinas, Austinkas Austynas |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Begensis |
Ennegensis |
Ucenses |
|
|
Turtumelis
Atanscer f. |
Beles
Umarbeles f. |
...
Sosimilus f. |
Turtu,
Melis |
|
|
Turinnus Adimel s. f. |
... Irsecel. f. |
|
|
|
Ordumeles Burdo f. |
... Elgaun f. |
Orda, Ordas, Ordo |
|
|
|
... Nespaiser f. |
|
|
Segienses |
Libenses |
Suconsenses |
|
|
Sosinaden
Sosinasae f. |
Bastugitas Adimeis f. |
Belennes Albennes f. |
|
|
Sosimilus Sosinasae f. |
Umarillun Tabbantu f. |
Atullo Tautindals f. |
*Tautvilas,
Tautmilas |
|
Urgidar
Luspanar f. |
|
|
|
|
Gurtarno Biurno f. |
|
Illversensis |
|
|
Elandus
Ennegenses f. |
|
Balciadin Balcibil f. |
Balke, |
|
Agirnes
Benabels f |
|
|
|
|
Nalbeaden
Agerno f |
|
|
|
|
Arranes
Arbiscar f. |
|
|
|
|
Umargibas
Luspangibas.f. |
|
|
Gibas |
Tovar pointed out the Indo-European character
of some of the names of the plate:
“In fact the Iberian names, both those written
in Latin characters (mainly in the soldiers roll of the ‘turma Salluitana’,
squadron coming from the region of ‘Salduia’ of Saragossa, which has been
preserved in CIL I 709 and Suppl. P. 714) and those in indigenous letters, may
be analysed into two parts, often combined in the same way as in the onomastics
of Greeks, Celts, Teutons, and the Indo-European peoples in general, thus:
‘Adin-gibas’, ‘A-di-n-be-l-a-u-r’, ‘Balci-adin’ or ‘Sosin-aden’, ‘Sosin-asa’,
‘S-o-s-i-n-bi-u-r-u’, ‘Cacu-susin’. Another Indo-European feature is the fact
that the son bears in his name one of the elements of the father´s name, for instance ‘Illur-tibas Bilus-tibas f(ilius)’.” (LSP : 68)
In TAUTINDALS the second element or theme of
the name would be DALS, wich matches the name DAL mentioned in Saxo in the
passage where the Danish king, Harald,
‘attacked and won over the Slaves, but
respected the life of their chieftains, Duk and Dal, who later went into his
army and helped him to subjugate Aquitania …’ :
“...gik
Harald lřs pĺ Slaverne, som mĺtte give tabt, og deres Hřvdinger: Duk og Dal,
kunde han gjerne faaet livet taget af ... de traadte enndog efter Fangeskabet i
hans tjeneste, og hjalp ham at undertvinge Akvitanien ...” (SAX : Vol. II : 61)
Although Dal is in Saxo a chieftain of the
Slaves, the name is a common surname in todays Scandinavia; Dal is the word for
valley, so it is part of many toponyms in the area. Where and who were the
Slaves mentioned by Saxo is unknown, but he writes that after Aquitania Harald
embarqued for England, so he met those Slaves in the western part of Europe
rather than in present-day Russia.
The comparation of the names from Ascoli (right
column) with present-day surnames from the Baltic area shows remarkable
similarities and here we find the next klue in this intrincate search:
Lithuanian surnames.
The Baltic language,
“Lithuanian combines an excepcionlly archaic
structure with the rich documentation of a living language….” (IE : 125)
. Tautvilas is the name of a Duke who appears in the history of
Lituania in S. XIII. The name is composed of the first theme taut :
nation/people and the second vilas : hope, but it can appear as second
theme as in Gintautas (ginti : to defend).
Tautimilas is another Lithuanian old name composed of the
same root taut and the root milti : to fall in love.
(Source: Lithuanian Names. William R. Schmalstieg. LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY
JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Volume 28, No.3 – Fall 1982)
The soldiers from the Ascoli Bronze were
‘nationals’ from the northeast part of Spain where Caesar was engaged in the
civil war against Pompeius. At one moment he received help from approximately
6000 Ruthenian archers and riders from Gallia
‘carrying numerous cars and equipments, the
Gallian way (consuetudo Gallica)’,
as Caesar comments with some irony, i.e.
without any organisation. The Ruthenians were attacked by the forces of
Afranius, while waiting to cross over the river (Sicoris):
“ Nuntiatur Afranio magnos
commeatus, qui iter habebant ad Caesarem, ad flumen constitisse. Venerant eo
sagittarii ex Rutenis, equites ex Gallia cum multis carris
magnisque impedimentis, ut fert Gallica consuetudo. Erant praeterea cuiusque
generis hominum milia circiter VI cum servis liberisque; sed nullus ordo,
nullum imperium certum, cum suo quisque consilio uteretur atque omnes sine timore
iter facerent usi superiorum temporum atque itinerum licentia.” (De Bello
Civili - Liber I – 51)
Yes, these people where mercenaries, was my
first thought after having found this passage, but the plate is dated 89 BC.,
while the battle of Ilerda in Caesars civil war took place in the year 49 BC.
so these soldiers where there long time befor Caesar came to Spain. For the
important question is where the names in the bronze plate are representatives
of an autoctonus people living at that time in that area, whom in this case we
will consider as Celtiberians, or they were just a group of professional
soldiers, an element extrange to that society.
If the first assumption is right, than we have
to reconsider the traditional idea received from Latin sources -among them
Caesars De Bello Gallico- of this corner of Europe.
According to the famous passage in the book I
of De Bello Gallico of Julius Caesar, Gallia was divided in three zones
occupied respectively by the Belgians, the Aquitani and the Celts (the Gallics),
different in language, laws and customs. The river Garonne was the dividing
line between Aquitani and Celts.
If people akin for example to the Ruteni were
living on the other side of the Pyrennés, we may consider the alternative point
of view that some Celtiberian tribes were for example of same stock as the
Belgians, that had invaded this area in the VII-VIII century. BC., or with the
Aquitani, whom many identifies with the present-day Basques, but a convincent
documentation does´nt exist. There were Belgian populations to the other side
of the Pyrenees like f.ex. the Berones of the zone of La Rioja, but we do not
know the type of relation between populations to both sides of the Pyrenees. We
know that in the II century BC. the tribe of the Salyes or Saluvii spaned from
Marseille to Saduba (present-day Zaragoza), wherefrom the Turma Salluitana of
the Ascoli Bronze had received its name.
In other words, the different regions were not
as homogeneous as Caesars description tells us according to the following
examples. The poet Ausonius classifies the Teutosages/Tectosages, a powerful
Gallic/Aquitanian tribe whose main city was the present-day Toulouse, as
originally Belgians:
"...usque in Teutosagos,
paganica nomina, Belcas,..." (...as far as the Teutosagi, whose
original name was Belgians.) (Ausonius. Ordo Urbium Nobilium - Narbona).
In a reference to the
Tectosages that supposedly had invaded a part of Turkey under the leadership of
Brennus, Strabo speaks of an unknown people, the Prausans:
“For example, some say that the second
Brennus who made an invasion against Delphi was a Prausan, but I am unable to
say where on earth the Prausans formerly lived...” (Geography. IV, 13.)
And he says of the Bituriges:
The Garumna, after being increased by the waters
of three rivers, discharges its waters into the region that is between those
Bituriges that are surnamed "Vivisci" and the Santoni — both of them
Galatic tribes; for the tribe of these Bituriges is the only tribe of
different race that is situated among the Aquitani; and it does than pay
tribute to them, though it has an emporium, Burdigala, which is situated on a
lagoon that is formed by the outlets of the river Liger. (Geography. L. IV, 2)
Following passage in Cassius Dio makes the
question yet more confusing:
Some of the Celtae whom we call Germani had
occupied all the Belgic territory near the Rhine and caused it to be called
Germania,
the upper part extending to the sources of the river and the lower part
reaching to the Ocean of Britain. (Cassius Dio. Roman History. Book LIII, 12
http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/)
And the Venetes from the northwest of France in
Caesars time should be named here too, for their ethnicity is still an unsolved
problem.
If the assumption that we are dealing with a
group of extrangers or mercenaries is right the names of the group would be an
isolated case and would not have any resemblance with other personal names from
the pre-Roman Spain and Portugal. The similarity between names from Ascoli like
Gurtarno Biurno and Torsinno Austinco with Scandinavian names
from runic inscriptions. (source: SRD -
the University of Uppsalas runic project-) could be in this case a point to
take in consideration.
One of the most common names in runic
inscriptions is for example BIURN
transcribed to modern Scandinavian Bjřrn/Björn = bear:
ÖG 93
: ţiuţreiţr
: reisţi : stein : ţisa : eftiR : biurn : buta : sin : aR : uarţ * hauin *
Ţjóđheiđr
reisti stein ţenna eptir Bjôrn, bónda sinn, er varđ hôggvinn.
Ţiuđhćiđr
rćisţi stćin ţennsa ćftiR Biorn, bonda sinn, eR varđ haggvinn.
ÖG 93
Ţjóđheiđr raised this stone in memory of Bjôrn, her husbandman, who was
cut down.
ÖG 88
* austin *
risţi * stin * ayftiR * kata * frita * sin *
Eysteinn
reisti stein eptir Káta/Gadda, frćnda sinn.
Řystćinn
rćisţi stćin ćftiR Kata/Gadda, frćnda sinn
ÖG 88 Eysteinn
raised the stone in memory of Káti/Gaddi, his kinsman.
DR 365 #
And do we have a
’Gurtarno’ in the following inscription?
[tuka * l(e)t *
ri(s)a (*) st(e)ina (*) ţ... ... kuna * ţan * goţa * gurţaR
* arfa]
Tóka lét reisa
steina ... ... Gunna ţann Góđa, Gyrđar arfa.
Toka let
resa stena ... ... Gunna ţan Goţa, GyrţaR arfa.
DR 365 # Tóki had the stones raised ... ... Gunni the
good, Gyrđr's heir.
The Bronze of Ascoli is written in Latin
characters, but major part of the Celtiberian inscription are in runic
characters. A short introduction to runic inscriptions from the Iberian
Peninsula follows.
Iberian runic characters
There are three pre-Roman
alphabets in the Iberian peninsula: the South-West corner, also called
Tartessian, stretches through Algarve and Alemtejo, until the mouth of the
river Sado and western Andalusia; the South-East alphabet stretches through East Andalusia, Murcia, Albacete and
the Contestania; the Eastern alphabet stretches along the eastern coast up to the south of France until the rivers
Herault and Vidurle, where professor Guiter (according to some linguistic
features ) stablished the frontier between Iberians and Ligurians. This
alphabet reaches the region of Aragon up to the provinces of Huesca and Navarra (APV : 21)
The third alphabet is the one of interest here.
It has sylabic characters and some of the signs are common to the other two
alphabets.
There are clear similarities between these signs and
the North-Europeans futhark (Scandinavian) and futhork (Anglo-Saxon),
although nobody, as far as I know, has ever make comparative studies between
the two systems.
We will see later
that this is no mere coincidence and that it is worth to make comparative
studies. But the Iberian is much older than the
Scandinavian or
the Anglo-Saxon and also more primitive because it contained sylabic signs.
The process of deciphering the Celtiberian
alphabet has taken more than 60 years, so this introduction is indeed very
short. The version of the alphabet by W. Maid shows the final results of this
process and it will show to be very accurate.
Tovar mentions that
“Some
Scandinavian scholars from the seventeenth century believed they recognized runes in the Iberian
letters, which would prove them to be Visigothic.” (LSP : 7)
In the
seventeenth century the Iberian/Celto-Iberian inscriptions had not been
desciphered yet. The process took many decades until the Spanish scholar Gómez
Moreno (GM) made the most decisive work in the first half of the last century.
In recent years the archaeological site of Botorrita in Zaragoza province has
revealed important epigraphic documents, that puts the Iberian Penisula in
front page in Celtic studies and Indo-European research.
