2007 1-4 Complete PDF

The Journal of
INDO-EUROPEAN
STUDIES
HARALD BJORVAND
The Etymology of English ale............................................................. 1
B ERNARD MEES
Chamalires sne yyic and binding in Celtic ................................... 9
WILLIAM SAYERS
Grendels Mother (Beowulf) and the
Celtic Sovereignty Goddess .............................................................. 31
MATTHEW J. RIFKIN
A Spatial Analysis of Neolithic Cultures throughout
Eastern, Central, and Northern Europe in Relation to
Proto-Germanic................................................................................. 53
VCLAV B LAZEK
From August Schleicher to Sergei Starostin:
On the development of the tree-diagram models of the
Indo-European languages ................................................................ 82
MARC PIERCE
Vowel Epenthesis vs. Schwa Lexicalization in
Classical Armenian......................................................................... 111
MARTIN HULD
Albanian gogl and Indo-European acorns................................. 121
FRANCESCO R. ADRADOS
A Panorama of Indo-European Linguistics since the Middle
of the Twentieth Century: Advances and Immobilism ............... 129
JIES R EVIEWS
Archaeology .................................................................................... 155
Linguistics ....................................................................................... 168
Mythology and Culture .................................................................. 189
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTORS .............................................. 198
The Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series ................... 200
Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2
Spring/Summer 2007
The Journal of Indo-European Studies

GENERAL EDITOR
James P. Mallory
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Linguistics: Douglas Adams, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Peter Schrijver
Mythology and Anthropology: Nick Allen, Scott Littleton,
Dean A. Miller
Archaeology: David Anthony, Kristian Kristiansen
Book Review Editors: Linguistics: Bridget Drinka, Archaeology:
Karlene Jones-Bley, Mythology and Anthropology: Dean A.
Miller, John Colarusso
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
FRANOISE BADER
MARTIN HULD
La Sorbonne, Paris
California State University, L.A.
R. S. V. BEEKES
CAROL F. JUSTUS
University of Leiden
University of Texas at Austin
WINFRED P. LEHMANN
ANGELA DELLA VOLPE
California State University, Fullerton
PAOLO RAMAT
MIRIAM ROBBINS DEXTER
University of Califomia, L.A.
University of Pavia
WILLIAM R. SCHMALSTIEG
A. RICHARD DIEBOLD , JR.
University of Arizona
Pennsylvania State University
RDIGER SCHMITT
WOLFGANG DRESSLER
University of Vienna
University of Saarland
KARL HORST SCHMIDT
1. DURIDANOV
University of Sofia
University of Bonn
PAUL FRIEDRICH
JRGEN UNTERMANN
University of Chicago
University of Cologne
THOMAS V. GAMKRELIDZE
JEAN VARENNE
Georgian Academy of Sciences, Tbilizi
University of Aix-en-Provence
JOHN GREPPIN
BRENT VINE
Cleveland State University
University of California, Los Angeles
ERIC HAMP
A LEXANDRU VULPE
Academy of Sciences, Bucharest
JEAN HAUDRY
WERNER WINTER
University of Lyon III
University of Kiel
STEFAN ZIMMER
University of Bonn
The Etymology of English ale

Harald Bjorvand
University of Oslo
English ale goes back to Gmc. *al-p- n. The inherited meaning of

the root element *alu- is bright, golden, reddish, etc., which is
also seen in the cognate forms OHG elo (< Gmc. *elwa-) and OInd.
aru- (< older *alu-s-). Consequently, the original meaning of
Gmc. *al-p- beer was the golden, pale beverage. Its closest
relative is Ossetic luton beer, which like Gmc. *al-p- reflects
non-Anatolian IE *ol-t-. The initial *o- is retained in some very
old Finno-Ugric loan words like Finn. olut. Ultimately, this name
for beer belongs to a w-expanded IE root *H 1el-w-/*H 1ol-w- bright,
reddish, etc., i.e. IE *H 1ol-t- > non-Anatolian IE *olt-; cf. IE
*H 1elw-o- > non-Anatolian IE *elwo- > OHG elo.1
1. Germanic forms
This undoubtedly very ancient English word is recorded
in Old English as alu, ealu and is found also in several other
old Germanic languages: ON l, ODa. l, OSw. l, MDu. le and
OSax. alo- in the compound alofat n. beer barrel. In addition
to Eng. ale this word for beer is also preserved in all modern
Nordic languages: Icel. l, Far. l, Norw. l, Da. l and Sw. l,
and the gender is always neuter.
The genitive and dative singular of OE alu, ealu are alop,
ealop (Campbell 1962: 259), and these case-forms enable us to
reconstruct the Germanic proto-form as *alp- n., i.e., with the
stress on the second syllable and an unvoiced *p according to
Verners law.
The Germanic nominative and accusative of this
consonant stem had the form *alp, and because of the early
loss of *p in final position these case-forms became *alu. This
form is attested in OE alu, ealu and OSax. alo- and in all
probability also in Primitive Norse runic inscriptions as alu,
especially on bracteates. In some of the inscriptions the word
appears together with Primitive Norse laukaR m. onion (e.g.
1
I wish to thank my colleague Fredrik Otto Lindeman for valuable
information and rewarding discussions.
Volume 35, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2007
Harald Bjorvand
Skrydstrup B bracteate), cf. ON laukr, OE lac, Eng. leek, etc.,

and with lapu f. invitation (Fyn I bracteate). This
circumstance makes it very likely that alu in these instances
has the meaning beer, since it seems to indicate that
(perhaps for magical purposes) the beer was consumed
together with onion (at banquets), cf. ON sem manni mr lauk
eda l bri a girl should serve a man onion or beer (Hst
Heyerdahl 1991: 188). The beer, and probably also the onion,
played an important role in Germanic cult and ritual. Other
inscriptions that contain the word alu are, for example,
Lindholmen and Elgesem (Grnvik 1996: 74 and Hst
Heyerdahl 1981: 43 with further details). The form alu has
become ON l through u-mutation of a- to -. There is no
evidence then in support of the hypothesis that Primitive
Norse alu should not be the Germanic word for beer but a
totally different word of uncertain meaning and origin as is
sometimes assumed (Dwel 2001: 53).
This alcoholic beverage was known to the Babylonians
and Egyptians and probably also already to the earliest graingrowing civilizations in this part of the world. The art of
brewing spread quite early to Europe,2 and the Roman
historian Tacitus (ca. 100 A.D.) informs us that beer brewing
had long-standing traditions with the Germanic peoples: potui
humor ex hordeo aut frumento in quandam similitudinem vini
corruptus as beverage a liquid made from barley or wheat,
fermented into something resembling wine, Germania,
Chapter 23 (Anderson 1938).
1.1. Formal analysis
The etymology of Gmc. *alp- n. is unknown. It is of the
utmost importance that every etymological study should start
with a thorough investigation of the formal aspects of the
actual word forms. For *alp- two alternatives exist: *al-p- and
*al-p- and the latter, where the stressed * is not part of the
suffix, is clearly preferable for the following reason: The Gmc.
*p (< IE *t) is obviously a suffix, and one does not expect a
suffix vowel *u in connection with such a consonant, but
rather *a or *i (< IE *o or *e), cf. Goth. liuhap n. light,
magaps f. girl and milip n. honey. The u-vowel, on the other
2
The analysis of dregs in prehistoric pottery in Northern Europe indicates

that fermented beverages made of grains and honey were in current use since
the middle of the second millennium B.C. (Polom 1996: 99).
hand, originally belonged to suffixes containing IE *n, *m, *r

or *l, where syllabic IE *n, etc. gave Gmc. *un, etc. as in the
Germanic word for morning: Gmc. *murguna- m. in ON
morgunn, OSw. morghon, etc. beside *murgana- in OHG morgan,
etc. and *murgina- in Goth. maurgins, OE myr en, etc. In some
cases an analogical u-vowel may, however, appear before other
suffix consonants such as *p, e.g. Gmc. *halp(a)- m. in OSax.
helith hero and OE hled, hle man, hero, fighter, whereas
ON hldr farmer, man reflects Primitive Norse *halupaR. In
the case of *alp-, however, the *u is the only attested vowel
and must consequently be considered original and inherited in
this particular word.
Consequently, the most precise Gmc. proto-form of Eng.
ale, etc. is *al-p-, which is a formation containing a p-suffix
and a radical element *alu-. From a Germanic point of view
this *alu- can hardly be anything else than the adjectival root
*alu- yellowy, reddish, etc., which is seen in e.g. Gmc. *aluz- m. alder with reflexes in OE alor, ON lr, Norw. or and
older, Sw. al, etc. Newly cut alder wood has a reddish colour.
The name of the tree corresponds exactly to OInd. arureddish and Avest. aurusa- bright, white (< Indo-Iran. *arusa- < older *alu-s-). That the two radical elements Gmc. *aluand Indo-Iran. *aru- reflect a non-Anatol. IE o-grade form *oluis shown most explicitly by the Gmc. e-grade form *elu- found
in the wa-stem *elwa- underlying OHG elo yellowy, pale
yellow, reddish yellow, tawny. The two stem forms *olu- and
*elu- are clearly w-expansions of a non-Anatolian IE color root
*el-/*ol- bright, yellowy, etc., which goes back ultimately to IE
*H1el-/*H1ol- with an initial non-coloring laryngeal *H1
(Pokorny 1959: 302-304; Lindeman 1997: 25-26), viz. *H1el-w/*H1ol-w- > non-Anatolian IE *elu-/*olu- (Bjorvand and
Lindeman 2000: 31-32 under alm elm).
A Germanic form that shows a similar extension with *p
(< IE *t) of a color adjective is the Germanic word for gold,
Gmc. *gl-pa- n. with reflexes in Goth. gulp, OE. gold, Eng.
gold, ON gull, goll, Norw. gull, etc. This word is an enlarged
form of the adjective *gula- yellow > ON gulr, Norw. gul, Sw.
gul, etc. The form *gl-pa- shows a younger a-stem extension
(Meid 1967: 139-141).
Gmc. *al-p- n. beer, ale < non-Anatol. IE *ol-t- in all
probability originally described the color of the brew with the
meaning the golden, reddish, pale (beverage). The cited
Harald Bjorvand
OInd. adjective aru- with the variant arun- reddish, ruddy,

tawny, etc. is similarly used to describe the color of the juice
of the Soma plant.
2. Cognate Indo-European forms
Gmc. *al-- n. beer is, as stated above, an inherited
word, and a closely related form is the non-Anatolian IE neuter
u-stem *olu-/*oleu- beer underlying Baltic and Slavic forms as
OPrus. alu mead, Lith. als and Latv. alus beer, the two last
forms showing masculine gender like Russ.-OCS ol beer.
Modern Russian has a derived form olov-na f. dregs from
beer.
While these forms represent a non-Anatolian IE form
*olu-, Gmc. *al-, as mentioned in 1.1., goes back to a nonAnatolian IE t-stem *ol-t-. The latter form is also met with in
the word for beer in the Iranian language Ossetic, luton,
where -on is a later added suffix (Gamkrelidze and Ivanov
1984: 932, 946). Abaev (1958: 130) thinks that the Ossetic
word could be a loan from Germanic, since there are no
corresponding forms in the other Iranian languages, and
because, in his opinion, one should expect *r rather than l
from IE *l in lut-on if it had been a direct continuation of the
IE proto-form. His argumentation is, however, untenable.
Clearly, IE *l has not in all cases become *r in the Iranian
languages, and this fact is also demonstrated by some Ossetic
forms such as, e.g., lsg salmon, cf. Toch. B laks fish, ON
lax, Norw. laks salmon, etc. Furthermore, the lack of
corresponding words for beer elsewhere in Iranian can simply
be taken to indicate that the expected forms are all lost here.
In the same way, we find that in Germanic quite a few
inherited words are retained only in one of the languages,
such as, for example, the Gothic preterite-present g he fears
and the strong verb faian blame (Lehmann 1986: 270, 102).
Consequently, nothing forces us to consider Ossetic luton as a
Germanic loan word.
Thus, the word for beer goes back to two different forms
of the same color adjective, *olu- and *olut-, meaning bright,
golden, reddish, etc.. A formal parallel is observable in OInd.
hri- yellowy, light brown, reddish, etc., which is also attested
with a t-enlarged form hart- beside the even younger thematic
form harta-.
3. Finno-Ugric forms
This Indo-European word for beer has been adopted by
the Finno-Ugric languages, e.g. Finn. olut and Est. lu, etc.
Because of the final -t in Finn. olut the word can hardly be a
loan from Baltic or Slavic. Furthermore the initial o- makes it
evident that it must have entered these languages before the
o-vowel of the non-Anatolian IE proto-form *olu-t- had become
*a as it has later in Gmc. *al-p- and Iran. *alu-t-. There is
nothing to support the assumption that a Gmc. *a- should
appear as o- in Finnish and other Finno-Ugric languages
(Kylstra 1996: 310).
The preparation of this alcoholic beverage had most
certainly been known to the Indo-European neighbors of the
Finno-Ugric peoples for thousands of years BC. (see footnote
2). Therefore, it seems quite clear that the Finno-Ugric forms
are so old that it is impossible to determine from which
language ancestral to Germanic or Iranian they have been
taken over, or on the whole where the borrowing has taken
place. Consequently, all that can be established with certainty
is that Finn. olut, Est. lu, etc. are Indo-European loan words.
Summing up, we may conclude that Finn. olut, etc. provides
very strong support for the reconstruction of this old word for
beer with a non-Anatolian IE *o rather than *a (see also
section 4 below).
4. Older etymologies
Several attempts have been made through the years to
explain the etymology of this ancient word. They all suffer,
however, from the same weaknesses: 1) through the failure to
take Finn. olut, etc. into consideration the non-Anatolian IE
proto-form is wrongly considered to have had an initial *a
instead of the correct *o. 2) the Germanic proto-form *alp- n.
is not properly analysed.
Consequently, the old proposal (Pokorny 1959: 33 f.)
which sees a connection between Gmc. *alp- and Lat. almen
n. alum is unacceptable first of all for formal reasons, since
the initial a- of Lat. almen goes back to a non-Anatolian IE
*a. The two words are further taken to be derivations from a
root element *alu- bitter, which is nowhere else to be found.
Lat. almen is by Ernout and Meillet (1932: 68) considered to
be a technical word of uncertain origin.
Polom has twice (1954 and 1996) tried to explain the
Harald Bjorvand
etymology of Gmc. *alp-. He thinks that *alup- (beer) owed

its name to its magico-religious function in Germanic society,
[. . .]. (1996: 101). Starting with this assumption he attempts
to connect Gmc. *alp- etymologically with Hitt. alwanzatar n.
witchcraft, magic, spell. This Hittite noun and cognate forms
like the verb alwanzahh- bewitch are themselves, however,
difficult to analyse (Puhvel 1984: 46 f. and Neu 1974: 77-78,
fn. 139). They seem to be specifically Hittite words of quite
uncertain origin. Hence, his suggested etymology is
unsatisfactory on formal grounds. 3 Furthermore, he gives no
semantic parallels for such a name for beer, and I, for one,
cannot think of any so that, semantically, his proposed
etymology remains rather ill-founded.
Gmc. *alp- has also been taken to be a derivation from
the Germanic strong verb *alan-, pret. *l- by Elmevik (1999:
24 fn. 1), who thinks that the original meaning of *alp- was
the growing or swelling beverage. But an intransitive
meaning grow, swell is not demonstrable for Gmc. *alan-,
which only shows the transitive meanings beget, breed, give
birth to, feed, bring up, etc. as in ON ala (Bjorvand 2005: 4547). In order to connect *alp- etymologically with Gmc.
*alan- it must also be interpreted as *al-p-, which is, however,
an unacceptable formal analysis as shown in 1.1. above.
Bibliography
3
Theoretically, Hitt. alw- in alwanzatar, etc. could, like non-Anatolian IE *oluin *ol-t-, also be the outcome of an IE element *H 1olw- (of unknown basic
meaning) with loss of the initial laryngeal *H 1 and *o becoming Hitt. a-, cf.
1.1., but even so Poloms proposal remains at best a very doubtful root
etymology.
He attempts himself (1996: 101-103) to explain the etymology of the
Hittite words by linking them with e.g. Gk. al I am beside myself (from
older *alusj), alusms m. anguish, etc. In this way he excludes, however, a
connection between Hitt. alwanzatar and non-Anatolian IE *olt- beer, since
he among other things overlooks the Finno-Ugric forms, which show that the
underlying non-Anatolian IE form of the beer name must be reconstructed
with an initial *o- as *olt-, whereas the Greek forms point to a non-Anatolian
IE *a-.
The correspondence of Hitt. a- and Gk. a- is also problematic: Some of
these correspondences have been explained by positing an initial voiced acoloring laryngeal *} 2, which was also lost in Hittite (Lindeman 1997: 48
f.). There are, however, very few certain examples and it seems, therefore,
somewhat better to link Gk. al, etc. with Hitt. halluwai- c. quarrel
(Tischler 1983: 20 f.).
Abaev, Vasilij I.
1958
Istoriko-etimologieskij slovar osetinskogo jazyka. Vol. 1. A K. Moscow
and Leningrad: Izdatelstvo Akademii nauk SSSR.
Anderson, John Graham Comrie
1938
Cornelii Taciti de origine et situ germanorum. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Bjorvand, Harald
2005
Tre elve- og bekkenavn i Aker (Oslo). Namn och bygd. Tidskrift fr
nordisk ortnamnsforskning 93: 45-57.
Bjorvand, Harald and Fredrik Otto Lindeman
2000
Vre arveord. Etymologisk ordbok. Oslo: Novus forlag.
Campbell, Alistair
1962
Old English Grammar. Reprint with corrections. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Dwel, Klaus
2001
Runenkunde. (Sammlung Metzler. Band 72). 3., vollstndig neu
bearbeitete Auflage. Stuttgart and Weimar: Verlag J.B. Metzler.
Elmevik, Lennart
1999
De urnordiska runinskrifternas alu. In: Elmevik, Lennart and
Svante Strandberg (eds.) Runor och namn. Hyllningsskrift till Lena
Peterson den 27 januari 1999, 21-28. (Namn och samhlle 10).
Uppsala: Uppsala universitet.
Ernout, Alfred and Antoine Meillet
1932
Dictionaire tymologique de la langue latine. Histoire des mots. Paris:
Klincksieck.
Gamkrelidze, Tomas V. and Vjacheslav Vs. Ivanov
1984
Indoevropejskij jazyk i indoevropejcy. 1-2. Tblisi: Publishing House of
the Tblisi State University.
Grnvik, Ottar
1996
Fra Vimose til demotland. Nye studier over runeinnskrifter fra
frkristen tid i Norden. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Hst Heyerdahl, Gerd
1981
Trylleordet alu. Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi. rbok 1980: 3549. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Hst Heyerdahl, Gerd
1991
Runeordene laukaR og alu. Maal og Minne 1991: 188-190.
Kylstra, Andries D. et al. (eds.)
1996
Lexikon der lteren germanischen Lehnwrter in den ostseefinnischen
Sprachen. Vol. II: K-O. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Editions Rodopi
B.V.
Harald Bjorvand
Lehmann, Winfred P.
1986
A Gothic Etymological Dictionary. Based on the third edition of
Vergleichendes Wrterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund
Feist. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Lindeman, Fredrik Otto
1997
Introduction to the Laryngeal Theory. (Innsbrucker Beitrge zur
Sprachwissenschaft; Vol. 91). Innsbruck: Institut fr
Sprachwissenschaft der Universitt.
Meid, Wolfgang
1967
Germanische Sprachwissenschaft von Hans Krahe 3. Wortbildungslehre
von Wolfgang Meid. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Neu, Erich
1974
Der Anitta-Text. (Studien zu den Bogazky-Texten; 18).
Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz.
Pokorny, Julius
1959
Indogermanisches etymologisches Wrterbuch. I. Band. Berlin und
Mnchen: Francke Verlag.
Polom, Edgar C.
1954
Notes sur la vocabulaire religieux du germanique: I. Runique alu.
La Nouvelle Clio 6: 40-55.
Polom, Edgar C.
1996
Beer, Runes and Magic. Journal of Indo-European Studies 24: 99-105.
Puhvel, Jaan
1984
Hittite Etymological Dictionary. Vol. 1. Words beginning with A. Vol. 2.
Words beginning with E and I. (Trends in Linguistics Documentation 1). Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Tischler, Johann
1983
Hethitisches etymologisches Glossar. Teil I a k. Mit Beitrgen von
Gnter Neumann (Innsbrucker Beitrge zur Sprachwissenschaft;
Vol. 20). Innsbruck: Institut fr Sprachwissenschaft der Universitt.
Chamalires sney yic and binding in Celtic

Bernard Mees
University of Melbourne
The Gaulish inscription from Chamalires has been the subject of

many different interpretations over the years, a significant
proportion of them not accepting that its epigraphic context
points to it recording a defixio or ancient binding spell.
Nonetheless it appears to be a regular-enough aquatic curse-tablet
find, and a defixio of the handing-over or registering variety
employed in the context of litigation, although it is expressed
metrically and employs only native vocabulary. Moreover some of
the language employed seems to be reflected in expressions used
to describe key narrative features in Insular Celtic tales.
In January 1971, French archaeologists unearthed a small

lead tablet from the remains of an ancient spring near
Chamalires (Puy de Dme) that bears a long Gaulish
inscription; see Lejeune and Marichal (1976-77), RIG L-100.
In light of the find circumstances, the first-century text
seemed to represent a common kind of classical magical
epigraph, a katdesmow or defixio (curse or binding spell). The
correct interpretation of the Chamalires text has been
contested over the intervening years, however; one of the
most commented on of the Gaulish inscriptions, many of the
linguistic analyses proposed for it do not seem to be
reconcilable with its find context. A diplomatic reading of the
inscription has been simple enough to attain (even if the
parsing in one or two instances remains somewhat unclear),
but not a comprehensive linguistic analysis and hence a
reliable overall interpretation and translation.
The Chamalires inscription clearly features two opening
sentences which are followed by a list of masculine names and
several final statements, the last including repeated, ring-like
phrasing: luge luge luxe. The use of i-longa () or yod in
the inscription is rather erratic (the repetition, for instance,
includes the variations dessummiis, dessumis and dessums) and
is usually regarded as an unreliable guide to any underlying
phonological behavior. Some other features of the
10
Bernard Mees
inscriptions spelling have also been the subject of some

controversy these are noted in the following normalised
transcription by underscoring, although the readings are not
always strictly doubtful:
Andedon uedium diiuion ri(s) sunariu
. Mapon(on)
Arueriatin.
Loites sne yyic sos brixta anderon.
C. Lucion Floron Nigrnon adgarion,
Aemilon Paterin(on),
Claudon Legitumon,
Caelion Pelign(on),
Claudo(n) Pelign(on),
Marcion Victorin(on),
Asiatcon Ayyedill.
Etic Secoui toncnaman toncsionto.
Meon ponc
sesit buetid ollon reguc cambon.
.
Exsops pissum soc cant rssu ison son bisset.
Luge dessumiis, luge dessumis, luge dessums, luxe.
The opening sentence is usually thought to represent

some sort of summons or prayer. The most crucial part of the
inscription analytically, however, has proven to be the second
sentence, that which opens with the forms loites or lopites
.
sneyyic. Although the morphological analysis of the first term
as a 2nd person (seemingly deponent) imperative seems clear,
and most interpreters have seen a cognate to OIr. latha(ig)id
hurries, makes haste, here (rather than, to say Latin loquor),
what this may mean has not been made so evident. Karl Horst
Schmidt (1981:263) has argued for a meaning quicken, i.e.,
in the attack, as if the Chamalires text is a martial
enchantment, while more recently Joe Eska (2002:41) in his
the most recent treatment of the find has preferred to read a
command for Maponos (the divinity invoked in the first
sentence) to hasten or come quickly both see a pronoun
sn us in the next sequence in line with their transitive
interpretations of loites (although Eska sees sn semantically as
an indirect object, i.e., an accusative of goal). In fact a
pronominal reading is the key feature of Eskas overall
interpretation of the text (as an initiation ritual with an
anthropological in-group, an us, in opposition to his putative
out-group represented by sos < *sons them for expected
*ss). Yet though Wolfgang Meid (1992:38-40) further
Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic
11
suggests to read speed up (i.e., effect) what he sees as a

healing charm, none of these readings would have clear
parallels in Greek or Roman, let alone other Celtic magical
texts. In contrast, however, a request that the deity called
upon in a defixio act tax quickly is not only common, but
formulaic (often doubled or even tripled, and accompanied by
dh now) in Greek katdesmoi (a style which is reflected in
Latin curses as quam celerisme) and the find site of the
Chamalires inscription is typical of one in which ancient
binding tablets (tabellae defixionum) are also found (cf.
especially the many finds from the sacred spring at Bath) as
are inscriptions on lead rather than gold, bronze or silver; see
Kagarow (1929:19, 44), Kotansky (1994), Graf (1997:126-27)
and Ogden (1999:10ff.). Even the single ansata or winged
shape of the tablet is paralleled in Graeco-Roman tabellae
defixionum: e.g., a curse tablet from Carleon, Britain, and one
even featuring an ansata stele (i.e., boxed-in section) from
Carnuntum, Austria; see Egger (1962-63:I.81ff. and 281-82)
and cf. Brashear (1975:28) and Betz (1992:311) for a similar
stele in a spell from a Graeco-Egyptian grimoire.1 A likely
interpretation of loites would seem to be hasten, be quick!,
then; after all, not only are curse tablets the most common of
all ancient magical epigraphic finds (over 1000 have been
published to date), as Eska suggests (p.c.), loites can even be
analysed as a stative. This reading would not require sn to be a
pronoun, though, which calls into question the usual reading
of the following form as sneyyic us and (with sn a sigmatic
form despite only asigmatic instances of the 1st acc. pl.
pronoun being known (or suspected) otherwise in Gaulish and
e yyic a rather irregular variant of probably gradative etic < *etikwe; cf. La Graufesenque avotni made us, the apparently
double use of ni at Thiaucourt, and the employment of eti
1
The tabula ansata is a traditional shape for ex voto and may first have begun
being used for curses and other spells as a reflection of the growing prayerlike or theurgic nature of classical magic in the Imperial Roman period.
Steles seem originally to have begun as representations of spell tablets in
magical tracts, but were later reinterpreted as emphasising forms, similar to
underscoring (or boxing off) today, and hence even began to appear on spell
tablets like the bilingual Carnuntum find which employs steles to mark out
mystical symbols (xaraktrew) and the name of the god Hermes; see Egger
(1962-63:I.91f.), and Kotansky (1994: nos 18, 45 and 66) for similar tabulae
ansatae on ancient amulet lamellas.
12
Bernard Mees
seemingly where Latin texts have item at La Graufesenque; see

