Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/249

 n s. VL SEPT. H, i9iL>.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

201

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER, 1U, 1911.

CONTENTS. -No. 142.

NOTES : ' Widsith ' and " Qautigoth," 201 The Royal Society's 250th Anniversary, 202 Calcutta Statues and Memorials, 201 Representative Government in the Colonies Churchyard Inscriptions : List of Transcrip- tions, 206 Huntingdon Booksellers and Printers, 207 Henry VII. in Wales and Brittany "Guly as," 208.

<JU RBI ES: Alabaster Effigies Harrison Family, 208 Giacomo Leopardi Biographical Information Wanted "Like a thousand of brick" Morrice of Betshanger Vicars of St. John the Baptist, Little Missenden Name of Engraver Wanted Nicholas Herle, M. P. for Gram- pound London Bridge, 209 Finger-PrintsPlay founded on the Exploits of Tekeli The Queen of Tahiti's Feather Robe Copes of Wilts Ralph Boucher, M.P. Vane and Cromwell Dewhurst Bilsborrow of Dalby House Arms of the Lord Mayor Thackeray's ' Essay on Constantine Guys,' 210 Deodatus and Thomas Threlkeld John Warren, Earl of Surrey Natural Orientation 'The Real Shilock' Sir Watkin Williams Wynn : the Prince in Wales Burial-Place of Mary de Bohun, 211.

REPLIES : Wordsworth's Friend Jones, 211 " Moolvee " Ireland's Stolen Shire" On the nail," 212 Hancock as a Place-Name " Pomander," 213 No Twin ever Famous ffairbanck and Rawson Families, 214 Chained Books Fitzwilliam and Grimaldi Arms, 215 Trussel Family " Pot-boiler" Regent's Circus A Phrase of Swinburne's : "the morn" Henry Hunt Piper, 216 Col. Lowiher British Memorials of the Peninsular Campaign " Never- mass" Ballad of Lord Lovel Cobbett Bibliography Coloman Mikszath's Works in English Brodribb of Somerset, 217.

NOTES ON BOOKS: "The People's Books " "The Heroic Age' 'The Anthropological History of Europe' ' Four Lectures on the English Revolution ' ' The National Review.'

OBITUARY : Mr. Alfred Marks.

Notices to Correspondents.

4 WIDSITH,' L. 18, AND " GAUTIGOTH." (See ante, p. 7.)

THAT the phrase " Eorrnanric weold Gotum " means exactly the same as Hermanaricus rexit Oothos is a fundamental assumption which underlies so large a part of the results of German criticism of ' Widsith,' that it lias been tacitly advanced to the position of a postulate. I am about to show that this assumption is erroneous, notwith- standing the fact that it is now made universally by critics, and is presented by them as a self-evident and unquestionable truth.

The stem Got- is found in * Widsith ' in five passages, viz., in lines 18, 57, 89, 109, and 113, as follows : jEtla weold Hunum | Eormanric Gotum. 18. Ic waes mid Hunum | ond mid HreSgotum. 57. }>aer me Gotena cyning | gode dohte. 89. Bonan io ealne geondhwearf | ebel Gotena. 109. Emercan sohte ic ond Fridlan | ond East-Gotan frodne ond godiie | f seder Unwenes. 113.

The dithematic folk -name in the second passage is important. For not only are the Gotas called " HreSgotas," and their king " HreScyning " (1. 7), but we find the Geatas named " HreSmenn " by Beowulf, who calls himself " msegen HreSmanna " (1. 445).* In addition to Got- and Geat- we have a Scandinavian people named Gaut-ar.

Now Got-, Geat-, and Gaut- are in very close relationship to each other, being dialectal representatives of a primitive Germanic stem *^aitt. They belong respec- tively to the Old Saxon, the Old English, and the Old Norse dialects. This alloca- tion is necessitated by the inter-relationship of the three stems. They cannot belong to the same form of folk-speech ; they must therefore belong to different dialects ; and the Germanic dialects in which a primitive diphthong au changes its vocalization, and presents the several variations we have before us, can only be those enumerated just now. The following table will make this quite clear :

O.S.

O.E.

O.N.

Gothic.

o ea au iu

dot)' deab daub- dau]>-

Got- Geat- Gaut- Gaut-

The thematic form of the Gothic repre- sentative of O.S. Got- is " Gauti." It occurs in Jordanes (c. 550). In his ' Getica,' ed. Mommsen, p. 59, he describes Athelnil, Finna, Ithse, Fervir, and Gautigoth as " acre hominum genus et ad bella promp- tissimum " ("a spirited race of men, and very much inclined to war "). In Gauti- goth the Gothic equivalent of O.S. Got-, A.S. Geat-, is combined with the Gothic national name itself.

When the Emperor Claudius defeated the Goths at Naissus, in^A.D. 269, he assumed the title of Gothicus, and it is quite certain that this word had short o. So^ too, had Goihus, Gothia, Visigdthus, and Ostrogttha. In GSth-os, then, we have guttural media 4- short vowel + dental aspirate; in Got-um we have g.m. + long vowel + dental tenuis. In fine, there is an initial g in both words, and it is upon this letter g that the structure erected by Continental critics of ' Widsith,' and acquiesced in by English ones, will be found to be dependent.

The evidence of dialect proves that the Gotas were Antiqui Saxones, " Old Saxons." Their native country, on this hypothesis, must have been part of Old Saxony, and

For " oft," 1. 444, read err.