Zaragoza is
the Salduba of the Salyes mentioned before. The last Botorrita bronze plate
includes a long list of more than 200 names. The picture below shows the first
15 lines of the document as displayed by Prof. David Stifter
from the
University of Wien at the address:
http://www.univie.ac.at/indogermanistik/download/unterrichtsmaterial/stifter
As I said
before, the document is quiet new and it is being studied intensenly by
scholars, and the first results are probably on its way. If Gómez Moreno or
Tovar have had at hand during their time the instrument we have today, i.e. the
Internet, they would surely had come much farther than they did. To illustrate
this I have to go back now to the list of Carpato-Rutenian surnames that I
found in the pages of the Internet, as I mentioned in page 25. I pointed out
the existence of similar modern surnames in the Carpato-Ruthenian area and
Spain and Portugal. To my surprise (and the readers, I hope) some of the Carpato-Ruthenian
surnames are similar to some of the names from the Botorrita III bronze. It is
the case of names like Barnai, that in Celto-Iberian looks like this:
. Sura, 
. Elko, 
(ELKU). Rosko/Ruska, 
(RUSKU).
This is the
beginning of the discovery of a pattern showing that the European ethnic and
polictical map during the Roman empire was maybe as complicated as it was under
the Barbarian invasions some centuries later; it stablishes a relationship
beween the Roman times Ruteni and the Middel Ages Ruthenians from Northern
Europe and it shows signs of a relationship with Scandinavians long time before
it is described in Saxo.
The
comparative table below shows possible elements in common between Celtiberian
and Scandinavian names. There is no
doubt for me that future studies will bring a clearer picture. Experts in
Scandinavian runes are specially needed here in order to translate the two
first lines of the Botorrita III, which are the key to understand the meaning
of the long list of names:
01 risatioka
: lestera [:] ia : tarakui : nouiza : auzanto 02 eskeninum : taniokakue :
soisum : albana
|
Source
|
Celto-Iberian name |
Scandinavian
runic names |
|
Botorrita III |
skirtunos |
* skirlauh SÖ 147 # |
|
Botorrita III |
aiu, aiukue, aiuizas |
aiuisli
(Eyvísli(?).)aiuis (Eyvísl(?)),
aiuatr (Eihvatr) ÖG 8 $,
VG 119 |
|
Botorrita III |
buria |
halfburin (Halfborinn),
hoburi (Holmbjôr[n](?)), buri (Búri/Býri), ţiauburi (Ţjóđbjôr[g].), buris
(Buri) |
|
Botorrita III |
biurtilaur |
aaurfian (<laurfian>.) G 107 M |
|
|
tarkunbiur |
biurn (very frequent) DR 330 |
|
Botorrita III |
burzu |
burţiR × VG 90 |
|
Botorrita III |
amu |
amute (Ámundi) N 506 M |
|
Botorrita III |
aba |
aba (Apa/Ćbba ) DR
56 |
|
Botorrita III |
kasilos |
kase (Kasi/Gási) N 542 , U 249 |
|
Botorrita III |
tais |
taist (<taist>) U 1120
# |
|
Botorrita III |
kares |
kare (Kari) SÖ 298
|
|
|
kari |
kari (Kári) DR 287 |
|
Botorrita III |
katunos |
katu (Kátu) VG 79
|
|
Botorrita III |
kara |
kara (Kára) U 37 |
|
Botorrita III |
sura |
sira (Sibba(?))U 158 # |
|
Botorrita III |
ana |
anason (Arnasonr(?))N 78 M |
|
Botorrita III |
tokiosar |
tuki (Tóki),
mattiosa (Mattiasa), osa (Ása), osur ÖG 70 $,
VG 64 #M, |
|
Botorrita III |
ultinos |
hulti (Hulti) U
FV1976;104 |
Stifter 3.7.2 müntzen A.59
|
uarakos |
' uarasi ' Unsolved name in SÖ 210 (‘uarasi ' lit
' risa '...) |
|
Stifter 3.7.2 müntzen A.93 |
uarkaz |
uarkas (Vargas(?)) in U
337 |
|
Botorrita III |
kalos |
* kali (Kali) en U 708 |
|
Botorrita III |
II27 elkuanos I13 elkua :
ensikum I10 elkua :
raiokum |
U
FV1953;263 elka (Helga) Helga, Helge (Modern names) |
|
Botorrita III |
kaukirino |
U 174 # kauki <kauki> <kauţuR>. <oka>
ok Svćinn ok Sigstćinn(?) letu stćin ... ćftiR Kvik, brođur sinn. Hann v[a]R
<bruţru> <faţur> <kauki> <kauţuR>. |
|
Botorrita III |
I59 barnai |
DR 391 .. barni * auk * sibi ... Barni ok Sibbi |
The following example shows what it
could be common elements between the Iberian and the Scandinavian peninsulas.
Before the start of the English translation of the paper the list above and the
two examples that follow were for me strong arguments of this relationship: The
inscription in Latin to the left reads ARENTIO / SVNVA / CAMAL(i) F(ilia) / V(otum) S(olvit) L(ibens)
M(erito). (Chao do Touro, Portugal RP : 72) and the one to the right
from the Kirkdale sundial. (RP : 337).
The
difficulty in both runic systems to express the paired voiced-voiceless
consonants like g/k, p/b, t/d gave runic writers many problems. In the
following runic inscription we can apreciate the name KAMAL/GAMAL , curiously
it appears together with the name SAGSI/SAXI :
ÖL 69{37} $
olafR × auk × kamal
× auk × sagsi × raistu + stain × ţina × aftiR × [un × faţur × sin × kai](R)ui
lit × at × bonta × sin × hiarsu[k] kubl ţsi fiaRun olafR hefnt[i at miomu ati
un hiar hal](f)an by
Ólafr ok Gamall ok
Saxi reistu stein ţenna eptir Un, fôđur sinn. Geirvé lét at bónda sinn hérsug
kuml ţessi. Féar-Un Ólafr
hefndi at Muhumaa(?). Átti Unn hér halfan bý.
OlafR ok Gamall ok Saxi rćistu stćin ţenna ćftiR Unn, fađur sinn.
GćiRvi let at bonda sinn hiarsug kumbl ţessi. FeaR-Unn OlafR hćfndi at
Muhumma(?). Atti Unn hiar halfan by.
ÖL 69{37} $
Ólafr and Gamall and *Saxi raised
this stone in memory of Unnr, their father. Geirvé had these monuments (raised)
here in memory of her husbandsman. Ólafr avenged Féar-Unnr (Rich-Unnr) at
Mon(?). Unnr owned here half
the village.
And I say
curious because the name appears in both Latin sources:
* “L. Decidius Saxa, for
instance, who served with Caesar in the Ilerda campaign and later was elected
as a tribune of the plebs in 44 and served under Marcus Antonius in Syria until
his death there in 40 at the hands of Parthian invaders, was described by
Cicero as a Celtiberian, but was almost certainly born in Spain of Italian
descent.(138)” (Richardson. The Romans in Spain : 126)
and in runic inscriptions several times:
SÖ 250
kyna ¤ raisti ¤ stain ¤ ţina × aftiR : sagsa ÷ sun ¤
hlftahaR ¤
Gynna reisti stein ţenna eptir Saxa, son Halfdanar.
Gynna rćisti stćin ţenna ćftiR Saxa, sun HalfdanaR.
But a new and
stronger pattern appeared more recently when comparing the list of name from
Botorrita with ... the electronic telephone book from Lithuania! (An impossible task before Internet!).
Because it is indeed amazing that precisely the name 
SKIRTUNOS, the first name in the
Botorrita III list, appears more than two thousand years later in four
occasions as SKIRTUNAS in the on line telephone book of TAKAS, a Lithuanian telephone company
(picture below).
The reader should remark in the comparative
table from page 33 the name SKIRLAUH (Annexe Botorrita List) in the
Scandinavian rune. The name is probably formed from a very productive
Indo-European root sker/skel with the semantic content: “to
cut/divide/separate”.
What put me on the track of this unexpected
surce was the name of one of the first Lithuanian kings from the XIII century: SKIRGAILA.
That the name exists today in exactly the same form shows the archaic character
of Lithuanian that opens for new possibilities as we can see in the next lines.
The result of the comparaison between the old
bronze table and the modern digital telephone book is as follows (“Celtiberian”
names in first position, Lithuanian in second):
AUALOS (Stifter: 1 I55 aualos : kortikos) and
1 in a tessera in hand form: Stifter: K.0.2 ` hand (tessera Froehner) ': lubos:
I stake out | kum: aualo : ke | kontebiaz | belaiskaz), AVALAS-E-VICIUS
(3, This last name is bithematic. -vicius is the ending under Slavic
influence);
BABOS (Stifter: babos III56 : kentiskue: uiriaskum), BABAS (1);
BALAKOS (Stifter: balakos IV18 : sekonzos), BALAKAS (1);
BASAKU (Stifter: II32 basaku : uiriaskum), BASAKAS (3), BASAKIR (2);
BELSA (Stifter: I12 belsa : alasku[m ]), BELSA (1);
BIBALOS (II46 bibalos : atokum :), BUBALA (1);
BILINOS (Stifter: I20 bilinos : austikum), BILINA-VICIUS (2);
ESKUTINO (Stifter: II14 terkinos : austikum : eskutino)
SKUT/ SKUTAS/ SKUTAITE:
KABUTU (Stifter:IV14 kabutu : abokum), KABUTA-VICIUS (7);
KATUNOS (Stifter: katunos II53 : burikounikum), KATINAS (> 40);
KALOS (Stifter: I44 kalos : telkaskum), KALAS (35, monothematic and other bithematic ones);
KONTUZOS (Stifter: I2 kontuzos : turos), KONTUTIS (7)
KORKOS (Stifter: II37 kares: ?ruaku: korkos), KORKUS (3);
KUINTITAKU, Bithematic? (Stifter: III60 kuinti-taku : mailikinokum), KVINT-IENE (3 feminine ones), TAKUN (4);
LAUNIKUE (Stifter: III58 launikue : uiriaskum), LAUNIKONIS (several), LAUNIK-IENE (1 feminine one);
LUBOS (Stifter, Botorrita I: 1. lubos : kounesikum), LUBAS (6);
LUBINAZ (Stifter, Botorrita I: bintis: lubinaz : aiu), LUBINA (2), LUBINAS (3).
LUKINOS (II1 sekanos <:> kolukokum : lukinos), LUKIN (4);
MARKOS (Stifter: markos III43 : kalisokum), MARKUS (4);
MELMANIAS (Stifter: I27 melmanios : uiriaskum), MELMAN (1);
MUNIKA (6 in Botorrita), MUNIKAS (1);
SAKAROKAS (Stifter : K.18.4. ‘abstrakt’: sakarokas), SAKAS (8), ROKAS (29);
SEKANOS (Stifter: sekanos II1 <: > kolukokum:), SEKANAS (1);
STATULOS (Stifter: III26 uiroku: konikum: statulos), STATULU (Stifter: I3 retukenos: statulu),
STATULIKUM (Stifter, Botorrita III: 6, s: bintis: tirtanos: statulikum), STATUL-E-VICIUS (20 approx.);
STENION/STENIONTE or STENIONTES (Stifter : IV2 stenion†
: turikainos), STENIONIS (6 STENIONIS and 4 STENIONIENČ,
i.e. married to a STENION);
TAURUS (Stifter: Botorrita I; aiankum: taurus : bintis: letontu; aiankum: taurus : 8. ]tis), TAURAS (27);
TIRIU (Stifter: III31 tiriu : uiriaskum), TIRIUNAS (1), TIRIUS (1);
TITOS (Stifter: II9 usizu: abokum: titos), TITAS (11);
TOLOKU (Stifter: II44 toloku : kalisokum), TOLOKOV(1), TOLOK (2);
URKALA (Stifter: IV31 urkala : austunikum), URCHAIL
(Urchail Atitta
f(ilius) Chilasurgun portas fornac(es) aedificand(a) curavit de s(ua)
p(ecunia). CIL II, 1087. Latin
inscription from Ilipa), URKA, URKAS, URKEL (1 of each).
After seeing this I am more convinced that the
names in the Celtiberian inscriptions were “local” people and not professional
soldiers, even if we don´t know yet which ethnicity a “local” Celto-Iberian
had. It´s important here not to try to identify them with modern Spaniards or
Portuguese but try to look at that time with that times lenses.
How many of the local population survived the
Roman invasion? How many moved away from the Iberian Peninsula? The fact is
that we don´t have any record. We may consider this people as old-Europeans,
because the differentiation of the different Europe nations was only an
unwritten project at that moment. They were related to each other, but they had
different customs or languages.
