Re: [tied] Tolkien and Germanic astronomy

----- Original Message -----
From: "João Simões Lopes Filho" <jodan99@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 9:17 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Tolkien and Germanic astronomy


ON Aurvandill / OE earendel / OHG orentil (-doubt-) seems to be similarities
to Greek Eosphoros and Latin Lucifer (replacing older*Aurifer?). So, can we
see the PIE name for morning Venus something like "Dawn-bringer",
"Dawn-wanderer", "Dawn-messenger" or something like ?

Joao SL
----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski <piotr.gasiorowski@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 2:34 PM
Subject: [tied] Tolkien and Germanic astronomy


Reading Tolkien to my children, I'm reminded every now and then of rare Old
English words that appear in _The Lord of the Rings_ , sometimes disguised
as Quenya words. The name <Eärendil> has a transparent Quenya etymology (eär
'sea' + -ndil 'friend'), but since it also refers to the Evening Star, it
was no doubt inspired by OE e:arendel 'Venus' (by Tolkien's own admission,
these famous lines from Cynewulf's _Christ_,

Eala earendel engla beorhtast
ofer middangeard monnum sended ...

haunted his imagination since he first read them). This word is in turn
connected with ON Aurvandill (= Orvandil, a hero whose toe, thrown into the
sky by Thor, became a star; as to which star it was, opinions vary).

I've seen attempts to etymologise these names either together or in
separation (so that e.g. the latter is associated with <aurr> 'moist earth,
mud', with <vandi> 'task, difficulty', and God knows what else). I think,
however, that Pokorny is right in identifying the initial element of
<e:arendel> with *h2auso:s 'dawn'. The second element would then be
*wand-ila-/-ala- 'something that changes or wanders about' (cf. Ger.
Wandel), hence, hypothetically, *'wandering star, planet'. Apparently the
original *-s-stem was transformed into a Germanic weak stem *auzo:n- (a
well-attested process affecting old *-s- and *-t-stems). In both Old English
and Old Norse the weak-stem suffix was regularly syncopated in composition
(cf. OE gum-cynn 'mankind', heort-le:as 'heartless'), hence *aur(a)-wandil-
with further phonetic simplification of the unstressed component in English
(e:arendel < *e:ar-wendel, cf. hla:ford < *hla:f-weard).

Comments welcome,

Piotr






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