"Hermanaricus nobilissimus Amalorum in
regno successit, qui multas et bellicosissimas arctoi gentes perdomuit suisque
parere legibus fecit. quem merito nonnulli Alexandro Magno conparavere maiores,
habebat si quidem quos domuerat Golthescytha Thiudos Inaunxis Vasinabroncas
Merens Mordens Imniscaris Rogas Tadzans Athaul Navego Bubegenas Coldas." (Get.
XXIII).
The attested Gothic word for "shield" is
<skildus>, a u-stem like <skythus>. Whether *gultha-skildjus could
have been folk-etymologised as *gultha-skythjus (Latinised as Golthescythae) is
anybody's guess; I've seen stranger things happen. I wish we knew Cassiodorus'
version of the name. Some of the names in Jordanes's register are probably
corrupt, which is not surprising given the second-hand nature of the data. I am
tempted to read <Imniscaris> as misspelt <*in Miscaris>, so that
<Merens Mordens Imniscaris> could be "..., the Mari, the Mordvin in the
Meshchera Lowlands, ...".
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2001 9:47 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Vanir
Please don't shoot me down for that speculation, but is there
any probability <golthescytha> is a corruption (under the influence of
ancient "Scythian" tradition) of something like **golthescilda
(*gulþa-skildus)?