Extending the search for common features
between Lithuanian names and other inscriptions from different parts of the
Iberian Peninsula the results obtained are promising too:
There is a STENIONTE (list above) in a
Latin inscription (ELH: 114) of unknown translation:
STENIONTE DOCILICO ANNIDIO AN GENTE MONIMAM, COUGIO
VISCI/CO MONIMAM
There are two Biles in the Lithuanian
phonebook that could be related to the name Bilistage (conditioned to a
bithematic Bilis-Tage), a chieftain of the Ilergetes mentioned in
Titus Livius (Liber XXXIV, XI)
BISTIROS (Stifter : K.0.11 ‘abstrakt’: a: arekorati b:
ka : kar c: sekilako : amikum ; melmunos | ata d: bistiros :
lastiko | ueizos), BISTURYS (1);
The Portuguese scholar Antonio Marques de
Faria, has published a series of works on paleo-Hispanic onomastics in the
Portuguese Magazine of Archaeology (VOL5)
ba´rta´sco. Plate of lead. Ullastret (Girona) MLH III 2
C.2.3. BARTAS (1)
baca´scetar.
Marca de dolium. Can Feu (Sant Quirze del Vallčs, Barcelona). Panosa, 2001.
; BAKAS (apox. 50).
BELCILESVS. Mosaic. Segobriga (Segobriga (Cerro de
Cabeza de Griego, Saelices, Cuenca). Gómez Pallarčs, 1997, p. 88-90. ; BELKA, BELKIN, BELKO (several).
BELTESONIS (gen.) (Gorrochategui,
1984a, p. 162, nr. 83);
BELTČ (2) SONIS (1).
bendian. Moedas/Coins. Indetermined mint
(Mendi?). CNH 257:1-8.; BENDIK,
BENDIKAS (many)
barscunez (abl. sg.) (Villar, 1995, p. 130) partilha com
aquela or mesmo meant, porquanto, second Tovar (1951, p. 277, 1961, p. 130)...barscunez
> bascunez (by assimilaçăo), BARSKUTIS,
BASKUS, BASKUTIS, VASKO, VASKUNAS
bengoda a origem do sufixo colectivo -goa,
reproduzido em Gipuzcoa, Nafarroa, Zuberoa (Trask, 1997, p. 332-333) e em
Ameskoa/Amescoa (Belasko, 19992, p. 65-66). Assim, bengoda constituiria a
designaçăo dos habitantes de *bendi/*barscu.* bendi/*barscu.; GODA (12).
berbai. Lead tessera. Camp de les Lloses (Barcelona). Panosa, 2001, p. 530-531.; BERBA (2).
ber´stan (G.17.1) (Faria, 1990-1991, p. 76, 84);
BERSTA (6).
BAILO <
*bai(i)ldun (Faria, 2000b, p. 61) ;
BAILO (1).
bonco. Lead plate. Punta del Castell (Palamós,
Girona). 2 MLH III C.4.1. ; BONKA (1), BONKYS (2)
cule´sa´r. Stone block. Ensérune (Hérault). Untermann,
1999 [ 2000 ], p. 107.; KULEŜ (several), KULEŜA
(several), KULEŜIUS (several), KULEŜO (several).
talscubilos (B.1.29) ; KUBILAS (several).
GESELANDEN (Faria, 199ä, p. 81-82) ; GESE-VICIUS
(several), LANDA (3), LANDO (1)
Se o ND STOLOCO (dat.) < *Stolocus <
*Stoloco, documentado numa inscriçăo votiva de Asque (Hautes-Pyrénées)
(Fabre, 1999, p. 155-156) ; STOLOKA (1).
LAVRVSVNI (dat.) (Labrousse, 1980, p. 493) ; LAURUSONIS (8)
URKA....enquanto
Alfaro (2001, p. 35) opta por Urkailtu em
detrimento de urCailbi... ; URKA, URKAS,
URKEL, URKIS (several).
BORCONIS (gen.) (Gorrochategui, 198â, p. 177, n.ş 112) ; BORKO (2).
MENDO derived from Belendo > Melendo > Menendo
> Meendo ; MENDUS (2).
Even inscriptions from the south-east part of
Spain, considered as strictly ”Iberians”, i.e. not ”Celto-Iberians”, shows
relationship with modern Lithuanian names.
Examples:
LAGUTAS (LSP : 54) ; LAGUTA (2), LAGUTINA (2);
SUISEBARTAS (LSP : 54, lead of Mula) , BARTAS (2);
Other:
APANA (ACS : 62), APANAS, APANA-VICIUS (7), (many);
MATUGENUS (ACS : 66), MATUS, MATUKAITIS, MATUKYNAS;
BOUITERUS (ACS : 66), BUI (1), TERAS (1);
This is in my opinion an overwhelming amount of
onomastical and toponimical data showing an unknown side of this Celtiberian
people with cultural elements close to what we consider Balto-Germanic. These
results set focus on the Baltic languages as a new instrument for better
understanding the pre-Roman languages in Portugal and Spain. Even if
Old-Prussian is extint today, the reconstructed dictionary available in Internet
(PRU) has made possible for me to find the remarkable case in the list
from page 18: the junniperus tree where
cadec and cadegs means the fruit and the tree in respectively
Catalonian and Old-Prussian languages.
Every year new discoveries brings small pieces
to add to this patern. Among the last curious artifacts unearthed in the area
of Botorrita is worth to mention a catapult proyectile bearing the
inscription 
: NAI and a hand showing a
characteristic sign of crossing fingers. Thinking of the catapult proyectile
one may consider logical that NAI here means could be related to the
Lithuanian verb naikinti : to destroy (pictures below).
Having the old Rutenei as the ancestors of
Baltic and Balto-Germanic peoples in mind we can again recognize their presence
as part of the Celtiberian world in other artifacts.
If we go back to the name of TATINOS a
similar name/word can be found in a silver dish from Spain STATINAS
(Stifter: K.20.1 teller: statinas).
Presumably is a person name: the owner of the dish, but we would expect
here STATINOS rather than STATINAS, which seems to be the nominative singular
ending in Celtiberian to judge from the many examples ending in
-os, while the ending -as is the modern
Lithuanian nominative. Then the Lithuanian surname we could expect to find in
the telephone book would be STATINAS, but maybe as an exception that
confirms the rule is the name STATINO that appears 17 times in the
telephone book. Other porssibility is the gen. sing. STATINAS in
old-Lithuanian meaning “the property of Statino/s”. The modern
Lithuanian substantive statine meaning barrel, cask, tun, is after all
semantically close to the one of a dish. In modern Spanish the term tina
means a large jar or a bath tube. The correct interpretation of the inscription
is in all cases not easy.
A second example is composed of three words
ingraved on both sides of a spindel whorl found in the Spanish village of
Monreal de Ariza (picture beneth):
(Stifter : Ill. 3.65. & 3.66.: K.7.1) – spinnwirtel (spindeln
whorl) aus
Monreal
de Ariza (Zaragoza), inschrift:
susatikalim
as uta oder uta
as
(aus MLH IV, 658)
In this inscription it was the old-Prussian
word TUKÂRÎS meaning weaver (TUKÂRÎS Tuckoris And 454: Weber/weaver (PRU)
that gave me the idea, that there could be a connexion between tukaris
and the –tikalin from the inscriptiom, because a spindel whorl is
something related to textile fabrication.
How the spindel, one of the oldest inventions
of mankind, can have influenced in the development of semantics related to the
making of texiles is dificcult to say today, more than five thousand years
after the first spindel. It is interesting to note in this context that the
German tuche or Swedish tygg have the same meaning as the
Sumerian túg, cloth, stuff. In Spanish the word toca means the
toque or hairdrees worn by nuns and in French toque is the
high cap worn by cooks. The
dictionary of the Royal Academy of Spain gives the Welsh toc for the
ethimology of the word. These terms describing a piece of stuff placed upon the
head coincides with the word tukka, that in one of the Laponian
languages means the piece of stuff that covers the head of the bride under the
wedding ceremony. Similarly the Stonian
tukka means forelock and the Finnish tukkas means the hair
of the head.
The possibility of an Indo-European loan as the
roots (s)teg- or stegh- could point to, (Stockholm f.e. is Tukholma
in Finnish), opens for a broad
ethimologic explanations.
It could be the case for example:
Tachras winding yarn, Irish tocharais, tochardadh,
Middle Irish tochartagh: * to-cert -, root qert, wind, as in ceirtle.
In both cases the remaining word, susa-,
needs to be explained. At first sight my first though was the latin sursum, up,
existing in Spanish as suso, derivated from the Indo-European *uper-.
In this case I was thinking on the placement of the “winding device” in the
“upper part” of a loom. This idea fitted with the other side of the whorl,
where I identified as with the personal pronoun As : I, in both old-Prusian and modern
Lihtuanian,
AS
pn 1 nom sg as 3712: ich/I (PRU)
and uta with a derivative from the
Indo-European root u:>d- (Pokorny: got. u:t Adv. ` hinaus, heraus'... lit. uz^ - ` auf -, hinauf -, zu -
'... got. uta Adv. ` drauszen') : i.e. out, outside, away.
The word uta is recorded twice in
Botorrita I: (Stifter: 3.7.7.1. Botorrita I: tamai: uta : oskuez: stena
/eni: uta : oskuez: boustomue) and
in the inscription of Peńalba de
Villastar in Latin characters still without translation (Stifter K.3.3: UTA
· TIGINO · TIATVMEI.).
The meaning of the inscription then would be a
kind of instructions of use: as uta : I outside (This side out)
and susa tikalim something like:
upper part of the loom. But seeing the simplicity of construction
of a spindel the old-Irish sůist: flail, thrashing instrument, i.e. a
long piece of wood (sůist to flail, Irish suist(e), Middle Irish
sust, suiste, Welsh ffust, Norse thust, sust,
flail; from Latin fustis, club.), is more descriptive and t
Osfriesisches Museum.
is not very distant of the term huso, spindel, in
use in
Emden modern Spanish
And if this was the case, what is the meaning
then of tikalim? There is also the possibility of uta as a person
name, so it could explain a translation of the type: I Uta wind yarn
with the spindel.
As we can see the possibilities of explanation
are multiple and the only sign of being in the right direction is the semantic
related to the making of texiles written on an object used for this purpose.
From Ruthenians to Russians and Prussians
When Plinius (23-79 AC.) praised the quality of the wowen
fabrics from the Gallia for both sailcloth and women fashion:
”... Cadurci,
Caleti, Ruteni, Bituriges ultimique hominum existimati Morini, immo vero
Galliae universae vela texunt, iam quidem et transrhenani hostes, nec
pulchriorem aliam vestem eorum feminae novere... (Plinius. Liber XIX, ii 8)
he was perharps echoing Plautus (254 - 184
BC.), who long before had observed the production of textiles made of flax:
Linna cooperta est textrino Gallia
(Plautus LV (LXXX).
That this activity also was spread among
Celtiberians witnesses the innumerable loom weights found all around the
Iberian Peninsula. The Morini living in the area around the mouth of the Rhine
in the most remote Roman frontier “…ultimique hominum existimati Morini…”
are together with the Caleti considered as Belgians (the Caleti have given name
to Calais).
Why Plinius brings here the Ruteni from Rodez
and the Cadurci from Cahors, both living at a distance between them as long as
the distance to the “Celto-Ibero-Belgians” from Contrebia Belaiscom (11)
(the village of Botorrita´s Celto-Iberian name) in the north of Spain. The name
Morini is a latinized form of the Celtic root *mori : sea, meaning the people
living beside the sea.
* (to muir: the is, Irish to muir, Old Irish to
muir, gene dwells, Welsh môr, Cornish, mor Breton, mor Gaulish -: * mori -, is;
Latin mare; English mere, German to meer; Ch.Slavonic morje).
The reason why Plinius mentioned Morini,
Caleti, Ruteni and Cadurci in the same group could be existence in Plinius´s
time of Ruthenians in the area of the English Channel. This idea came to me
because of following: the name of the Morinis capital is recorded in Ptolemus
and Antonins Itinerarium as Tarvenna and Tervanna in the
Peutinger tablets. Much later in G. Buchanans Rerum Scoticarum Historia, (1582),
the city is called Teroven, i.e. the Tarvenna, Thyrvanda the
present-day French city of Therouanne (12), mentioned also in Orbis Latinus
(2nd edition) Dr. J. G. Th.
Graesse.Richard Carl Schmidt & Co.; Berlin 1909 electronic edition at
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/header.html.
