Re: The Russian God Svarog

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> I've just encountered references to a Russian god called Svarog.
> The best reference I encountered in a quick internet search was at
> http://www.geocities.com/cas111jd/slavs/slavs_svarog.htm , which
> looks sound. (cas111jd looks familiar, but I can't put a name to
> the Yahoo ID.) I've also seen a claim that the Lithuanians knew

him

> as Laukosargas.
>
> How sound is this? He seems to be being used as a comic-book
> character, and the 'Stargate SG-1' series has at the very least
> borrowed his name, so sober information on the web is more

difficult

> to find. (I don't rate the chances of finding anything out about
> him at the local public library very highly.)
>
> The name appears at first sight to be connected to Sanskrit
> _svarga_ 'heaven', which Pokorny derives from *swel 'smoulder,
> burn', but Pokorny does not make the connection. That suggests

that

> we are looking at an Iranian (Scythian?) loan. However, the
> vocalism of _Svarog_ is strange - one should expect *_Svorog_.
>
> An alternative etymology connects the name with Albanian
> _zgjuar_ 'bright'.
>
> What is known of the etymology of _Svarog_?
>
> Richard.

************
About Alb. <zgjuar> 'bright' I think that it is participle of the
verb <zgjoj> 'to awake, to wake up, to rouse'. It is, naturally,
standard form, besides dialectal foms: (g.) , , 'awakened, clever, intelligent, bright'.
According to Meye-Lübke it is borrowed form Romanian *exvigilare and,
according to H. Barich it is cognate with Snk svap 'dream, sleep',
where z- is prefix.
Taking into consideration dialectal form 'bright, clever',
I guess that standard form is just sonorized one. So, I
think that Alb. is derived from prefixed form z- + *k^lou-
enyo and can't be separable from the big family of the words derived
from this root, like: quaj/quej 'to call, to name', shquaj/shquej 'to
discern, to distinguish', dëgjoj/ndigoj 'to hear'.

Konushevci