RIG II.2, p. 120, L-20.69 and L-127).
An alternate interpretation for sneyyic has been proposed
by Pierre-Yves Lambert (1987:15; 2003:156) who chooses to
see a verbal form, a cognate of OIr. sniid twists, here. He
translates the form as torment, but in fact cognates such as
W. nyddu to spin and Latin neo to spin suggest a better
translation would be spin or bind (and contrast OIr. snm
care, dnnm careless, dernum torment). Of course
Lamberts (1987:15-16) agreement with Michel Lejeune (in
Lejeune and Marichal 1976-77:164-65) that the inscription
represents a judicial katdesmow (as one of the men mentioned
in the text is described as an adgarion, which may well signify
an accuser or advocate; cf. OIr. adgair claim, sue) would be
bolstered by reading the verb in this way and cf. the
appearance of advoc(atos) (and litution; cf. OIr. liud
imputation) in what is probably another Gaulish defixio (albeit
much less well preserved) from nearby Les Martres-de-Veyres
(RIG L-102); indeed as Meid (1992:39, n.66) points out,
adgarion might well be a calque of advocatus. Moreover the
etymological figure toncnaman toncsionto, who will destine a
destiny, which follows the names, also suggests a legal process
(even if we must reject the influence of *to(n)g- swear (an
oath) on morphophonological grounds); see Charles-Edwards
(1995) and Schumacher (1995) even more so if secoui
(hardly Segovii as has often been assumed, given the reading
tonk- rather than to(n)g-), seemingly the plural subject doing
the destining, is a collective indicating the cutters; cf. the
Lezoux defixios (RIG L-101.A2 & 6) secoles, MIr. tescaid cuts (<
*to-eks-skH-), eiscid cuts off (< *in-sekH-) and IE *sekH- to
cut.2 The oppositional, perhaps allusive (meon ollon, little
2
A reading as seg- would be in keeping with Schimdts (1957:265-66) dictum
for personal names, but the Lezoux defixio (as its verb nitixor indicates; cf.
Larzac nitixsintor, 3rd pl. optative passive to ni-(s)tig- curse, stick down)
seems to be a typical handing-over katdesmow, and hence both secoui and secoles
should probably be analysed in the same light. The Lezoux inscription at least
clearly begins with a patently dedicatory Lutura eiur[u], followed by secoles (cf.
Latin dative plurals in -s < -eis, presumably locatives in origin); i.e., probably
Lutura has dedicated to the Secoli . Moreover, what seems to be a relative
form pon-/pom- < *kwo- comes next and the sequence Lambert (RIG II.2, p.
282) has read as treansa (which is clearly followed by a sigmatic form of gabtook) may represent the Celtic word for third (cf. RIG L-35.1 trans, OIr.
tran), i.e., indicating what was stolen (trientes, Roman third-pence). Together
13
great; reguc cambon, I straighten the crooked etc.)

penultimate section also appears to feature two pairs of
statements linked by enclitic connectives (reguc and soc), i.e.,
forms similar to that suggested for sneyyic. The main problem
with his reading of sneyyic as a verb + enclitic connective is
that Lamberts proposed 2nd sg. form does not seem to be
justified by comparison with Insular Celtic evidence.
There are several verbal constructions similar to this
putative sneyyic and bind in Gaulish, however, some of which
have been known (but not well understood) since the late
nineteenth century, others of more recent discovery. The
appearance of several verbal forms in -ss- among the finds at
Chteaubleau (RIG L-90, L-93) let alone the meaning for
sneyyic suggested here make Lamberts suggestion worthy of
some consideration. Reading sneyyic as a 2nd sg. makes good
sense in light of the Latin 2nd sg. perfects in -st, after all, and
Lambert has seen a pronominal ti affixed to a typical 2nd sg.
(albeit subjunctive) desinence here, much as he has suggested
for Chteaubleau (peta)massi (cf. also the MBr. 2nd sg.
imperfect ending -es < *-es-); see Lambert (1998-2000:80).
Latin perfects in -st (older -stei < *-s-tH2e-i), though, have
nothing to do with pronominal suffixation, but are instead
formed with the Indo-European middle/perfect suffix -tH2e
that features both in the Celtic 2nd sg. (deponent) imperative
(Gaulish -ts, OIr. -the, -de < *-tH2e-i-s) as well as in the Insular
2nd passive constructions (suffixed by -r); see Sihler
(1995:587-88). Reading a (secondarily thematised) s-preterite
here (i.e., *sn-ie-s-t-i; cf. Gk nhsa, LIV 571-72), too, can
probably be ruled out on pragmatic grounds: it does not seem
likely that a 2nd person imperative would be linked with a 3rd
person past form in such a way; cf. Eska (2002:42). There are
similar OIr. 3rd sg. relative forms such as snes (for expected
*snete < *sn-ie-t-io) which appear to have desinences modelled
on relative constructions of *H1es-, seemingly in order to
with the two clear forms preceded by the preposition tri through, we may
translate whoever may have stolen (i.e., quicumque involaverit) trientes,
through aram[], through catic[.]nus (on the latter of which see Mees
2005:178). The connection between spinning, fating and cutting is
particularly suggestive of the classical Moirae or Apportioners (Clotho who
spun, Lachesis who measured and Atropos who cut the thread of life), if not so
clearly the various Celtic apportioning (*(s)mer-) gods: (Dis) Smertrios,
Rosmerta and Cantismerta.
14
Bernard Mees
disambiguate them from t-preterital and other like forms; see

Thurneysen (1946:567) and cf., perhaps, Larzac (RIG L98.2b2) (nitiannco)bue y to Chamalires bue|tid (ll. 8-9) and
Lezoux bueti d (B1), the former of which Lambert
(2003:173) interprets as a relative form. Yet again, it does not
seem likely that we are dealing with the influence of Gaulish
expressions modelled on a 3rd person form of *H1 es-, i.e. <
*sn-ie-s-t-i, either.
Nonetheless, the new reading of the difficult Rom text
by Robert Marichal in the Gaulish recueil (RIG L-198) supplies
us with a reading garti|esti (A1-2) or perhaps, rather, carti|esti,
given that forms like cartaont (seemingly to cart- cleanse,
scour, if not car- love or a zero-grade form of IE *kert- bind,
a root not otherwise attested in Celtic) appear further on in
the inscription which appears to be a formation similar to
sneyyic. Moreover, there is a further similar Gaulish find that
also seems to represent evidence that such forms were linked
with imperatives. Although there is some dispute over the
meanings of the nominal elements, one of the Gaulish
Bassannac graffiti (RIG L-51) bears two sentences, each
probably headed by verbs, one of which is clearly lubi love!, a
regular thematic imperative known from other Gaulish texts.
The other is tedi (seemingly for tey(y)i), which despite the
lack of a separating space is often thought to represent a 2nd
sg. pronoun (a morphological accusative serving as a
nominative, much as in Brythonic although, then, probably
only in Breton as te < *te, the form which seems to be attested
three times at Rom) followed by a final -i-retained 3rd sg. form
of *H1es-. It seems more likely that tedi represents a Gaulish
cognate of OIr. tinaid disappears (< melts < IE *teiH2- be
hot), however, i.e., seemingly another -sti (-y(y)i) expression,
the lack of a nasal infix suggesting a non-present, perhaps a
subjunctive or a future form; cf. Lambert (2003:64). The final
-i in each of these cases might be thought to be concomitant
with verb movement (cf. the other -i-suffixed Gaulish forms
such as sioxti and ogito which are clearly attested in verb-initial
and final positions respectively) as they seem unlikely to
represent inherited primary forms.3 But the use of these
3
Exceptions to the typical verb-second ordering in Gaulish (other than

imperatives) typically occur only when the verbs are either suffixed by what
are clearly enclitics (e.g. Chamalires regu-c, toncsiont-o) or with final -i. This
15
constructions in combination with regular thematic

imperatives (i.e., lubi tedi paralleling loites sne yyic), instead
suggests that this inflection may represent a Gaulish
development employing the IE athematic imperative suffix
*-dh (cf. Gk isq), i.e., perhaps we are dealing with
contracted periphrastic forms < *sn- + e yyi, *ti- + eyyi etc.:
Lubi rutenica onoba!
Tedi ulano celicnu!
Love the thirst-killers 4 (?), Rutenian!
Disappear (?) from the hall, redness (i.e., wine?)!
Another of the Celtic Bassannac graffiti (RIG L-50),

neddamon delgu linda, I hold the drinks of the nearest,
probably represents the basic syntactic structure (gen. 1st sg.
pres. verb acc.) of the opening supplication at Chamalires.
The positioning of the verb uedium between the two
apparently gen. pl. forms, andedon infernorum and diiuion
deorum, however, seems to indicate that Gaulish could be lax
concerning constituent order, much as Latin is, the verb here
probably appearing in the middle of a prepositional or
adjectival phrase. This positioning may represent not merely
the verb-second rule of Gaulish (here applied hypercorrectly?),
but also perhaps a stylistic (ring-like) effect. The expression
andedon diiuion ri(s) sunaru seems to represent a
reflection of the tradition of daemones infernales or ministeria
infernorum de(or)um servants of the chthonic gods; see Egger
(1962-63:I.87).5 Moreover, as Eska has pointed out, on
behavior supports both the impression that the absolute endings of Insular
Celtic originally had something to do with verb movement (Watkins
1963a:48-49 = 1994:50-51), as well as the clitic/particle theory promoted
most influentially by Cowgill (1975) preterite sioxti scarcely continues a
(regular) primary hic-et-nunc form; the IE primary : secondary distinction does
not appear to have survived into Gaulish in a regular manner.
4
Comparing Gallo-Latin vidubium vouge, wood-knife, Lambert (2003:14143) has interpreted onoba as a compound of *pono- thirst (cf. Gk pnoV) and
*bi- strike, much like a Celtic masculine ANIMAL + bi-(i)o- (masc.)
construction such as the Negau A cognomen FAN UAFI, i.e., Banuo-bi-i pigkiller (gen.), MIr. Failbe < *wailo-bi(i)os wolf-killer or Artbe < *arto-bi(i)os
bear-killer or the divine byname Latobios der mit Furor schlgt; see Meid
(1995), Markey (2001:113-16).
5
The usual comparison of the difficult ri(s) sunaru (rather than ri(s) sunaritu)
with OIr. son(a)irte strength (< *su-nt-i) has been criticised by Eska
16
Bernard Mees
etymological grounds the verb uedium should probably be

glossed in a manner closer to Latin peto or precor than invoco,
which is again in keeping with the use of supplicatory verbs in
defixiones, especially in those of the late type which Versnel
(1991) has distinguished as judicial prayers.
Similar syntactic license probably also explains why the
more surely native expression, the etymological figure
toncnaman toncsionto, features (archaic cf. the Prestino
inscription and Alise-Ste-Reines dugiontio Ucuetin) verb-final
word-order (albeit with postposed enclitic), rather than
reflecting the verb-second style typical of Gaulish.
Furthermore the fating figure may be evidence of another
kind that the Chamalires text deals with binding. Middle
Welsh tynghaf tynghet, which in Culhwch and Olwen is the key
expression, describing what compels the hero to seek out his
yet-to-be-seen beloved, shares the role of the motive for
heroic action that is characteristic both of the geis in early Irish
literature and curses in Greek tragedy. Often thought to
represent the anthropological notion of the taboo, both of
the etymologies proposed for geis point instead to the world of
the defixiones (as does the fact that geasa are something that
kings and heroes have, rather than being inherent to certain
objects, animals or acts such as is typically the case with
taboos); cf. Hull (1901), Sjoestedt (1949:70-71). Whether a
development of *gwh edh- (as in uedium; cf. the use of Latin
precor to mean both pray and curse, and the similar
behaviour of Greek r curse, prayer), as is usually thought,
(2002:38) as phonologically irregular, although a similar development seems
to explain forms like OIr. cart- clean, scour < IE *(s)kert-/(s)kt- cut and OIr.
-scara separates < *(s)kerH-/(s)kH- via *skera-/skr-/skar- (LIV 558); cf. Hamp
(1992). A connection with the daemones infernales would suggest a similar
meaning, with sunaru presumably indicating a collective that Maponos is
being summoned prior to. The oblique inflection may represent the same
development witnessed in the Alise-Ste-Reine dedications (RIG L-13) in
Alisia where the Sraucourt graffito (RIG L-79) has in Alixie in Alesia, i.e.,
the use of a morphological instrumental with locative force, with ri(s) before,
prior to (< *pris). The Chamalires ministeria infernorum deorum would seem
to be the Secoui mentioned later on in the text who are being called upon by
the curser to destine a destiny on the list of names, much like Culhwchs
stepmother does in Culhwch and Olwen or the wronged Arianrhod manages to
three times in Math Son of Mathonwy; see Charles-Edwards (1995),
Schumacher (1995), and cf. the similar multiple binding on a defixio
(featuring infernal spirits and another Celtic divinity, Ogmios) from Bregenz
(Egger 1962-63:I.276-89).
17
or with Hamp (1981) of *ghed- (cf. OIr. ro geinn is contained,

i.e., a contract or a fate), the geis, although restricted only to
kings and heroes in Hibernian tales, may reflect the broader
IE tradition of the curse-enhanced oath something bound so
well it should not be broken (but, eventually in the Irish
stories, typically and tragically is) much as curses were often
added to oaths (and laws) in ancient Greek tradition to ensure
they were not broken; see Watson (1991:8-9), Sjblom
(1998), and cf. Watkins (1995:448-59) and Markey (2000) on
possible broader IE parallels between magical binding, ancient
legal practice and the swearing of oaths perhaps reflected in
Celtic by W. hud magic and its cognates ON seidr and Lith.
saitas (< *soitos to *sH2i- tie, bind).
Stylistic features might also explain the rather strange
wording (if not the general lack of discursive flow of the
charm) of the second line at Chamalires, too, with the two
verbs (loites sneyyic) grouped on the left, and the instr. sg.
and adverb brixta anderon with magic (the names which follow
here) below grouped on the right. This latter grouping makes
anderon seem to be a gen. pl. modifying brixta rather than
(the flanked expression) sos these (masc.), i.e., these by
infernal magic (magic of the infernal ones), rather than the
clearer expression, better paralleled in classical curse tablets
(e.g. as a nominibus infrascriptis), andernados brictom the
enchantment of the group (here) below, seen at Larzac; see
Tomlin (1988:65).6 In fact these forms, like the opening
supplication, could well represent hexasyllabic compositions
(mostly trisyllabic dimetre, at one point, though, even
apparently featuring a form of elision) in keeping with the
scheme elaborated by Watkins (1963b = 1994:349-404) for
Insular Celtic metres (and employing a typically Celtic, rather
than Latinate scansion). Metrical considerations (and cf. the
alliteration and end rhyme) probably explain the unexpected
position (and overt clitic pronoun) of the verb uedium, as well
as the placement of anderon/sos. Moreover, the two opening
sentences also seem to be linked by ring composition
comparable to the half-word type called ascnam in Middle Irish
(Murphy 1961:43-45) that probably emphasises the distinction
6
Typical curse-tablet forms like a nominibus infrascriptis are also evidently the
model for the opening Larzac sequence [i]n eianom anuan[a] sananderna,
with in used with the accusative having a different (into, upon) meaning than
when it is used with a dative/locative like sinde.
18
Bernard Mees
infernus underworldly : infra (here) below:7

Andedon
diiuion ri(s)
Mapon(on)
uedium
sunaru
Arveriatin;
|
|
()|
loites
sos brixta
sneyyic
anderon!
|
|
Of the infernal
I beseech
of the gods, before the power
Maponos
Arveriatis;
be quick
these with magic
and bind
(here) below!
Following the names and the etymological figure comes

an oppositional section which has heretofore not received a
complete translation. Despite the paucity of trisyllabic
cadence, to judge from the rhyme and assonance it may also
be metrical, albeit dithyrambic (cf. especially the
phonological form of the first and last lines). Moreover it also
seems mostly to feature alternations of word-foot dimetre and
trimetre:
Meon, ponc
sesit,8 |
.
buetid ollon;
reguc cambon.
|
|
Scansion is a particularly fraught matter with dead languages, but a Latinate

(i.e., octosyllabic) interpretation here would not explain the apparent
fronting of andedon (i.e., its movement to the left of ri(s), the head of the
prepositional phrase, to form a ring with anderon), as the second sentence
cannot be scanned as octosyllabic and the tetrasyllabic cadences that result
from such a scansion are quite unlike anything envisaged by Watkins (contrast
the approach of Eska and Mercado 2005).
8
Rather than ponc
sesit, Lambert (2003:159) instead reads oncsesit (cf.
.
Sraucourt legasit; RIG L-79), which might make more sense if buetid is to be
interpreted as a relative form with -id < *-i-de that, who: i.e., May you destine
little so that it may be big; see Schrijver (1997:177). Eskas (2002:47)
connection of -id with *-idid it seems to be ruled out by La Graufesenque
auotide < *au-ue-ud-t-id-id made it (RIG L-20.68); cf. auotis, auot(t)i, auote
and Hitt. u-watemi bring (about).
19
Exops pissum;
soc cant rissu,
ison son bisset.
|
|
|
Little, when sowed (?),

may it be great;
and I straighten the crooked.
Blind, I will see;
and this (the destiny?) of charm I have counselled (?),
will ensure this (?).
The last sequence here, beginning with soc, is usually

judged to be especially unclear (it actually reads tsoccantrtssu),
although ison son (the former probably representing an
augmented *e-so- and similarly soc presumably < *e-sod-kw e),9
where the two demonstratives appear in sequence, seems to
represent a similar practice to the redundant use of the article
in a Greek expression like totvntnof these (the) (cf. the
doubly deictic sinde se of the Larzac inscription) rather than
represent reduplication of the Old Irish in sin (< *s s)
variety; cf. Eska (2002:48-50) and McCones (2003) critique of
Schrijvers (1997:14-17 and 39-43) reconstruction of a ProtoCeltic *sim rather than *sod < IE *tod although alternatively,
the use of the double demonstrative (much as at Larzac) may
represent an emphasised form, i.e., a performative use of
deixis (referring to what is little great?) much as might be
expected of a spell; see Faraone (1996:95-96) and cf. Schrijver
(1997:49), De Bernardo Stempel (2005:196): hence this, this
here/this, thereon? It seems likely, too, that cant is to be
read as a gen. sg. of a Gaulish *cantio- related to *cantlon > MIr.
ctal, W. cathl, Br. kentel (which are formed as if they were
originally instrument nouns) much as (and perhaps having the
9
The similar forms with tau Gallicum, e.g. Vergiates IOS (Solinas 1995: no.
119), seem to be pronouns: hence Roms (B2-3) i{h}za <a>tat o te {h}izo atant
may well be an adaptation of the si masculus, si muliebris (si vir, si mulier etc.)
formula typical of defixiones of the judicial-prayer type (and cf. also B1 & 9 te
uoraiimo, presumably te donamus vel sim.). For the vocalic variation in
demonstratives like Chamalires soc, ison, Marcelluss ison (De Med. 15.106),
Larzac esi (1a9), Chteaubleau -esi (2), perhaps eso, e[s]o (?) at Lezoux (RIG L8, L-67) and essna (?) at Baudecet (RIG L-109), though, cf. the comparable
sporadic raising in forms like Gaulish esox, isox, esax and OIr. iach (gen.)
salmon.
20
Bernard Mees
same semantic relationship as) Latin cantus singing, playing,

prophecy etc. (general) has to canti song, charm (specific),
or Gaulish onomastic Anextlo- and OIr. anacul have to British
onomastic Anextio-; see Marstrander (1934), Markey
(2003:295-96), CIL XIII 11583, RIB 2415.55; and the ctal
Loga of Cath Maige Tuired 129 (Borsje and Kelly 2003:21-22).
Morphologically, bisset seems unlikely to be a form of to be
(and cf. Chteaubleau bissiete) as is often supposed given OIr.
bieit will be < *biwseti < *bhi-bhwH2-s-eti, and a form like *bidsie/o- will ensure (cf. OIr. bibdu one who is liable, culprit,
defendant, enemy, Latin fd trust, Goth. beidan await,
expect < *bheidh-) makes some sense in light of the common
use of legalistic terms in katdesmoi; cf. Eska (2002:50), De
Bernardo Stempel (2005:196). Hardly an oblique nominal
descendant of *writ(t)- scratch, write (> reien, ritzen) as is
often averred, rssu instead also looks to be a verbal form
similar to OIr. ridi, MW adrawd said, told (< *roH1 dh-io-)
and OIr. ris a piece of news, tidings, story (etc.) (< *reH1 dhs-), i.e., an s-aorist to *reH1 dh- counsel (LIV 449-50).
Watkins (1995:63-64; and cf. ibid.:100), however, points
out the parallel between reguc cambon and Hesiods (Works and
Days 7) yneiskolin, (Zeus) straightens the crooked which
suggests this section might be a poetic reference to the
righting of a wrong. Hymns are often also included in the
spells recorded in the magical papyri, and snatches, especially
of Homeric verse, are similarly used in many ancient charms.
But the closest wording in a classical curse to this passage
would seem to be on the lost second-century BC Amorgos
tabella defixionis that includes a series of oppositional
expressions (which is another fairly typical feature of the
longer katdesmoi) including m douleyoito m mu[kr]n m
pmeglou, may he not be served, by the great or the small
and speraw m yersaito, may he sow but not reap; see IG
XII.7, no. 1 and Versnel (1991:69-70). On the other hand,
the reference to blindness should perhaps be understood in
terms of the semantics of seeing linked to figures such as the
Insular filid, the use of future tense pragmatically replicated by
similar (typically future-perfect) forms in classical curses.
One final indication that the Chamalires inscription is a
curse appears to come in the last line, which as Eska (2002:5152) has suggested probably features a four-fold (and hence
obviously stylised) use of the verbal root lu(n)g- > OIr. loing,
21
which he has glossed as bends (together), entwines and