In the History of the Kings of England by
Geoffrey de Monmouth, which has given origin to the legend of King Arthur, the
name of the English Channel is called the Sea of the Ruthenes:
"About this time it happened, (as found
in the Roman Histories) that Julius Caesar, having subdued Gaul, came to the
shore of the Ruteni..." (BRI: 54)(Description of Julius
Caesar´s arrival in his book IV to the coast of the North Sea to prepare the
invasion of Britania).
The name, according to the translator Brut and
Bryttaniait (BRIT), another version of the same history written in Welsh
and also known as the ‘Tysilio Chronicle’ or’ The Jesus College MS LXI’., is
the translation of the Welsh term “mor rrydd”
17 The
English Channel. LXI gives mor rrydd, which, as Griscom points out (p. 537),
more properly translates as the Sea of the Ruteni (OFr. Rudein), the Ruteni
inhabiting southern Gaul in Roman times. Thee ancient form mor rrydd
indicates the great antiquity of some of the material in LXI's prologue. The
modern Welsh form of its name is Mor Udd. (BRIT : 8,
note 17)
The translator remarks in note 468 that the
Welsh name of Rwitton in the manuscript means Ruteni:
LXI = Rwytton, the Ruteni of southern
Gaul. (BRIT : 59)
And there are still more signs of the Ruteni in
the area. Somewhere else in the texts, BRI and BRIT, we can read
that Holdin, the King/Duke of the Ruteni, one of the allies of King Arthur, was
carried after his dead to Flanders to be buried at his home town, Terivana:
"From the parts beyond the sea
came Holdin King of Ruteni; ... " (BRI: 162)
And from the land of Gaul came
Oldin, lord of the Ruteni,468 (BRIT: 59)
"From the duchies of Gaul, that
is, of the Ruteni, the Portunians, the Estrusians, the Cenomanni, the Andegavians,
and Pictavians, were eighty thousand...."(BRI: 180)
And amongst Arthur's men there were
slain Holdin, lord of the Ruteni, and Leodegar of Boulogne. (BRIT: 64)
"Also Holdin, duke of Ruteni,
was carried to Flanders, and buried in his own City Terivana." (BRI: 188)
"And Holdin, lord of the
Ruteni, was born to Flanders..." (BRIT: 65)
But even if these arguments support the theory
of a Ruthenian presence in the area of the Channel, there are no sources that
mention a movement of peoples from this are towards the Baltic area. However
one can imagine how the Roman invasion of Gaul pushed the survivors of
countless massacres to scape from Gaul to regions, where from their ancestors
probably had migrated centuries before to southwestern part of Europe.
We may consider for example the Armoricani was
an umbrella of peoples/tribes that included among them the Veneti (13):
"… the states touching the Ocean, called
by them the Armoric, among whom are the Curiosolites, Redones, Ambibarii,
Caletes, Osismi, Veneti, Lemovices and Venelli. ..." (Caesar
De Bello Gallico vii.75)
the well
known people of much-discussed ethnicity,
"These Veneti exercise by far the most
extensive authority over all the sea-coast in those districts, for they have
numerous ships, in which it is their custom to sail to Britain, and they excell
the rest in the theory and practice of navigation. ..." (Caesar De Bello
Gallico iii.8)
who suffered an annihilating defeat under
Caesar, but who nevertheless appeared again some centuries after as a strong
culture in the Gulf of Botnia, the “Sinus Venedicus” of Ptolemćus, and the
Scandinavian Peninsula, where they are related to the Vendel Culture (V-VI C.
AD.). The same is the case with the coincidence in the name of the Lemovices
from the central part of Gaul and the Lemovii mentioned in Tacitus (Germania
43,6) in the neighbourhood of the Rugii, Gotones and Veneti. That means that
this migration either took place very quickly, (Ptolemćus and Tacitus are from
the II C. AD), or there was Veneti, Ruteni, Lemovii and others stablished both
in Gaul, Spain and the Baltic area. These peoples were skilled traders and sea
farers and perharps the name Ruteni doesn´t mean after all reds or ruddy blonds
but sea farers as the etymology term rhyd : ford could
indicate:
per-tu-, por-tu-, Gen. pr?-teus `Durchgang,
Furt': av. p?r?tu-š m. f. (urar. *pr?tu?-š) und p?šu-š m. (urar. *pr??tu-š)
`Durchgang, Furt, Brücke' (hu-p?r??wa- `gut zu überschreiten' = `Euphrat');
lat. portus, -u-s `Haustüre' (XII tab.); `Hafen', angi-portus `enge Passage,
Nebengäßchen'; daneben a--St. porta `Stadttor, Tor' = osk. [p]u?rtam; illyr. ON
Nau-portus; gall. ritu- `Furt' in Ritumagus, Augustoritum, acymr. rit,
ncymr. rhyd, corn. rit `Furt'; ahd. furt, ags. ford `Furt'
(hochstufig aisl. fjo?rđr `enger Meerbusen' aus *per-tu-s); daneben f. i-St. im
nhd. ON Fürth (*furti-). (Pokorny : 817)
We may have in mind here the passage of Saxo
seen before about the Ruthenian viking Rřdd and consider the possibility that
Morini and Ruteni were the first vikings (14).
Where did the Ruthenian end?
The Ukrainian scholar Omeljan Pritsak who has
written a very exhaustive study of the origins of Rus (RUS) brings new
information about the Ruteni in their appearance in the North Sea area.
Within the time span from the
stablishment of the Roman Empire to the ninth century, four significant
historical events, each producing chain reactions, took place, that are
relevant to the emergence of Rus:
“1) The desertion of the Roman limes (Rhine-Danube line) by the
Roman legions (ca. A.D. 400) and the apperance in history of the Franks,
Frisians, and Anglo-Saxons;
2) The organization of a new
type of steppe empire – the Avar Pax centered in present-day Hungary (ca.
568-799); the activization of the Slavs and the “restraint” of the
Scandinavians;
3) The intrusion of the Arabs
into the basin of Mare Nostrum and of the Khazars into Eastern Europe (ca. A.D.
650) and the Abbaside economic revolution (750);
4) The destruction of the Avar
Pax, the ‘Renovatio imperii’ by Charlemagne (800), the ‘burst’ of the
Scandinavians (The ‘Viking Age’ 793- ),
and the Slavic Christian mission. (RUS : 9)
With basis in Byzantine and Arabian
sources Prisak writes about two important trade-centers run by the (14) Rādāniya and the Rūs:
”The
Rādāniya and the Rūs were both based in Roman Gaul, the
Rādāniya around Arles and Marseilles, the Rus in a region of
present-day south-central France near Rodez (the old Rutenicis, from Celto-Latin Ruteni or Ruti, which
had changed into Rusi in Middel
French, and into Rūzzi in Middel
German...” (RUS : 24)
Pritsak gives a more detailed explanation in another
volume not accesible for me but afortunately recorded in Hĺkon Stang ´s book:
1. Pritsak 1990,
465-474. Al-Mas’udi’s al-lwdgāna/al-kwdkāna are read
> al-lwdmān > al-Lo(r)dom.na.
Rus« is explained from German rut-i > ruzz-i, in Old French *rud-i,
cf 6th c. Rut-en-is > c. 1260 Rodeis > Rodez. His Mağūs theory
we have referred already. (NR : 169)
This is
more or less the same observation made by Hĺkon Stang on the possible
identification of the old Ruteni in the Ruthenians, but Pritsak accepts the
relationship between Ruteni and Ruthenian, though he wonders how they can
appear so suddenly in the 8th century:
“Now we
are faced with an unexpected phenomenon. The Rūs, who had
just emerged from obscurity, were already skilled international merchants. Who
were these Rūs? They
were certainly not a primitive tribal group with no knowledge of geography,
foreign languages, or economics.
The
Rādāniya discovered Eastern Europe as a commercial base shortly after
750 and, as numismatic data have confirmed, their activity continued until the
830s:
It is
clear why the Radaniya were the first traders to enter Eastern Europe. With the
division of the Mare Nostrum between them about 660, neither Muslims nor
Christians could travel and trade freely on the sea, since they were in a
continuous state of war…
... In the
meantime, the non-Jewish fellow merchants from Rodez/Rutenicis had also determined to seek access to this
eastern El Dorado. Since they could not use the Mare Nostrum, they (like
Christopher Columbus at a later date) decided to sail around it.
Old
Scandinavian tradition gives as a paramount event, whose date modern scholars
have stablished as ca. 770, the Battle of Brávellir between the Old Danish
(Skjoldunger) and Frisian (Rutenian)
dynasties, which ended with the victory of the latter. Since among the battle´s
participants the name Rus and its
correspondences are attested, we may assume that by that time the Rodez company
had already entered into competition with the Rādāniya.” (RUS : 24-25)
”…Already
during the 830s the Volga Rūs were to eliminate the Rādāniya
from competition in Eastern Europe.” (RUS : 28)
In the period close to the fall of the Roman Empire, when the Franks,
Saxons Suebian, Goths, etc., after having crossed the borders of the Roman
Empire, were now fighting each other. Gregory of Tours still calls the city of
Rodez “urbs Rutena”, where he
notices the presence of Goths in the city in opossition to the bishop of the
city, Quintianus, who …
“For they said: "It is your
desire that the rule of the Franks be extended over this land." A few days
later a quarrel arose between him and the citizens, and the Goths who
dwelt in the city became suspicious when the citizens charged that he wished to
submit himself to the control of the Franks; they took counsel and decided to
slay him with the sword. When this was reported to the man of God he rose in the night and
left the city of Rodez with his most faithful servants and went to Clermont.”
(Gregory of Tours.History of the
Franks. L.II, 36)
“Unde factum est,
ut Quintianus Rutenorum episcopus per hoc odium ab urbe depelleretur. ... cum
fidelissimis ministris suis ab urbe Rutena egrediens, Arvernus
advenit…”
(GREGORII TURONENSIS [538-594 AD] HISTORIARUM LIBER SECUNDUS, 36)
From this
episode to the trade company mentioned by Pritsak goes a period of time of
nearly 400 years. As we can see Pritsak connects the Ruthenians from the
southern part of France with the Frisians as developers of the North Sea trade
following the closing of the Mediterranean trade routes by the Arabs. We may
presume that this happened long time before, as the trade of fabrics between
Gallia and Rome already has been mentioned by Plinius. The logical explanation
is that trade was now overtaken by the new Germanic invaders, and we have still
approx. 300 years to the Arab invasions. This is at least the conclusion of
Pirenne in Mohammed and Charlemagne, a capital study of this period, that gives
a picture full of nuances:
“The
Roman colonists remained tied to the soil to which the imposts had attached
them. Instead of paying a Roman, they paid a German master. …
The great
Gallo-Roman or Hispano-Roman or Italo-Roman estates survived. There were still
enormous latifundia; there is record of one which numbered 1,200 slaves. …
In
Provence, during the Merovingian epoch, the system of tenure was entirely
Roman. Here, it seems, there were only small estates exploited by colonists …
The
population of Narbonne in 589 consisted of Goths, Romans, Jews, Greeks and
Syrians.” (p. 75-93)
For Hĺkon
Stang, who already has rejected the idea of a possible connection between
Ruteni and Ruthenians as an anachronism, the theories of Pritsak are
categorically dismissed, but while doing this he brings important information
that only an expert in Arabic as him would be in condition to assemble. Part of
this information concerns unsolved problems that has wexed Scandinavian
scholars for years. One of them is the term mağūs used by
Arabian sources to designate the ”ar-Rus” or people from the north:
”…the very
name al-Mağūs is not taken out of
the blue. This usage, Mağūs = Vikings, has
puzzled scholars. Although acquiring by and by a rough meaning of ’northern
pagans’, the technical import is probably, originally, ’Magian, Zoroastrian’;
which of course is something these Norsemen were not. Even the translation
'fire-worshippers' is far from apposite.1 Norsemen were not fire-worshippers. How come, then, that they came to
be termed thus nevertheless?2
One
(part-)explanation has hitherto not been suggested: In Hiberno-Latin texts,
magus is the standard word for the Irish druids; it is met with twice in
Ps.-Aethicus.3 With the Norsemen coming from Ireland, we cannot really exclude
the possibility that this usage was at play; indeed, it might be deemed an
extra indication that Ireland is where they came from.
