Re: "Irmin" and Hermes

>
>
> How about this: Jordanes "populus immensus" is a later emendation

of an unfamiliar "populus irmenus", and then that epithet stuck and
spread (since it was approximately accurate)?

--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> But the Gothic variant of "irmin" was <ermana->, which does not
look like "immensus". "Immensus populus" (*ermana- þiuda-) must have
been formulaic in Germanic, since it pops up in various far-off
places, being one of the most typical collocations involving "irmin".
The OE equivalent are <eormen-þe:od> and <eormen-cynn> (both
attested), also glossed as 'populus/gens immensus/permagnus'. I don't
think this irmin/erman element was really unfamiliar. Its attestation
is ample in OE (where the list of "eormen" things is quite long) and
Old Saxon, and there are examples of its use in OHG, ON and Gothic as
well.
>
> Piotr
>
No doubt the OE list "eormen" things was quite enorme (another
scribal error?), but was <ermana-> what the lesser Goths said too? In
the end they (presumably) came up with the <irmin> of <Irminsul>. The
Latin translation seems to have been equally formulaic; from your
examples one gets the impression "common, general" would have been a
more suitable one, which would fit in nicely with some meanings of
<aryaman>?

Torsten