From: tgpedersen
Message: 48664
Date: 2007-05-20
>...
>
> Comment on Saga 28
> 'Wardana and Chwindizh Dwell in the White-Haired Forest' in
> 'Nart Sagas from the Caucasus'
> "
> Only two short tales...
> in the entire seven-volume Circassian corpus refer to Nart Wardana
> or Wadana. Nevertheless, these two fragments throw light on
> far-reaching cultural relationships across ancient Eurasia. The
> "standard" etymology for this Germanic *Wo:ðanaz (Old English Wodan,
> Old High German Wuotan, Norse Odin) is to derive it from the root
> *wo:ð- 'rage', cognate with Latin va:te:s ' rage, possession, fury'
> (Puhvel 1987, 193).
> On one hand, Wardana, in its Shapsegh form of Wadana (pronounced...
> "Wodéna"), offers a source for the late common Germanic god
> *Wo:ðanaz, which has been reworked under Gothic influence from the
> Germanic "Mercurius" noted by Tacitus in his Germania in the first
> century a.d. Roman interpretation of the Germanic gods. On the other
> hand, the Goths, with their steppe empire in the early centuries of
> the Christian era, link up with the Ancient Pontic Iranians (Alans
> and Sarmatians) and the ancestors of the Circassians, to borrow a
> hypothetical Iranian *War-dana, which itself would have been cognate
> with Indo-Aryan Vrddhana, "Giver of Booty," an epithet of the Hindu
> god Shiva, whose name in turn is an epithet of the Vedic god Rudra.
> Further, Wardana, like the Germanic Wodan, is fickle, killing all of
> his nephews but one, and is responsible for raising tumuli over
> them. In this latter function he assumes responsibility for dead
> heroes just as Wodan does. His horse, too, like Wodan's (Norse
> Odin's) Yggdrasil, is the fastest.
> "Benveniste, Renou: Vr.tra et Vr.þragna,