A ’Celtic
explanation’ from just across the Spanish border is however to be dismissed.4”
4. Pritsak 1990,
465-474 insists that al-Mağūs reflects Celtic magos = ’forum’,
Arabic quran ’marketplace’ (sic - incorrect, HS), on the strength of the four
placenames Carantomagos, Cabiomagos, Condatomagos, Vindomagus. That magos was
used independently, in the 8th-9th cc., to designate a group of
merchant-pirates, is not credible - and why then only in the Arabic sources? (NR : 153-154)
The
answer to this question should be obvious: because these mağūs
were not necessarily the red/blond ”norsemen” Hĺkon Stang has in mind, but the
Rus from Rodez from the other side of the Pyrennees and other Germanic and
Celtic people (Goths were there as seen above), quiete the same way as Greek
called Scythians to all barbarians. If this was the right conclusion then
confusing episodes like this will have a logical explanation:
“This
conclusion is not vitiated by the occurrence of the name in later sources
referring to Mağūs north of Spain in
the 8th c., e.g. Ibn al-Atīr (d. 1233) on Alfons the Chaste, king of
Galicia (791-842), being aided by al-Mağūs in
his campaign against the Arabs, 795 A.D.:5
‘Then
commenced the year 179 [from March 27, 795]. On the expedition against the
Franks in al-Andalus: In that year Hišām the master of al-Andalus sent a
numerous army on the march, over them [stood] ‘Abd al-Malik b. ‘Abd
al-Wāhid.b Mugīt, to Galicia. So they travelled until they ended up
in Asturqa. Adfūnaš was king of the
Galicians, and had gathered and amassed [troops]. The king of the Basques
joined up with him, and they are his neighbours, plus those bordering on them
of the Mağūs and the
inhabitants of those reaches. So he issued forth in a mighty throng...’
Likewise,
Ibn ‘Idārī:1 (15)
In the
year 177 [from 18/4-793 - HS] the Imām Hišām sent ‘Abd al-Malik b.
‘Abd al-Wāhid b. Mugīt at the head of a summer expedition to the land
of ar-Rūm. It is a renowned
raid, one of the most significant. He ended up in it in Garonne, besieging it
and forcing a breach in its walls by mangonels. He drew close to (‘ašrafa
‘alā) the land of the Mağūs, and he toured the
land of the enemy, staying there for months, burning the villages and razing
the fortresses. He attacked the town of Arbūna (=Narbonne)...” (NR
: 154-156)
One scholar has
underscored the overriding importance of this identification of the Atlantic Mağūs with the
Rūs, yet finding no solution.4
Highly original is Pritsak, who in Pagus Rotinicus
= ’land of the Ruteni’, a part of Aquitaine, finds both
the Mağūs and the origins of the Rūs: “The
Magos’es which were also called Rus and Lordoman - (N)ordoman were... an
organization of both ambulant negociatores-merchants and pirates.’ With the
type of ’proofs’ given, anything can be proven.1
1. Pritsak 1990,
465-474. Al-Mas’udi’s al-lwdgāna/al-kwdkāna are read
> al-lwdmān > al-Lo(r)dom.na.
Rus« is explained from German rut-i > ruzz-i, in Old French *rud-i,
cf 6th c. Rut-en-is > c. 1260 Rodeis > Rodez. His Mağūs theory
we have referred already. (NR : 169)
How the name Ruthenian gradually developpes to be
synomnymous with Russian must be the object of a future study. Their language
is extinct like Old Prussian, Gothic and some of the minor languages in the
Baltic.
Notes:
(1 p. 3). Beginning of the hostilities with
Rome in time of emperor M. Aurelius, 161-180 A.D.. They become associated to
Rome as "foederati", but they fight against Rome in the 245. Under
Constantin (312-337 AC.) they help
himin the civil war against Licinius and put 40,000 soldiers at his
disposition.
(2 from p. 3) Jordanes Getica is in his own
words an abridged version of the History of the Goths in twelf volumes written
by Cassiodorus (490 -585), a senator at the Ostrogothic king Theodoric court. The books has never
been found. More information can be found in CAS and CASS.
(3 from p. 5)
… erant si
quidem et alii Gothi, qui dicuntur minores, populus inmensus, cum
suo pontifice ipsoque primate Vulfila, ... (JOR : §267),
LI (267) There were other Goths
also, called the Lesser, a great people whose priest and primate was
Vulfila, who is said to have taught them to write. And to-day they are in
Moesia, inhabiting the Nicopolitan region as far as the base of Mount Haemus.
They are a numerous people, but poor and unwarlike, rich in nothing save flocks
of various kinds and pasture-lands for cattle and forests for wood. Their
country is not fruitful in wheat and other sorts of grain. Certain of them do
not know that vineyards exist elsewhere, and they buy their wine from
neighboring countries. But most of them drink milk. (Translated
by Charles C. Mierow. http://www.ucalgary.ca )
A document from the XIIITh C. mentions the
existence of fortified stronholds in posession of Goths speaking “Teutonic”:
Now from
Kersona all the way to the mouth of the Tanais there are high promontories
along the sea, and there are forty hamlets between Kersona and Soldaia, nearly
every one of which has its own language; among them were many Goths, whose
language is Teutonic. (William of Rubruck´s Account of
the Mongols -Willem van Ruysbroeck, ca.
1210-ca. 1270- at
http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/rubruck.html)
The Goths pressed by the Huns received land in
Thrace and Moesia from the Roman emperor Valens (364-368 A.D..) in exchange of
conversion to Christianity and help to defend his territory.
According to Jordanes (JOR : §131-132) they
converted to the heretic faith of arianism, which was the faith of the Roman
emperor. The Visigoths in Spain remained faithful to this heresy until king
Recared in 589 abjured arrianism.
(4 from p. 8).
Crimean Gothic is almost universally recognized as Gothic on the grounds
of its phonological features: the word ada "egg", for
instance, shows the typical Gothic "strengthening" of Proto-Germanic
*-jj- into -ddj- (as in Ulfilian Gothic iddja
"went" from PGmc. *ejjon), being from PGmc. *ajja-.
(Crimean gothic : analysis and etymology of the
corpus / MacDonald Stearns, Jr.)
(5 from p. 8).
The extinction of Gothic as language represents in fact the
disappearance of that people from history, although we may presume that the
rest of the population were not annihilated
but gradually absorbed by other groups. It is the eternal problem of the
ethnic identification of a population by its language, a delicate matter and
full of political connotations and latent conflicts in many countries today.
In the case of the Goths of Crimea its destiny
is the one to finish being absorbed by the Greeks and the Tartars who were
later absorved by the Russians and Ukranians. In the XVIIIth century, under
Catherine the Great, the Khanat of Crimea, which had survived as a more or less
independent state the Mongol (XIII C.) and the Ottoman Turks invasions (S. XV),
became part of the Russian empire. The Greek population of Crimea obtained then
permission of the empress to found the colony of Mariupol in the borders of the
Sea of Azov, whereas many of the Turks migrated to Turkey. Greeks and Turks
were prosecuted by Stalin after World War II. Today Crimea is a part of Ukraine. The return to Crimea of about 200,000
Turkish-speaking people as a consecuence of Gorbatjevs Perestroika can be for
example cause of future political tensions between Turkey and Ukrania.
One interesting detail about the extinction of
the Gothic language: the mention in the Dictionnaire Historique of Moréri,
édition of 1759, of the existence in Carcassonne of very old documents
written in special/extrange characters on tree bark and tissue:
"On voit dans
la Cité un château assez fort oů l'on conserve des actes trčs anciens et d'une
écriture particuličre, sur des écorces d'arbre et sur de la toile, dont il y en
a plusieurs qu'on croit y avoir été apportés par les Wisigoths aprčs la prise
de Rome."
That the Goths preserved ancient documents
wrotten in a special writing on tree bark matches with the funds from Novgorod
on beech bark, whose existence was not known for anyboy in 1759. The author of
the Dictionnaire did´nt had any interest in inventing such a rumour. The
documents were kept in the city archives that were were burned out during the
French Revolution.
Le 30 brumaire de
l'an Il, les Archives de la Cité furent brűlées par les autorités
révolutionnaires, sur la place de la liberté.
(Source: La cité de Carcassonne a-t-elle
renfermé une partie des trésors du temple de Jérusalem ? Que sont devenus ces
trésors ? F. Jaffus en http://www.octonovo.org/RlC/Fr/biblio/div/jffs.htm)
(6 p. 9) Arne Sřby Christiansen in his work
Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths. Studies in a Migration Myth....
There is no doubt that the reasons for Casiodoro and Jordanes are those to
raise the virtues from a town to imitation of the many Greek and Roman authors
and is very presumable who the story is full of inventions. Nobody has treated
thorough more the subject on the reasons for Casiodoro and Jordanes that
professor J.J. O´Donnell of the University of Pensilvania whose work I send to
the interested reader.
The Orthodox Church of the Ukraine admits the
existence of a Goth community in Crimea from the oldest times. Between the list
of martyrs
"There plows to number of Martyrs of
Crimea listed in the Orthodox to calendar who should be in the to calendar of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church since they were of the earliest Church
communities on what was to become eventually Ukrainian territory:
St Bathusius, St Bercus, St Arpilus, St Abibas,
St Agnus, St Reasus, St Igathrax, St Iscoeus, St Silas, St Signicus, St
Snoriulus, St Suimbalus, St Thermus, St Phillus, St Anna, St Alla, St Larissa,
St Manca, St Mamica, St Virko, St Animais, St Gaatha, Queen of the Goths and St
Duklida the Gothic Princess and St Hermenigild the Gothic Prince, the to
soldier Isaiah. These and others to number dwells than 300 Martyrs of
Crimea."
"There was also to Gothic Christian
community in Crimea and St. John, Bishop of the Goths in Crimea took part in
Church Councils on behalf of his flock. The Ukrainian Church there are always
had devotion to two Gothic Saints, Nikita and Sava, especially in the Bukovina
and Bessarabia regions.
St. Sava Stratelates
or the General is honoured along with his group of 70 soldiers, Gothic Martyrs
(April 24).
(Source:
http://www.unicorne.org/orthodoxy/default.htm)
This is the Orthodox Church so far. The
Catholic Church admits a series of martyrs who in the year 375 A.D.. were
slained by orders of the Gothic king Ungerik.
Fathers: Bathusius , Vercus and the
munk Aprila.
Paysans: Avius, Agnus, Reas, Hegathrax,
Silas, Sigicius, Sonorilus, Suimulius, Fermus, Fillus, Konstans
Paysans: Larissa (Lara), Anna, Alla,
Moiko, Mamika, Wirko, Animaisa (Animaida)
(7 from p. 10) This is how Pritsak (RUS :
3-4) describes the origin of the controverse:
“On September 6, 1749, Gerhard Friedrich
Müller (b. 1705, d. 1783), the official Russian imperial historiographer and a
member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, rose to deliver
an anniversary speech on the origins of Russia entitled ‘Origines gentis et
nominis Russorum.’ The text he was about to present was based on research
published in 1736 by his older compatriot, Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer (b. 1694,
d. 1738), who had introduced such sources as the Annales Bertiniani and works
by the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus into East European scholarship. From
these, Academian Müller had developed the theory that the ancient state of
Kievan Rus´was founded by Norsemen, and it was this theory that he intended to
propound in his address.
Müller never finished his lecture. As he spoke
tumult arose among the Russian members and ‘adjuncts’ of the Imperial Academy
in protest against the ‘infamous’ words they were hearing. One of them, the
astronomer Nikita Ivanoviĉ Popov (b. 1720, d. 1782) exclaimed, ‘ Tu,
clarissime auctor, nostrum gentem infamia afficis!’… ”
(8 from p. 11) The emperor Constantin according
to some sources like Julian the Apostate was not Roman of origin but Thracian
from Moesia and its maternal language
was not Latin.
(9 from p. 12)
In this group, after some corrections, are representatives of the
populations that today we find in the Baltic Sea area and Laponia (JOR: note
367). Mordens are assumed to be the ancestors of present-day
Mordvinians - corrected to Mordens in Niscaris instead of Mordens, Imniscaris-,
the Thiudos, - corrected to Thiudos in Auxis- (known in Russian
chronicles as Cud /chud/, presumedly the Liygi), the Vasinabroncas
- corrected to You go in You bawl out- ( Ves in Russian chronicles) and the Merens or Merians
(according to A.M. : 165 ancestors of the Estonians), were people of the
linguistic family of the fineone that were extended by the Eastern zone of the
Baltic until the river basin of the rivers Volga and Oka, Bielorusia and part
of Ukraine.
The subject continues being discussed with very
divergent opinions. The Danish historian
Arne Sřby Christiansen mentioned before (CASS: Chapter Six, : 158),
dedicates a whole chapter to the compilation of all the published works of
importance from the XVIII C., that treat the subject.
