Re: Beowulf was the king of Goths /redux/

iwantlambert_at_yahoo.com
Date: 11/16/04 

Date: 16 Nov 2004 15:03:10 -0800

> > >>Although the Goths first appear in present-day Poland, they claimed that
> > >>their homeland was in Scandinavia, and the archaeological evidence is
> > >>consistent with that. And "Geat" and "Goth" could well be cognate.
>
 
> > Nothing "unsubstantiated" about it. The origin of the Goths in southern
> > modern Sweden is and always has been the accepted, standard, traditional
> > belief.
>
> Really? Because Jordanes says so? Perhaps you've read something
> I haven't, but since Jordanes is our only source, and Jordanes
> has been known to be wrong on a thing or two, it is hardly a
> critical stance to accept what any ancient author says about the
> mists of time. Unfortunately there is no archaeological
> evidence to support Jordanes claim; yes there are connections
> between cultures in Poland and cultures in Sweden at this time,
> but that doesn't mean that the former derived from teh latter,
> and there are differences too. And differences in linguistic
> development are also highly suggestive.
>
> As for the cognate Geat and Goth, both descend from
> proto-Germanic *Gautr-- i. e. the word or name existed before a
> seperate people did.
>

i'm not sure about Beowulf, but the old-swedish dialect of Gotland has
some caracteristic traits that do remind one of Gothic (as is noted in
the still very usefull Handbook of Old-Norse, which unfortunately i
don't have at hand right now, otherwise i would have been able to give
some examples).

greetings, erik