Martin Kummel (LIV 416) proposes may reflect an underlying
meaning wohin tun. At Larzac this evidently causative verb
seems to be a key piece of cursing terminology, i.e., describing
the action (lunget-) performed by Severa Tertionicna in the
defixio (ponc nitixsintor sies duscelinatia, when they are to be
bound by malediction) and, although related to English lock
(< *luk-, lk-), it is obviously reminiscent of the various
devote or consign terms such as paraddvmi hand over,
katatyhmiassign, mando entrust or even simply do give also
typical of classical curses, if not the more direct binding or
tying verbs (katad, defigo etc.) which katdesmoi often
employ; cf. British luciumio (3x, L-108, Bath) in what the Latin
context (most of the other finds are judicial prayers) suggest
are probably verbs of the hand-over type. In judicial prayers it
is typically stolen items that are entrusted to the gods; an older
form of handing over appears to be occurring at Chamalires,
however, where it seems to be the victims mentioned in the
body of the inscription (C. Lucius Florus Nigrinus etc.) who are
being committed to stand before Maponos/the chthonic
powers (for judgement), as is typical of handing-over
katdesmoi from the centuries about the birth of Christ.
A different use of *lu(n)g- may be witnessed in medieval
Irish, though: in a key passage from the Wasting Sickness of C
Chulainn (LU ll. 3516-25 = Dillon 1953: ll. 316-23) the heros
fairy curse is described in the following manner:
Mr espa do
laigi fri san
ar donadbat
esa a Tenmag
condot rodbsat,
condot chachtsat,
condot ellat,
eter brga
lech
serglige,
genaiti (.i. mn)
Trogaigi (.i. a Maig Mell),
banespa.
Great folly for

a warrior
to lie under the sleep
of a wasting sickness
for it shows that
spirits (i.e., women),
the folk of Tenmag
Trogaigi (i.e., of Mag Mell)
have overwhelmed you
have captured you
have taken possession (?) of you
through the power
of womanish folly.
22
Bernard Mees
Within a ring of forms in espa folly (which themselves

are subordinate to a longer ring with mr), the use of laigi (to
laigid < *leg-io-) lie looks as if it may have been deliberately
linked with the difficult form ellat in this passage as the third
(and hence presumably most important) term in a triad of
descriptions of spellbinding. Clustered within three
tetrasyllabic (short) lines nestled between heptasyllabics
(long), however, the correct interpretation of both of the
verbs rodbsat and ellat have been subjects of some
disagreement. As rodbsat seems literally to have meant
destroyed, it has either been semantically ameliorated to
injured by past interpreters or taken as a scribal error for
robdsat overwhelmed; moreover, although the more
controversial hapax ellat has been linked by Myles Dillon
(1940:280, n. 4; 1953:64, 82) with ell a flush, blush, sudden
pang or pain, such a verb would be otherwise unattested in
Old Irish, and a corrected reading as the relatively common
ellacht (to inloing < *eni-lu(n)g-), presumably meaning put
upon or taken possession in this context, might be preferred
given the meristic semantics entailed by overwhelming,
capturing and possessing; and cf. BL 1056: condas ellacht C
Chulaind. If so, an understanding concerning the old
etymological relationship between *log-io- and *lu(n)g- may be
echoed here; i.e., despite the remodelled vocalism, *lu(n)g- is a
nasal remake of causative *log-io- (with the vocalism modelled
on OIr. boing < *bu(n)g); see Pedersen (1909-13:II.570),
Watkins (1962:117, n. 8), Meid (1996:44). 10 The serglige is,
after all, literally a wasting-lying (or sleeping) C Chulainn
is even described as fer seirges i lligu a man who lies wasting
away in Bricrius Feast; see Carey (1999). Compare, too, the
lay semantic (as loads, supernatural imposts or burdens)
obvious in the Icelandic lg or binding charms which have
been compared both to the tynghaf tynghet of Culhwch and
Olwen and Scottish geasa by Rosemary Power (1987). In Irish
use, though, loing came to take on a series of (typically)
10
In fact the spelling ellat may have been provoked by a desire to rhyme with
rodbsat and chachtsat, the elision of the velar perhaps reflecting the influence
of the other Hibernian put form which seems to have developed from IE
*legh-, i.e., the suppletive -l (paralleled in Continental Celtic by the Voltino
stones -LAI), seemingly a reanalysed form of a *log-n- > *l(n)- (vel sim.),
hence 3rd sg. perfect -li; see Markey and Mees (2004:88).
23
legalistic meanings: prefixed by fo- < *upo- it means support,

with in- < *eni- put in, put together, make a claim, possess,
occupy; and in this way it is particularly reminiscent of the
compounds of Greek tyhmi commonly used in katdesmoi: a
term for put used with the meaning put before the chthonic
gods, commit to an infernal trial. When taken in light of the
employment of luci- (< *log-io-) and lu(n)g- on ancient magical
tablets (and cf. the use of causative legasit < *legh-H2-s-t- in
what is probably a votive context at Sraucourt; RIG L-79) it
seems possible, if not likely that the use of the *log-io-/*lu(n)groot represents a (genre-specific) calquing on Greek
(para)katatyhmi and that *log-io-/*lu(n)g- forms
consequently became the terms par excellence for magical
handing over (i.e., putting before the infernal courts) in the
Old Celtic interpretation of the classical cursing tradition.
Eska reads the Chamalires forms luge and luxe as
imperatives, however, attempting to explain away the
unexpected absence of nasals in these terms as owing to the
influence of non-nasal forms like lock. The lack of a nasal in
the Gaulish examples, though, points more regularly instead to
a non-present or participial form; in fact, given the formation
of the Old Irish verbal noun -log, the terms seem to be regular
o-stem locatives/datives; cf. Larzac ntr. sg. sinde. Consequently,
the last line of the Chamalires text could well be translated as
a tripled, though syntactically regular, verb-second and
pentasyllabic luge dessumis, I prepare them for committing
plus a final (ring-compositional) luxe for committing!,
continuing the use of the first person from the opening and
penultimate sections of the charm, as well as the metrical form
(word-foot dimetres and trimetres, predominately with
trisyllabic cadences) especially obvious in the opening lines.
Although well known in Celtic tradition, emphatic triplicity is
widely attested in classical magic. Indeed the Gaulish here
even seems to echo the concluding triple expression of a
particularly well-preserved and effusive Greek katdesmow from
Carthage: dh, dh, dh,tax, tax, taxvw, katdhson,
katdhson, katdhson utow, now, now, now!, quickly,
quickly, quickly!, bind, bind, bind them!; see CIL VIII 12509,
Audollent (1902: no 239), Watson (1991:11-12).
The Chamalires inscription begins with a supplication to
Maponos, presumably the god of the spring the tablet was
24
Bernard Mees
deposited in, as is typical of the opening lines of ancient curse

texts from similar contexts; then it is succeeded, as is also
typical of defixiones, by a list of the names of the victims of the
spell. Chthonic powers called the Secoui or Cutters then
seem to be inveighed upon to fix the fate of what are probably
the cursers legal adversaries (after Maponos had first bound
them), and the seemingly very Celtic description of cursing
employed is then followed by an allusive section including
oppositional expressions reminiscent of some which appear in
classical katdesmoi. Finally, the last line, although appearing
to represent some sort of chant, employs a form of emphatic
rhetoric often used in classical magic to round out a spell. The
Chamalires defixio appears to represent a Celtic adaptation of
the ancient tradition of binding magic, a Celtification which
seems to be particularly evident not just in some of the key
vocabulary used, but also in the song-like nature of the text.
Yet despite its many Gaulish peculiarities, it also remains an
expression crucially dependent on the so richly attested genre
of ancient defixiones nonetheless.
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Celtic Sovereignty Goddess
William Sayers
Cornell University
A reading of Beowulf from the perspective of traditional Celtic

conceptions of just kingship, sovereignty, and the land ruled is to
see the Grendels as the marshals of a misruled land, the kingdom
Hrothgar illegitimately assumed and poorly defended. Thus,
Beowulfs heroics can be successful in only the short term, and the
mere existence of a thief in the kingdom he later rules is
sufficient to precipitate his fall. The article also relates the Old
English vocabulary of the terrifying and gruesome to the name
Grendel and Norse Grla.
One of the conventions of skaldic verse is that a woman

may be called by any of the words in Norse that reference age,
status, activities, and so on.1 Discrete vocabulary, circumlocution,
metaphor, and metonomy are all at work here. Thus the girl
who serves ale in one stanza is the widow remembering the
absent seafarer in the next. She is never wholly one thing and
the alternative identities, tesserae, suggest that she is both
much more than (as well as momentarily colored by) the
identity singled out in any given verse. This notion of a virtual
mosaicfor in a typical lausavsa not more than two such
images are presentedwill assist in coming to grips with the
various affinities that are ascribed to Grendel and his mother in
Beowulf. They are of the race of Cain, fratricide and first builder
of cities, but they are, in contrast, both loyal kin and wilderness
dwellers. They scorn the use of conventional weapons but have
an heirloom sword hanging on the wall. They are said not to
have a code of honor compared to humans but in fact they do,
and also share the human thirst for vengeance. Edward Irving
1
This essay reflects a paper given at one of the Old English sessions at the
Modern Language Association of America annual conference in Washington,
DC, in December 2005. I am wryly grateful for comments received on that
occasion and have retained some of the stylistic features and provocative tenor
of the original. Since its presentation, Stanley (2005) has appeared, an
authoritative voice consonant with at least one premise of this essay.
32
William Sayers
made a pertinent observation: This series of epithets [for

Grendel] again seems much like the successive steps in additive
narration or aggregative description so that no clear
distinctions or discriminations are provided.2 The experience
of computers and the web suggests we excise the temporal
linearity in Irvings remark from 1989, his additive and
aggregative, and see all epithets as coincident, whether
homonyms or antonyms. This probative essay will then focus on
only a few tiles in the mosaics of the Grendels, not claiming
that they provide keys to the full understanding of these
beings or the poem as a whole, but rather exploring the
multiple resonances, some of these narrowly cultural and
historical, of these figurations.
The evidence of two proximate cultures will be reviewed:
first, what is arguably a Norse reflex of Grendels dam, then,
some Celtic analogues, monstrous females and/or telluric
divinities, as both typologically comparable conceptions and,
conceivably, sub- or ad-stratum influences on Anglo-Saxon
story.3 But first a consideration of a key epithet.
Grendels mother is nameless and, from a modern
interpretive perspective, this anonymity makes her more
archetypical and abstract but no less monstrous. Her
introduction and approach to Heorot are of particular interest.
Physical description is eschewed in favor of more abstract terms:
aglcwif (she-monster), gifre ond galgmod (ravenous and
gloomy at heart). Then follows a key passage:
Com pa to Heorote, dr Hring-Dene
geond pt sld swfun. pa dr sona weard
edhwyrft eorlum sipdan inne fealh
Grendles modor. Ws se gryre lssa
efne swa micle, swa bid mgpa crft,
wiggryre wifes, be wpnedmen
ponne heoru bunden, hamere gepuren,
sweord swate fah swin ofer helme
ecgum dyhhtig, andweard scired. 4
2
Edward B. Irving, Jr., Rereading Beowulf (1989), 18.

Strictly onomastic matters are treated more fully in William Sayers,
Grendels Mother, Icelandic Grla, and Irish Nechta Scne: Eviscerating Fear
(2003). This earlier essay does not address the central question of the
adequacy of royal rule in Beowulf. A common IE source for the analogues here
adduced could be posited, but the quality of the match encourages belief in
some kind of historical interaction.
4
Both text and translation are drawn from Beowulf, ed. Swanton (1999), ll.
3
Grendels Mother (Beowulf) and the Celtic Sovereignty Goddess
33
Michael Swantons relatively recent prose translation will

exemplify the received understanding of this passage.
She came then to Heorot, where the Ring-Danes slept all
around the hall. Immediately then there came a reverse
for the warriors, once Grendels mother made her way in.
The terror was the less dreadful by just so much as the
power of women, the war-terror of a female, is that of an
armed man when the patterned blade of a hammer-forged
sword, stained with blood, mightly of edge, shears through
the boar-crest above opposing helmet.
This passage is generally interpreted as suggesting, in a

measured assessment, that Grendels mother is less
terror-inspiring than her son, principally because of the
difference in sex. But events seem to belie this statement, for
she proves a more formidable opponent, even downing and
straddling the hero at one point in a scene from which a sexual
inference is readily drawn, striking at him with a short-bladed
dirk, which might provisionally be identified as a domestic tool
rather than a weapona knackering knife from the farmyard,
if we wished to push the identification.
The word gryre terror occurs twice here in close succession,
as a simplex and in a compound. Cognate words will be discussed
below, but a brief excursus on the evidence in Beowulf as a
whole will be instructive. The word is employed five times in
the poem in its simplex form and nine times in compounds.
What earlier editors and translators seem to have failed to
appreciate is that, with a single exception, gryre is used in
reference only to Grendel, his mother, and the dragon that
Beowulf attacks late in the poem (see below). This has led to
unevenness and disassociation in English renderings. Within
the parameters of the poem, gryre then means not simply great
fear but the terror caused by facing a non-conspecific
opponent, an opponent not of the human species. It also seems
to suggest a more abstracted but no less immediate fear, an
eviscerating susceptibility to panic, especially before battle,
even fear of fear itself. Further, the word is never used by any
of the characters in the poem, as if ill luck attended its very
uttering. The one exception to this thematically determined
1279-87. Still deserving of consultation is Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed.
Klaeber (1950); a further revised edition is in progress.
34
William Sayers
use is in the description of Beowulf and his troop coming

ashore in Denmark in their terror-inspiring gear (in hyra
gryregeatwum, 324). Perhaps it reflects the perception of aliens
by the edgy, self-conscious coastguard, or the Swedes
conception of themselves, or is a bit of dark irony on the part of
the poet.
If gryre is restricted to the fear inspired by the monstrous,
the otherworldly, then the comparison of the terror that
Grendels mother inspires with that generated by the fatal
attack of a conventional armed man founders, since terror on
this scale, or better, in this dimension, can only be subjectively
experienced, and is not part of the collective cultural or
psychological inheritance. We have a comparison of apples and
mirages. At the risk of an overreading, we might amend the
translation of the above passage in the direction of irony,
litotes, and epistemological uncertainty.
This [potential for] terror was lesser by just so much as is
womens power, the battle-terror of the female, compared
to an armed man when the patterned blade shears
through [an] opposing helmet. 5
This understated reading is more consonant with the real

threat posed by Grendels avenging mother, and distinguishes
between the honor-driven self-exteriorizations of the
characters in the poem (on which, more below) and the poems
own assessment.
If we view Grendels mother as a female inspiring battle
terror (wiggryre wifes), Norse tradition has an equivalent figure,
with a cognate name. Snorri Sturlusons work on poetic diction,
Skldskaparml, lists more than sixty names for troll-wives or
female ogres, who seem to have some of the judgmental
qualities of the valkyries, choosers of the slain. Snorris list
begins Grid, Gnissa, Grla, Bryja .6 The etymology of the name
Grla shows it to be a reflex of the same stem as in Old English
gryre. A fuller set of derivatives from Indo-European *ghru-dto forcibly affect the mental or emotional state includes ON
5
Key to our understanding of the passage is the meaning to be ascribed the
preposition be in the phrase be wpnedmen. Dictionary of Old English (2003),
confirms the accepted reading in comparison with, s.v. be I.D.2.e. This said, a
degree of ellipsis must be countenanced in order to make sense of the syntax:
compared to [that of] an armed warrior
6
Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Skldskaparnl, ed. Faulkes (1998), I.112, stanza 423.
35
grla, OE gryre, MLG gruwel, MHG griuwel fright, terror, Norw.

grysja to frighten, terrify, ODan. gruve strain, Eng. gruesome. 7
I return to the simplex of this root below. No myth or tale with
this troll-wife as a principal character has been handed down
but there is proof that she is more than Snorris arbitrary
onomastic creation. In a scene from Sturla Prdarsons
thirteenth-century slendinga saga, the attacker of a farm-house
likens himself to Grla coming down into the field with fifteen
tails on her back.8 The later traditions of Iceland, the Faroes,
Shetland, and Orkney show us Grla downgraded from the
panic that threatened the warrior-initiate to a bugbear who
carries off disobedient children during Lent or before
Christmas. On Shetland, her representatives, young mummers
called grolleks, dressed in straw suits, go trick or treating from
house to house on the eve of seasonal festivals.9 Even though
she is unnamed, the troll-woman who battles Grettir in the
Sandhaug episode of his saga shares several of the attributes
ascribed to Grendels mother, and the similarity in the weapons
and their terminology has figured large in comparisons of the
Grettis saga with Beowulf.10
Multiple etymologies and meanings have been proposed
for the name Grendel. The list can be amplified by the
consideration of Old Irish grindel bed of a lake, gravel; bedrock,
foundation but also loathing, aversion. This might well seem
a pair of homonyms. The latter meaning is plausibly derived
from the comparable grin terror, horror; loathing, aversion.11
But the Indo-European root *ghru- identified by Pokorny not
only produced a range of sand, gravel, and shore terms in
Germanic, Celtic, and across the spectrum of other IE-derived
languages, based on the central semantics of grind, pulverize,
7
Pokorny, Indo-germanisches etymologisches Wrterbuch (1959-69), I.460-62.

Sturla Prdarson, slendinga saga, ed. Gudni Jnsson (1953-54), Ch. 7.
9
Evidence for Grla is assembled in Gunnell, The Origins of Drama in
Scandinavia (1995), and further illustrated in Gunnel, Grla, Grlur,
Grleks and Skelkers: Folk Drama in the North Atlantic in the Early Middle
Ages?
10
A summary of earlier work on the topic is listed in Magns Fjalldal, The Long
Arm of Coincidence: The Frustrated Connection between Beowulf and Grettis saga
(1998), which has not discouraged continued attention to the several points of
contact.
11
Dictionary of the Irish Language (1913-76), s.v.v. grindell bed of lake, gravel;
bedrock, foundation; terror trembling, and grin terror, horror; loathing,
aversion. Entries under the letter G have yet to be published in the Lexique
tymologique de lirlandais ancien.
8
36
William Sayers
but this same root, in the augmented form *ghru-d-, also

produced our run of terror words: Irish grin, OE gryre, and ON
grla. 12 Perhaps the central idea of grinding down, i.e.,
destructive transformation, led, in the derived forms, to the
notion of broken spirit, fear replacing courage. Thus the name
Grendel (provisionally, the fearsome grinder), however
assembled, is perfectly consonant with OE gryre terror used of
his mother, and the environment of the mere and its shore will
be seen to belong to this semantic cluster, even if these
relations may have been somewhat obscured by the time of the
poem.
This understanding of gryre fright, terror can be
illuminated by a well known scene in an early Irish story, the
culminating episode in Macgnmrada Con Culainn (The Boyhood
Deeds of C Chulainn). The neophyte hero has challenged the
three sons of Nechta Scne: Fill, Tachell, and Fannall. 13
These names have been conventionally interpreted as sly,
cunning, and swallow (the bird). Given this nexus of terms, it
may be speculated that fannall originated in findel flightly,
panicky, weakened. 14 This third opponent attacks the hero
across the water (see below). Seen thus, the three opponents
would represent chief threats to the warrior-initiate: the first
two, the deviousness of his opponents, the third, his inner
susceptibility to panic and flight. These are notions of
mutability; deceit in the former cases, weakness in the second.
This interpretation is supported by a consideration of the
mothers name, where scne is unambiguously fear, fright and
nechta may reference the night, a notion of puritypure
terroror have connections with the aquatic environment. 15
A similar name, constructed on a different principle, occurs in
a testing scene in Fled Bricrend (Bricrius Feast), when three
heroes are sent to ath mac Imomain, a great sorcerer living by
a lake, and must then submit to the mutual beheading test that
is recast in greater detail at the end of the tale with C Ri, and
seems the prototype for the scene in the Middle English Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight.16 The sorcerers name translates as
12
Welsh dychryn terror, panic, trembling < crn trembling, quaking has not
been adduced in this context, but deserved consideration.
13
Tin b Cailgne: Recension I, ed. and trans. ORahilly (1976), ll. 609-824.
14
See Dictionary of the Irish Language, s.v. findel.
15
See the discussion of cognate evidence in Sayers (1983).
16
Fled Bricrend: The Feast of Bricriu, ed. Henderson (1899), 96-101.
37
Terror, Son of Great Fear. Since ath mac Imomain is also

characterized as a great shape-shifter, this transformative power
may be to displace battle courage by terror and panic. Seen thus,
the young warriors first challenge is to overcome his
susceptibility to primal fear.17
Before initiating a consideration of other Celtic
conceptions of the monstrous and the supernatural, a number
of motifs or details common to the accounts reviewed above,
English, Irish, and Norse, may be briefly summarized. The
setting is often aquatic (loch, mere, waterfall, seashore); 18
there is no dialogue or the dialogue is marked by
miscommunication (irony, deceit); names are lacking or
unconventional and multiple (see below); the opponent may
have some kind of supernatural advantage, e.g., invulnerability
to weapons, or even momentarily gain the upper hand; a special
weapon, often a utilitarian domestic instrument, is used by one
party or both; there is a more or less explicit sexual dimension;
finally, there is often an authenticating senior male figure to
close and judge the encounter.
What scholarship has conventionally identified as the
Celtic goddess of territorial sovereignty has multiple guises,
each appropriate to a stage in a royal career, from ancestor to
king-designator, from battle-goddess to goddess of death, this
last when a failed king must be removed and replaced.19 At all
times the goddesss overriding concern is to support a fitting
husband for the land that she incarnates. In the propagandistic
purposes to which such stories were put, this may also translate
as support for a specific historical dynasty. The goddess has two
interrelated dark faces, the one assumed in testing candidates
for the kingship, the other, the more ominous one, in carrying
17
Discussion in Sayers, ath mac Imomain (Fled Bricrend), dinn, and Why the
Green Knight is Green (1990).
18
See, most recently, Carey, The Encounter at the Ford: Warriors, Water and
Women (2004). To be added to the warrior at the ford we have the topos
of the hero on the beach, identified in Germanic poetry, and, I would contend,
the figures of debilitated rulers in marine environments (see note 32,
below).
19
Trail-blazing studies of the sovereignty goddess include Bhreatnach, The
Sovereignty Goddess as Goddess of Death?(1982); Breatnach, The Lady and
the King: A Theme of Irish Literature (1953); Herbert, Goddess and King:
The Sacred Marriage in Early Ireland (1992); and Mac Cana, Aspects of the
Theme of the King and Goddess in Irish Literature (1955-56, 1958-59).
Much from the foregoing is summarized and further discussed in Ford,
Celtic Women: The Opposing Sex (1988).
38
William Sayers
out judgment on the deficient ruler. The first of these is

illustrated in the story of the future Nall of the Nine Hostages
and his half-brothers. As the second in a set of tests of
suitability for the kingship, the lads are sent hunting by a
sorcerer smith, and then, thirsty after a meal of grilled game, in
turn go searching for water. Each meets a hag at a well, who will
give up water only in exchange for a kiss. She is initially
described as follows:
Is amlaid bui in chaillech, co mba duibithir gual cech
n-alt 7 cach n-aigi di o mullach co talmain. Ba samalta fri
herboll fiadeich in mong glas gaisidech bai tria cleithi a
cheandmullaich. Consealgad glasgeg darach fo brith dia
corran glaisfhiacla bai na cind co roichead a hou. Suli
duba dethaighe le, sron cham chuasach. Medon fethech
brecbaindech ingalair le, 7 luirgni fiara fochama siad,
adbronnach leathansluaistech si, glunmar glaisingnech.
Ba grain tra a tuarascbail na cailligi. 20
This is how the hag looked: as black as charcoal was her
every part and her every joint from the top of her head
down to the ground. Like the tail of a wild horse was the
bristling gray shock of hair that sprouted from the crown
of her head. The live acorn-laden branch of an oak would
have been severed by the sickle of green teeth that
stretched around her head to her ears. She had
smoke-dark eyes and her nose was crooked, with cave-like
nostrils. Her body was all sinewy and spotted with festering
sores, and her shins were bowed and crooked. Her knees
were swollen, her ankles knobby, her green-nailed feet as
wide as shovels. The appearance of the hag was truly
loathsome.
Here we might note in passing the presence of grin terror,

horror; loathsomeness in the concluding sentence above.
Only Nall is brave enough to overcome his disgust, to proffer a
kiss, and even offer to lie with her. The kiss transforms this
puella senilis or loathly lady into the beautiful goddess of the
land. Her descendants are known from continental Arthurian
romance, especially in stories associated with Gawain, and from
20
Echtra mac Echdach Muigmedoin: The Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid

Mugmedon, ed. and trans. Stokes (1909), 196. The translation that follows is
by the present author. The possible source of this imagery in leprosy is
examined in Eichhorn-Mulligan (2006).
39
the Wife of Baths tale. The Wife herself might even count as
one reflex.
The goddess as divinity of battle is seen to good effect in
Tin b Cailgne (The Cattleraid of Cooley), where her interaction
is chiefly with the hero C Chulainn, since she is siding with
Connacht, not Ulster, in the great engagement. In this guise
called the Mrrgan (perhaps Great Queen) and Badb, the
carrion crow, she may appear in avian or other animal form, or
as an innocuous old crone. 21 A snapshot of a mother and battle
goddess is found early in the tale Do Sl Conairi Mir (Of the
Descendants of Conaire the Great), one of the stories which sets
the stage for Togail Bruidne Da Derga (The Destruction of Da
Dergas Hostel), prior to the accession of Conaire to the throne.
A mthair riam to-rlaic a hinar impe coa cris ans, a
mmong dub tathmigthe ima cend, trelam dub mr l 7
drith rann-nemnaig roeimpe 7 fianscith 7 cnti 7
chornaire resna slgaib mraib 7 batir mra ind fir.
His mother before him, she had loosened her tunic about
her down to her belt, her black tresses fell loose about her
head. She held a great black weapon and jesters uttering
venomous verses went before her and a shield-bearer and
mockers and hornblowers ahead of the mighty host, and
the men were of great size. 22
Another member of this sorority is met in the latter tale, which

goes on to recount the death of King Conaire, an early
embodiment of justice who later pronounced a biased judgment
favoring his kin. After the forced infraction of a number of
tabus and on his way to the fatal hostel where he will be
attacked and die in battle, he is met by a giant rustic, carrying a
singed pig (for the feast) and an iron staff (in lieu of weapon),
who calls himself the Man of the Woods. With him is an ugly
female introduced as follows:
ben blmar mr dub duabais dochraid ina diaid. Ca
fo-certa didiu a ssrb ar gsce fo-lilsad. Tacmaicead a bl
21
Tin b Cailgne: Recension I, ll. 955, 3942, 4033; see in particular the
encounter between C Chulainn and the Mrrgan, first with the goddess as a
young beauty, ll. 1845-73, then, after her interference in his fighting in three
animal guises, as an old crone, ll. 2038-71.
22
Bhreathnach, The Sovereignty Goddess as Goddess of Death?, 247, citing
M. A. OBrien, Do Sl Conaire Mir, in Irish Origin Legends, unpublished
booklet from the 1950s.
40
William Sayers
chtarach co a gln. 23
Behind him came a huge, black, gloomy, big-mouthed,
ill-favoured woman; if her snout were thrown against a
branch, the branch would support it, while her lower lip
extended to her knee. 24
At the hostel the hag is further described:

Sithir cloideb ngarmnai ceachtar a d lurcan. Batir
dubithir dethach. Brat rabach rolmar impi. Tacmaicead
a fs in t-chtarach co rrici a glin. A beil for leith a cind.
(537-41)
As long as a weavers beam, and as black, her two shins.
She wore a very fleecy, striped mantle. Her beard reached
to her knees, and her mouth was on one side of her head.
(76)
There is reason to believe that these references to lower lips

and beard are to genitalia and pubic hair, comparable to the
obscene statuary of the Sheela-na-gigs. The dark face of the
goddess inspires not only fear and disgust, it is also reminiscent
of a battlefield corpse ravaged by the Beasts of Battle and
eventual decomposition. When Conaire says that he is
forbidden to receive a woman after darkostensibly into his
residence for the night, but the sexual dimension is
apparentthe woman, emphasizing corporeality, prophesies
that neither hide nor hair of Conaire will escape the hostel,
save what the birds carry off in their claws. She then identifies
herself with a litany of names that recalls Snorris catalogue of
troll-wives. These names, supernatural pseudonyms, refer to
harsh weather, physical discomfort, negative emotional states
and their expression. 25 The hag and churl are identified by the
leaders of the party attacking the hostel as the instruments of
Conaires fate.
In another kings tale, a similar string of names is found
attached to a beautiful young woman who seeks out King
Muirchertach mac Erca.26 But she is a sorceress and in becoming
the kings mistress, she expels his queen, family, and attendant
23
Togail Bruidne Da Derga, ed. Knott (1975), ll. 354-56.

