Piotr wrote:
> Now let's be serious. Spellings like <hermunduri>, <hermondoroi>
> point to Germanic *ermVn(a)-duro:z, the latter element, *dura-,
> certainly with <d> and a short vowel, whatever it means.
The more I thought about this, the more it seems to make sense.
1. Hermes is the Greek god of boundaries and marketplaces. Hermes is also a
Greek word for the stelae (bust on a pillar, sometimes phallic) that marks
boundaries and marketplaces. Followers of Hermes are sometimes mentioned as
protecting and maintaining these stelae.
Pausanias alone mentions four different "international" boundaries marked by
"stone figures of Hermes". There are many mentions of "Agoraios Herme:s" --
"Hermes of the Marketplace." And Hermes also were milestones on roads.
Lidell-Scott gives a reference to a Hermes at Samothrace - "to:n hiero:n
Hermo:n." Genitive forms of Hermes include <hermou> (sing) <herme:n>,
<hermo:n> (plural) of Hermes or of the Hermes stelae.
Hermes is also the patron of messengers, translators and "commissioners".
<herme:neus> meant interpreter, "especially of foreign tongues" in Greek. It
could also mean broker and mediator. In the form of the Roman god Mercury,
often interchangeably, Hermes was the definitive god of commerce and trade.
2. Tacitus writes in Germania: "Nearer to us... are our faithful allies the
Hermunduri. Because they are so loyal, they are the only Germans who trade
with us not merely on the river bank but FAR WITHIN OUR BORDERS, and indeed
in the splendid colony that is the capital of Raetia. They come over where
they will, and without a guard set over them. The other Germans are only
allowed to see our armed camps; to the Hermunduri we exhibit our mansions and
country-houses without their coveting them." That's all he writes about the
Hermunduri in his review of the German tribes. It is pretty certain that
Tacitus knew Greek, uncertain that he knew German. He is interpreting the
Hermunduri as being unique in have access to Roman markets and trade across a
vast area. (A later meaning - immensus?)
3. The first time the name appears, it is in Greek, as <Hermondoroi>.
In Greek, <thora> meant door, L-S also citing OE <duru>, door. But often it
meant more than just a door. It also meant "admission to" someone,
especially kings and such. Lidell-Scott says <thora> was "applied also to...
clients, disciples, etc."
<Thuro:ros>, with a short -u-, meant gatekeeper or porter. (But Gr <doros >
apparently meant leather bag.) This is an old word, in some forms, about 600
years older than the first mention of the Hermonduroi. Perhaps the word
underwent some slight changes and assimilation changes in Germanic.
4. Hermo:n + thuro:soi = Hermondoroi? Gatekeepers of the southern markets.
Porters of the trade roads, across boundaries? (cf. Bastarnae).
Or were they <thoras>, followers of the god? (Tacitus tells us the main god
of the Germans - at the time - was "Mercury". Gods cross national and
linguistic boundaries, as any Christian, Buddhist or Moslem will tell you.)
Hermo:n + thuro:soi = Hermondoroi? I don't see why this is any less of an
explanation than that the word is of Germanic origin. Less self-approving
perhaps than "ermena (groß) + dur (wertvoll), duren (fest), turon (kühn)"...
or just plain darn "vastly wonderful."
What do the other herm-/irm- words in Germanic, etc,. refer to?
Perhaps the original sense was the same and from the same source, and it
meant not just vast places, but THE ACCESS or ADMISSION to those places.
There may be other examples.
Steve Long