--- Piotr Gasiorowski <
gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> BTW, the names of Sunilda's brothers, Sarus and
> Ammius, are
> supposed to reflect Gothic sarwa- and hama-, both
> meaning
> 'weapons, arms'. However, at least Sarus might be
> Iranian
> _with the same meaning_ (Iranian *saru- 'arrow,
> pointed
> weapon', cf. Indo-Aryan s'aru-). I wonder whether a
> case
> could be made for <sarwa-> being an Iranian loan in
> Gothic
> (there are more of them in Germanic).
>
> Piotr
*****GK: Here's what Maenchen-Helfen has to say on
this story (op. cit.,pp. 21-22):
"Whereas Sunilda is unquestionably a Germanic name
[[GK: What does it mean? The Norse sagas make her over
into "Swanhild" (approxim.) and this becomes "Lybed'"
(=swan)in Slavic adaptations]] , the derivation of
SARUS from Gothic SARWA, "weapon, armor", and of
Ammius from Gothic *hama, '"to arm", is unconvincing.
There is no satisfactory etymology of Rosomoni [with a
footnote criticizing Vernadsky's "wild" derivation of
-moni from Ossetic "mojnae"(= man, husband).Sarus
occurs later as the name of a Goth, but this does not
necessarily make Sarus of the Rosomoni a Goth. The
name can be compared to Sarosius or Saroes who around
500 A.D. was king of the Alans in the Caucasus.
Sarakos is an inscription from Tanais (early 3rd c.
A.D, probably is derived from the Sarmatian word that
corresponds to Avestic SARA-, Ossetic SAR [with .. on
A]=head, Sarus could mean "caput, captain"...Although
it cannot be proved that the Rosomoni were rebellious
Alans, the discesus of an Alanic gens at a time when
Alans attacked the Ostrogoths seems more likely than
the treachery of Gothic noblemen."
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