The Destruction of Da Dergas Hostel, trans. Gantz (1981), 71.
25
Fuller treatment in Sayers, Supernatural Pseudonyms (1994).
26
Aided Muirchertaig meic Erca, ed. Nic Dhonnchadha (1964).
24
41
Christian clerics, then drugs the king with magical feasts that
leave him increasingly debilitated when he rises the next
morning to battle with phantom hosts that are no more than
sods and stalks and stones. Sn or Storm, as she is called by her
primary name, has all the attributes of the sovereignty goddess
as goddess of death, even conjuring up parodies of the drink of
red ale that the young sovereignty goddess offers the
king-designate, in a kind of rebus where flaith means both
ruler, sovereignty and ale. But the story has been given a
Christian turn. Sn turns out to be a mortal maiden whose family
had been killed and their land usurped by Muirchertach. This
unjust appropriation of the land would warrant divine
vengeance and the king eventually does die in the threefold
death that references his polyfunctionality, to use a Dumzilian
term, falling, pierced with a weapon, and drowned. But here
vengeance is of an earthly kind and, predictably, the Christian
clerics re-enter the tale to set things right, rather than have
the goddess seek out a new consort. The story of Darmait mac
Cerbaill has many of the same motifs, such as the three-fold
death, and the superficial attractiveness of a Sn is there
represented by a hosts offer of his daughter for what will prove
Diarmaits last night. 27
Against this background, in what further ways can
Beowulfs adventure with the Grendels be seen as consonant
with Irish tales of kingly inadequacy? The eulogy of Scyld
Scefing with which the poem begins gives us a summary of the
successful king, one who would enjoy the goddesss favor.
Essentially, he has protected the borders of his kingdom
through aggressive military activity and has been generous
toward his people in the redistribution of wealth. Scyld is
favored with a son, Healfdane, who goes on to have four
children. While the poem is reticent at this point, it suggests
that Heorogar, not Hrothgar, was the eldest son (and, we later
learn from Hrothgar, the better man), and that after his death
Hrothgar was given victory in battle and won the support of the
men of his house. While the statement is positive, it does not
fully preclude a question as to the legitimacy of Hrothgars rule.
If Hrothgars accession were preceded by internecine strife
27
Aided Dhiarmada meic Cherbaill: Death of King Dermot, ed. and trans.
OGrady (1892), I.66-82, II.76-88, and for a modern translation of the second
recension of the tale, Wiley, Stories about Diarmait mac Cerbaill from the
Book of Lismore (2002).
42
William Sayers
over the succession or somehow by the displacment of

Heorogars son Heoroward, this usurpation would be seen to
return, in a sense be repaid, in the enmity and treachery of a
second nephew, Hrothulf, son of the third brother, Halga, a
nephew ironically fostered in Hrothgars own court. Initially,
Hrothgar commands his peoples support. But he diverts their
resources into ostentation, conspicuous consumption, and
commissions the construction of a great hall. 28 Its totemic
identity as a hart, a prey animal with a flashy rack but neither
fang nor claw, is telling. Ironically, mention of his young
kinsmen growing up in his court, a reference to the future
treachery, is made just before the description of the hall. In the
poem the hall bulks larger than the quality of Hrothgars rule,
where generosity is perhaps emphasized at the expense of any
mention of justice. As the poem sets it out with its frequent
instances of prolepsis, the hall seems threatened with flame
from the moment of its completion.
Thus, within twenty lines of the introduction of this ruler,
we learn that Hrothgar may have assumed the kingship in
unorthodox fashion, that, while open-handed, he is an
ineffective defender of his people, and that he is doomed to
die, perhaps in a process similar to his rise to power. The
unjustified joy in the hall, now unsupported by true kingly
activity, and the scops songs of the past (often a dark one)
rather than warriors deeds in the present, awaken the latent
power of the misruled land in the form of GrendelGrendel the
Fearsome. In a linguistic analogy Grendels moors and marshes
are the unmarked in relation to the marked, human settlement.
But Grendel represents all the land, not just its wilderness part,
scorned then feared by the king and his retainers.
Grendels predations clearly prove that Hrothgar can no
longer ensure the domestic safety of his land. Whatever
sapientia he may have gained over the years is more than offset
by his lack of fortitudo, or it may be that he, like Conaire, has no
28
Hughes, Christianity Wrestling with Ghosts: Interpreting Grettir

smundarson sterki and Jon Gudmundsson lrdi, paper presented at the
Modern Language Association of American annual conference, Washington,
DC, December, 2005, suggests that the site of Heorot violated the boundary
between Civilization and Wilderness, citing the gazetteer of Icelandic
this-world and other-world sites assembled in rni la, lg og bannhlegi.
(1968). I suggest a different ideological framework within the Beowulf poem,
with a greater geographical range for the supernatural, i.e., the goddesss
concern for effective secular rule.
43
means to avoid his destiny. Here the poem seems almost

surrealistic and we can almost believe that Hrothgar and his
retainers are somehow fated to drink and dine blissfully
(eadiglice) in Heorot each evening, and suffer ongoing losses.
Over twelve years, through death and defection, the great hall
is emptied. Appeals to the pagan gods prove vain. To jump
ahead a bit, two details confirm the contention that Grendel is
not simply attacking a people but is the instrument called into
play to effect a judgment on a deficient ruler: The sword
Hrunting of one of Hrothgars chief functionaries, Unferth,
will not prove adequate to the task to which it is assigned, clear
proof of the military inadequacy of Hrothgars host and its
leadership, and the last Dane taken, this by Grendels mother,
is the kings closest counselor, schere, symbol of other
inadequate properties of his rule. This reading is supported by
Alfred Bammesbergers recent suggestion that the famous
arm that Grendels mother carries off from Heorot is not her
sons severed arm, but Hrothgars right hand man.29 On this
same tack, Unferth is a kin-slayer yet enjoys high status in
Hrothgars court. Most of the interleaved stories of other kings,
beginning with the scops song on the way back from the mere
and then continued with the Fight at Finnsburh, point to
similar inadequacies, if we take the broader view that all
internal dissension and revolt must in terms of responsibility be
laid at the kings door for his failure to reconcile the
constituent parts of his kingdom.
Beowulfs motives are self-aggrandizement, glory. This is
not an invalid ambition but his altruism in coming to the relief
of the Danish kingdom entails the diversion of resources from
his own land. Admittedly, he had already rid it of similar
predators. Perhaps this is too narrowly economical a view of
what is generally seen as legitimate heroics. Although Beowulf
fights without weapons and this would seem utter recklessness,
it is all for the good, since Grendel was immune to weapons.
The English poem realizes quite different descriptive
conventions than the Irish texts. There are no portraits that
compare with the Irish cameos of the goddess of death in their
raw physicality. Instead, the Grendels are described in
categorizing, judgmental, even condemnatory terms,
suggestive but elusive, as if they were beyond the limits of
29
Bammesberger, Old English cupe folm in Beowulf, line 1303A (2005).
44
William Sayers
representation. 30 This lexicon has a strong Christian stamp,

whatever the archaic origins of the conception of these
moor-dwellers. Only the shoulder and arm that Beowulf tears
off in combat is seen in a sharply contoured snapshot. This
prompts the observation that it is an essentially martial solution
that the hero effects, as symbolized in the arm and later head
trophy.
For lovers of the poem it would be offensive to say that
Beowulf in Denmark is the wrong man in the wrong place at
the wrong time. And it would be an oversimplification to state
that Denmark is only a testing ground for the hero, who then
returns to Sweden to become king, leaving Hrothgar to the
fate he has called down on himself and his people. Yet
Beowulfs is essentially a stopgap measure, albeit a heroic one.
While he relieves Hrothgar of the apparently external scourge,
all parties concernedthe king, his queen Wealhtheow,
Beowulf himselfsense that the kingdom has not been fully
restored to peace and tranquility. Wealhtheow had earlier
sought Beowulfs help against crimes from any man and now
seeks protection for her sons. It is too late for Hrothgar to right
his collected errors; at best he can offer Beowulf the benefit of
his experience and give counsel on a balanced kingship, the
avoidance of arrogance and laxity. But first Grendels mother
seeks vengeance in a scene where the poet does not try to rival
the account of Grendels approach to the hall. Instead, in a
flashback not in the poets voice, we have a rhetorical renewal
in Hrothgars reminiscences of Grendels earlier life, especially
of his wilderness environment and its mere.
Beowulfs contest with Grendels mother is too well known
to need rehearsing here. The hero is now bearing armor and
arms, but the sword Hrunting fails, and only his mail protects
him when the troll-wife gains the upper hand. Then he spots
the huge sword, the work of giants. The sword, with its
inscription, is as polyvalent as many of the other key entities in
the poem. From the perspective adopted in this essay, I suggest
that sword represents sovereignty, but sovereignty in abeyance.
That the Grendels possess it means that Hrothgar and the
Danish rulership are no longer worthy of it. When Beowulf
wields it, he achieves his immediate purposes but the weapon
30
Borrowed from Paul V. Rockwells review, in Speculum 80:4 (2005): 1283-85,

at 1284, of Catherine Gaullier-Bougassass La tentation de lOrient dans le roman
mdival: Sur limaginaire mdival de lAutre.
45
melts away, leaving only the hilt. With Grendel and his mother
dead, many Danes killed and all avenged, the mere and
wilderness demystified and returned to human frequentation,
the blade of the heirloom sword of the past dissolvedwith all
this, it would seem that the scene had been swept clean, the
playing field leveled, and that just and effective rule could be
restored. But this is illusory, because only the external enemies
of the crownin truth the judges on its internal
weaknesseshave been removed. Beowulf has not excised the
cancer, but only dismissed the surgeons. That Grendels
severed head should be one of the trophies is an ironic
comment on the future of the royal head of Hrothgar. More
important but little recognized, the late appearance of
Grendels mother and her quick departure from the poems
concerns after Beowulfs triumph suggest that on the symbolic
level Beowulf and Hrothgar have not understood with whom
they have been dealing. This is more than male chauvinism in
boar-appointed helmets. They have simply not recognized the
goddess, as the attention to her son, even in death, amply
proves. As Irving notes with respect to Beowulfs account of the
combat to Hrothgar: It is not Grendels mother he mentions
but once again some abstract heroic action (wigge, gud,
hildwords for battle), all of them emphasizing only the heros
own behavior as if it took place in a vacuum, or in a mirror (72).
And, as noted above, there is no mention of gryre terror.
Grendel fils is best seen as an ancillary instrument, like with the
Man of the Woods of the Irish tales, a giant rustic and
psychopomp, companion of the goddess.31 It is his mother, the
earth as mother, who is the true arbiter of royal adequacy and of
Hrothgars doom.
Georges Dumzils efforts to trace the evidence of classical
antiquity and medieval literature and legend back to an
ideology common to the Indo-European tribes that was
articulated through three functions, roughly, rule and law,
martial activity, and the somatic life of human and animal
sexuality, the fertility of the land, etc., have been hotly
debated in recent decades.32 On the level of detail rather than
31
On a point of comparison with Fer Cailli, the Man of the Woods, Grendel is
called fyrena hyrde shepherd of sins, v. 750 and might be thought a a kind of
herdsman of the semi-monstrous aquatic creatures in the mere.
32
The vitality of current scholarship is reflected in the collection of essays in
JIES 34, numbers 1 and 2 (2006).
46
William Sayers
of theory many of the homological sets identified in earlier

scholarship still command attention and are useful heuristic
tools. Thus, to take the three-fold death of deficient or
defective kings as an example: 1) the aerial dimensions relates
to falling and hanging, and the royal head; 2) the terrestrial, to
weaponry and resulting wounds to the military leader, his arms
and upper body; 3) that of the under-earth and sea, drowning,
interment, to sexual hyperactivity (rape, exploitation) or
dysfunction (castration, impotence, sterility) in the lower body,
sexual organs, and legs. In Beowulf we have seen associations of
terror and stoney lakeshores, encapsulated (perhaps too neatly)
in Irish grin and grindel but available in English as OE gryre and
grindan, from a common IE root. Thus there is a suggestion in
the poem that, while Hrothgar may have succeeded to the
throne under questionable conditions, he then turned his
efforts toward generosity and ostentation at the cost of martial
effort, so that his kingly sin may have its true center of gravity
in the third function. Thus, the association of the Grendels
with the mere and underearth; other tales of royal deaths often
have a comparable maritime setting and feature sexual
dysfunction, e.g. Chrtiens Fisher King. 33 Queen
Wealhtheows sons, for whom she invokes Beowulfs protection,
are clearly by Hrothgar, as the names in Hr- suggest, but their
young age means that they would likely have been conceived
during the twelve years of Grendels predations, again
expressive of a misdirection of Hrothgars attention. The name
Wealhpeow, foreign (= British) captive, and the resulting
combination of royal and captive status also points toward the
third function, or even an extra-functionality beneath it. The
basic concerns of Grendels mother and Wealhtheow are not
really that dissimilar, and there is a kind of mirroring effect
disponible in their common Celtic affinities. In summary, I
suggest that Hrothgars sin is against the land. It results in a
punishment associated with monstrous hyperphagy, lakes and
the underearth, and has its consequent psychic effect in a
crushing, emasculatingbut not effeminizingterror.
Beowulf is said to rule well for fifty years. But only a
half-verse is given over to such an optimal outcome. The kings
responsibility is total and reality is constantly being renewed.
33
See Picard, The Strange Death of Guaire mac edin (1989) and Sayers,
Teithi Hen, Gaire mac edin, Grettir smundarson: The Kings Debility,
the Shore, the Blade (forthcoming).
47
The fact that his society could produce a single thief, who steals
from a treasure unchecked, makes attention to the
consequences of such action a royal obligation. If we can
entertain the idea of the Grendels as forces that have the
ultimate good of the kingdom as their objective, we might see
the dragon, another telluric force, as presiding over a Fort Knox
of treasure. It is not active in the economy but is counted
among its fundamental resources and lends legitimacy to the
activities of the kingdom. In this, the hoard parallels the
heirloom sword.
The poem is bracketed by two funerals. Within the poem
the architectonics are chiasmatic: a royal deficiency is followed
by a heroic solution and the hero is elevated to the kingship,
after which a new sin occurs on the lowest level of society, in
the thief. Beowulfs death is heroic, as might be expected, and
is also tragic, not because of a flaw in his character but because
the organization of his society itself is open to fault. Good
governance may take decades to develop but can be undone in
a trice, since the energy of just rule can not be stored. It is
dissolved in a first great lie or dissipated with the funeral ship
pushed burning out to sea.. This does raise a larger but little
addressed question of whether the Hero is a suitable candidate
to become king. 34 Ruling is much more than heroics, which are
often naive, unreflective, un-self-reflective. But, the poem
suggests, this would perhaps all play out differently in a
Christian world.
This review of the Grendels is not intended to posit a
Celtic origin for parts of the Beowulf story, or conjure up the
British land rising in revolt against its Anglo-Saxon rulers. At
most it calls attention to some analogues, some archaic
conceptions of sovereignty in harmony with the land, of the
destinies of kings and kingdoms, other comparable examples of
which are readily found in Irish and Welsh story or in Norse
accounts such as the early part of Ynglinga saga. 35 Superficially,
34
On this important topic, see Miller, The Epic Hero (2000), 177ff.
Puhvel, Beowulf and Celtic Tradition (1979). See, too, Sources and Analogues of
Old English Poetry, II: The Major Germanic and Celtic Texts in Translation (1983).
Studies devoted in whole or part to Grendels mother are listed in Sayers
(1999). Studies on the Grendels that have been published in the last decade
include: Bammesberger (1999) and (2002), Day (1999), Eyler (2004),
Marvin (2003), Menzer (1996), Osborne and Streuber (1999), Stanley
(2001), Steele (2003), and the relevant essays in Pride and Prodigies: Studies in
the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript (2003).
35
48
William Sayers
the Beowulf poem is about heroics but heroism alone can

provide only a temporary respite, a provisional solution; it is no
substitute for just and effective rule, even though the latter
must have a martial component to assure the defense of the
kingdom. We know that as far as Denmark is concerned,
Beowulfs efforts will have been futile in the longer term, and
thus such efforts must be viewed through the prism of irony.
We meet the terrifying Grendels, marshals of the Otherworld,
on the boundary between nature and culture, wilderness and
isolation on the one hand, settlement and the community on
the other.36 Here, on the limes, we also situate the relatively
simple physical tests of the heroic, to rise from simple courage
to battle fury, or sink into eviscerated panic. Here, too, are
situated some of the more complex problematics of the
kingship, a comprehensive responsibility that runs from the
security and fertility of people and livestock through a range of
martial activity in relation to neighboring kingdoms to effective
relations with the supernatural that are maintained and
fostered through the exercise of justice. They begin with
legitimacy in the accession to rule. Something was rotten in the
state of Denmark. The Grendels sought to provide one radical
solution. Beowulf another. Hrothgars nephew Hrothulf will
provide yet a third. Beowulf: monster story? hero tale? a
disquieting reflection on the adequacy of royal rule, where the
interlace of narrative reflects the complexity of ethical decision?
A readers choice.
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We do well to resist the romantic notion of British Celts being pushed

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(2004).
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1899
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The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
____
Grla, Grlur, Grleks and Skelkers: Folk Drama in the North
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1992
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____
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Old and Middle English Literature 24: 1-39.
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Menzer, Melinda J.
1996
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2000
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1999
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1989
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Ed. Andy Orchard. Toronto, U of Toronto P.
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1979
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1983
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Supernatural Pseudonyms. Emania 12: 49-60.
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____
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Debility, the Shore, the Blade. Studia Celtica, forthcoming.
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Society for Northern Research.
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1983
Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry, II: The Major Germanic
and Celtic Texts in Translation. Ed. and trans. Daniel G. Calder,
Robert E. Bjork, Patrick K. Ford, and Daniel F. Melia. Cambridge:
Brewer.
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Stanley, E. G.
2001
A Very Land-Fish, Languagelesse, a Monster: Grendel and the
Like in Old English. In Monsters and the Monstrous in Medieval
Northwest Europe. Ed L. A. J. R. Houwen, Louvain: Peeters, pp. 79-92.
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Beowulf: Lordlessness in Ancient Times Is the Theme as Much as
the Glory of Kings, If Not More. Notes and Queries 52: 267-81.
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2003
Grendel: Another Dip in the Etymological Mere. English Language
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A Spatial Analysis of Neolithic Cultures

throughout Eastern, Central, and Northern
Europe in Relation to Proto-Germanic
Matthew J. Rifkin
Towson University
Over the years linguistics and archaeology have been synthesized

in order to explain how various language families formed.
However, studies examining the problem from a uniquely
geographic perspective are lacking. This study examines how the
Proto-Germanic language formed. Archaeological, geo-genetic,
and temporal data were gathered and placed into a GIS for analysis
using statistics and intersects. The results suggest that ProtoGermanic was formed somewhere in southern Scandinavia
through a process of intermingling after an initial clash between
an indigenous agricultural group and an intrusive tribe from the
North Pontic Steppes.
Introduction
Over time, various scholars have synthesized linguistics
with archaeology to account for the origins and ethno-genesis
of various groups of people. Such endeavors have in part led to
the current classifications of linguistic and ethnic groups that
are found in most encyclopedias and textbooks. Still, many
changes regarding how linguistic and ethnic groups are
broadly classified have been made. Different paradigms and
factors have emerged throughout the years.
German, as an Indo-European language, has been one of
the topics where linguistic and archaeological data have been
synthesized in an attempt to acquire perspectives on the
origins of the Germanic-speaking group of Indo-European
languages. A sizable non-Indo-European lexical substratum in
German has been acknowledged by scholars in many different
fields, including Marija Gimbutas (1982), Edgar Polom
(1987), John Geipel (1969) and Terry Jordan Bychov (2002).
This has generated a debate about whether or not there was
an actual indigenous group in southern prehistoric Scandinavia
(the traditional cultural hearth of the Germanic-speaking
peoples) as well as throughout central Europe that spoke a
54
Matthew J. Rifkin
non-Indo European language. Furthermore, was there an

abrupt linguistic and cultural change caused by an intrusion
into this region during 3rd and 2nd millennium BC by IndoEuropean-speaking pastoralists from the North Pontic steppes?
Some argue that these invading people had a culture
identified with the presence of single barrow graves known as
kurgans (a Russian word taken from a Turkic language meaning
barrow).
Further, there is ambiguity about how languages are
classified. German is said by some to be an Indo-Europeanized
language. The basis for this rests on the premise that there is a
30% non-Indo-European lexical component found in the
modern German language (Polom 1987). Yet, what
specifically constitutes an Indo-Europeanized language in
numerical terms regarding lexicon is not discussed. Similarly,
English contains mostly Latin based words (roughly 50-60% of
the lexicon), yet retains the distinction of being classified
Germanic (Williams 1975). What can be concluded from this
discourse is that linguistic analysis alone can result in an
ambivalency regarding the definition of languages and their
respective linguistic groups.
Statement of the Problem
This study addresses the geographical origins of the
Proto-Germanic language and how it evolved. The study will
entail a synthesis of geographical, linguistic, historical, genetic
and archaeological data. Prior studies have revealed an absence
of geographical work concerning the problem, as well as a lack
of synthesis among these academic fields. Therefore, this
study will examine and analyze the alleged geographic
diffusion of the Kurgan culture from out of the North Pontic
steppes to southern Scandinavia circa the 3rd millennium BC.
This proposed diffusion will be compared to the linguistic,
historical, genetic and archaeological evidence provided, to
determine if the migration corresponds with any linguistic
changes in the region both spatially and temporally.
The study is based on the working hypothesis that ProtoGermanic represents an Indo-Europeanized language and that
the process of Indo-Europeanization corresponds to the
diffusion of the Kurgan culture from the North Pontic steppes
into Central and Northern Europe during a time period
beginning c. 5000 BC and lasting until c. 1900 BC. The
A Spatial Analysis of Neolithic Cultures in Relation to Proto-Germanic
55
hypothesis also maintains that the 30% non-Indo-European

substratum found in modern German derives from non-IndoEuropean-speaking people(s) indigenous to southern
Scandinavia. When Indo-European speakers came into contact
with the indigenous peoples during the 3rd millennium BC,
they came to dominate the local populations yet parts of the
indigenous lexicon persisted in the formation of ProtoGermanic, thus giving German the status of being an IndoEuropeanized language.
Gimbutas Kurgan Culture Theory

