Chapter 15

I go on expounding Tacitus. Everything confirms me in the conjecture that Inguio's or Ingo's brother must have been named Iscio, Isco, and not Istio, Isto. There is not so much weight to be laid on the fact that sundry MSS. even of Tacitus actually read Iscaevones: we ought to examine more narrowly, whether the st in Pliny's Istaevones be everywhere a matter of certainty; and even that need not compel us to give up our sc; Iscaevo was perhaps liable to be corrupted by the Romans themselves into Istaevo, as Vistula crept in by the side of the truer Viscula (Weichsel). But what seem irrefragable proofs are the Escio and Hisicion (18) of Nennius, in a tradition of the Mid. Ages not adopted from Tacitus, and the Isiocon (19) in a Gaelic poem of the 11th century (see Suppl.). If this will not serve, let internal evidence speak: in Tuisco and Mannisco we have been giving the suffix -isc its due, and Tuisto, a spelling which likewise occurs, is proof against all attempt at explanation. now Isco, as the third name in the same genealogy, would agree with these two. For Tvisco and Mannus the Norse legend substitutes two other names, but Inguio it has preserved in Ingvi; ought not his brother Iscio to be discoverable too? I fancy I am on his track in the Eddic Askr, a name that is given to the first-created man again (Sæm. 3. Sn. 10), and means an ash-tree. It seems strange enough, that we also come across this ask (let interpretation understand it of the tree or not) among the Runic names, side by side with 'inc, ziu, er,' all heroes and gods; and among the ON. names for the earth is Eskja, Sn. 220b. And even the vowel- change in the two forms of name, Iscio and Askr, holds equally good of the suffix -isk, -ask.

Here let me give vent to a daring fancy. In our language the relation of lineal descent is mainly expressed by two suffixes, ING and ISK. Manning means a son the offspring of man, and mannisko almost the same. I do not say that the two divine ancestors were borrowed from the grammatical form, still less that the grammatical form originated in the heroes' names. I leave the vital connexion of the two things unexplained, I simply indicate it. But if the Ingaevones living 'proximi oceano' were Saxon races, which to this day are addicted to deriving with -ing, it may be remarked that Asciburg, a sacred seat of the Iscaevones who dwelt 'proximi Rheno,' stood on the Rhine. (20) Of Askr, and the relation of the name to the tree, I shall treat in ch. XIX; of the Iscaevones it remains to be added, that the Anglo-Saxons also knew a hero Oesc, and consequently Oescingas.

Zeuss, p. 73 gives the preference to the reading Istaevones, connecting them with the Astingi, Azdingi, whom I (p. 342) took for Hazdingi, and identified with the ON. Haddîngjar, AS. Heardingas, OHG. Hertingâ. The hypothesis of Istaevones = Izdaevones would require that the Goth. zd = AS. rd, OHG. rt, should in the time of Tacitus have prevailed even among the Rhine Germans; I have never yet heard of an OHG. Artingâ, Ertingâ, nor of an ON. Addîngar, Eddîngar. According to this conjecture, ingenious anyhow and worth examining further, the ancestral hero would be called Istio = Izdio, Izdvio, OHG. Erto, ON. Eddi, with which the celebrated term edda proavia would agree, its Gothic form being izdô, OHG. ertâ. Izdo, Izdio proavus would seem in itself an apt name for the founder of a race. The fluctuation between i and a would be common to both interpretations, 'Iscaevones = Askingâ' and 'Istaevones = Artingâ'.

The third son of Mannus will occupy us even longer than his brothers. Ermino's posterity completes the cycle of the three main races of Germany: Ingaevones, Iscaevones, Herminones. The order in which they stand seems immaterial, in Tacitus it merely follows their geographical position; the initial vowel common to them leads us to suppose an alliterative juxtaposition of the ancestral heroes in German songs. The aspirate given by the Romans to Herminones, as to Hermunduri, is strictly no part of the German word, but is also very commonly retained by Latin writers of the Mid. Ages in proper names compounded with Irmin. In the name of the historical Arminius Tacitus leaves it out.

As with Inguio and Iscio, we must assign to the hero's name the otherwise demonstratable weak form Irmino, (21) Ermino, Goth. Aírmana: it is supported by the derivative Herminones, and even by the corruptions 'Hisicion, Armenon, Negno' in Nennius (see Suppl.). Possibly the strong-formed Irman, Irmin, Armin may even be a seperate root. But what occurs far more frequently than the simple word, is a host of compounds with irman-, irmin-, not only proper names, but other expressions concrete and abstract: Goth. Ermanaricus (Aírmanareiks), OHG. Irmanrîh, AS. Eormenrîc, ON. Iörmunrekr, where the u agrees with that in the national name Hermundurus; OHG. Irmandegan, Irmandeo, Irmanperaht, Irmanfrit, Irminolt, Irmandrût, Irmangart, Irmansuint, &c. Attention is claimed by the names of certain animals and plants: the ON. Iörmungandr is a snake, and Iörmunrekr a bull, the AS. Eormenwyrt and Eormenleáf is said to be a mallow, which I also find written geormenwyrt, geormenleáf. Authorities for irmangot, irmandiot, OS. irminthiod, irminman, irmansûl, &c., &c., have been given above, p. 118. A villa Irmenlô, i.e., a wood (in illa silva scaras sexaginta) is named in a deed of 855, Bondam's charterbook, p. 32. silva Irminlô, Lacombl. 1, 31.

In these compounds, especially those last named, irman seems to have but a general intensifying power, without any distinct references to a god or hero (conf. Woeste, mittheil. p. 44); it is like some other words, especially got and diot, regin and megin, which we find used in exactly the same way. If it did contain such reference, Eormenleáf would be Eormenes leáf, like Forneotes folme, Wuotanes wec. Irmandeo then is much the same as Gotadeo, Irmanrîh as Diotrîh; and as irmangot means the great god, irmandiot the great people, iörmungrund the great wide earth, so irmansûl cannot mean more than the great pillar, the very sense caught by Rudolf in his translation universalis columna (p. 117).



ENDNOTES:

18. In Nennius §17, Stevenson and Sanmarte (pp. 39. 40) have adopted the very worst reading Hisitio. Back

19. Pointed out by Leo in the zeitschr. f. d. alt. 2, 534. Back

20. Conf. Askitûn (Ascha near Amberg), Askiprunno (Eschborn near Frankfort), Askipah (Eschbach, Eschenbach) in various parts; Ascarîh, a man's name (see Suppl.). Back

21. Pertz 1, 200. 300. 2, 290. 463. 481; the abbas Irmino of Charles the Great's time is known well enough now; and a female name Iarmin is met with in deeds. Back