(10
from p. 24) The poet Lucanus was a nephew of Seneca. Both were born in Spain,
but Lucanus went to Rome as a child. When describing the Ruteni as blonds he
may have done it based on personal experience f.ex. through his family.
Only people with local knowledge could have
known a minor river as the Cinga (present-day Cinca, an affluent of the
Ebro); a name that looks like it has given translators some confusion, for
Marlowe (see The river Cinga beneth ) translates it as Cinga while Ridley
translates it as the Saone. In the fourth book the Cinga appears in
relation with the Sicoris (present-day Segre) and the city of Ilerda
(present-day Lerida/Lleida).
The
wind Circius was described by Plinius, Seneca and Aulus Gellus. The
northern wind is still known in the northeast of Spain as cierzo.
The poem of Lucanus can be translated very
freely, as we can see in the different translations to the verse quoted by HS:
”…solvuntur flavi longa statione Ruteni.”
”…The blond Rutenians were freed from a long
occupation. …”
(Lucanus, Bellum Civile, ed. W Ehlers, Munich 1973,
30-31:)
M. ANNAEI LVCANI BELLI CIVILIS LIBER
PRIMVS. (Known as PHARSALIA)
(A.D. 39–A.D. 65,)
...soluuntur flaui longa statione
Ruteni;
mitis Atax Latias gaudet non ferre
carinas
finis et Hesperiae, promoto limite, Varus;
quaque sub Herculeo sacratus nomine
portus 405
urguet rupe caua pelagus: non Corus
in illum
ius habet aut Zephyrus, solus sua
litora turbat
Circius et tuta prohibet statione Monoeci:...
Marlowes translation:
The yellow Ruthens left their
garrisons;
Mild Atax glad it bears not Roman
boats,
And frontier Varus that the camp is
far,
Sent aid; so did Alcides port, whose
seas
Eat hollow rocks, and where the northwest
wind
Nor zephyr rules not, but the north
alone...
--------------------------------
Sir Edward Ridley (Longmans, Green,
and Co., London, 1896).
The fair-haired people of Cevennes are free:
Soft Aude rejoicing bears no Roman keel,
Nor pleasant Var, since then Italia's bound;
460
The harbour sacred to Alcides' name
Where hollow crags encroach upon the sea,
Is left in freedom: there nor Zephyr gains
Nor Caurus access, but the Circian blast (16)
Forbids the roadstead by Monaecus' hold
____________Circius____________________
Naturalis Historia II.lxvi.121)
Similarly, in Narbonensis province
the most famous of the winds is the circius, second to none in its
force, usually propelling [ships] straight to Ostia by cutting across the
Ligurian Sea: yet not only is this wind unknown in the other quarters of the
sky, but it doesn't even reach Vienna [modern Vienne] in the very same
province: a few miles before it this mighty wind is checked by the
interposition of a range of rather average height!'
______________The river Cinga_______________
...tum rura Nemetis
qui tenet et ripas Atyri, qua litore curuo 420
molliter admissum claudit
Tarbellicus aequor,
signa mouet, gaudetque amoto
Santonus hoste
et Biturix longisque leues Suessones
in armis,
optimus excusso Leucus Remusque
lacerto,
optima gens flexis in gyrum Sequana
frenis, 425
et docilis rector monstrati Belga
couinni,
Aruernique, ausi Latio se fingere fratres
sanguine ab Iliaco populi, nimiumque
rebellis
Neruius et caesi pollutus foedere
Cottae,
et qui te laxis imitantur, Sarmata,
bracis 430
Vangiones, Batauique truces, quos
aere recuruo
stridentes acuere tubae; qua Cinga
pererrat
gurgite, qua Rhodanus raptum uelocibus
undis
in mare fert Ararim, ...
------------------------------------------------------
Marlowes translation:
...They came that dwell
By Nemes' fields, and banks of
Satirus,
Where Tarbel's winding shores
embrace the sea,
The Santons that rejoice in Caesar's
love,
Those of Bituriges and light Axon
pikes;
And they of Rhine and Leuca, cunning
darters,
And Sequana that well could manage
steeds;
The Belgians apt to govern British
cars;
Th' Averni too, which boldly feign
themselves
The Romans' brethren, sprung of
Ilian race;
The stubborn Nervians stained with
Cotta's blood,
And Vangions who like those of
Sarmata,
Wear open slops: and fierce
Batavians,
Whom trumpet's clang incites, and
those that dwell
By Cinga's stream, and where swift
Rhodanus
Drives Araris to sea; ...
---------------------------------------------------------
Sir Edward Ridleys translation
(Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1896).
Have moved their standards home; the
happy Gaul
Rejoices in their absence; fair Garonne
Through peaceful meads glides onward to the sea.
480
And where the river broadens, neath the cape
Her quiet harbour sleeps. No
outstretched arm
Except in mimic war now hurls the lance.
No skilful warrior of Seine directs
The scythed chariot 'gainst his country's foe.
Now rest the Belgians, and the Arvernian race
That boasts our kinship by descent from Troy;
And those brave rebels whose undaunted hands
Were dipped in Cotta's blood, and those who wear
Sarmatian garb. Batavia's
warriors fierce
490
No longer listen for the bugle call,
Nor those who dwell where Rhone's swift eddies sweep
Saone to the ocean...
********************************************’’
Liber Qvartus, 20-24
super hunc
fundata uetusta surgit Ilerda manu; placidis praelabitur undis Hesperios
inter Sicoris non ultimus amnis, saxeus ingenti quem pons amplectitur
arcu 15 hibernas passurus aquas. at proxima rupes signa tenet Magni, nec Caesar
colle minore castra leuat; medius dirimit tentoria gurges. explicat hinc tellus
campos effusa patentis uix oculo prendente modum, camposque
coerces, 20 Cinga rapax, uetitus fluctus et litora cursu Oceani
pepulisse tuo; nam gurgite mixto qui praestat terris aufert tibi nomen Hiberus.
(11 from p. 43) The name Belaiscom and Belgites (todays Belchite in the
same area) are probably the oldest documented names of the Belges of a probable
etymology:
I. Suffixed full-grade form *bhel-o-. 1a.
beluga, from Russian bely, white; b. Beltane, from Scottish Gaelic bealltainn,
from Old Irish beltaine, “fire of Bel” (ten, tene, fire; see tep-), from Bel,
name of a pagan Irish deity akin to the Gaulish divine name Belenos, from
Celtic *bel-o-. 2. phalarope, from Greek phalaros, having a white spot.
II. Extended root *bhle1-, contracted to *bhl-.
1. Suffixed form *bhl-wo-. blue, from Old French bleu, blue, from Germanic
*blwaz, blue. 2. Suffixed zero-grade form *bh-wo-. flavescent, flavo-; flavin,
flavone, flavoprotein, from Latin flvus, golden or reddish yellow. III. Various
extended Germanic forms. 1. bleach, from Old English blcan, to bleach, from
Germanic *blaikjan, to make white. 2. bleak1, from Old Norse bleikr, shining,
white, from Germanic *blaikaz, shining, white. 3. blitzkrieg, from Old High
German blëcchazzen, to flash, lighten, from Germanic *blikkatjan. 4a. blaze1,
from Old English blćse, torch, bright fire; b. blesbok, from Middle Dutch bles,
white spot; c. blemish, from Old French ble(s)mir, to make pale. a–c all from
Germanic *blas-, shining, white. 5a. blind; blindfold, purblind, from Old
English blind, blind; b. blende, from Old High German blentan, to blind,
deceive; c. blend, from Old Norse blanda, to mix; d. blond, from Old French
blond, blond. a–d all from Germanic *blendaz, clouded, and *bland-, *bland-ja-,
to mix, mingle (< “make cloudy”). 6a. blench1, from Old English blencan, to
deceive; b. blanch, blank, blanket; blancmange, from Old French blanc, white.
Both a and b from Germanic *blenk-, *blank-, to shine, dazzle, blind. 7. blush,
from Old English blyscan, to glow red, from Germanic *blisk-, to shine, burn.
IV.
Extended root *bhleg-, to shine, flash, burn. 1. O-grade form bhlog-. black,
from Old English blćc, black, from Germanic *blakaz, burned. 2. Zero-grade form
*bhg-. a. fulgent, fulgurate; effulgent, foudroyant, refulgent, from Latin
fulgre, to flash, shine, and fulgur, lightning; b. fulminate, from Latin fulmen
(< *fulg-men), lightning, thunderbolt. 3a. flagrant; conflagrant,
conflagration, deflagrate, from Latin flagrre, to blaze; b. chamise, flambé,
flambeau, flamboyant, flame, flamingo, flammable; inflame, from Latin flamma
(< *flag-ma), a flame. 4. phlegm, phlegmatic, Phlegethon, from Greek
phlegein, to burn. 5. O-grade form *bhlog-. phlogiston, phlox; phlogopite, from
Greek phlox, a flame, also a wallflower. (Pokorny 1. bhel- 118, bheleg- 124,
bhleu-(k)- 159.) (Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language:
Fourth Edition. 2000. http://www.bartleby.com).
Another explanation to the name is to be
found in Belgian and Dutch web sites and is based on the Celtic term for flax, “belch” :
“Sommige
vorsers associëren zelfs de naam België met het Keltisch woord belc’h,
wat “vlas” betekent.” (DEWILDE
B., 20 Eeuwen vlas in Vlaanderen, Tielt, 1983 cite from A. Andriaenssens
thesis on Flandern linnen at http://home.planetinternet.be/%7Esl002226/bethune/bethune_inhoud.htm)
(12 from p. 44) The city of Therouanne in the
northeast of France near the Belgian border was according to local historians,
(http://perso.wanadoo.fr/therouannearcheo/histoire.htm),completely
destroyed by king Charles V in 1553 who could not accept a French enclave in
Flandern. The city was turned over again to France in 1559 under the condition
of not being rebuild.
This home page brings most interesting
information about a very important city in the Middel Age. The discovery in
1996 of a “caveau gallo-romain”, an imposing sepulchral vault
measuring ”3,30 mčtres de longueur, 3 mčtres de largeur sur 2,35 mčtres de
haut” containing the bodies of a man and a woman laying in very simple
wooden layers. The bones have been dated by C14 to the 110 AC. Other tombs have
been discovered beside this vault, one dated to the IV C. AC.
The local historians are probly not aware of
the possibility that the ”Lord of the Ruteni” could be buried in in one of
these tombs, but King Arthur is not mentioned at all in the web site.
There is a river too, an affluent of the Marne,
that bears the name Therouanne. The name should derive from Gallic tarvos
: bull.
An interesting point supporting
this explanation could be the following Celtiberian inscription in Latin:
bronzeplättchen (VILLAR/UNTERMANN 1999: 720): DVREITA · SCA | TARVODVRE
| LIGORIQ · (Stifter : 3.7.3)
Geoffrey of Monmouth, the 12th century British
to chronicler who wrote the History regum Brittaniae.
In ancient times there beautified the land
three and thirty great and noble cities, 10 of which some plows now desolate,
to their walls cast down. But others plows still lived in, and contain sacred
you please within them for the worship of God. And the land is now inhabited by
five peoples:11 the Britons,12 the Normans,13 the Saxons,14 the Picts,15 and
the Scots.16 And of all these peoples, it is the Britons who were its first
inhabitants and who eleven filled the land from the Channel17 to the Irish Is -
until, that is, the judgment of for God fell upon them their iniquities, which
we shall presently Seth forth.
And amongst Arthur's men there were slain
Holdin, lord of the Ruteni, and
Leodegar of Boulogne. (64) And Holdin, lord of
the Ruteni, was tip to Flanders, and buried in his own City Terivana. The to
other consuls and noblemen were conveyed to the neighboring abbeys, according
to Arthur's orders. (65) … And from the land of Gaul came Oldin, lord of the
Ruteni, 468 and Borellus, lord of Maine,469 Leodegar of Boulogne, 470 and
Bedevere, earl of Normandy, and Kay, prince of Anjou, and Guitard, king of the
Poitevins.
1.12 Hanc
nationem Plinius Naturalis Historia IV.cii.5. Translator’s notes described the
Morini as ”A people of Gallia-Belgica, lying betwixt the River Lye and Somme in
West-Flanders (as some write), not far from bollogne, Ypre, and St. Omers.