One of the most popular paradigms to emerge that
accounts for an IE homeland was Marija Gimbutas Kurgan
Culture Theory. Her theory, introduced in 1956, was in part
based on the work of several other archaeologists before her.
Much of Gimbutas work on this subject has been reprinted
collectively in The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization
of Europe. In one of her works featured in the book, she states
that the cultures in South Russia of the 5th millennium B.C.
are the mother cultures of all later cultures which are
attributed to the speaking of south, west, and north IndoEuropean (Gimbutas 1997d: 3). Gimbutas gave these mother
cultures the collective title of Kurgan culture. She further
described the areal extent of the Kurgan culture, which
covers early, middle, and late periods of cultural development
between the lower Dnieper and southern Siberia and all its
synchronous manifestations outside this area (Gimbutas
1997e: 76). The common core component shared by all these
cultures is the single grave in deep shafts with a mound over
top (Gimbutas 1997c: 129).
This study is primarily concerned with the Kurgan culture
hearth between the Don and Dnieper rivers known as the
North Pontic Steppe cultural area; it is the oldest to date
according to her formulations (circa middle of the 5th
millennium BC). It also represents the area from which
Gimbutas claims the Kurgan culture and its people diffused
west into central and northern Europe. Gimbutas also claims
that the spread of Indo-European languages corresponds to
this geographical diffusion pattern, thus placing the formation
of the Proto-Indo-European language roughly in the North
Pontic Steppe region circa mid 5th millennium BC.
56
Matthew J. Rifkin
At the time that the Kurgan culture came into being, a

separate distinct culture existed in northwest Europe
consisting of non-Indo-European speaking people of Old
Europe. According to Gimbutas Old Europe (the term Old
Europe is used for Pre-Indo-European Europe during the
Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Copper ages) existed for nearly 3
millennia (c. 6500-3500 B.C.) without major cataclysms. The
culture rose in a linear fashion, unbroken by destruction or
disruptions. The people lived in an egalitarian society, very
probably in a matrilinear system, had virtually no weapons
except in the last (Copper Age) stage, and indulged in arts
and crafts, stimulated by their ideology and mythical imagery.
(1997g: 240). Additionally, these people often dwelled in
large agglomerations, were sedentary-horticulturalist, had an
ideology which focused on the eternal aspects of birth, death,
and regeneration, symbolized by the feminine principle, a
mother creatrix, buried their dead in communal megalith
graves and were generally peaceful (Gimbutas 1997g: 241).
This social structure contrasted with the Indo-European
Kurgans who were mobile and non-egalitarian; their system was
accordingly ranked into a three category hierarchy: warrior
priest rulers, warrior nobility, and laborers/agriculturalists at
the bottom. The IE Kurgans were also warlike, lived in smaller
villages at times, and had an ideology that centered on the
virile male. Their gods were often heroic warriors of the
shining and thunderous sky rather than peaceful mother
goddesses of birth and regeneration. In sum, when comparing
and contrasting these two groups through the eyes of
Gimbutas, it can be said that, the Old Europeans put no
emphasis on dangerous weapons whereas the Kurgans glorified
the sharp blade (Gimbutas 1997g: 241). What eventually
occurred was the drastic upheaval of Old Europe as the:
three millennium long traditions were truncated by 2
waves of semi-nomadic horse riding people from the
east: the towns and villages disintegrated, the
magnificent painted pottery vanished; so did the
shrines, frescoes, sculptures, symbols and script.
(Gimbutas 1997g: 240 )
57
Accordingly, this is all evident in:

the archaeological record not only by the abrupt
absences of the magnificent painted pottery and
figurines and the termination of sign use, but by the
equally abrupt appearance of thrusting weapons and
horses infiltrating the Danubian Valley and other
major grasslands of the Balkans and Central Europe.
Their arrival initiated a dramatic shift in the
prehistory of Europe, a change in social structure and
in residence patterns, in art and in religion and it was
a decisive factor in the formation of Europes last
5,000 years. (Gimbutas 1997g: 240)
A final major point that can be extracted from Gimbutas
work in addition to the socio-economic, cultural, and linguistic
impacts regards the genetic consequences of this outside
infiltration into Western Europe:
The change in physical type of the population was
marginal or uneven (more effective in the east than in the
west). The process of Indo-Europeanization was essentially a
cultural, not a physical transformation. It must be understood
as a military victory in terms or successfully imposing a new
administrative system, language and religion upon the
indigenous groups. The social organization greatly facilitated
the Kurgan peoples effectiveness in war. The patrilinear and
patriarchal structure and tripariate class system of rulers, warrior
nobility, and laborers is proved by the Indo-European
mythologies. The Old Europeans had neither a warrior class
nor horses. They lived in (probably) theocratic monarchies
presided over by a queen-priestess. (1997f: 316)
Eventually, certain aspects of the Indo-European
speaking Kurgan peoples culture and language, along with the
people themselves, made their way into southern Scandinavia
circa the 3rd millennium BC. This gradual process can be
categorized according to Gimbutas four Kurgan time periods,
which serve not only to mark the time frame, but also the areal
extent of the culture:
Kurgan I the 5th millennium B.C., a period of relative
uniformity known from the sites in the Dnieper-Volga
steppes east of the Cucuteni (Tripolye) civilization. The
archaeological label of this complex is Srednij Stog II
58
Matthew J. Rifkin
in the Dnieper and Don basins and the earliest Yamna
or Pit-grave in the lower Volga, lower Ural, and north
Caspian regions.
Kurgan II the first half of the 4th millennium B.C., the
time of the beginning of a crisis west of the Black Sea
when Kurgan II graves appear in the area of civilized Old
Europe and infiltrate central Europe via the Danube. At
this stage Old European civilizations continue their
existence.
Kurgan III the second half of the 4th millennium B.C.,
this phase is marked by a formation of a new culture in
the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula and east central
Europe
(the
Cernavoda-Boleraz-Proto-Baden-Baden
complex) in central Europe (the Globular Amphora
complex) and in Transcaucasia, all bearing Kurgan
elements. This period saw the complex process of
hybridization or kurganization resulting in marked
changes in economy, social structure, and religion. The
horse in strategic positions in the former lands of the
Vinca and Lengyel civilizations are converted to
strongholds and tribal centers; not a single town or village
of Old European character is known in these areas.
Kurgan IV the early 3rd millennium B.C., marked by the
consolidation of tribal groups dominated by the Kurgan
elements and the increase of mobility and expansion.
This is the time of Corded-Battle-Axe complexes in the
Pontic steppes, the Maikop phase in the northern
Caucasus, and the period of destruction of towns in the
Aegean and in the eastern Mediterranean. Northern
Europe up to southern Sweden and southern Finland and
Greece were kurganized (Gimbutas 1997a: 182-183).
The diffusion occurred in three waves. This study is most

concerned with the alleged Third Wave which occurred soon
after 3000 B.C. (coinciding with Kurgan IV); it was triggered
by population migrations out from east central Europe
(Gimbutas 1997b: 366). New areas of settlement were
gradually reached in present-day northern Europe, southern
Scandinavia, the East Baltic area and central Russia (Gimbutas
1997b: 366). Heir to the Globular Amphora culture of eastcentral Europe, the Corded-Ware-Battle Axe people diffused
north into the East Baltic area and southern Scandinavia
59
(Figure 1) (Gimbutas 1997b: 366). By 2000 B.C., the world of

Old Europe had been transformed, except for Old European
groups on Crete, on Aegean Islands and in Iberia (Gimbutas
1997b: 367).
Figure 1. Gimbutas Kurgan Model of Diffusion (Gimbutas 1997).
Other origins
More recently, contrary schools of thought have emerged
placing the PIE homeland in different locations and
developing under different time frames and processes. One
such paradigm traces the beginnings of PIE to the
southeastern-most fringes of Anatolia circa 8000 B.C. along
with the spread of agriculture (Figure 2). British archaeologist
Colin Renfrew in his 1987 book Archaeology and Language: The
Puzzle of Indo-European Origins argues that agriculture is what
pushed people to expand, then spreading their language as
well.
60
Matthew J. Rifkin
Figure 2. Renfrews paradigm as presented by Jordan-Bychov and

Jordan (2005).
Another recent theory, the Paleolithic Continuity

Theory, emerged from studies conducted independently by
several archaeologists and linguists. As a result, there is really
no uniformity to this theory that manifests itself in multiple
forms. German archaeologist Alexander Husler is the most
fervent supporter of this theory.
Huslers version, perhaps the best known, was presented in
an article entitled Zur Problematik des Ursprungs der IndoGermanen (2004). He began by stating what he felt was most
61
likely the original extent of the speakers of PIE:

Uberblicken wir die Kulturentwicklung Europas, konnen
wir fur das Gebiet zwischen Nordsee und Kaspischem
Meer, von Griechenland, Sudosteuropa und Europa
nordlich der Alpen bis nach Skandinavien und ins
Baltikum, zumindest seit dem Mesolithikum eine
kontinuierliche Weiterenwicklung ein und derselben
Bevolkerung feststellen. (Husler 2004)
From this area, a language continuum was formed from

which the Indo-European language families all grew, dating
back somewhere between the late Paleolithic to early
Mesolithic eras. His evidence mainly stems from Hans Krahes
Old European toponym theory in which several river names
dispersed from Great Britain to Russia appear to be cognates of
each other; he felt they represented an early common IE
continuum of river names. Husler employed this theory to
specify the original area of IE languages somewhere in
between the North European Plain and eastern shore land of
the Caspian Sea. It is on the northern European plain that he
believes that the Celtic, Germanic and Baltic speakers
emerged from the Funnel-necked Beaker (TRB) culture in an
uninterrupted sequence from the cultures earliest appearance
to the late Bronze Age. The Indo-Iranian speakers are said to
have of their origins on the North Pontic Steppes from the
Yamnaya culture in roughly the same temporal manner.
Husler feels that such a theory is sound since it needs
not invoke any specific archaeological culture or migration
theory (which he feels are outdated) concerning warrior elites
or agriculturalists. According to his logic, he also sees no
reason to consider what linguistic paleontology has to say on
the matter. All the sub-language families of the IE group
simply sprang up from where they were. At the end he sites a
hypothetical computational scenario conducted by a colleague
as proof that such a model is feasible. Much of his writing also
deals with pointing out alleged historical and archaeological
problems regarding any existence whatsoever of nomadic
pastoralism existing on the North Pontic Steppes c. 3500-3000
BC.
Since the spatial plausibility of a Near Eastern wave of
agricultural advance and theories concerning notions of
62
Matthew J. Rifkin
continuity from local sources have been discussed and tested

elsewhere (see Krantz 1988 for a Near Eastern wave of
agricultural advance, and Malmer 1962 for continuity from the
TRB) it is thus solely the intent of this study to test for spatial
correlation stemming from Eastern Europe and into Northern
Europe. Two different models of how this may have occurred
will be analyzed and discussed.
Research Methodology
The North Pontic steppe region of Eastern Europe and
the region extending west-northwest to and including
southern Scandinavian was selected as the study area for the
following reasons:
1.
2.
3.
The North Pontic Steppe region is where the Kurgan

culture and the Indo-European language first emerged
according to the model proposed by Marija Gimbutas.
The area of northern and central Europe north of the
Carpathian Mountains is where the Kurgan culture
diffused. There, it is argued, it formed the culture defined
as Corded Ware c. 3200-2800 B.C.
The Jutland peninsula as well as other parts of southern
Scandinavia is the region where the bearers of the
Corded Ware culture are believed to have migrated. Here
they synthesized with the indigenous Nordic tribes,
giving birth to the Proto-Germanic language.
ArcMap of the ArcGIS computer software was used to

create a map of Europe showing the diffusion of the Kurgan
culture into southern Scandinavia. A Morans I spatial
autocorrelation from Arctoolbox was run on the coordinate of
the maps features after they were digitized and their
attributes added. The utility and validity of ArcGIS has been
substantiated through its use for over many years in the
analysis of various geographic spatial problems. Misuse or
misleading interpretations generated from the ArcGIS
software can be avoided by finding data with exact coordinates
already in GIS format or from reputable scholarly sources that
use various topographic features to help pinpoint general
locations of cultural, genetic, archaeological and linguistic
areas.
63
Figure 3. Areal distribution of where Rh- and Rh+ blood types

mix.
A base map of Europe from the 2003 ESRI CD package of

world geographic data was used as the background layer in
ArcMap. A layer of major rivers and country outlines from the
package was overlaid on the base map of Europe to help
establish boundaries when defining the various Kurgan waves
of diffusion. Gimbutas three waves of Kurgan diffusion map
were also used as a data source.
After the ESRI data sets were added to the base map, the
three Kurgan waves were digitized manually into polygonal
64
Matthew J. Rifkin
features and assigned time frames. Archaeological maps were

also gathered showing the areal distribution throughout
Europe of cultures regarded as Kurgan featuring major sites,
settlements and graves, otherwise known as find spots. These
were represented as a collective feature of point symbols
belonging to several archaeological cultures. Stray finds of
artifacts were not used. A major rivers layer in addition to a
world .TIF map layer displaying topography (included with the
ArcGIS 9.1 software package) assisted with the placement of
these points.
Next, the points of these features were assigned
coordinates. Finally, data from the work of Cavalli-Sforza et al.
(1994) relating to geo-genetics in Europe were used to create
a manually digitized feature displaying the areas of where Rhand Rh+ blood frequencies were at roughly 50% each (Figure
3). It was overlain with the areas in which Kurgan waves and
archaeological data were believed to have diffused into
southern Scandinavia from the NPS in order to determine
when and where the pre-Indo European and IE speaking
populations first met and how this led to the formation of PG.
Analysis of the data focused on the mapped areal extent of the
Kurgan cultures diffusion into Western Europe and southern
Scandinavia from the North Pontic Steppes. Close examination
was given to the areas where migration occurred, as indicated
by the archaeological and geo-genetic records. The
archaeological points corresponding to the Kurgan wave
features created in the ArcGIS software allowed for a spatial
statistical analysis to be performed.
The test conducted was a spatial autocorrelation
(otherwise known as the Moran I) on two different elements
of the problem relating to the subjects: Gimbutas model of
Kurgan diffusion and an Alternate model of Kurgan diffusion.
The number of observations is large in both cases. The large
samples, justified the use of the normal distribution to test for
significance. The significance level of .05 was selected. The
critical values of the normal distribution for the level of
significance are 1.96. The null hypothesis to be tested is:

Ho:
65
there is no spatial autocorrelation.
The Moran I score for each case was then standardized as a z score.
Decision rule: if z < 1.96 or > -1.96 accept Ho
if z > 1.96 or < -1.96 reject Ho
Finally an analysis of the geo-genetic Rh- blood feature

layer was done to determine any spatial relationship to the
Kurgan culture. If the data showed an Rh- presence in
southern Scandinavia and an absence in Eastern Europe along
with the Moran I test proving a spatial dispersion of a common
Kurgan culture from the North Pontic steppes then this would
allow for the acceptance of the main research hypothesis
alternative stated above. All of these procedures were built
into a model using ArcGIS (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Model built in ArcGIS that was used for the procedure.
Analysis of Data
The area stretching from the NPS to southern
Scandinavia is the primary geographic area of analysis. The
Elbe River was used as an arbitrary cut off point for plotting
migrations into southern Scandinavia, as it seems unlikely that
the tribes moving west of it would later have the intent to
move back eastwards and then north into the aforementioned
area for settlement.
The archaeological data collected from secondary sources
66
Matthew J. Rifkin
were used to plot two versions of how the kurgan culture most
likely diffused from the NPS: (1) Gimbutas paradigm and (2) a
synthesized alternate paradigm based on the research of
several scholars (Sulimirski 1968, Buchvaldek 1986, Telegin
1992, Carpelan and Parpola 2000). In addition to
archaeological data, geogenetic and temporal information
were gathered as well. The geogenetic data entitled RHMIX
shows where Rh- and Rh+ blood types are found at a roughly
50% frequency on the North European plain. This is believed
to represent a mixture between Non-IE and IE speakers that
first occurred sometime during the Neolithic. Justification
partly stems from the fact that Rh- is found more in western
Europe with highest frequencies among the Basque who are
non-IE speaking people while Rh+ is found at higher
frequencies throughout the rest of Europe (Cavalli-Sforza
2000). Cavalli-Sforza (2000) typically interprets this as
Neolithic farmers from the Middle East integrating themselves
among more indigenous Europeans from the west as a means
to explain IE diffusion and origin in a manner similar to
Gamkrelidze and Ivanovs (1995). However, there have been
studies demonstrating that most of Europe is not genetically
descended from Middle Eastern farmers during the Neolithic
(Sykes 2001, The Genographic Project 2006). Genetic traits
most associated with Middle Easterners are practically absent in
Central and Northern European populations (The
Genographic Project 2006). With this as well when taking into
consideration that the polygon has a northern position and
displays a distribution which is more east to west/north west
oriented than south to north would most likely suggest a
mingling between people from western European (Rh-) with
people from Eastern Europe (Rh+) who either followed the
Dniester river or Dniepers Pripyat tributary into Central and
then ultimately Northern Europe. Finally, the temporal waves
added into the GIS, entitled Kurgan WavesV.1 and Kurgan
WavesV. 2 were based on how Gimbutas believed the process
occurred and how other scholars suggested, respectively.
As discussed, Gimbutas Kurgan paradigm for the spread of
IE speaking tribes into the North European plain is based on
the premise that c. 3500 B.C., Yamnaya tribes from the upper
reaches of the Volga River swept down into the southern part
of the NPS and northern Caucasus pushing the Lower
Mikhailovka-Kemi-Oba-Maykop community from its original
67
territory. The LMKO-Maykop cultural community moved

westward and reestablished itself as the Globular Amphora
culture on the North European Plain. The genesis for the
Kurgan culture stems from the formation of the Khvalynsk and
Sredny Stog cultures of the NPS. The cultures involved
according to their chronological order of appearance are:
Khvalynsk, Sredny Stog, Lower Mikhailovka-Kemi-Oba,
Maykop, Globular Amphora, and finally the Corded Ware
culture into southern Scandinavia (Figure 5).
Figure 5. General distribution of the archaeological sites under

Gimbutas model.
68
Matthew J. Rifkin
Many scholars do not agree with Gimbutas regarding the

process of Indo-Europeanization of northern Europe.
Alternate explanations of how Kurgan cultural elements made
Figure 6. Temporal waves and archaeological cultures in

accordance with Gimbutas model
their way into central and northern Europe have been sought.
Many with opposing views have centered the notion of Kurgan
intrusion into the North European Plain and ultimately
southern Scandinavia on Yamnaya tribes entering the region
after a brief period of transition with other cultures along the
Pripyat River. This in turn would have led to the formation of
the Corded Ware culture (Sulimirski 1968, Telegin 1992). The
initial formation of the Yamnaya culture stems from the Lower
Mikhailovka, Sredny Stog, and Khvalynsk cultures. Similar to
69
Gimbutas paradigm, the formation of the Kurgan culture on

the NPS stems from the Sredny Stog and Khvalynsk cultures.
The chronology of the alternate paradigm is as follows:
Khvalynsk, Sredny Stog, Lower-Mikhailovka, Yamnaya, Middle
Dnieper, Masovian, and finally Corded Ware (see Figure 6).
Figure 7. Circled area of where IE and non-IE tribes first met

under Gimbutas model.
After running a Morans I test on the various

archaeological data gathered according to how Gimbutas
defined the spread of the Kurgan culture, the following index
70
Matthew J. Rifkin
scores were produced: x=0.40 and y=0.33. The intersection of

the Rh blood type mixed layer with Gimbutas temporal waves
of Kurgan diffusion layers indicates that the earliest meeting
of IE and non-IE tribes would have taken place c. 3500 B.C. on
the North European Plain towards the mouth of the Dniester
River under a westward moving Globular Amphora culture with
steppe origins (Figure 7). The process of Indo-Europeanization in southern Scandinavia would have taken place c.
3000-2800 B.C. under the guise of a northward migrating
variant of the Corded Ware culture stemming from the GAC.
Figure 8. General distribution of the archaeological cultures of

the Alternate Model.
This alternate version of the Kurgan cultures spread into

the North European Plain opts for a push of Yamnaya tribes
northwest along the Dniepers Pripyat tributary (Figure 8).
71
Figure 9. Temporal waves and archaeological cultures according

to the Alternate model.
Around the area of the middle Dnieper, a local variant of the

Yamnaya culture separates from its greater cultural horizon and
begins to develop into the Middle Dnieper culture (Telegin
1992). From there, this culture moves farther north and west
along the Dnieper and Pripyat respectively where they come
in contact with the local Masovian culture. There, they pick up
local cultural variants most associated with aspects of the North
European Plain cultures (i.e., perhaps elements of Funnelnecked Beaker and Globular Amphora). Eventually, all this
leads to the formation of the distinctive pottery type of the
Corded Ware culture in what this study terms a kurgan wave of
transition (Figure 9). Along with the practice of kurgan
72
Matthew J. Rifkin
burial, this culture eventually overwhelms the entire North

European Plain and southern Scandinavia.
Figure 10. Circled area of where IE and non-IE tribes first met
within the Alternate model
The results of the Moran I index scores were as follows:

x=0.59 and y=0.54. The intersection of the geogenetic data
with Kurgan Waves V.2 suggests that the first meeting
between IE and Non-IE speakers occurred c. 3300-3200 BC at
the mouth of the Pripyat along the present day border of
Ukraine and Poland. Around 3200 BC the earliest variant of
73
the central European CWC appears in south-eastern Poland

and from there expands nearly simultaneously to the
Netherlands and Baltic territory by 3100 BC (Figure 10). After
roughly a hundred years of inactivity, the CWC then moves
into southern Scandinavia.
Summary of Findings
Gimbutas paradigm describes an initial meeting between
non-IE speakers and IE speakers first occurring c. 3500 BC
towards the mouth of the Dniester River under the guise of
the Globular Amphora culture (GAC) which eventually spread
into central Europe, in turn giving rise to the Corded Ware
culture (CWC) which would later enter southern Scandinavia.
The Morans I test produced z scores in the rejection zone of
the null hypothesis at the 0.5 alpha level, which would lead to
the acceptance of Gimbutas hypothesis regarding the manner
in which the Kurgan culture spread into northern Europe, i.e.,
there is a high degree of spatial autocorrelation of the mapped
feature.
As for the alternate model, the initial meeting between
IE and non-IE speaking tribes would have occurred c. 33003200 at the mouth of the Pripyat. The Morans I of 0.5
produced a z score that rejected the null hypothesis. The
alternate models hypothesis was accepted as well, i.e., that
ultimately there was a common Kurgan culture with origins
lying on the NPS that eventually made its way into Northern
Europe. This is in full accordance with the qualitative data that
many archaeologists have presented over the years. Although
the test for autocorrelation for both the Gimbutas and
alternate models led to the conclusion that there was definite
clustering of features (i.e., not a random pattern), the scores
for the alternate model were higher and reflect a stronger
pattern of clustering.
74
Matthew J. Rifkin
Significance of Moran Test

=.05
Gimbutas
Model
Alternate
Model
coordinates
n
1868
Moran
I
0.39
zvalue
147
x
y
1868
0.32
123
1818
0.59
183
1818
0.54
169
critical
values
(1.96, 1.96)
(1.96, 1.96)
(1.96, 1.96)
(1.96, 1.96)
Decision
accept
accept
accept
accept
Based upon the findings within the limitations of this

study, the formation of the Proto-Germanic language could
have occurred via a process of Indo-Europeanization attributed
to the CWC variant of the Kurgan culture c. 3000-2800 BC in
southern Scandinavia. This process involved the coming
together of an indigenous non-IE branch of speakers located
in southern Scandinavia and IE speakers with origins from the
NPS. The greater score of .59 on the x coordinate in the
alternate model suggests a stronger likelihood that this is the
process by which Kurgan tribes made their way into central and
ultimately northern Europe. This is not surprising since the
alternate model demonstrates a classical invasion route into
Europe along the Pripyat River. This was the route taken by
the Mongol Golden Horde into Europe as well as when
Napoleon marched his Grand Army eastward into Russia. In
contrast the Gimbutas model suggests an invasion route into
central Europe via the Dniester that is spatially and historically
unlikely.
Archaeologists (Wislanski 1970, Szmyt 1996, Mallory
1997) have been reluctant to accept Gimbutas model
revolving around the notion that Yamnaya tribes indirectly
caused kurgan expansion into central and northern Europe by
forcing the people of the Maykop culture and LowerMikhailovka-Kemi-Oba group (LMKO) to migrate into the
North European Plain and thus reestablish themselves as the
GAC. Even more problematic were her interpretations of the
GAC, which completely ignored the regional chronology of
the culture in question as well as the intricacies of the material
items and mortuary practices. As Wislanski pointed out, the
main contributor of the GAC was the Funnel-necked Beaker
75
culture (TRB). The oldest GAC sites are found in central

Poland. The same also applies for the TRB roughly 1000 years
before the advent of the GAC (Midgley 1992). What the
scores indicating high clustering for her model most likely
mean is that there was influence or interaction between the
GAC among the various cultures that she felt constituted
Maykop. A wholesale migration by the people inhabiting the
southern areas of the NPS in central Europe is still very
questionable.
The development of the GAC in central Poland suggests
that this was an area of innovation for the tribes of the North
European Plain dating back to the beginnings of the TRB.
What caused the decline of the TRB in central Europe was not
the invasion of IE-speaking steppe tribes, but rather the
inability of this early farming culture to practice sustainable
growth. As Magdalena Midgley explained in her book The TRB
Culture: the First Farmers of the North European Plain (1992), the
TRBs demise was one of self-causation. They simply over
farmed the land and were forced to switch to pastoralism.
It is in this context that the GAC developed out of the
TRB c. 3400 BC. This culture defined primarily by a new
economic mode of production proceeded to expand eastward.
It is here where they entered the steppes of Ukraine in an
eastern exodus c. 2900 BC. This is substantiated by radiocarbon
dating of GAC artifacts in this area. All of this is opposed to
what was occurring on the NPS where innovation was typically
moving from east to west dating back to c. 6000 BC.
The premise that the CWC evolved from the GAC and
ultimately the TRB directly cannot be accepted. There are
absolutely no grounds for a direct continuance from the TRB
in central Europe according to temporal as well as
archaeological evidence (namely in burial rite while some
pottery types resemble those of both the TRB and GAC). This
is due to the fact that the GAC is the succeeding culture to
the TRB.
This brings us to another problem with Gimbutas Kurgan
model. It fails to clearly and effectively address the fact that
the CWC eventually overwhelms not only the entire territory
of the North European Plain but also the GAC. Instead, she
proposed that the GAC gave birth to the CWC as to explain
why elements of the CWC are found in the GAC. The
intermingling of CWC and GAC artifacts can be explained as
76
Matthew J. Rifkin
follows: by 3400 BC the people of the TRB in central Europe

had switched from agriculture to pastoralism brought on by
deteriorating environmental conditions somewhat selfinduced, yet they maintained a communal burial tradition. The
culture is now the GAC as evidenced by a new pottery type
though with firm links originating in the TRB. Most of the
faunal remains are of various stock animals, though the
domesticated horse is relatively rare (Szmyt 1996). Wislanski
remarked that only in exceptional cases were horse remains
found in graves, which indicates some cultic role (1970).
Eventually, more obvious IE elements appear in the culture
particularly sun discs representing the sky god and other CWC
artifacts.
This suggests that the GAC embraced the incoming CWC
due to the introduction of the domesticated horse. When the
GAC people saw the horses of the CWC, they realized that
these animals could be advantageous to their newly adopted
mode of production. The people of the CWC who descended
in part from the Yamnaya steppe tribes had been practicing
mobile pastoralism longer. Warring with them would not have
made much sense not only due to the fact that the CWC was a
more aggressive tribal force but also because the GAC could
learn from them. The CWC most likely possessed a far superior
knowledge of pastoralism than the GAC. As a result, whatever
aspects of the CWC that could be adopted were accepted into
the GAC. This would have included technology (namely the
horse), religion, and ultimately language. In roughly 100-200
years though, the GAC of central Europe was completely
absorbed by the CWC. The people of the GAC became the first
Indo-Europeanized population of the North European Plain
through a relatively peaceful process. The story is quite
different however in southern Scandinavia.
In Denmark, the TRB did not cease c. 3500 BC as it does
in most of central Europe, but continued until c. 2650 BC
(Midgley 1992). Agriculture, in addition to hunting and
fishing was still being practiced. Eventually, by c. 3000-2800 BC
the CWC entered Denmark, southern Sweden, and
southeastern Norway. Here it encountered a thriving culture
rooted in local economic practices and communal burial rites.
Although there is no evidence for the domesticated horse to
be found within the initial wave of Scandinavian CW cultures,
most Scandinavian archaeologists interpret this as failure of
77
uncovering sites where remains most likely are. The

