‘L’eroe sulla spiaggia’

In: Heroes and Saints: Studies in Honour of Katalin Halácsy. Ed. Zsuzsanna Simonkay and Andrea Nagy. Budapest: Mondat, 2015. 85–120.

The work by Publius Cornelius Tacitus entitled De origine et situ Germanorum is an inexhaustible source of knowledge about ancient Germanic peoples, their culture, beliefs and even their mythology. The proposed paper compares Tacitus’ information on the actions of Germanic *Askiz, identified with Greek-Roman Ulysses (Germ. 3, 2-3) and the Germanic myth of the creation of man (Germ. 2,2) with corresponding mentions from the Old Norse tradition (Voluspa, stanzas 17-18; Snorri Sturluson, Edda. Gylfaginning). The authors conclude that interpreting the stanzas 17-18 of the Old Norse Voluspa as a myth of the creation of man (widely accepted so far and supported by the authority of the 13th century Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson) is groundless. The Old Norse text mentions only an accidental interference of three Gods: Odin, Hoenir and Lodur in the life of particular human beings. The Gods, strolling by the seashore find Ask and Embla lying unconscious and they bring them to life, giving them spirit, sense, blood and skin colour. The passage is most probably a description of one of the adventures of the mythical Germanic wanderer *Askiz, the founder of the town of Asciburgium on the left bank of the Rhine (today Moers-Asberg, near Düsseldorf), according to Tacitus’ informants. The original Germanic myth of the creation of mankind is described in Tacitus’ work. The report of it is fully credible because it contains both elements directly attributable to the Indo-European tradition (Germanic Mannus as Indo-European *MonHus, the forefather of all mankind) as well as elements related to Proto-Germanic origins e.g. the eponymous ancestors of Ingvaeones and Herminones, whose existence is corroborated by later mythological data (e.g. Gmc. *Ingwaz / *Ingwōn, whence OE. Ing, ON. Ingwi; Gmc. *Ermenaz, whence OSax. Irmin).

2017

The essay takes into examination the words for ‘sailor’ in the Germanic languages, with particular regard to those going under the sobriquet of North Sea Germanic languages. The research begins with the lida of Maxims I and his safe return home. As with OE lida and līðend, nomina agentis from verbs of motion turn out to be among the most frequent formations for ‘sailor’, both in OE and many other Germanic languages. The research does not yield a common stock of Germanic words, but for the cognates of OE scipmann and sǣmann, that, however, are not recorded in all the Germanic languages. As to the līðend-compounds, their occurrence in more than one language might be due to the influence of OE models on both OS and OHG poetry. On the other hand, it emerges that the same (morphologic and semantic) patterns are constantly drawn upon. This produces a number of the words for ‘sailor’, revealing a process of invention of ever new compounds that apparently moves along traditional lines.

HEROM, 2016

Beitrage zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 2007

Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée , 2021

Abstract : The ‘Return Song’ theme (ATU 974 ‘The Homecoming Husband’) is most widely known from its oldest recorded variant: Homer’s Odyssey. Its numerous variants are widely distributed throughout the cultures of Europe and central/western Asia. From the mid-20th century, one view advanced is that the type is inherited from a common Indo-European tradition. However, according to Viktor Zhirmunsky’s (1966) comprehensive comparative study, the story more likely originated in Central Asia near the Altai. In his analysis Zhirmunsky identifies two main varieties: an older ‘heroic’ version in Asia and ancient Greece with mythological content; and a more recent ‘romantic’ version that characterises medieval and modern European variants. This paper aims to identify and interpret additional ‘heroic’ variants appearing in northwestern Europe and attempts to place them in a wider comparative context. Brief comparative summaries of the Odyssey and the Central Asian epic Alpamysh are provided, and a re-examination of the Scandinavian variants from the Middle Ages brings to light ‘heroic’ versions from Norse saga literature heretofore not considered by comparatists. Further west, from its content and structure a Gaelic hero tale, with probable origins in Ireland, is revealed to be an additional example of the ‘heroic’ version in Europe. For this tale, influences from the literature of the Odyssey, as well as transmission through Norse-Gaelic contacts are shown to be unlikely. Interestingly, the Gaelic hero tale contains structural features and mythological content present in the Central Asian epic but absent from the Greek Odyssey. We conclude with a discussion of what the evidence may reveal concerning the geographical and historical questions raised by the presence of the older ‘heroic’ variants in northwestern Europe. Le thème de la « Chanson du Retour » (ATU 974 « The Homecoming Husband ») est principalement connu par sa plus ancienne variante enregistrée : l'Odyssée d'Homère. Ses nombreuses variantes sont largement répandues dans les cultures d'Europe et d'Asie centrale/ occidentale. À partir du milieu du xx e siècle, une opinion avancée est que le type est hérité d'une tradition indo-européenne commune. Cependant, selon l'étude comparative complète de Viktor Zhirmunsky (1966), l'histoire est plus probablement originaire d'Asie centrale, près de l'Altaï. Dans son analyse, Zhirmunsky identifie deux variantes principales : une version « héroïque » plus ancienne en Asie et en Grèce antique avec un contenu mythologique ; et une version plus récente « romantique » qui caractérise les variantes européennes médiévales et modernes. Cet article vise à identifier et à interpréter d'autres variantes « héroïques » apparaissant dans le nord-ouest de l'Europe, et tente de les placer dans un contexte comparatif plus large. De brefs résumés comparatifs de l'Odyssée et de l'épopée d'Asie centrale d'Alpamysh sont fournis, et un réexamen des variantes scandinaves du Moyen Âge met en lumière des versions « héroïques » au sein des saga noroises, jusqu'alors non considérées par les comparatistes. Plus à l'ouest, de par son contenu et sa structure, un conte héroïque gaélique, avec de probables origines irlandaises, se révèle être un exemple supplémentaire de la version «héroïque» en Europe. Pour ce conte, l'influence littéraire de l'Odyssée, ainsi que la transmission par le biais de contacts norrois-gaéliques sont peu probables. Fait intéressant, le conte héroïque gaélique contient des caractéristiques structurelles et un contenu mythologique présents dans l'épopée d'Asie centrale mais absents de l'Odyssée grecque. Nous concluons par une discussion sur ce que ces faits peuvent révéler concernant les questions géographiques et historiques soulevées par la présence des variantes «héroïques» plus anciennes dans le nord-ouest de l'Europe.

It is clear that for those who lived by the sea in the North Atlantic, the sea shore was as much a liminal area between worlds (including life and death) as an airport is to us today. It was a place from which fishermen departed and sometimes never returned, and also a place at which other worldly beings could appear, ranging from washed-up bodies to monsters, selkies, and foreign pirates. At night, its dark surface and pervasive sound invited the imagination to work in a variety of ways. This article contains a brief examination of the role played by the shoreside in earlier Icelandic folk legends, placing the Icelandic material in the international context of other folk legend traditions from Shetland, Orkney, Norway and Scotland.

This is the attept to interpret pictorial evidence of Germanic and Celtic women's costume in a Roman context