Their chief city was called Teroven, now but a small village,” the Attrebates
as ”Inhabitants of Artois,” and the Gessoriaci as ”Inhabitants of Bollogne, or
betwixt Bologne and Calais.” (G. Buchanan.Rerum Scoticarum Historia. 1582)
(13 from p. 45)
9. Possibly suffixed form *wen-eto-,
“beloved.” Wend, from Old High German Winid, Wend, from Germanic *Weneda-,
a Slavic people.
“…une population que les grecs appellent Enetoi, les latins Veneti… il
est utile de rappeler: d´une part, que *wen-eto est certainement un adjective
verbal bâtí sur une racine indo-europeenne *wen, mais que *wen a des
significations si diverses que toute traduction de *wen-etos est
arbitraire…Homere mentionne des `Enetoi en Paphlagonie (B 852);…Herodote, outre
les `Enetoi oi en to Adrin (5,9), fait allusion, a propos d´une coutume
matrimoniale singuliere, aux `Enetoi ton ‘ Illurion (1.196); Pline signale des
venetulani parmi les antiques populations du Latium…Ouenedoi (Ptolémée 3.5.15
et 19) son signales sur la Vistule, entre les Carpathes (Ouenedixos xólpos) et
le Baltique (Ouenedixa ‘ore) (note 6) En grec, proprement, *Fenetoi;”
INV (pp. 5-6, note 1)
Ptolemus.Book II, 5. The city of Vindelia of the Autrigones
in Cantabria.
Bellinsula, Vindelis, Bella od. Pulchra insula, Colonesus, Calonesus, Belle-Isle-en-Mer, Isl., Frankreich (Morbihan). (ORB)
Augusta Vindelica,
Vindelicia, Vindelicorum, Raetorum od. Genannia, Augustidunum, Zigaris, Augsburg, St., Bayern (Schwaben).(ORB)
Venta Belgarum, Vint-, Vindonia, Guintonium,
Vincestria, Vinda,
Winchester, St., England (Hampshire). (ORB)
Veneticae od. Venetorum insulae, d. Isln. a. d. Küste d. Bretagne, Frankr. (ORB)
4 Vendiskt välde
4.1 Rex Vandalorum
Till den danska konungens titulatur hörde sedan gammalt en del, som pĺ latin lydde rex Sclauorum, dvs slavernas konung. Under konung Waldemar Atterdags tid (krönt 1375) uppträder titeln i den tysksprĺkiga formen Choning der Wende och i titulaturen för Erik av Pommern (av slavisk börd), som 1397 kröntes till konung över de nordiska rikena, uppträder även den danska formen Wendes koning. Frĺn ĺr 1440 känner man till att den danska och svenska konungen Kristoffer av Bajern (Erik av Pommerns systerson) i det fjärde fältet av sitt vapen lät infoga drakemblemet. Detta anslöt sig till titeln ’vendernas konung’, som brukades av kungen. Titeln ’vendernas konung’ fortlevde i den svenska konungens titulatur fram till 1970-talet. Till latin översattes begreppet vender ofta som slaver. Senare användes vandaler som latinskt namn för venderna. I danskarnas (även tyskarnas) sprĺkbruk stod slaver och vender för samma sak.
...4.3 Sampo och draken
Olaus Magnus (och andra) skriver att dessa ’slaver’ har draken som sin symbol. Drakflaggan pĺ bilden i Nousis kyrka (uppsatt ĺr 1429) syftar pĺ just det att svearnas (med rikssymbolen tre kronor) expedition ĺr 1156 anlände till vendernas land. Jätteormen och draken var nationella symboler för vennerna, venderna, väinäläiset. Väinäläfolkets, vendernas, fartyg var dekorerade med drakbilder, och det finska namnet för dessa skepp, uisko, även har betydelsen orm/drake. Skeppen, i alla fall de smala och snabba krigsskeppen, kallades i enlighet med sin symbol (och kanske ocksĺ p g a sin snabbhet och form) drakar, uisko.
(14 from p. 45) The famous passage in Adam of Bremen gives a clue that the ideas
of Pritsak about the Vikings as a “conglomerate” of different peoples under the
rule of Scandinavian kings, is maybe closer to reality then Scandinavian
scholars will accept,
Ipsi enim pyratae quos illi Wichingos
appellant nostri Ascomannos regi Danico tributum solvunt ut liceat eis
praedam exercere a barbaris qui circa hoc mare plurimi habundant.
(Adam Bremensis, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae
pontificum, MGH 7, S. 370, Kap. 213, 15 Akk. Pl.)
because ascomani is a denomination that spans
through a wide area in Europe. We may thing here about the toponym Asciburgium
quoted by Tacitus (GE : 3.3.) as the place on the river side of the Rhin
visited by Ulysses and other places in Germania or Norway as well:
Asci, Esch, D., Preußen (Hannover).
Asciburgi, Vandalici, Gigantei montes, d. Riesengebirge,
Schlesien-Böhmen.
Asciburgius mons, s. Silentius m.
Asciburgium, Asberg, D., Preußen (Rheinprov.).
Ascinium, s. Esna.
Asc(o)wilare, Eschweiler, St., Preuß. (Rheinprov.). (ORB)
And the term brings us (again) to the
south-west of France, to Aquitania, were the tribe of the Ausci is recorded by
Plinius:
“Aquitanicae sunt Ambilatri, Anagnutes,
Pictones, Santoni liberi, Bituriges liberi cognomine Vivisci, Aquitani, unde
nomen provinciae, Sediboviates. mox in oppidum contributi Convenae, Begerri,
Tarbelli Quattrosignani, Cocosates Sexsignani, Venami, Onobrisates, Belendi,
saltus Pyrenaeus infraque Monesi, Oscidates Montani, Sybillates, Camponi,
Bercorcates, Pinpedunni, Lassunni, Vellates, Toruates, Consoranni, Ausci,
Elusates, Sottiates, Oscidates Campestres, Succasses, Latusates, Basaboiates,
Vassei, Sennates, Cambolectri Agessinates.” (Naturalis Historiae. Liber IV, 108):
”Having heard of this
battle, the greatest part of Aquitania surrendered itself to Crassus, and of
its own accord sent hostages, in which number were the Tarbelli, the
Bigerriones, the Ptianii, the Vocates, the Tarusates, the Elusates, the Gates,
the Ausci, the Garumni, the Sibusates, the Cocosates. A few [and those] most
remote nations, relying on the time of the year, because winter was at hand,
neglected to do this.
Hac audita pugna maxima pars Aquitaniae sese
Crasso dedidit obsidesque ultro misit; quo in numero fuerunt Tarbelli,
Bigerriones, Ptianii, Vocates, Tarusates, Elusates, Gates, Ausci,
Garumni, Sibusates, Cocosates: paucae ultimae nationes anni tempore confisae,
quod hiems suberat, id facere neglexerunt.” (Gaius Julius Caesar, De
bello Gallico III, 27)
The
term is Germanic meaning the ash tree in some languages and the spear and the
ash tree in others:
1.
ask (träd), fsv. as/cer, ask(träd) (I Swedish träd=tree
sammans.),
spjut (egentl, av
askträ), Swedish
spjut=lance
lĺda (se följ.) - isl. as/cr, no. as/c, da.
esk (med e frĺn kollekt.; jfr nedan),
fhty. asc (jfr mhty., ty. esche f.,
avledn.
av as/c-, jfr följ. o. under asp 2, el.
ombildning efter fhty. plur. escz), ägs. cesc
(eng. as/z) - alban, ĺh (av *as/co-), bok
el. ask; besl. med lat. ornus, ask (väl
av *ösznos), fslav. jasenu (*ös-), litau.
öszs osv. Med avs. pĺ betyd, 'spjut'
jfr isl.
a/mr bĺge,
egentl.: av almträ Swedish almträ=elm tree
(se alm), isl. (osv.) lind, sköld, egentl.:
av lindträ (se lind), ävensom grek.
melié, ask
o. askspjut
(Homeri Iliad:
meilinon énkhos). Askvirke är särskilt
lämpligt för spjuttillverkning. -
Kollektiv o. ämnesnamn: sv. (dial.) äske el.
aske n. = isl. eski, varav ortn.
Askersund, fsv. Eskcesund 1332.
(Svensk etymologisk
ordbok. Elof Hellquist.
Electronic ed. By Project Runeberg at
http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/authors/hellqelo.html).
It existed also in Spanish and French:
II.
Drutz que pros don' abandona
Ben laus que·s gart de jangluelh,
Que
lauzengier, bec d'ascona,
9
(Car
son plan en far lur truelh)
Ab lor mensonja forbida
Cujon falsar amor fina. 12
V. 9. Ascona, dard, lance; cf. sur ce mot la note de F. Michel, dans Hist. de la guerre de Navarre, de Guilhem Anelier, note ŕ la p. 367. Le mot a existé en ancien espagnol: azcon, azcona; en a. fr. asconne; asc, lance, en anglo-saxon. On rattache le mot au germ. Esche, fręne, la lance étant souvent en fręne; cf. a. fr. fraisnine.
(POÉSIES DU TROUBADOUR
PEIRE RAIMON DE TOULOUSE. Joseph Anglade. University of Toulouse. Electronic edition by Project Guthenberg).
The term Ausci is has originated the name of
Basques (Vasco in modern Spanish), Gascons and Euskal (the Basque country in
Basque) according to different sources, but the question is quiet unclear due
to lack of solid documentation.
(15 from p. 48)
Ibn
Khurdadhbah was postmaster general for the caliph. He wrote in 846 CE Kitab
al-Masalik ("Book of Routes"),in which he described the routes taken
by the Jewish Radaniya (Radanites). The following is a summary of those routes:
This group of merchants, the Radaniya speak
Arabic, Persian, Greek, Frankish, Spanish, and Slavonic. They traveled from the
farthest west to the farthest east and back again. Their starting point was
either Spain or France. They crossed the Mediterranean to Egypt, transferred
their merchandise on camelback across the istmus of Suez to the Red Sea, whence
by ship they eventually reached India and China.
They returned by the same route with musk,
aloeswood, camphor, cinnamon, and other products of the oriental countries.
From the west they brought eunuchs, slave girls and boys, brocade, beaver and
marten skins, and swords. Some of them sailed to Constantinople to sell their
goods. Others visited the residence of the Frankish king for the same purpose.
Sometimes, instead of using the Red Sea route to the East, they disembarked at
Antakiya (Antioch) and crossed Syria to the Euphrates, whence they passed to
Baghdad. Then they descended the Tigris to the Persian gulf, and so reached
India and China.
These journeys could also be made by land. Thus
the Jewish merchants might proceed to the east via Tangier, Kairouan, and the
other North African towns, reaching Cairo, Damascus, Kufa, Basra, Ahwaz,
Persia, and India, and finally, as before, attaining by this land route their
destination in China.
Another of their routes lay across Europe,
"behind Rome," through the country of the Saqaliba (Slavonians) to
Khamlij, the capital of the Khazars, another name for Atil. Thence they passed
to the sea of Jurjan (i.e., down the Volga to the Caspian), then to Balkh and
Transoxiana, and so to the Far East. http://www.jewishgates.com/ 31/07/04
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Hispaniens und das Keltiberischen. U. Schmoll. Wiesbaden. 1958.
SI - In Search of the Indo-Europeans. J. P. Mallory. Thames and the Hudson. London. 1991
SK - Svenska
Krönikan. Ĺ. Ohlmark, N. And
Berendtz. Stockholm. 1951
UNDER - the Decorated Wakes of the Peninsular
Southwest. M. I reddle. C.S.I.C.
Madrid. 1966
SL - The Slavs. M. Gimbutas. Thames and the Hudson. London. 1971
SN - Snorres
Kongesagaer (Ynglinge Saga). Gyldendal
Stavanger. 1970
SO - Las Estelas Decoradas del Suroeste Peninsular. M. Almagro. C.S.I.C.
Madrid. 1966
SP - Sprachen und Inschriften. A. Tovar. B. R. Grüner. Amsterdam. 1973
Stifter - Einführung in das Kontinentalkeltische. Mag. David Stifter – 3
Keltiberisch.
TAR - Tartesos y los Orígenes de la Colonización Fenicia en Occidente.. J. M. Blázquez. University
of Salamanca. 1975
TARIM -The Tarim Mummies. J. P. Mallory; Victor H. Mair.. Thames & The Hudson. London.