archaeological picture painted by Davidsen (1978) seems to
suggest two different ethnic groups in opposition to one
another. Though others, influenced by Malmer, have
suggested that the two cultures represent continuity. Given
what happened in central Europe, this notion should be
disregarded.
Of importance here is the notion of Gimbutas peaceful
matri-focal mother goddess culture of Old Europe. While it
seems plausible that the concept of female spiritual entities of
love and fertility made their way among the farmers of the
North European plain from possibly southern farming cultures
often associated with the Near Eastern wave of agricultural
advance (namely the Linear Ware culture and Tripolye both of
which influenced the TRB to varying degrees, see Midgley
1992), it is doubtful that they were a completely peaceful
people. The archaeological presence of stone battle-axes
found in the TRB and the non-IE term for troop (druht)
suggest a partly militarized society. Ultimately, this brought
the two ethnically different people of the TRB and CWC
together as one to form the Proto-Germanic language.
Finally the geogenetics of Denmark must be addressed.
Cavalli-Sforzas data on the surface would suggest that there
does not appear to be a mixture of IE and non-IE speaking
tribes in Denmark based solely on Rh blood types. However,
there is a significantly high frequency of the R1b haplogroup
at 36.1% (Tambet et al. 2004). This lineage is mostly
associated with the non-IE speakers who migrated out of Iberia
and populated much of Europe (Wells 2002). Since the
archaeology of southern Scandinavia indicates a major
entrance of hunters and gatherers c. 12000 BC (Tilley 1996) it
could be inferred that this is when the bearers of the R1b
lineage first began to significantly settle the area. R1a, which
has been identified to correspond with the diffusion of the
Kurgan culture (Wells 2002), is found at frequencies of 16%
(Brion et al. 2004, Tambet el al. 2004) mostly in the
southeastern region of Jutland. The distribution of R1a and
R1b in Norway and Sweden is at nearly equal frequencies:
Norway: 23.6% R1a and 27.8% R1b compared to Sweden:
18.4% R1a and 22% R1b (Tambet et al. 2004). This may seem
to suggest why Rh- and Rh+ are nearly half and half in Sweden
and Norway. However, no data were provided by Cavalli-Sforza
78
Matthew J. Rifkin
(et al.1994) showing the frequency levels of Rh- and Rh+

blood types in Denmark. This is why it is important to address
the frequencies of haplogroup markers associated with non-IE
and IE speaking populations in Denmark to demonstrate IE
invasion on the grounds of geogenetics.
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Zum Ursprung der Schnurverzieung. In: Die
Kontinentaleuropaischen Gruppen der Kultur mit Schnukeramki, ed. M.
Buchvaldek, and C. Strahm, 333-339. University Karlova, Praha.
Acta Instituti Praehistorici Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis.
Tilley, C.
1996
An Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern
Scandinavia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wells, S.
2002
The Journey of Man. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Williams, J.
1975
Origins of the English Language: a Social History. New York: Free
Press
Wislanski, T.
1970
The Globular Amphora Culture. In: The Neolithic in Poland. ed. T.
Wislanski, 178-227. Wroclaw: Zakland Narodowy Imiena
Ossolinkich Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk.
From August Schleicher

to Sergei Starostin
On the development of the tree-diagram models
of the Indo-European languages
Vclav Blaek
Czech Republic
Abstract
The following provides an attempt to illustrate the most
representative tree-models for the classification of the IndoEuropean languages and their daughter branches and, where
available,
their
temporal
position as suggested
by
glottochronology.
0. Indo-European
0.1. In the 19th century the tree-diagram of A.
Schleicher (1860) was very popular:
Germanic
Lithuanian
Slavo-Lithuaian
Slavic
Celtic
Indo-European
Italo-Celtic
Italic
Graeco-Italo-Celtic
Aryo-GraecoItalo-Celtic
Albanian
Greek
Iranian
Aryan
Indo-Aryan
After the discovery of the Indo-European affiliation of

the Tocharian A and B languages and the languages of ancient
Asia Minor, it was necessary to take them into account. Recent
models accept the Anatolian vs. non-Anatolian (IndoEuropean in the narrower sense) dichotomy, which was first
formulated by E. Sturtevant (1942). Naturally, it is difficult to
include the relic languages into the model of any
classification, if they are known only from several inscriptions,
83
Development of tree-diagram models of the Indo-European languages
glosses or even only from proper names. That is why there are
significant differences in classification of these scantily
recorded languages. For this reason some scholars omit them
altogether.
0.2. Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1984, 415) developed the
traditional ideas.
Greek
Armenian
IndoIranian
Balto-Slavic
Germanic
Italic
Celtic
Tocharian
Anatolian
0.3. Vladimir Georgiev (1981, 363) included in his IndoEuropean classification some of the relic languages, plus the
languages with a doubtful IE affiliation.
Northern
Western
Indo-European
Central
Eastern
Southern = Aegean
Southeast =
= Anatolian
Tocharian
Balto-Slavic
Germanic
Celtic
Ligurian
Italic & Venetic
Illyrian
Messapic
Siculian
Greek & Macedonian
Phrygian
Armenian
Daco-Mysian & Albanian
Indo-Iranian
Thracian
Pelasgian
Palaic
Hittite; Lydian; Etruscan-Rhaetic;
Elymian
Luwian; Lycian; Carian; Eteocretan
0.4. Eric Hamp proposed his original model of the IndoEuropean disintegration, including the relic idioms, based on
specific isoglosses in phonology, morphology and lexicon
(1990).
84
Vclav Blazek
Luwian
Anatolian
Hittite
Indo-Aryan
Nuristanic
Indo-Hittite
Asiatic Indo-European
Iranian
Armenian
Pontic South Indo-European
IndoEuropean
Greek
Macedonian
Slavic
Baltic
Residual
Indo-European
Thracian
Dacian
Albanian
Prehellenic
= Pelasgic
Germanic
NorthwestIndo-European
Tocharian
Illyrian
Messapic
Phrygian
Venetic
Italic
Celtic
0.5. As an illustration of a realistic application of cladistics

is the model suggested by D. Ringe, T. Warnow and A. Taylor
(2002, 87).
Anatolian
Tocharian
Celtic
Italic
Germanic
Albanian
Armenian
Greek
Indo-Aryan
Iranian
Slavic
Baltic
0.6. The absolute chronology of Indo-European is available

only thanks to glottochronology. The most recent result of
Sergei Starostin (Workshop on the chronology in linguistics, Santa
Fe 2004) applies his own model of the recalibrated
85
glottochronology, where all borrowings were excluded before

any calculation and the coefficient of changes was empirically
recounted to 5% per millennium instead of 14% as postulated
by Swadesh.
-5000
-4000
-3000
-2000
-1000
Hittite
Tocharian A
Tocharian B
-20
-4670
Brythonic
-1000
Goidelic
-3810
Italic
-2500
Germanic
-3350
-2860
Baltic
-1210
Slavic
-2710
Iranian
-2000
Indo-Aryan
-3020
Armenian
Greek
-2590
Albanian
1. Indo-Aryan
The only attempt to apply glottochronology for several
modern Indo-Aryan languages in comparison with Sanskrit was
accomplished by S. Starostin and his team (database 2004).
-1400
-1000
-600
-200
200
600
1000
1400
Sinhalese
Central
100
-650
400
650
1000
-250
Eastern
Indo-Aryan
Bengalese
Assamese
Nepali
Marathi
250
Northwest
-100
200
-1600
1650
Gypsy
Parya
W. Pahari
Lahnda
Panjabi
Hindi
600
Sindhi
Gujarati
Vedic Sanskrit
Cl. Sanskrit
86
Vclav Blazek
2. Dardic
The only tree-diagram for Dardic was constructed by S.
Starostins team (database 2004).
-1000
-600
-200
200
600
1000
Kashmiri
Shina
Maiya
Bashkarik
Torwali
Wotapuri
Phalura
Sava
Tirahi
Dardic
Khowar
Pashai
Kalasha
Gawar
Shumashti
Note: Concerning the internal classification and depth of

divergence of the Nuristani languages, there are no available
results.
3. Iranian
The only attempt to construct a tree-diagram for the Iranian
languages was also accomplished by S. Starostin and his team
(Santa Fe 2004).
-1000
-500
500
1000
1500
Avestan
Wakhi
-490
Ishkashim
180
Iranian
-1240
Khotan-Saka
-450
-790
Munjan
Shughni
Ossetic
Ormuri
Parachi
Pashto
-310
180
320 Sogdian
840
-620
320
620
270
420
Yaghnobi
Gilaki
Modern
Persian
Tati
Talysh
Kurdic
Baluchi
87
4. Anatolian
With exception of Hittite no Anatolian language permits the
application of glottochronology because of our limited knowledge
of their lexical corpora. That is why the existing classifications are
based on combinations of phonological, morphological and lexical
isoglosses. In recent times three alternative models of the
internal classification of the Anatolian languages have been
proposed.
4.1. N. Oettinger 1978, 92 (supplemented on the basis of
personal communication in 2001).
East
Hittite
Anatolian
Proto-Luwian
West
Luwian
Palaic
Cuneiform
Hieroglyphic
Pisidic, Sidetic, Carian
Lycian, Milyan
Lydian
4.2. R. Werner (1991, 17).

South Anatolian
Anatolian
Hieroglyphic Luwian
Cuneiform Luvian
Milyan
Lycian
Palaic
Hittite
Lydian
4.3. C. aan de Wiel http://iiasnt.leidenuniv.nl/pie/ielangs/

anatolian.html
Hittite-Palaic
Anatolian
Southeast Anatolian
Hittite
Palaic
Luwian
Sidetic
Pisidic
Lycian, Milyan
Carian
Lydian
5. Greek
The most detailed scheme classifying the Greek dialects was
proposed by A. Bartonk on the basis of phonology and
morphology (1987, 104; 2003, 494).
88
2000
Vclav Blazek
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600 B.C.
dialects
ProtoDoric
West Greek
Protoaeolic
Achaean
Mycenaean
East Greek
Protoionic
Elis
Laconia
C. Crete
E. Crete
islands
W. Argolis
E. Argolis
Megaris
Corinth
Phocis
Locris
Aetolia
Boeothia
W. Thessalia
E. Thessalia
Lesbos
Arcadia
Pamphylia
Cyprus
Attica
Euboia
I. Ionia
AM. Ionia
Doric
proper
Saronic
Northwest
Aeolic
Arcado-Cypriote
Ionic-Attic
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600 B.C.
Abbreviations: AM Asia Minor, C. Central, E. East, I. Insular, W. West.
Abbreviations: AM Asia Minor, C. Central, E. East, I. Insular, W.

West.
Note: Greek can be classified as one of the Hellenic
languages, together with Phrygian / Brygian, ancient
Macedonian, and perhaps also Messapic, if the hypothesis of
M. Huld (1995, 147-55) is accepted. Unfortunately, the lexical
corpora do not allow any quantification.
6. Paleo-Balkan
Extremously poor data and their ambiguous interpretation lead
to various hypotheses. The present author finds the following
most probable. In Prehellenic = Pelasgian the Lautverschiebung
operated; the language was of the centum-type (Hamp) rather
than of satem-type (Georgiev). If Thracian and Bithynian were
satem-languages with Lautverschiebung, their closer relation
with Armenian is expectable (so Kortlandt 1988). Albanian is a
descendant of Illyrian, both satem-languages. The change *gw
> b (Pisani 1957) in Dacian indicates more probably the centumtype, regarding the complementarity of the *k : *kw and *k :
*k distinction.
89
7. Italic
7.0. The ancient Italic languages are only fragmentarily
recorded, naturally with the exception of Latin. For this
reason, their classification cannot employ lexicostatistic
methods and so only the qualitative analysis of phonology can
provide some results. The present model does not reflect any
grade of a mutual relationship.
Wallace (1984, 123-51) discusses five scenarios of classification
of the Osco-Umbrian languages:
(A)
R. von Planta: Grammatik der oskisch-umbrischen Dialekte, I.
Strassburg: Teubner 1892.
F. Sommer: Handbuch der lateinischen Laut- und Formenlehre.
Heidelberg: Winter 1948.
H. Krahe: Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft, I. Berlin: de
Gruyter 1966.
(B)
L.R. Palmer: The Latin Language. London: Faber & Faber 1954.
(C)
C.D. Buck: A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian. Boston: Ginn
1928.
R.G. Kent: The sounds of Latin. Baltimore: Waverly Press 1945.
(D)
J.W. Poultney: Volscians and Umbrians. American Journal of
Philology 72, 1951, 113-127.
J. Poultney: The bronze tables of Iguvium. Philadelphia: American
Philological Association (Philological monographs 18) 1959.
M. Durante: I dialetti medio-italici, in: Popoli e civilt dell Italia,
ed. M.Cristofani et al. Roma 1978, 793-820.
(E)
R.S. Conway: The Italic dialects, 1-2. Cambridge: University Press
1897.
90
Vclav Blazek
Volscian
Umbrian
Sabellian
Vestinian
Marrucinian
Paelignian
Oscan
Volscian
Marsian
Vestinian
Marrucinian
Paelignian
Volscian
Umbrian
Umbrian
Oscan
(A)
(B)
Oscan
(C)
Sabellian
Oscan
Umbrian
Aequian
Marsian
Volscian
Umbrian
Umbrian
Volscian
(E)
(D)
Oscan
Oscan
Vestinian
Marrucinian
Paelignian
Oscan
Oscan
North
Oscan
Marrucinian
Vestinian
Paelignian
Synthesis of contemporary views on the classification of the Italic

languages:
The following model represents an attempt to find a synthesis
based on conclusions of various scholars, who are in agreement
as to the close position of Venetic to the Latino-Faliscan
branch, with the idea of H. Rix (2002, 3-9) about the internal
structure of the Osco-Umbrian branch. The constitution of a
special Ausonian-Sicilian branch is based on the evidence of
ancient authors, documenting that in the past the SiculiansAusonians were pushed away from Italy to Sicily (Thucydides;
Dionysius Halicarnassensis referring to Hellanicus; see Schmoll
1958, 96). The change *kw > p assumed for Siculian connects
the hypothetical Ausonian-Siculian branch with the OscoUmbrian languages.
91
Venetic
North
*kw > kv/qu
Faliscan
Latino-Faliscan
Latin
Umbrian
North =
= Macro-Umbrian
Italic
Osco-Umbrian
= Sabellian
Central =
= Macro-Sabinian
Aequian
Marsian
Volscan
South Picenian
=
Sabine (glosses)
Pre-Samnian,
including
Oinotrian
South
*kw > p
South =
= Macro-Oscan
Paelignian
Marrucinian
Vestinian
Frentanian
Larinatian
Samnitian
Hirpinian
Hernician
Sidicinian
Oscan
Ausonian &
Auruncian
Ausonian-Sicilian
Siculian
Note: Rix (2002) differentiated the following local varieties of

Oscan: from Capua, Pompeie, Cetera Campania, Central Oscan,
Lucania & Bruttium, Messina.
7A. Romance
The lexical material of the Romance languages served for
determining the basic constants in glottochronology. Let us
compare several models of their disintegration.
7A.1. Suzanne Fleischman. The Romance Languages, in:
William Bright (ed.), International Encyclopedia of Linguistics,
vol. 3. Oxford: University Press 1992, 339.
92
Vclav Blazek
Balkano-Romance
East Romance
Rumanian.
Dalmatian
Italian
Sardinian
Italo-Dalmatian
Proto-Romance
Rhaeto-Romance
French
Occitanian
Gallo-Romance
West Romance
Catalanian
Ibero-Romance
Spanish
Galician
Portuguese
7A.2. Joseph E. & Barbara F. Grimes 1996, 57-58.

North
East
South
Italo-Romance
Gallo-Romance
Proto-Romance
Rhaeto-Romance
Italo-West
West
East
Central
Ibero-Romance
West
South
Istro-Rumanian
Daco-Rumanian
Arumanian
Megleno-Rumanian
Dalmatian
Italian dialects
(incl. Friulian)
Ligurian
Lombardian
Romansch
Ladin
Piemontese
Franco-ProvenIal
French
Occitan dialects
Catalan
Spanish dialects
Galician
Portuguese
Mozarabian
South Corsic
South
7A.3. Merritt Ruhlen 1987, 326.
Sardinian
dialects
93
Istro-Rumunian
Rumunian
Arumunian
MeglenoRumunian
East
Dalmatian
Italian
Italo-Romance
Continental
Friulian
Ladinish
Romansch
Raeto-Romance
West
Franco-ProvenIal
French
Occitan
Galo-Romance
Proto-Romance
Gallo-Ibero-Romance
Catalanian
Spanish
Galician
Portugal
Mozarabian
Ibero-Romance
Insular
Sardinian
7A.4. It is natural that glottochronology was also applied to the

Romance languages. Here we present two recent attempts.
Embleton (1986, 142):
100
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
1500
1700
1900
Rumanian
Rumantsch
206
Friulian
Italian
703
898
French
984
Catalan
Spanish
Portuguese
1144
1551
7A.5. Starostin (Santa Fe 2004):

100
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
1500
1700
1900
Rumanian
Italian
Romance
960
570
1390
French
Provenal
1390
Catalan
Spanish
Portuguese
Galician
1220
8. In the area between Italic and Celtic there were at least two
94
Vclav Blazek
relic languages which could form a closer unit in the

genealogical sense: Ligurian and Lusitanian, the former
reconstructed on the basis of proper names attested by classical
authors in northern Italy, the latter known from several
inscriptions written in the Latin alphabet, discovered in south
Portugal and Spain.
9. Celtic
There are two alternative models of disintegration of the Celtic
languages.
9.1. The first model has to reflect the opposition between the
insular and continental languages. It is defended, e.g., by W.
Cowgill (1975) or P. Schrijver (1995, 463).
Goidelic
Insular
Brythonic
Celtic
Gaulish &
Lepontic
Continental
Celtiberian
9.2. The alternative and more traditional model is based on the

q/p-isogloss in the reflexes of the Indo-European labiovelar *kw.
The figures for living languages (plus Cornish) and the age of
the divergence of Goidelic vs. Brittonic were calculated by S.
Starostin and his team (Santa Fe 2004). The positions of other
nodes indicated by question marks represent only rough
assessments.
-1000
-600
-200
200
600
1000
Celtiberian
*k > q
?
Goidelic
900
Celtic
Irish
Gaelic
Manx
Pictish
-1100
?
Brythonic ?
370
*kw > p
1020
Cumbrian
Welsh
Cornish
Breton
?
Gaulish
Lepontic
95
9.3. Applying Starostins approach with one modification,

namely the systematic inclusion of synonyms for all sufficiently
described languages, i.e., all Goidelic, Brythonic, plus Gaulish,
the internal structure of the Celtic tree diagram is in principle
the same; the differences occur only in details. Let us mention
that the time depth of the divergence of Gaulish vs. Brythonic
(1000 BC) is practically the same as Goidelic vs. GaulishBrythonic (Novotn and Blaek 2006, 91).
-1200
-800
-400
400
800
1200
Gaelic
Goidelic
Manx
700
1025
Irish
Welsh
Celtic
-1100
Brittonic
Cornish
810
1150
Breton
-1000
Gaulish
10. Germanic
The best summary of the various ideas concerning the
classification of the Germanic languages is the study of W.
Maczak (1992; cf. also Blaek & Pirochta 2004).
10.1. J.Ch. Adelung (1806) divided the Germanic languages
into two branches.
Scandinavian
non-Suevic
Frisian, Frankish, Saxon,
Anglosaxon
Germanic
Suevic
Langobardic, Alamanic, Suevic,

Gothic, Burgundian, Vandalic
10.2. Similarly J. Grimm (1819) operated with the binary

classification. For some of the tribal dialects he supposed a
transitional character, viz. Frisian and Anglian (1-2), Frankish
(2-3), Quadic & Marcomanic (3-4). Alternatively he assumed
the opposition of East Germanic vs. others.
96
Vclav Blazek
Scandinavian Nordic
1)
2)
Low German
Saxon, Westfalian, Frisian, Anglosaxon
Germanic
High German Langobardic,
Frankish
3)
4)
Burgundian,
Bavarian,
Alamanic,
Gothic, Gepidic, Herulic, Vandalic
10.3. Applying his original method based on the lexicostatistic

analysis of parallel texts, Maczak (1992) formulated a similar
conclusion. He ordered the languages respective to their
relationship with Gothic: the closest has to be Old High
German, further Old Saxon, finally the Scandinavian
languages.
10.4. Another model of the binary classification was presented
by K. Mllenhoff (1898).
Nordic
East Germanic
Gothic
Germanic
Urdeutsch
West Germanic
Anglo-Frisian
10.5. The most frequent model divides the Germanic

languages into three branches: East, North and West. The
author of the following classification is J. Schmidt (1860).
North
Nordic
West
Frisian
Anglosaxon
Dutch
Low German
(Plattdeutsch)
High German
(Hochdeutsch)
Low German
in a wider sense
German
East
Saxon
Old Saxon
Gothic
10.6. F. Maurer (1943) attempted to depict the development

from the tribal Germanic dialects to the languages of the late
Middle Ages and the present, including convergent processes.
97

Hessenic
Weser-Rhine
Istveonic
__
Frankish
Saxon
North Sea
Anglosaxon
Angelian
Ingveonic
Frisian
Germanic
______
German
Nordic
Scandinavian
Illevionic
Vistula-Odra
Gothic, etc.
Langobardic
Erminonic
Elbe
Bavarian
Alamanic
10.7. E. Schwarz (1951) assumed that c. 200 BC the Germanic

language continuum was already divided into a North zone,
generating the later Scandinavian languages and Gothic, and a
South zone, where the later German dialects were formed.
About four centuries later the third, transitional zone,
cristalized, which saw the development of the languages of the
Angles and Frisians.
Gothic-Vandalic
North
Nordic
Anglosaxon
Germanic
North Sea
Frisian
South
German
10.8. The most detailed scheme for the development of the

Germanic languages was proposed by T.V. Toporova (2000),
inspired by Maurer and Schwartz.
98
Vclav Blazek
-500
500
1000
1500
2000
Crimean Gothic
East
N Germ.
G
e
r
Ostrogothic
Gothic
Visigothic
Gepidic
Burgundian
Vandalic
Herulic
Rugian_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Old Icelandic
Norn
m
.
W Nor. dial.
E Nor. dial.
Old Norwegian
W Scand.
Common
Scandinavian
Icelandic
Faeroese
Nynorsk
Riksml
Bokml
Danish
O Danish
E Scand.
O Swedish
M Swedish
O Gutnic
G
e
Swedish
m
a
n
i
c
M Scottish
Scottish dialect
English
dialect of Angels
dialect of Iutians
Ingv.
Saxon
S
o
u
t
h
O English
M English
Frisian
O
Frisian
Afrikaans
Dutch
OL Frankish M Dutch
Old Saxon
ML German
L German dial.
Yidish
Istv.
Luxembourgeois
M Frankish
m
a
n
Rhine Frankish
WC
dial.
German
EC German dial.
Thringish
c
Erm.
E. Franskish
Bavarian
Alamanic
S German dial.
Swiss
Langobardic
Abbreviations: C Central, dial. dialect, E East, Erm. Erminonic,

Germ. Germanic, Ingv. Ingveonic, Istv. Istveonic, L Low, M
Middle, Nor. Norwegian, O Old, S South, Scand. Scandinavian,
W West.
10.9. E. Antonsen (1975) assumed the opposition of the east
and northwest branches.
99
North
Northwest
Old Runic
West
East
Gothic
Germanic
10.10. H. F. Nielsen (2000) returned to the traditional idea,

identifying in Old Runic a direct ancestor only of the
Scandinavian languages.
Old High German
West Germanic
Old Saxon
North Sea
Old Frisian
Northwest
Germanic
Old English
Old Runic
A.D. 100
200
300
Old Norse
400
500
600
10.11. For her classification of the Germanic languages Sheila

Embleton (1986, 117) employed her modification of
glottochronology.
100 n. l.
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
1500
1700
Swedish
Danish
1531
1812 Norwegian
873
Faeroese
Islandic
1047
189
264
English
1236
1425
1664
143
Frisian
Vlamish
Afrikaans
Dutch
Yidish
Low
German
High
German
1224
1379
Gothic
10.12. The most recent attempt to classify the Germanic

languages was published by Starostin and Burlak (2001, 82105). They applied Starostins recalibrated glottochronology
for seven literary living languages and Gothic.
100
Vclav Blazek
-100
+100
+300
+500
+700
+900
+1100
+1300
+1500
Swedish
89-91%
+1000
94%
+1200
98%
+1550
Danish
Nynorsk
Icelandic
73%
+70
English
80%
+400
70%
-80
Dutch
93%
+1120
High
German
Gothic
11. Baltic
The Baltic languages are traditionally divided into Western,
represented by Old Prussian, extinct from c. 1700, and
Eastern, represented by the living languages, Lithuanian and
Latvian. But the Baltic dialectology was much more complex a
millennium ago. The following model was proposed by V.
Maiulis (1981).
North periphery
Zemgalian
Selian
Couronian
Latvian
Baltic
Central
Lithuanian
South periphery
Yatvingian
Prussian
Galindian
The first serious application of classical glottochronology

was made by Lanszweert (1984, xxxii-xxxvii), who found
58.6% for Prussian vs. Lithuanian and 55.2% for Prussian vs.
Latvian. The results of Girdenis and Maiulis (1994, 9) are
lower: 68% Lithuanian vs. Latvian, 49% Lithuanian vs.
Prussian, 44% Latvian vs. Prussian. Starostin (Santa Fe 2004
and p.c., June 2005) dated the separation of Lithuanian and
Latvian to 80 BC. Lithuanian and the Dialect of Narew to 30
BC, Latvian and the Dialect of Narew to 230 BC. The position
of Prussian in his calculations is rather strange, it has to be
closer to Slavic than to Baltic. Novotn and Blaek
(forthcoming), also calculating the synonyms, have reached
the following results.

