Gaut

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gautr, Gauti, Guti, Gothus and Geats are name forms based on the same Proto-Germanic root, *ǥuđ- (see god). Gapt is generally considered to be a corruption of Gaut[1].

The names may represent the eponymous founder of an early tribe ancestral to the Gautar (Geats), Gutans (Goths) and Gutar (Gotlanders). Gaut was one of Odin's names and the name forms are thought to be echoes of an ancient ancestry tradition among Germanic tribes, such as that of Yngvi and the Ingaevones.

Moreover, the names Geats, Goths and Gutar are closely related tribal names. Geat was originally Proto-Germanic *Gautoz and Goths and Gutar were *Gutaniz. According to Andersson (1996), *Gautoz and *Gutaniz are two ablaut grades of a Proto-Germanic word with the meaning "to pour" (modern Swedish gjuta, modern German giessen) designating the tribes as "pourers of semen" or "men".

The name Gautr appears as one of the names of Odin in Norse mythology, but also as an alternative form of the name Gauti, who was one of Odin's sons, and the founder of the kingdom of the Geats, Götaland (Gautland/Geatland). This Gautr/Gauti also appears as the father of the recurrent and undatable Geatish king Gautrekr.

Some versions of the English royal line of Wessex add names above that of Woden, purportedly giving Woden's ancestry, though the names are now usually thought be in fact another royal lineage that has been at some stage erroneously pasted onto the top of the standard genealogy. Some of these genealogies end in Geat, whom it is reasonable to think might be Gaut. The account in the Historia Britonum calls Geat a son of a god which fits. But Asser in his Life of Alfred writes instead that the pagans worshipped this Geat himself for a long time as a god. In Old Norse texts Gaut is itself a very common byname for Odin.

Jordanes in The origin and deeds of the Goths traces the line of the Amelungs up to Hulmul son of Gapt, purportedly the first Gothic hero of record. This Gapt is felt by many commentators to be an error for Gaut or Gauti. Nennius reports that a Gothus was the ancestor of the Goths. It is not clear if Getae were related to Goths. In the same book Jordanes tells that Tomyris was the queen of Getae. Tomyris was, according to Herodotus, a queen of the Massagetae.

The Gutasaga, which treats the history of Gotland before its Christianization, begins with Tielvar and his son Havde, who had three sons, Graip, Guti and Gunfjaun, who were the ancestors of the Gotlanders, the Gutar (which is originally the same name as Goths).