Erilaz
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Erilaz is a Migration period Proto-Norse word attested on various Elder Futhark inscriptions, which has often been interpreted to mean "magician" or "rune master", viz. one who is capable of writing runes to magical effect. The word is linguistically related to the name of the tribe of the Heruli, however, and as Mees (2003) has shown, both are ablaut variants of earl, so it is probably merely an old Germanic military title (see etymology below).
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[edit] Etymology
- The most likely etymology of the word is Proto-Germanic:
- *Harjaz = "Army" (cognate with German Heer = Army)
- *-il- = "person belonging to" (cognate with English -ling) Example: Earthling
- *Harjilaz = "Army Person" = Warrior
- Note 1: Cognate words = directly related in form, meaning, & history.
- Note 2: that j is pronounced as a y as in English "yes" (or the J in German "Ja")
- Eg. Har-yaz. Har-yil-az.
[edit] Historical Instances
- Roman: Heruli, Greek Eruloi (dating from around 250ce onwards)
- Runic: Erilaz (dating from around 200ce - 400ce)
[edit] Further Evolution in written texts
- Old Saxon - Erl - Man, Warrior
- Old English - Eorl - Warrior Leader, Noble
- Old Norse - Jarl - Warrior Leader, Noble
- Modern English - Earl - Noble Rank
- All of these refer to warrior nobility and military leadership.
[edit] Most likely evolution of the word
- *Harjil- .. Heril- .. Eril- .. Erl .. Eorl/Jarl .. Earl
- Army Person - Warrior - Warrior Leader - Leadership/Rank/Nobility
[edit] Erilaz/Herilaz, Heruli Phonology
When the Romans asked the raiders "what do you call yourselves?", They would have answered "the warriors" in their own language as "Herilōz" (plural of "Herilaz"). A common effect in the phonology of words with such endings is that the preceding vowel is conditioned by the vowel in the ending as it changes. This happens as the mouth unconsciously changes shape in anticipation of the next vowel. This would have caused lowering and rounding of the i as the ending changed from "-az" to "-ōz" (singular to plural).
This conditioning of the unstressed i would have made it sound like a u, making Heriloz sound like Heruloz. Hence the Romanised "Heruli" rather than "Herili".
The initial h in *harjaz was never dropped (eg. Heer), most likely because there were other words that needed to be distinguished from it by the h. Dropping it would have caused it to sound like another existing word. However, with Herilaz, there were no competing words. In this situation an initial h often becomes optional.
"Erilaz" is often transcribed "ErilaR". The uppercase R indicates a transitional period as Common Germanic "z" evolved into Old Norse "r". (Permission: Plowright, S. 2006)
[edit] Inscriptions
[edit] Lindholm "amulet"
The Lindholm "amulet" (DR 261 $U) is a bone piece found in Skåne, dated to the 2nd to 4th centuries. The inscription contains the word Erilaz.
[edit] Funen shaft
The Kragehul I (DR 196 U) spear-shaft found in Funen[1] that bears the inscription:
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- ekerilazasugisalasmuhahaitegagagaginuga [....]
- ek erilaz asugisalas muha haite, gagaga gin[n]u ga
Which is interpreted as "I, the Erilaz of Asugisalaz am called Muha", followed by some sort of battle cry or chant. Asugisalaz contains ansu- "god" and gisala- "sprout, offspring". Muha may either be a personal name, or a word meaning "retainer" or similar. The runes of gagaga are displayed as a row of three bindrunes based on the X-shape of the g rune with sidetwigs attached to its extremities for the a. A similar sequence gægogæ is found on the Undley bracteate.
[edit] Other items
- Bracteates Eskatorp-F and Väsby-F have e[k]erilaz
- Bratsberg clasp: ekerilaz
- Veblingsnes:ekerilaz
- Rosseland: ekwagigazerilaz
- Järsberg (Vr 1): ekerilaz
- By: ekirilaz
- The Etelheim clasp has mkmrlawrta read as ek erla wrta "I, Erla, wrote this".
[edit] References
- Mees, B. 2003, 'Runic erilaR', North-Western European Language Evolution (NOWELE), 42:41-68.
- Plowright, S. The Rune Primer, Lulu Press (2006), ISBN 1-84728-246-6; book review