-1400
-1000
-600
-200
+200
101
+600
Latvian
84.8%
+600
76.3%
+190
56% / 58%
-830 / -730
Lithuanian
Dialect of
Narew
Prussian
46.7%
-1400
Common Slavic
The double-result 58/56% for Prussian vs. other Baltic

languages reflects the calculation without / with the Dialect
of Narew. The score 43% between Prussian and the Dialect of
Narew (Poga ske gwary z Narewu; see Zinkeviius 1984) in
comparison with 62% and 55.2% for Prussian vs. Lithuanian
and Prussian vs. Latvian respectively, excludes the
identification of the Dialect of Narew with the historical
Yatwingians, known from the Middle Ages, if their language
had to be connected with another Baltic idioms of the
southern periphery, including Prussian. Regarding this large
difference, it seems better to accept the explanation of
Schmid (1986) who identified in the Dialect of Narew the
strong influence of Northeast Yiddish, spoken in the large
cities of Lithuania and Latvia, hence the hybrid East BalticGerman idiom.
12. Slavic
12.1. According to the traditional model the Slavic languages
are divided into three groups (e.g., J. and B. Grimes 1996, 58).
Russian
Belorussian
Ukrainian & Rusyn
East Slavic
Lechitic
Slavic
West Slavic
Sorbian
Czech-Slovak
Polish
Kaubian
Pomerian Slovincian
Polabian
Lower Sorbian
Upper Sorbian
Czech
Slovak
Slovenian
Serbo-Croatian
South Slavic
Macedonian
Bulgarian
102
Vclav Blazek
12.2. The classification of the Slavic languages by Starostin

(Santa Fe 2004), employing his recalibrated glottochronology,
is revolutionary in both topology and chronology.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Macedonian
South Slavic
1000
Bulgarian
Russian
Ukrainian
East Slavic
800
130
1390
Belorussian
Polabian
Upper
Lusatian
270
840
1300
L ower
Lusatian
420
West Slavic
Polish
780
Slovak
960
Czech
670
Slovenian
1080
Serbian
12.3. Using the principles of Starostins recalibration of

glottochronology, Novotn and Blaek (2005) proposed
another model of the internal grouping of the Slavic
languages.
81
83
85
87
89
91
93
95
1070
97
99%
1630
520-600
1020
1630
900
1300
Russian
Ukrainian
Belorussian
Polish &
Kashubian
Polabian
Lower
Lusatian
Upper
Lusatian
Slovak
Czech
720
1300
Slovenian
SerboCroatian
960
1220
Makedonian
Bulgarian
103
Comments
The present choice of diagrams is only illustrative, not
exhaustive. The largest controversy occurs in the case of the
relic languages, where our knowledge, especially of their
lexicons, is very limited. The arguments for their genetic
classification is based only on the accidently preserved lexical,
phonological and morphological isoglosses which are evaluated
qualitatively. The models of two great authorities in this field
are have been compared: [0.3.] V.I. Georiev (1981) and [0.4.]
E.P. Hamp (1990). It is apparent they are radically different.
The quantitative approach is also represented here by two
examples: [0.5] Ringe, Warnow, and Taylor (2002),
demonstrating the cladistic approach, and [0.6.] Starostin
(2004), using his modification of the recalibrated
glottochronology. Ringe, Warnow and Taylor were chosen for
their ability to apply highly sophisticated mathematical
methods to carefully analyzed linguistic data. In their model
there is only one problematic conclusion, namely the position
of Albanian together with Germanic. In the alternative
cladistic models published practically at the same time (Gray
and Atkinson 2003; Rexov, Frynta and Zrzav 2003) only the
mathematical approaches are emphasized. The results of both
teamsthe absolute dating of the beginning of the
divergence of the Indo-European languages to the ninth
millennium BP implies at least five millennia of the
independent development before the first literary fixation of
such languages as Hittite, Palaic, Luwian, Vedic, Avestan and
Mycenaean Greek in the fourth millennium BP. Regarding
the striking similarities between these languages in this phase
of their development, especially in grammar, it is difficult to
imagine their fast later development, confronting the
situation in the beginning of their literary era with
corresponding
contemporary
descendants.
Starostin
eliminated the most important imperfections of the classical
glottochronology, introducing both different basic formula
(time of divergence for two contemporary languages: t = (ln
c) / (-2 c), where c = N(t) / N0, i.e., the share of the
common inherited cognates vs. the number of all common
semantic pairs from the basic test list, if the borrowings are
eliminated; = ln c / t2; cf. the classical formula by Swadesh: t
= ln c / -2) and the constant of disintegration (0.05 per
millennium, instead of 0.14 by Swadesh for the 100-word-list).
His conclusions are always based on a very careful etymological
104
Vclav Blazek
analysis, including the elimination of all borrowings. Finally,

his dating of the beginning of disintegration of the IndoEuropean languages to the seventh millennium BP, i.e. two
millennia later than the dating of the two teams mentioned
above, seems much more realistic.
The situation with the internal classification of the
daughter branches is even more controversial. Let us compare,
for example, three quite different classifications for the
Anatolian branch, five for the Romance languages and
twelve(!) for the Germanic languages, although the models of
[10.9] Antonsen, [10.11] Embleton and [10.12] Starostin in
principle reflect the same topology. Let us mention that
Antonsen worked especially with the phonological and
morphological isoglosses, while both Embleton and Starostin
developed her/his own modification of glottochronology. In
the case of the Slavic languages the situation is even more
controversial, cf. the text (in Czech) "On the classification of
the Slavic languages: the development of the evolutionary
models" <http://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica /art/novbla/
nob-001.pdf>. Applying his method to the Slavic languages,
Starostin [12.2] reached results which were too old and too
controversial compared with the results of classification based
on phonological and morphological criteria. But when the
present author and his co-author Petra Novotn [12.3] made
only a minor correction in the method of Starostin, namely
the systematic inclusion of synonyms, while N0 was redefined
as the number of the semantic units attested in both tested
languages without any borrowing, the results became more
realistic, including the agreement with the data of archaeology
and history. During our last personal dialogue in Leiden, June
2005, Sergei asked me for the secret of our approach. He
admitted that our results were "more charming" in comparison
with his own and the solution based on the inclusion of
synonyms was fruitful.
Summing up, comparing the various methods of the
genetic classification and their results, the following
conclusions can be suggested:
1) The conclusions expressing the relative or absolute grade of
the genetic relationship between two or more languages
cannot be formulated without a quantitative approach.
2) Any calculation of the linguistic phenomena serving to
demonstrate genetic links or their degree should be based on
105
the careful application of the comparative-historical method.

3) The results based only on phonology or morphology or only
on lexicon cannot be taken as definitive, although in specific
cases it has been the only way to formulate any conclusion
about genetic affiliation, e.g., in the case of the relic
languages known only from stereotypic laconic texts, glosses,
borrowings or proper names.
4) The most convincing results correlate with the situation
when the quantitative approach, based usually on the
etymological analysis of compared basic lexicons, and the
qualitative approach, based on comparison in the field of
historical phonology and morphology, are both in a good
agreement (e.g., the Germanic languages). If the results also
agree with the extra-linguistic data, e.g., from history or
archaeology, the probability of such a model grows.
As far as I can judge, these conclusions were systematically
applied by Sergei Starostin.
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Novotn, Petra and Blaek, Vclav

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2000 Comparative-historical linguistics and lexicostatistics. In: Time
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blazek@phil.muni.cz
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Classical Armenian*
Mark Pierce

In an article that unfortunately has not received much attention in
the relevant literature, Schwink (1994) argues that vowel
epenthesis, as in forms like n[e]man man similar, was a
lexicalized alternation in Classical Armenian, in contrast to the
traditional view, which holds that vowel epenthesis was a living
phonological alternation. This paper critically evaluates Schwink's
proposal, and argues that three main factors contradict it. First,
vowel epenthesis is a robust phonological phenomenon in
Modern Armenian, and the simplest historical account of this is
that it was also alive and well in Classical Armenian. Second,
Schwink's suspicion about the age of the alternation is unfounded,
as phonological alternations may indeed exist for centuries
without becoming lexicalized or fossilized. Finally, the existence
of various layers of loan words that are treated differently with
regard to a phonological alternation or restriction is also
unremarkable. Therefore, in the absence of compelling evidence
supporting it, Schwinks proposal must be rejected in favor of the
traditional assumption that epenthesis was an active phonological
process in Classical Armenian.
In an article that unfortunately has not received much

attention in the relevant literature, Schwink (1994) argues
that vowel epenthesis, as in forms like n[e]man similar, was a
lexicalized alternation in Classical Armenian, in contrast to the
traditional view, which holds that vowel epenthesis was a living
phonological alternation. Until Schwinks arguments are
discussed and countered, his analysis remains a viable
alternative to the traditional account. This paper therefore
offers a critical evaluation of his proposal. I begin with a brief
discussion of epenthesis in general, then present a number of
forms that are generally agreed to exhibit epenthesis in
Classical Armenian, and finally consider Schwinks proposal at
*
I thank San Duanmu, Benjamin Fortson, and Robert Kyes for their assistance
in the preparation of this paper, as well as the JIES referees and James Mallory
for his assistance in his role as editor.
112
Mark Pierce
some length.
Epenthesis can be defined either synchronically or
diachronically; in synchronic terms, it is the insertion of any
segment not contained in the underlying representation,
while in diachronic terms, it is the insertion of any segment
not found at an earlier stage (or stages) of the language, as in
the following examples.1 In Axininca Campa, an Arawakan
language spoken in the Amazon region, for instance, [t] is
inserted between vowels to resolve hiatus, as in forms like
[nompisiti] I will sweep, derived from an underlying /noNpisi-i /, as opposed to forms like [nompoki] I will come, from
an underlying /noN-pok-i/ (It 1989: 237).2 The history of
Romance yields a diachronic example, as Latin initial sC
clusters have shifted to esC in Spanish, e.g. Latin spiritus >
Spanish espiritu spirit, and Latin schola > Spanish escuela
school (Hock 1991: 125).
There are a number of possible triggers for epenthesis. It
can occur in order to break up a dispreferred consonant
cluster, as in non-standard pronunciations of Modern English
athlete as ath[e]lete, or to conform to general syllable
preference laws, e.g. so that all syllables have onsets, as in the
Axininca Campa example cited above. There can also be
historical or sociolinguistic motivations, as in the case of
Eastern Massachusetts r insertion, e.g. He put the tuna[r] on the
table, where the loss of r in words like car and yard has led to
reanalysis and hypercorrection, resulting in r insertion. 3
Classical Armenian vowel epenthesis is normally viewed as an
example of the first type, in that consonant clusters were
dispreferred and thus eliminated through epenthesis, as
indicated in the statements from the handbooks cited below.
Why vowel epenthesis was used to eliminate consonant
clusters and not some other strategy, e.g. deleting one of the
1
One terminological point is in order, as a number of different terms are
used for the insertion of segments. For example, Hock (1991: 117)
distinguishes between the insertion of consonants and that of vowels, which he
refers to as epenthesis and anaptyxis (or svarabhakti), respectively, and
furthermore uses the cover term epenthetic changes. In line with the
literature on Armenian, I use the term epenthesis.
2
The symbol /N/ represents a nasal archisegment which always assimilates
to the following consonant (It 1989: 237).
3
This particular case of epenthesis has recently taken on increased
importance as a Paradebeispiel in the debate between proponents of Optimality
Theory and those of derivational phonology (cf. Vaux 2003).
Vowel Epenthesis vs. Schwa Lexicalization in Classical Armenian
113
consonants in the cluster, remains an open question, although

it can be formalized with relative ease.
The Armenian handbooks largely agree with each other
in their statements about vowel epenthesis. Here I give two
relatively typical descriptions of the phenomenon for
reference purposes. Schmitt (1981: 30-31) states that
gesprochen wurde der Murmelvokal [e]vor oder zwischen
jeder anlauntenden (graphischen) Doppelkonsonanz CC.
Schmitt further notes that the position of the (inserted)
schwa depended on the first consonant of the cluster: if the
first consonant was a sibilant, then the schwa was inserted
preceding the first consonant, while otherwise the schwa was
inserted between the consonants. Godel (1975: 15-17)
suggests that all initial clusters were resolved by inserting
[schwa], before listing the various permissible word-final
clusters and indicating that all other final clusters have to be
resolved by inserting [schwa] before the last consonant.
The following forms, culled from the extensive list of
examples in Thomson (1989: 116-121), exhibit vowel
epenthesis. Syllable breaks are indicated with a period, and
Thomsons division of the data into groups according to the
number of consonants in the relevant cluster is retained. Note
the different treatment of sibilant + consonant clusters, in
that the epenthetic schwa is inserted before the cluster, not
within the cluster.
(1)
Forms that exhibit vowel epenthesis

(a) Clusters of two consonants
nman>> ne.man similar, krap>> ke.rap fire, srel>> se.rel
to cut, otn>>o.ten foot
BUT zgal>> ez.gal to feel, stapel>> es.ta.pel to hasten
(b) Clusters of three consonants
xnlal >> xen.lal to rejoice, otnharel>> o.ten.ha.rel to
trample
BUT ambcowt iwn>> am.be.cow.t iwn purity
(c) Clusters of four consonants
cnndakan>> ce.nen.da.kan birth, bzskowtiwn>>
be.zes.kow.tiwn doctor
(d) Clusters of five consonants
trtnsiwn>> ter.ten.siwn murmur, anxndrol>> an.xend.rol
not demanding
(e) Clusters of six consonants
anxlmtank>> an.xel.me.tank lack of scruple
114
Mark Pierce
To account for these alternations, Schwink (1994: 289290) proposes the following system of rules: 4
(2)
Rules for Classical Armenian vowel epenthesis

(a)
e/ C __ R
(b)
e/ # __ {s,l,z}C
(c)
e/ # __ st
(d)
e/ C__
The problem with this rule system is that it makes some

incorrect predictions (as Schwink himself indicates), e.g. Rule
(2a) will produce forms like *anxelemtank lack of scruple,
instead of the attested an.xel.me.tank The contrasts between
forms like manawand especially, which lacks epenthesis, but
baned word, which shows epenthesis, although the two forms
represent identical phonological environments, are also
troublesome 5 Furthermore, while Schwinks rules successfully
account for the position of the inserted schwa in sibilant +
stop clusters, exactly why the schwa is inserted before the
cluster, instead of within it, remains unclear.
As Schwink (1994: 291) points out, a number of the
exceptions to his rules can be accounted for by treating some
of these putative cases of vowel epenthesis as cases of vowel
reduction, and he therefore postulates a rule of vowel
reduction, by which underlyingly full vowels are reduced to
schwas when unstressed. Such schwas may not be deleted if
that would result in unsyllabified elements. Since these schwas
are reduced surface versions of underlying full vowels, their
distribution is not necessarily predictable, hence the seeming
exceptions to Schwinks rules.6
The most important aspect of Schwinks work is his
proposal that vowel epenthesis has been lexicalized (i.e. that
the schwa was underlying) a conclusion he reaches for two
major reasons, namely (1) his analysis of the Classical
Armenian data requires nearly the same rules as those
proposed for Modern Western Armenian in Levin (1985), and
4
Here R stands for resonant and <> following a segment indicates that the
segment is as yet unsyllabified.
5
This has to do with the distinction between loan words and native Armenian
vocabulary, discussed more extensively below.
6
As Schwink (1994) indicates, he was not the first to propose that vowels were
reduced rather than deleted (cf. Winter 1962, for example), but the
handbooks consistently refer to vowel deletion rather than to vowel
reduction.
115
(2) the treatment of loan words. Schwink (1994: 290) notes

that his reaction to this discovery was mixed: on the one
hand, I felt I had reinvented the wheel, on the other hand, I
was gratified that we reached essentially the same results
independently. [A] third reaction was one of suspicion
about such an epenthesis rule being preserved for so many
centuries.
I begin my critical analysis of Schwinks proposal by
discussing the near-identity of rules7 for vowel epenthesis in
Classical and Modern Western Armenian. It is in fact
unremarkable that a phonological rule can be retained for an
exceptionally long time without becoming lexicalized or
fossilized. Consider the case of final devoicing in the history of
German, for instance, where underlyingly voiced obstruents
are devoiced word-finally, e.g. Ta[k] ~ Ta[g]e day~days.8 This
alternation is attested orthographically during the Middle
High German period (circa 1050-1350), e.g. lp body
(nom.sg.), but lbes body (gen.sg.), and is therefore at least
six to seven hundred years old. Final devoicing is clearly an
active phonological process in Modern German, as new
borrowings are subject to it, e.g. Jo[p] ~jo[b]en job ~ to work.
In fact, the same basic rule can be used to account for final
devoicing throughout its long history much like the
Armenian case.
There are also a number of indications that epenthesis is
a robust phonological phenomenon in Modern Armenian.
Vaux (1998: 66-70) argues convincingly in favor of this
position, for the following reasons. First, Vaux provided a
native speaker with a list of forms taken from an Armenian
dictionary published in 1944, and asked him to syllabify them.
Although Vauxs consultant recognized less than twenty
percent of the words (many of which are archaic or dialectal),
he still produced the pronunciation recorded in the
dictionary.9 As Vaux (1998: 61) points out, if schwas were
7
I use the term rule not in the sense of generative rule, but instead as
generalization.
8
Devoicing may not be the most exact characterization of the phonetic
event; the relevant distinction may well be fortis/lenis, not voiced/voiceless. I
also ignore a number of issues that a full treatment of the problem would
have to address.
9
The consultants pronunciation differed from that recorded in the dictionary
in seven cases, which Vaux attributes to the consultants lack of understanding
of the internal morphemic structure of the words.
116
Mark Pierce
underlying (i.e. if epenthesis were lexicalized), then their

distribution would not be predictable; if they are epenthetic,
then their distribution would be predictable. The performance
of Vauxs consultant clearly indicates that native speakers of
Armenian can predict where schwas should be placed, even if
they are unfamiliar with particular words exactly the result
expected if schwas are epenthetic.
Secondly, assuming that schwas are underlying entails a
more complicated analysis of the Modern Armenian material,
since rules deleting underlying schwas in various contexts
would then be required and analyses of certain other
phonological phenomena, e.g. the reduction of unstressed
high vowels and various alternations involving the definite
article, would also be more complex (Vaux 1998: 67-68). Third,
there are various dialectal differences in schwa placement that
can be accounted for more easily by assuming that these
schwas are epenthetic. For example, in Standard Western
Armenian, initial (orthographic) sibilant + stop clusters are
preceded by schwa, but not in Standard Eastern Armenian, e.g.
spitak white is pronounced esd bidag in Standard Western
Armenian, but spitak in Standard Eastern Armenian (Vaux
1998: 69). Finally, newer loan words exhibit epenthesis, e.g.
traktor tractor, borrowed from Russian, is pronounced
[teraktor]. If schwas were indeed underlying, then such loan
words would presumably not contain them, as speakers of
Armenian would hear the words without schwas and store them
in their mental lexicons accordingly.
Another argument in favor of this position is
orthographic. Khatchaturian (1985: 53) notes that the mere
fact that [schwa] is not consistently conveyed in orthography
in spite of the fact that a special character [for schwa] exists
in the Armenian alphabet seriously questions the phonemic
character of this vowel.10 In a phonemic alphabet, phonemic
alternations are generally recorded orthographically, while
allophonic alternations generally are not (see Kyes 1967: 667668 for more general discussion of this point). The lack of a
10
Khatchaturian further notes that some scholars have made this same
connection for Classical Armenian; Godel (1975: 15), for example, states that
[t]he phonemic character of e14 can be seriously questioned in view of the
very fact that it is not consistently written. This is of course not conclusive
proof that schwas were allophonic in Classical Armenian, but it is more
evidence in favor of this view.
117
consistent orthographic representation of schwa suggests that

it is in fact not phonemic. I therefore conclude that schwa is
not underlying in Modern Armenian. The implications of this
claim are clear: given that epenthesis is alive and well in
Modern Armenian, the simplest analysis is to assume that it was
also a robust phonological process in Classical Armenian, since
that would require no change from the classical to the modern
language.
The problem of loan words must now be considered. It is
clear that Armenian has borrowed heavily from various other
languages; in fact, Armenian exhibits so many loan words that
it was not until 1875 that Heinrich Hbschmann was able to
demonstrate that it belonged to its own subgroup of the IndoEuropean language family and was not, as some had believed
earlier, an Iranian language (see Hbschmann 1897: xvi-xvii).
Schwink (1994: 296) notes that some loan words are treated
differently, which he accounts for by invoking different layers
of borrowings. For instance, g[e]ndapet army leader is an early
loan from Iranian containing the morpheme -gund, which
shows vowel reduction. A later borrowing containing the same
initial morpheme, gundsalar, does not show reduction
(Hbschmann 1897: 130-131).
There are at least two possible ways to account for this
distinction. First, in line with Schwinks own view, it could
reflect an incomplete integration of loan words into the
Armenian lexicon, such that incompletely integrated loan
words may have been exempt from certain phonological
processes or various phonotactic restrictions, while completely
integrated loan words, as well as native Armenian lexical items,
were not. 11 Alternatively, schwa epenthesis could have ceased
to be an active phonological process, in which case loan words
arriving after this point would no longer be subject to it.
The first of these scenarios is preferable, as the second
scenario involves a more complicated diachronic development.
That is, the second scenario would require an active
phonological process to be lost and then to be reactivated
(given that schwa epenthesis is an active phonological process
in Modern Armenian, as argued above and by Vaux 1998). In
any event, it is unremarkable that there are various layers of
loan words that are treated differently with regards to a
11
Compare here the well-known distinction between Lehnwrter and

Fremdwrter.
118
Mark Pierce
particular phonological process, and therefore this

development cannot be taken as evidence for Schwinks
claims.
In sum, Schwinks proposal is contradicted by three major
factors. First, his suspicion about the age of the alternation is
unfounded. Phonological alternations may indeed exist for
centuries without becoming lexicalized or fossilized. Secondly,
epenthesis is alive and well in Modern Armenian, and the
simplest historical account of this is that it was also a robust
phonological phenomenon in Classical Armenian, as opposed
to Schwinks analysis, which requires a lexicalized alternation
to become active again. Finally, the existence of various layers
of loan words that are treated differently with regard to a
phonological alternation or restriction is also unremarkable.
Therefore, in the absence of compelling evidence supporting
it, Schwinks proposal must be rejected in favor of the
traditional assumption that epenthesis was an active
phonological process in Classical Armenian.
References
Godel, Robert
1975
An Introduction to the Study of Classical Armenian. Weisbaden:
Reichert.
Hock, Hans Heinrich
1991
Principles of Historical Linguistics. 2d edition. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Hbschmann, Heinrich
1897
Armenische Grammatik. Erster Teil: Armenische Etymologie. Leipzig:
Breitkopf & Hrtel.
It, Junko
1989
A Prosodic Theory of Epenthesis. Natural Language andLinguistic
Theory 7: 217-259.
Khachaturian, Amalia
1985
The Phonology of the Armenian e Vowel in Modern Eastern
Armenian. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 6: 53-58.
Kyes, Robert L
1967
The Evidence for i-Umlaut in Old Low Franconian. Language 43:
666-673.
Levin, Juliette
1985
A Metrical Theory of Syllabicity. Doctoral dissertation, MIT.
119
Schmitt, Rdiger
1981
Grammatik des Klassisch-Armenischen. Innsbruck: Institut fr
Sprachwissenschaft.
Schwink, Frederick W.
1994
On the Lexicalization of Classical Armenian Vowel Epenthesis. In:
Aronson, Howard I. (ed.) NSL 7. Linguistic Studies in the Non-Slavic
Languages of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic
Republics, 287-298. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Thomson, Robert W.
1989
An Introduction to Classical Armenian. 2d edition. Delmar, NY:
Caravan.
Vaux, Bert
1998
The Phonology of Armenian. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2003
Why the Phonological Component must be Serial and Rule-Based.
MS, Harvard University.
Winter, Werner
1962
Problems of Armenian Phonology III. Language 38: 254-262.
The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples

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Albanian gogl and Indo-European acorns

Martin Huld
California State University, Los Angeles
Albanian gogl acorn derives from an archaic compound

which preserves two (PIE *HaiG- and PIE *gwA-) of the
three basic stems reconstructed for Paul Friedrichs
semantic domain of Indo-European oaks. Additionally,
the Albanian cognate preserves the original feminine
gender assignment of the Proto-Indo-European lexeme
for acorn and serves as a further witness for the
commonplace
anatomical
metaphor
that
IndoEuropeans derived from the acorns appearance.
Proto-Indo-European possessed a feminine thematic noun

*g wA-o-, which denoted the acorn, the characteristic fruit
body of species belonging to the genus Quercus, i.e. the oaks.
Additionally, because of a visual similarity, PIE *g wA-o- also
denoted the tip of the human penis. This natural metaphor is
present in most, if not all, surviving Indo-European reflexes of
the word for acorn and accounts for the fact that even today
the anatomical term for this body part, glans, is in fact simply
the Latin word for acorn. The zero-grade thematic noun,
which I take to be the basic form, is recorded only in Indic
where Sanskrit lexicographers preserve an Old Indic masculine
noun gula- restricted to the metaphorical sense of glans
penis. All other reflexes of this stem, both as derivatives and
compounds, have as their principal meaning acorn, and that
fact assures us that such was in fact the original meaning, and
these nouns can be readily explained as derivatives or
compounds based on the thematic noun.
The Baltic languages preserve a derivative with the
common -i(o)A2 suffix of feminines, suggesting that despite
Friedrichs proposal that Indo-European oaks were regarded as
masculine (1970:157, n. 1), the term for acorn may well have
been feminine, in which case, the gender assignment given to
gula- by Sanskrit grammarians must have been a later and
natural accommodation to its anatomical referent. Cognates
122
Martin Huld
pointing to PIE *g wA-ioA2 are found in all three recorded

