Re: OE. HERG / HEARG ----> ( herh-eard) GROVE DWELLING

At 12:33:35 PM on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, The Egyptian
Chronicles wrote:

> Since I posted "HERG / HEARG : BEOWULF'S SACRED GROVE & C.
> ARABIC "HRG"

> http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/HERG.html

> I have received the following responses which I am
> reproducing below, to the best of my ability. I only
> edited the unnecessary "emotional" and "outcry" segments
> which have no bearing on the argument:

> 1 - Arnaud Fournet wrote:

[...]

>> There is no reason to make things complicated Hearg is
>> from *ker "stone" and it has nothing to do with H_r_j

> 2 - Brian Scott wrote:

>> What these seem to have in common is the notion of a
>> heathen place of worship, especially an altar
>> (specifically of stone?), not the notion of a grove as
>> such. This is a long way from the Arabic word and its
>> etymology

[...]

> Basically the majority have been in favor with the "stone"
> (altar) interpretation, based on the fact that in Norse
> paganism, hörgr (plural hörgar) was a type of altar,
> constructed of piled stones. [...]

That is an inaccurate summary of my reasons.

> In summary, there were two objections raised to my
> investigation:

> 1) Hearg/herg did not refer to a "grove" but rather to an
> altar/stone and therefore not eligible to any
> meningfulcomparison.

[...]

> For those who objected to my attribution of the meaning of
> grove to Hearg/herg, I would like to inform you that this
> was based on behind the scenes discussions among reputable
> Anglo Saxon lexicographers. I am taking the liberty to
> post their exchange in its entirety below. I hope that
> this will put the matter to rest.

There's nothing 'behind the scenes' about this: it's
obviously from some published work, which should be cited.
(Nor does it appear to be an exchange.)

> "Thorpe and Ettmüller regarded "Herheard" as the lord's
> name, but later scholars have found this implausible.
> Grein's emendation of MS her heard to her eard simplifies
> the syntax, but deprives the verse of suitable
> alliteration; it is unlikely that the adverb would take
> the stress in preference to the noun. Grein later
> suggested herh-eard (1865, 422), meaning "grove-dwelling,"
> which in the "Nachträgliche Verbesserungen" to his edition
> he relates to wuda bearwe (line 27) and to OHG haruc,
> "lucus," and glosses in his Sprachschatz as "habitaculum
> in nemoribus" (similary Grein-Köhler). Grein's suggestion
> is adopted by Krapp-Dobbie. But the OE he(a)rg/hearh,
> "heathen temple," "idol," has a definite pejorative sense
> and is not recorded in precisely this spelling (see
> Concordance H002:19 (haerg-); H010:78 (haerg-);
> H012:271-73 (hearg-), 273 (hearh-); H017:308-12 and 321-22
> (herg-); H018:11 and 23-24 (herg-), 64 and 70-80 passim
> (herig-).Toller Supp. gives the emended form hearh-eard in
> Grein's sense with a query, and also cites this line under
> heard as an alternative possibility. Moritz Trautmann's
> suggestion that the word herheard means "sanctuary" in the
> sense of "refuge" (1894, 222-25) is not substantiated
> elsewhere in OE. Later scholars have found a specifically
> pagan significance in the word. Thus A .N. Doane (1966,
> 86-88). Also Wentersdorf (1981, 509), who finds it in Rim
> 74 also (generally emended to her eardes to provide
> alliteration: see note)."

[...]

> Obviously this exchange changes the outcome as to the
> first objection stated above.

Obviously it has nothing to do with the first objection
stated above.

[...]

Brian