I am not a cunning linguist, so forgive me, but I have been considering the
following which seems to me to have some sense to it:

/kon/ may be related to /ken/ which has the connotation of 'knowledge' and
'knowing'. This may (or may not be) supported by Rigsthula which has the
ultimate child named Kon, who is then taught all the important skills and
knowledge by the god Rig (Heimdall) himself to lead his tribal nation onward
into destiny.

Ing has been suggested to have the meaning of 'seed/soul/core value' and not
just 'people' or 'descendants'. This might make the Vikings those who are
the 'souls/seeds of the rivers' and the Volsungs those who are the
'souls/seeds of the valiant'. The Thuringi, then may be those who the
'souls/seeds of Thor' and the Gothic tribe the Tirvingi those who are the
'souls/seeds of Tyr'.

Konungr may be those who are the 'souls/seeds of skill/knowledge'. In the
poetry, sagas and literature (esp. Rigsthula) it is quite clear that the
Kings were supposed to be better at everything that another person - it is
by those qualities that a King may be found out among them. Of course, this
could simply be defined as the authors and poets buttering up their patrons
for more coinage.

Anyway - this is just my 2-cents. Don't beat me up too badly.

-Laz

----- Original Message -----
From: "xigung" <xigung@...>
To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 11:58 AM
Subject: [norse_course] Re: Jed re 'konungr'


> --- In norse_course Marco Moretti wrote:
>
> > Sagas are full with similar
> > names of families ending in -ingar (pl.) and derived from the name of
> > a common ancestor. We find similar denominations for folks in Gothic,
> > Vandalic, Longobardic (Greotungi, Tervingi, Hasdingi, etc...)
> > It has nothing to with /ungr/ "young" which comes from /jung-/ and
> > has initial /j-/ regularly disappeared.
> >
>
> Does that mean that the vikings descended from a man named "Vik"?
>
> I, for one, thought the Norsemen had no family names,
> but only used the father's name. (going back only one generation)
> I have seen it applied to dynasties, though.
> Possibly modeled after Carolingians, Merovingians etc.
>
> Regards
> Xigung
>
>
>
>
>
>
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