--- Piotr Gasiorowski <
gpiotr@...> wrote:
> Anything seems possible -- we only need an East
> (k-epenthesis) Baltic speaking region called
> *Auks(i)na or *Auks(i)ne. 'El Dorado'.
>
****GK: This brings to mind Herodotus' story about the
"griffins who guard the gold" (:=)). Well it's known
that the Scythians got their gold from somewhere east
(lots of it). Contemporary Russia still mines gold in
the Krasnoyark, Irkutsk, and Magadan regions. It seems
improbable that even the most sycophantic Gothic song
writer would have extended Hermanaric's Empire that
far. This would have far exceeded, not just equalled,
Alexander. The Huns would have been included, and lots
more besides. While the problem of the Baltic term
would not be easily solved. I don't know of any
evidence about significant gold mining in the
northeast Baltic and immediately adjacent areas.I
think Sergejus' theory about amber has some merit (if
the use of "gold" for "amber" can be verified as a
Gothic borrowing). What stands against it though is
the potentially redundant passage about the Aestii,
and the odd redundancy of a Gothic reconstruction
about "golden Scythian people in the gold area [El
Dorado]". So on balance, and in the absence of further
arguments, I still think "the Golden Scythian"
[perhaps a borrowing from steppe colour symbolism
where yellow is the "center" of things] Hermanaric of
lost Gothic epic songs, conqueror of northern
"thiudos" here's the list preferable to Hermanaric
the conqueror of an unidentifiable (because
non-existent?)golden people in a Baltic El Dorado.*****
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