"mrcaws" <
MrCaws@...> wrote:
> ... I read in Funk and Wagnalls' that Odin had a messenger son
> named Hermod who rode Sleipnir into the underworld to pass news of
> Balder's death. Does anyone know if this is a late borrowing?
PIOTR WROTE:
<<Not a borrowing. It's a native name: HermÛ r (cf. OE Heremo:d) <
*xarja-mo:daz 'army-anger/courage'.>>
Hey, you forgot about 'glorious, shining and great'!
Actually, there are obviously better names for a messenger and I suspect that
the coincidences are getting a little bit too much for credibility.
Wright's gives the Gothic words: <a:irino:n>, to be a messenger, <a:irus>,
messenger. Hermes of course is the basis of messenger words in Greek and
there's no real reason to think that Hermudr and <airinon> are just more
coincidences piling up to the ceiling.
That the army word is native Germanic might also raise a question. The
concept of a co-ordinated group fighting according to some order might
suggest the real early meaning of the word was closer to the Greek <harm->,
as in harmony or <harma>, horses joined in pulling a war chariot. The idea
of an army (as opposed to a uncoordinated mass of "angry" men) probably came
north by way of Greeks, Romans or maybe Etruscans. Arma virumque cano, and
all. Another interesting entry in Lidell-Scott: "harman: polemos [fighting]
(Phryg.), EM145.42." The ability to connect vastly different ideas like
"courage", "anger" and "army" covers up a lot of real original meanings I
suspect.
Also interesting is Wright connecting "aírzjan, to deceive, lead astray" with
"OHG. irren, cp. OE. iersian, to be angry." And "aírzeis, aj. astray,
erring; aírzeis wisan or waír<thorn>an, to go astray, err, be deceived," with
"OE. eorre, ierre, angry, OHG. irri."
Here we might see Hermes as both deceiver and enticer of Christian Goths from
the way (see Martin of Braga). Of course, the anger word makes no sense here
except as evidence that the assumption that these are native words can be
deceiving.
Steve