Tuesday, November 26, 2019

I ran across a reference this morning to the Gothica Bononiensia, a recently (2013-ish) discovered 7th century palimpsest MS of St Augustine's de Civitate Dei with the lower script being Gothic fragments of translated Bible passages.

The word that led me there was Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌶𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌹𐌻 (auzandil) for Koine Greek ἑωσφόρος (heōsphóros) 'morning star, Venus': related to Hamlet's (Amleth) father's name in Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum and the name Horvendile, James Branch Cabell's alter-ego in his Poictesme legendarium: from Proto-Germanic *auziwandilaz 'wandering-dawn'. The Old English cognate, ēarendel, should look familiar to Tolkien fans, Eärendil the Mariner, whose name as lifted from the Old English poem Crist.