2000
TH - The Thracians. R. F. Hoddinott. Thames and the Hudson. London. 1981
UME – Urgeschichte Mitteleuropas. K. Jazdzewski. Ossolinskich. Wroclaw.1984
VACC - En torno a algunos aspectos
socio-económicos de la cultura
vaccea:
estado de la cuestión y nuevas aportaciones
Adolfo J. Domínguez Monedero. Librería electrónica del Instituto Cervantes
en http://www.cervantesvirtual.com
VT - Samlede
Afhandlinger. Vol. II. V.
Thomsen. Nordisk Forlag. Copenhagen. 1920
Dictionnaries, Atlases and other.
FO - Focloir Gaeilge-Bear It. Or
Dónaill. AN GÚM.1992
IS -
Istoriko-Etimologicheskij Slovar Osetinskovo Jazika. V.I. Abaev.
"Nauka". Leningrad. 1979
Atlas of Spain. The Pais. Aguilar. Madrid. 1992
KAK Bilatlas. Generalstabens
Litografiska Anstalt. Stockholm. 1969
SRD - SAMNORDISK RUNTEXTDATABAS. Project of
compilation of all
Scandinavian and Atlantic runes carried out by several Swedish
universities and made free available to the public in a data base (Rundatawin
Windows)
(http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm)
.Novas notas de onomástica hispânica
pré-romana. Antonio Marques de Faria. Revista Portuguesa de Arqueologia
1999
VOL5 - Crónica de onomástica paleo-hispânica (3) ANTÓNIO MARQUES DE FARIA. REVISTA
PORTUGUESA DE Arqueologia .volume 5.número 1.2002, p.121-146
VOL6 - Crónica de onomástica paleo-hispânica (5) ANTÓNIO MARQUES DE FARIA REVISTA
PORTUGUESA DE Arqueologia.volume 6.número 1.2003, p.211-234
VOL3 - Onomástica
paleo-hispânica: revisăo de algumas leituras e interpretaçőes ANTÓNIO
MARQUES DE FARIA REVISTA PORTUGUESA DE Arqueologia .volume 3.número 1.2000
STIFTER - Einführung in
das Kontinentalkeltische – 3
Keltiberisch. Mag.
David Stifter
PRU - The Etymological Dictionary of Prussian by Vytautas Maziulis (Maziulis V. Prűsu kalbos etimologijos zodynas. Mokslas, Vilnius, I 1988, II
1993, III 1996, IV 1997).
http://www.donelaitis.vdu.lt/prussian
TAK - Lithuanian on line telephone book:
http://telefonai.takas.lt
An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic
Language. MacBain,
Alexander.
Gairm Publications, 29 Waterloo Street, Glasgow
1982
LN - Lithuanian Names. WILLIAM
R. SCHMALSTIEG. The
Pennsylvania State University.
ORB - Grässe, Johann Georg Theodor.
Orbis Latinus; Lexikon lateinischer geographischer Namen des Mittelalters
und der Neuzeit
Grossausgabe, bearb. und hrsg. von Helmut Plechl unter Mitarbeit von
Sophie-Charlotte Plechl. Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1972. Electronic
edition at: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/contents.html
CAS – Cassiodorus. James J. O´Donell. University
of California Press.
1979.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/cassbook/toc.html
ANNEXE
Joseph M. Piels work (ELH : 421-443 and
531-560) on Germanic toponimia and andronimia in the Iberian Peninsula are a
suitable introduction to this comparative list of toponyms from Sweden and
Spain (it includes also some few names from Denmark and Portugal). The rest of
Germanic elements in Spain are practically unknown for the rest of the world,
nevertheless they can include linguistic elements of interest for students and
investigartors in Germanics.
Nobody, as far as I know, has felt the necessity
or curiosity of making such a study, which in my case was motivated by the
curiosity awoked in me by Swedish city names like Berga or Danish like Gundslev
when I moved to Denmark in 1973. When I
was a child in Spain we were obliged to learn in school the names of all the
Gothic kings, being Wamba my favorite name, probably because is ”round” and
easy to remember. Then by own merits I learned that many Spanish surnames were
of Gothic origin, as in the case of Gonzalez, which was formed of the Germanic
word gund meaning battle and the Latin salvus meaning saved. This
was extremely interesting for me and made me aware of any kind of coincidences
in person names or place names like the Berga from Sweden quoted above and the
Berga in Spain. I can still corse me when I think of a cow in Norway called
Litago, because the surname of one my teachers in Spain was Litago! And I don´t
have an explanation for it! Or the Swedish surname Burbagge I saw once in the
city of Karlskrona, it gav me inmediately a possible link to a Spanish city:
Burbaguena. Well Goethe once wrote that we are here to wonder.
The Gothic element in Spanish surnames is well
represented in Latin as mentioned before. documents like the following from 842
A.D.. (ELH : 421) signed by:
Gondulfus, Leouegildus, Biddi, Sindiuerga, Anilo, Uistragildus
(cognomento Gotinus), Gundisalvus, Rindotertir, Gemundus, Uiuildus, Salamirus,
Rodericus, Emmarius, Ranilo, Adefonsus, Adosindus.
Examples
of Germanic toponymy in Spain from
Joseph M. Piels article in ELH : 531-559.
Original
Germanic names are latinized with a –us ending (nom. sing.) or genitive
–anis
(Gothic -ans). They are specially frequent in Portugal and Galicia.
From *Germ. laubjo : garret, loft ( Modern
Norwegian and Swedish lova/en : straw-loft) we have according to Piel: Lobio, Lobios, Lovio, Loivos.
In Sweden I
find several Lauv- like Lauvdal
(where -dal = valley).
Very
frequent are the toponyms that include sala.
Joseph M. Piel counts more than 100, that in Portugal and Galicia apocopate to Sáa, Saa, Sá while they are
preserved as Sala in the rest of
Spain.
There
exists one Sala at least in Sweden and veveral Sale-.
From the
Latin villa- and a Germanic component in the period when Spain were
freed from the Maurs Piel accounts some 30 as Villa-gondrid, Villa-gudín,
Villa-balter, Villa-gondurfe.
The
equivalents in Sweden will be f. ex. Gud-by (by = city), Balte-ryd
(ryd = clearing in the mark for building pourposes).
From the Latin ending –inus, Germanic ending -eins
(in Portugal = -im, in Galicia = -ín):
Godim, Brandín, Brandim, Sandín, Sandim, Sisín, (and several).
The
equivalents in Sweden will be f. ex. Brand-bo (bo/bu = dwelling place), Brand-bu,
Sandes, Sand-fors, Sand-viken (there are many with the
component sand-)
With the
ending -ildi from Got. hildi : fight there are several examples ended in -elhe and-ilhe: Brailhe,
Gontilhe, Gontelle, Seselle, Framille.
The
equivalents in Sweden will be ??? I don´t have for the moment the possibility
of searching for second components, but Fram-näs, Fram-bo and Fram-sjön
exist in Sweden, (näs = promontory, sjö = lake, sea):
With the
ending reiks : rich, powerful,
(latinized in -ricus), about
150 ended in Portugal and Galicia in -rigo,
-riz, -rís, -riu as f. ex. Balderiz, Eirigo, Gandariz, Gunduriz, Guldris, etc.
With the
ending mereis : famous,
(latinized in -mirus), exist about 150 toponyms ending in -milo,
-miri, -mir, -mil. as f. ex. Valdemir, Rosomil, Salamir, Guillamil, etc.
With the
ending wulfs : wolf,
(latinized in -ulfus), there exist about 60 ending in -ulfi,
-ufe, -ulfe, -olfe as f.eks. Adaufe, Andolfa, Randulfe, etc.
With the
ending sinţs : path,
expedition, (latinized in -sindus, genitive -sindi), also about 60
ending in -sindi, -sende, sinde, -sem, as f. ex. Brusende, Ermesinde, Gosende, Lebosende, etc.
With the
ending munda : protection,
(latinized in -mundus, genitive mundi), also about 60
ending in –monde, as f.
ex. Amonde, Ansamonde, Reimonde,
Salamonde, Germunde, etc.
With the
ending reţs : council,
(latinized in -redus, genitive
-redi), ending in -rei,
-rey, -rem, -reu there are about 30, as f. ex. Igarei, Gondrey, Recarey, etc.
With the ending harjis : army (latinized en -arius, genitive -ari), ending in -eiro, -ar, -al there are about 40, as f. ex. Sandar, Goltar, etc.
With the ending gild : tax, treasure (latinized in -gildus, genitive gildi) ending in -gilde, -gil there are about 30, as f. ex. Rugil, Ingilde, Nevogilde, Tagilde, Ermegilde, etc.
With the
ending nanţs : brave,
courageous, (latinized in -nandus, genitive -nandi) ending in -nande,
-nandez, there are about 20, as f.eks. Fernández,
etc.
With the ending marhs : combat horse (latinized in -marus, genitive -mari), there are also about 20 ending in –mar, as f. ex. Ansemar, Valdomar, Golmar, etc.
With the
ending friţus : peace, ending in -freu, -frei,-frey
there are about 10, as f. ex. Guilfrey.
Not recorded in Piel and very common is the
forming of toponyms in Scandinavia is the term ryd or röd meaning
”clearing in the mark/woods for building pourposes” that has a counterpart in
the Spanish: roz/a with the same meaning and counts about 50 places
called Las Rozas.
Gothic
roots existing as a component of toponyms and andronyms in the Iberian
Peninsula according to Piel´s articles in ELH : 421-443 and 531-560:
*Agi :
filo, canto/ edge Mann : hombre/man
*Ailos : caballo/horse
Mahra : caballo de guerra/combat horse
*Airman :
fuerte/strong Merjan : informar/to inform
Airks : santo, sagrado/sacred
Mereis : famoso/famous
*Albs :
elfo, duende/elf MoŢs : valor/courage
Alds : tiempo/time
*Munda : protección/defense, protection
Anse : as/ace NanŢs : temerario/daring
Ara : águila/eagle
Ofts : fuerte/strong
As : as/ace Ran : pillaje/plunder
*Asks :
fresno/ash tree Randus : escudo, coraza/shield
Atta : padre/father
*ReŢs : consejo, junta/counsil
Atarni : ańo/year
Runa : secreto/secret
Aun : ż ? Sagjis : escolta/escort, guard
Aus : ż? SanŢs : verdad/truth
Austr : Este/East Sigis : victoria/victory
*Aţal :
noble/noble SinŢs : camino, senda/path/way
Badu : lucha, combate/combat
Tuggo : lengua/tongue
Baira : oso/bear ţauris : toro/bull
Bairhts : brillante, claro/brilliant
ţiuda : gente, pueblo/people, nation
BalŢjan : atreverse/to dear ţrasa : pelea, lucha /combat
BalŢs : valiente/courageous ţruţs : carińoso/affable
Brands : espada/sword *ţund
: fuerte/strong
Dags : día/day Urs : buey salvaje/ wild oxen
Drauhts : séquito del rey/kings scort
Wadi : prenda/pledge, token
Fram : el primero/the first Waldan : gobernar/to rule, to command
Fraujis : seńor, dueńo/sire Warjan : defender/to defend
FraŢi : inteligencia
Wars : precavido, atento/cautious
FriŢus : paz/peace
Wers : verdadero/true
Fruma : valiente/courageous
*Wisands : bisonte
Funs : rápido, veloz/quick, fast
Wistra : Oeste/West
Gails : flecha/arrow
Wrikan : vengar/to revenge
Gais : lanza/spear
Wrohi : acusación
Gild : impuesto, tesoro/treasure
Wulfs : lobo/wolf
Gisl : rehén/hostage
WulŢus : brillo, resplandor/brightness
GoŢs : bueno/good
____________________
Guma : persona Frankish
roots:
*GunŢi :
lucha /fight, combat Bald : ż?
Hairus : espada/sword
Bard : ż?
HaŢus : lucha/combat Bert : brillante/brilliant
Harjis : ejército/army Hard : duro, fuerte/hard, strong
Gar : finca/estate, property Helm : yelmo, casco/helmet
Gard : jardín/garden Lind : suave/smooth, agreable
*Hildi :
lucha/combat
Win : ż?
*Hrabns :
cuervo/crow
Hroms : honor, honra/honour
HroŢs : fama
Ibrs : jabalí/wild boar
*Kind :
nińo/child
*Leudi :
gente/people
Liuba : amor/love
HISPANO-SWEDISH TOPONIMIA.
COMPARATIVE
LIST BETWEEN TOPONYMS IN (S)WEDEN
AND (E)SPAIN.
Swedish two-themes names separated by hyphen.
Spanish names with question mark means a possible division
into two themes.