Baltic languages: OPrus. gile, Lith. gl9, and Lett. dzle.1 Only in
Lithuanian is the word living, and there it has both its
botanical and anatomical meanings. The grave accent of the
Lithuanian form indicates that the syllabic lateral was originally
lengthened and so records the former presence of the stem
final laryngeal.
Greek and Armenian preserve yet another derivational
pattern, an -eno- extension. Gk. blanow, significantly a
feminine noun,2 is a rather straight-forward development of
PIE *g wA-eno- in which the stem-final laryngeal colored the
initial vowel of the suffix. The uncolored vowel of Arm. kalin,
in which -in is the regular reflex of PIE *-eno-, is probably to
be ascribed to analogical influences, for, despite Frisk
(1960:213), after the a-coloring laryngeal of the stem, PIE
*-eno- would have given underlying *-anos. Analogic
restoration of the e-grade is surely a far more parsimonious
explanation than positing a suffix *-eno- for Armenian beside
*-no- in Greek.
The other cognates of acorn are all compounds. Italic
and Slavic both have forms with both the nasal and a voiced
apical stop, probably unaspirated. The latter is a rarity in IndoEuropean suffixes, and rather than assume a concretion of two
separate suffixes, it is more probable that the Italic and Slavic
cognates are compounds based on the root *V end- stone.
This nominal root is attested as an expected e-grade in MIr.
ond (Pokorny 1959:778), an s-stem reflecting PIE *V end-es-,
and a zero-grade in OInd. adri- stone < PIE *V d-ri-.
1
This form with the unexpected macron is, in fact, a reconstruction of

Endzelns. In his reworking of Mhlenbachs Lettisch-deutsches Wrterbuch,
Endzelns records this word in two spellings, dzila, a glossary entry equated
with Polish 1old0 and a reconstituted (d)zle. The word seems to be a backformation from a compound ozoldzle oak-acorn, which my friend Daira
Stumbrs informs me is the current form. Reconstruction of the simplex from
a compound may account for Endzelns inconsistent spellings and the
improper macron; Endzelns also misspells the Lithuanian cognates as gil and
gyl. In fact, the Lithuanian word is gl9; gyl is a different word designating the
depths of the sea or of a river (as opposed to a ford or shallows).
2
This fact is significant because the simplest explanation for the Greek
gender assignment as feminine is to assume that that was the original gender;
the shift to masculine by Sanskrit lexicographers would be natural in light of
the words having been restricted to a part rather prominently displayed by
the human male anatomy.
123
Another possible cognate not mentioned by Pokorny is a

Germanic i-stem, recorded in OE ent giant < *V ond-i-,3 which
may have designated stone giants.4 The stem of Lat. glns,
gland- reflects a compound with a zero-grade of the first
member and e-grade second member, *g wA-V end- oak
stone. The long vowel that arose naturally from the
contraction of l (from PIE *A) plus -ond- (PIE *V end-)5 was
preserved before the -s of the nominative, but regularly
shortened before -nd (Buck 1933:94; Sommer 1914:124).
The Serbo-Croatian short acute (zld) points to the
former presence of a laryngeal, but the array of Slavic cognates
offers interesting parallels to the Latin form. The Slavic
cognates [RCS zeldi, R zlud, Bjel. zolud0, Ukr. zolud, SC
zld, Slov. zlod, Cz. zalud, Slvk. zalud, and Pol. 1old0] point
to PS *zeland- < PIE *g w elA-V d- oak stone. Though with
differing vowel gradations, the Slavic cognates also reflect a
compound formed from exactly the same components as the
Latin cognate, a situation that points to a period of
commonality.
The shared compound may be explained in two ways.
Either *g wA-o- acorn had come by synecdoche to mean oak
tree and a new term, oak stone was required to describe the
acorn; otherwise, *g wA-o- retained both of its meanings
acorn, the botanical and the anatomical. In that case, the
botanical sense could have been signaled by compounding
with stone, signifying the hard shell of the acorn. That this
differentiated botanical acorn came once again to signify the
anatomical acorn is a commonplace in the history of
euphemisms.
The only other record of the thematic noun for acorn,
PIE *g wA-o-, is found to be in an Albanian compound gogl,
which denotes the acorn. The earliest etymology of this
feminine noun, that of Gustav Meyer (1891:126), takes this
3
Holthausen (1934:91) gives as a cognate NHG Enz monster, a word with

which I am unfamiliar and which is unreported in the twenty-second edition of
Kluge (1989).
4
The concept of giants or monsters of stone has parallels in other
mythologies, notably Ullikummi in Hurro-Hittite myth. J.R.R. Tolkiens use
of ents as tree-giants represents his own novel reworking of Germanic
mythology.
5
Cf. Mrs and earlier Mvors for the contraction of +o > (Sommer
1914:116).
124
Martin Huld
word as a diminutive of the abusive term gog bricklayer, lazy

person, Vlach.6 This etymology is both morphologically and
semantically unsatisfactory. It requires both an ad hoc suffix -l
and a completely unjustified semantic shift from bricklayer to
acorn.7 Not surprisingly alternatives have been proposed.
Jokl suggested that this word might be based on an ani
root denoting round objects, citing Lat. galla oak-gall, OInd.
glu- ball, and OHG chliuwa ball as parallels (1911:24-25).
Deriving Lat. galla from *gal-n, Jokl reconstructed a syllabic
reduplication *ga(l)-gal-n. Not only does Jokl have to assume
later dissimilative loss of the first lateral, but he also has to
propose an ad hoc rule to account for the attested o rather
than expected a of the first syllable. Additionally, had the
etymon been trisyllabic as Jokl proposed, the attested accent
on that first syllable violates the Albanian accent placement
rule in which nominal accent appears on the syllable
preceding the penultimate mora; moreover, this etymology
depends on Jokls choosing the rarer meaning round object
in preference to the more widely established meaning acorn,
seed, which is the first meaning given both by Newmark
(1998) and by the Fjalor i gjuhs s sotme shqipe (1980:558).8
6
It is in the Etymologisches Wrterbuch der albanesischen Sprache that Meyer makes

his actual pronouncement of this derivation, and not his later survey of
Arvanitika dialects, in whose glossary he derives makarund ggl (i.e.
makarund gogl) maccheroni alla napoletana from gog by taking gog as
plumper ungeschickter Mensch and explaining that the reference must be
to the short, fat neapolitan pasta, but Meyer never actually defined gogl in
that work (1895:78), though both Demiraj (1997:179) and Orel (1998:120)
cite the later reference as the source for this etymology. In his 1891
etymology, Meyer assigned the ethnic slur to the Albanians, the meaning
bricklayer to the Romanians, and lazy person to the Greeks, but all three
meanings are given as current Albanian in Newmarks recent Albanian-English
Dictionary (1998:258a).
7
Moreover, the nearly synonymous gogl bogeyman, scarecrow is rather
obviously the derivative of gog.
8
Five definitions are given, all but two dealing with seeds: 1) Kokrr e vogl me
lvozhg t fort, q bjn disa drur pyjor si dushku, qarri, selvia etj. [A small seed
with a hard shell, which some forest trees such as the oak, the Turkey oak [Q.
cerris], cypress, and others make]; 2) lng m ngjyr t errt q nxirret nga kto
kokrra e q prdoret zakonisht pr t ngjyer flokt [a liquid with a dark color which is
extracted from these seeds and serves commonly to color hair]; 3) topi djathi
[ball of cheese]; 4 secila nga kokkrat e vogla t numratorit, q prdoret si mjet pe
mesimin e aritmetiks ...[any of small seeds of an abacus which serve as a medium
for teaching arithmetic ...]; 5 (fig.) send i vogl e pa vler [a small thing without
value].
125
Nevertheless, Jokls etymology was accepted by Pokorny, who

identified the root as *gel- ballen, sich ballen (1959:357),9
although Mayrhofer had categorically rejected any such root
equation with the words for acorn (1956:341), and the
presence of a laryngeal in the acorn words speaks against it.
Demiraj correctly assumed that gogl was based on the
Proto-Indo-European forms for acorn, but reconstructed a
form employing syllabic reduplication, PIE *gwe(l)h 2 -gwh 2
(1997:179), a form perhaps overly influenced by Jokls abortive
etymology. As with Pokornys reconstruction, the front vowel
ought to have assibilated the preceding labiovelar unless there
is an unstated presumption of very early dissimilative loss of
the lateral while the laryngeals were still operable within IndoEuropean. Perhaps because of these obvious weaknesses, Orel
reported all these views without giving a reconstruction and
failed to endorse any of them, identifying the word merely as
a descriptive stem (1998:120).
Despite the obvious flaws in earlier etymologies, Alb. gogl
does indeed contain the Indo-European lexeme for acorn.
However, PAlb. gogle < ggl < *ggl is not to be taken as a
reduced form of a syllabic reduplication; it is instead a tatpurua
compound whose first element is one of the usual IndoEuropean designations for the oak tree, PIE *HaiG-.10 This
noun is preserved as a feminine athematic noun in Germanic,
PG *aik-, where its reflexes (ON eik, OE c [pl. 5] OFrs. k, OS
k, and OHG eih) all mean oak.11 Compounds, serving to
distinguish varieties of oak or oak-like species, are recorded in
Lat. aesculus mountain oak,12 two Greek species afiglvc
9
Pokorny actually gives the form as *gel-gal-n, but a reduplicative vowel *e

ought to have palatalized an Albanian tectal, giving initial gj- not attested g-.
10
Incidentally, Albanian provides the only testimony to the series of the IndoEuropean tectal in this stem. Not surprisingly, the uvular (pure velar in
Neogrammarian terms) serves to distinguish oak (PIE *HaiG-) from goat
(PIE *Haig-) with its palatal stop.
11
Though early Icelandic retains the sense oak in addition to the
metaphorical meaning ship, in the later language eik has come to mean
tree in general.
12
The Latin noun is usually taken as a diminutive from *HaiG-s-klo-s or the
like (Walde-Hofmann (1938:20); Pisani (apud Walde-Hofmann 1938:844)
derived aesculus from *aiks-quolo-s which he proposed was in fact a metathesis
of *aigz-loquo-s and thus formally identical with Greek afiglvc. Because I
believe that the second element ofafiglvc is identical to Lat. ilex holly, I
regard Pisanis etymology as more ingenious than illuminating.
126
Martin Huld
Turkey oak, Quercus cerris and krt-aigow thorn tree,

Crataegus heldreichii,13 and most probably Zeuss aegis, his
protective shield, which, despite native folk-etymologies which
persistently derive this noun form the synonymous aj goat,
most likely, as Hirt first noted, was an oaken shield. As Hirt
observed, a cognate of NHG Eiche [and NE oak] might also be
found in Greek afiganh spear and Zeuss afigw, the oaken
shield of the Oak-God.14 As a feminine noun, the Albanian
word was fitted with the productive -stem marker, which, as
regularly happened in tatpurua compounds, bore the word
stress, and so became the source of the stressed o of Alb. gogl.
The second element was regularly syncopated, and PIE *g wAoA2, became the source of the final syllable, -gl from
underlying PAlb. -gl. Thus, the original compound was PIE
*HaiGA2 +*g wA-oA2. The second element is the feminine
noun, *g wA-o-, the unrecorded, underlying form with which
we began our discussion; moreover, unlike the Indic thematic
noun, the Albanian noun preserves the original postulated
feminine gender preserved in the Italic, Baltic, Slavic, and
Hellenic cognates; thus, it is the most accurate reflex of the
Indo-European
form.
By
regular
sound-laws,
PIE
*HaiGA2 +*g wA-oA2 became late IE *aig+gul which in turn
became early PAlb. eggl, which regularly gave late PAlb.
gogle. The phonological developments by which this
compound became the attested Albanian form are entirely
regular.
We must ask, however, what would motivate such a
compound in the first place. Surely the phrase oaken acorn is
a pleonasm. And so it is if PIE *g wA-o- designated only the
botanical acorn, but if PIE *g wA-o- also had an anatomical
sense recorded in the Indic cognate, then the need to
distinguish the botanical sense of acorn by a compound oakacorn from the anatomical sense is entirely explicable. In this
compound, Albanian then preserves traces of two of the
ancient Indo-European words relating to the semantic domain
13
These are Liddell and Scotts identifications; formally the last noun is a
compound meaning strong oak, and some authorities gloss the word as such
or as some species of oak.
14
So findet sich unser deutsches Eiche in gr. afigan Speer und in der afigw des
Zeus, dem Eicheschild des Eichengottes, wieder (1892:482). If Hirts shrewd guess
about the origins of the aegis is accepted, it implies a derivation from PIE
*HaiG-id-s rather than PIE *Haig-id-s.
127
for oaks, PIE *HaiG- oak and PIE *g wA-o- acorn as well as
the dual function of the latter as both a botanical and
anatomical referent, a duality which Friedrich suggested was
already present in Proto-Indo-European (1997:408 a).
References
Buck, Carl Darling
1933
A Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Demiraj, Bardhyl.
1997
Albanischen Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen
Erbwortschatz. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Friedrich, Paul.
1970
Proto-Indo-European Trees. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1997
Oak in Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, pp407-08, James P.
Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams (edd). London: Fitzroy-Dearborn
Publishers.
Frisk, Hjalmar.
1960
Griechisches etymologisches Wrterbuch, Band I. Heidelberg: Carl
Winter.
Hirt, Hermann.
1892
Die Urheimat der Indogermanen. Indogermansiche Forschungen
1:464-85.
Holthausen, F.
1934
Altenglisches etymologisches Wrterbuch: zweite, bis auf das
Literaturverzeichnes unvernderte Auflage [1963]. Heidelberg:Carl
Winter
Jokl, Norbert.
1911
Studien zur albanesischen Etymologie und Wortbildung. Sitzungbericht
der Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaft, philosophischhistorischen Klassen, Band 168, Teil 1.
Kluge, Friedrich.
1989
Etymologisches Wrterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 22te. Auflage unter
Mithilfe von Max Brgisser und Bernd Gregor vllig neu bearbeitet von
Elmar Seebold. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott.
1996
A Greek-English Lexicon ... Ninth edition, with a revised supplement.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
128
Martin Huld
Mayrhofer, Manfred.
1956
Kurzgefates etymologisches Wrterbuch des Altindischen. Heidelberg:
Carl Winter.
Meyer, Gustav.
1891
Etymologisches Wrterbuch der albanesischen Sprache. Strassburg:
Trbner.
1895
Albanesische Studien, V: Beitrge zur Kentniss verschniedener
albanesischen Mundarten. Sitzungberichte der philosophischhistorischen Classe der Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften,
134, Teil 7.
Mhlenbach, Karl.
1923-25 K. Mhlenbachs Lettisch-Deutsches Wrterbuch, redigiert, ergnzt und
fortgesetzt von J. Endzelin. Riga: Bildungsministerium
Newmark, Leonard.
1998
Albanian-English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Orel, Vladimir E.
1998
Albanian Etymological Dictionary. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Pokorny, Julius.
1959
Indogermanisches etymologisches Wrterbuch. Bern: Francke.
Sommer, Ferdinand.
1914
Handbuch der lateinischen Laut- und Formenlehre, zweite und dritte
Auflage. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.
Walde, Alois and Hofmann
1938
Lateinsiches etymologisches Wrterbuch, dritte Auflage. Heidelberg:
Carl Winter.
A Panorama of Indo-European Linguistics since

the Middle of the Twentieth Century: Advances
and Immobilism
Francesco R. Adrados
Madrid
Some advances in Indo-European linguistics.

Since 1948 I have been writing on Indo-European
linguistics, my Estudios sobre las laringales indoeuropeas dates
from 1961. I have subsequently continued writing (lately
somewhat less), I hope to publish a book, Historia de las lenguas
de Europa, in 2007. And I have read very extensively and
attended innumerable symposiums. Therefore, I feel I can
offer a perspective on the development of studies in IndoEuropean linguistics during this period, from my own point of
view, naturallya point of view that has been exposed in
various articles published in this same journal.
Indo-European is, after all, the origin of our languages; it
is the oldest form of Spanish, French, Russian, English,
German, and also Hindi, in spite of the fact that nowadays this
is widely unknown by the general public. Here I want to say a
few things about progress and failure, advances and immovilism
in Indo-European studies.
There have, of course, been advances. To begin with,
enormous progress has been made in the study of the IndoEuropean languages discovered just before or during this
period: Hittite and other Anatolian languages, Tocharian,
Mycenaean Greek, and Celtiberian, among others. When a
new language is discovered and deciphered and a well-tested
method of investigation is applied, new results are obtained. A
different matter is using these results to bring our knowledge
of the history of Indo-European up to date. Concerning
advances in this matter I am more skeptical (see below).
And there are some new manuals that are good: those of
130
Szmerenyi (1970), Georgiev (1981), Beekes (1984), Ramat

(1993) and Meier-Brgger (2000), among others, all very
traditional, to be sure. I will take the liberty of adding the one
I wrote in collaboration with A. Bernab and J. Mendoza
(1995-1998), based on a very different point of view: it does
not describe, as the others do, one Indo-European, that of
the traditional reconstruction, but rather three successive
Indo-Europeans: the pre-inflectional (I), the monothematic
(II) and the polythematic (III), this last really corresponding
to the traditional reconstruction. On this, see below.
And there have been advances, which I consider decisive,
regarding the origin of the Indo-European people, their
culture and the successive stages of their development,
though I am aware of the fact that there continue to be
supporters of the hypothesis that places the origin or point of
departure of these people in the plains of Germany and
Poland. But I consider correct the thesis of Gimbutas and
others that puts their origin in the Kurgan culture, in the
plains that extend from the Dniester to the Aral Sea and
beyond. Between the fifth and third millennia B.C., successive
waves of peoples and languages went forth toward Europe and
Iran, then southward to the Mediterranean Sea and the
Indian Ocean.
Regarding my own position on this topic, I can only refer
to my previous works, especially Adrados 1979 and 1982. They
combine linguistic and archaeological data that allow us to
establish a chronology for the evolution of Indo-European.
The Indo-Europeans, according to this thesis, had
destroyed the agrarian culture of the Balkans (Gimbutas's
culture of Old Europe) and had then spread out in various
waves. As I see it, the polythematic Indo-European III is not
the single, original Indo-european, but that of the invasions
that took place shortly before the year 2000 BC: the invasions
that produced, among others, the languages of the Greeks and
the Indo-Iranians, who emigrated in two different directions.
And then there was another, more recent, migration, around
the year 1000 BC: that of the other European languages,
which probably entered Europe from the north of the Balkans,
while the Thracians, Greeks and perhaps other peoples must
A Panorama of Indo-European Linguistic
131
have entered earlier through the south of the Balkans.

I have made the distinction, then, between IndoEuropean III A, the most morphologized one, the origin of
Greek and Indo-Iranian, and Indo-European III B, the origin
of the European languages in general, which combined the
preterites into a single one and presented various archaisms.
One group, lost in the steppes, separated from this second
branch and, traveling eastward, penetrated into the Xinjiang
region, producing the Tocharian dialects.
This is not, to be sure, the only theory. Widely debated
but generally rejected is C. Renfrew's (1987), according to
which the expansion of the Indo-Europeans is synonymous
with the expansion of the agrarian culture beginning in the
Anatolia of the seventh millennium BC. And there is also
Gramkelidze's theory (1993), which situates the IndoEuropeans in northern Mesopotamia, near the Caucasus.
These theories, widely circulated, are generally rejected,
because, among other reasons, they completely lack any
linguistic basis. I discuss this in my Historia de las lenguas de
Europa (in press), where I give the pertinent bibliography.1
Likewise, the old theories situating the origin of these peoples
in the plains of Europe are rejected today; nevertheless, they
have been renewed by Bosch-Gimpera (1960), Kilian (1983),
Husler (1995) and various others.
In my opinion, the thesis of the Indo-Europeans
successive invasions, from the steppes of Central Asia and
north of the Black Sea in various stages, which has certain
earlier precedents, is a decisive gain. Nevertheless, as regards
the Indo-European culture, the new expositions differ little
from the old ones when they describe the Indo-Europeans as
nomads with a tribal organization who knew the horse and had
copper or bronze but not iron. In this we are more or less
where we were before. We do, though, reject the old
implantation of the Indo-Europeans in the areas of the beech,
the salmon and the birch, that is, in Europe.2
1
Included there is de Hoz 1992 and my review of the Gamkrelidze-Ivanov

book in Emerita 65, 1997, 139-141.
2
Cf., for example, Villar 1991: 32 ff.; Beekes 1984: 47 ff.; Martinet 1997: 52 ff.
132
There has been, I believe, an advance in fixing the area

of the primitive settlements of the Indo-Europeans and in the
chronology and the areas of their expansion. Also with regard
to the neighbors of the Indo-Europeans and their linguistic
kinship, especially with the Finno-Ugrians, who also made
their way to the west around 5000 BC. In Asia, at one time,
Indo-European was in contact with the Altaic languages and
with those of the Caucasus, and later, in northern Syria, with
the Hamito-Semitic languages. A great deal has been written
on the languages that, as a group, are called Nostratic.3
And also to be considered an advance, I believe, is the
study of the hydronymy and toponymy of Europe, beginning
with H. Krahe, which demonstrates the ancient occupation of
Europe by Indo-European peoples at a date earlier than that of
the classic great families of Indo-European, although we
cannot say much about their morphology. 4
There have been advances in all this and also in more
specific areas. The great advance in phonology is, in my
opinion, the general acceptance of the existence in the oldest
Indo-European, of three laryngeal phonemes with the
respective timbres of e, a and o, symbolized by H 1, H2 and H3
(also with lower case h). As is known, these sonant
coefficients were identified in theory by Saussure in 1879,
and Kurylowicz, in 1927, identified them with the of Hittite.
This would be an inheritance of the oldest Indo-European,
eliminated subsequently by the later one. In this way, Hittite
was recognized as more archaic than the other Indo-European
languages, at least in this phonological featurebut not in the
case of the laryngeals with appendix, which I will discuss later,
nor in morphology in general. I will discuss this also.
Naturally these are not the only advances that have been
achieved: there are many details to be considered. And the
same is true of the development of writing among the IndoEuropean peoples, which was always a loan from other cultures,
3
See, among other works, Cowgill 1986; Greenberg 2000; Dolgopolsky 1998;
Moreno Cabrera 2003: 1205 ff.
4
See, among other works, Krahe 1962; Tovar 1977; de Hoz 1963; Villar 1991:
91 ff.
133
through Greek.
But above all, the greatest advances have been made in
the individual languages, both those recently discovered and
those long known. There is an infinite bibliography on Greek
and its dialects or on Balto-Slavic or Celtic or Italic and its
different languages or Armenian or Indo-Iranian. And on
minor languages, from Messapic to Venetic, Rhetian,
Macedonian and so many others.
More than in Indo-European studies in general, progress
is manifested in the study of different Indo-European
languages. The Indo-Europeanists tend increasingly to
specialize in this or that language (or languages). This makes
progress possible, of course, but it also implies a limitation,
because we are talking about comparative linguistics, and this
requires a knowledge both of the specific languages and of
their relations within a common history.
And even so, there are still those who maintain the
traditional scheme of the reconstruction of Indo-European as a
single language that later split into various branches. This view
often renders useless the new contributions to the history of
Indo-European that might be obtained from the knowledge of
the various branches, which are sometimes forced to fit into a
traditional scheme. This is the immobilism that appears in the
title of this article and that frequently makes it impossible to
study the linguistic history of Indo-European in depth.
Excursus on the laryngeals with appendix
Permit me to introduce here several pages on my proposal
(developing earlier ones by Martinet and Diver) that in the
earliest Indo-European the three laryngeals which I have
mentioned, preserved in Hittite (although here they
sometimes appear geminated or have been lost and
differences of timbre no longer appear), are actually derived
from series of laryngeals either with a labial appendix (Hw1, H w2 ,
H w3 ) or a palatal appendix (Hy1 , Hy2 , Hy3 ).
I made this proposal in my 1961 book on the IndoEuropean laryngeals, which I have mentioned. I feel that this
book offers important insights on the vocalization of sonants
and laryngeals in various Indo-European languages, as well as
134
on the origin, also in different Indo-European languages, of

suffixes and formative elements in -w or -u and in -y or -i. The
book was preceded by various articles of mine on the
vocalization of the sonants (later included in the 2 nd edition of
the book, in 1973).
It is precisely these vocalizations of the sonants that are
the focus of the completely negative review of my book by G.
Cardona5, which was, apparently, the main source of
information on it. 6 My subsequent explanations, in the
Prologue to the 2 nd edition of the book (Adrados 1973b: XIII
f.), as well as the inclusion in this edition (1973b: 357 ff.) of
various essays of mine on the subject, with abundant
bibliography, and the publication, later, of several more papers
that advanced the topic further7 were all in vain.
And when I published a condensed version of my ideas in
German (Adrados 1994a), this same phenomenon was
repeated in the form of a review by C. Melchert 8 in which it
was clear that they had not been understood at all. It seems
that this review became the sole source of information (or
rather of misinformation) regarding my ideas9.
As a result, they are still absolutely unknown. I am not
going to give rsums of them here; in just a few pages (of the
several hundred I have written) I only aspire to awaken
interest so that someone will decide to look at the facts
directly. But Cardona insisted that I did not say in what precise
circumstances each phonetic result occursand therefore I
was breaking phonetic law.
But phonetic law is nothing more then the
generalization of the majority results, the triumph of a
5
Language 39, 1963, 91-100.

See also Mayrhofer 2004: 35. There is also a critique by Melchert of my
ideas, which I will mention.
7
Especially Adrados 1980; 1981a; 1981b; 1984 (all of them included, in
Spanish, in my Adrados 1988).
8
Published in Kratylos 42, 1997, 170-171. In view of the fact that this periodical
did not accept my reply for publication, I mailed a copy to the members of the
Indogermanische Gesellschaft, with the title An answer to an unfair review.
I provide an extract of this reply below.
9
Likewise in the case of Mayrhofer 2004: 39.
6
135
solution alongside which, for reasons of evolution, phonetic

contagion, or optional change of the place of vocalization,
there could be others. All this has been commented on by
many phoneticians, many Indo-Europeanists, who have given
bibliography and examples. But for the high priests of
Phonetic Law, this was perverse.
Cardona's criticism was clear: it was a simple allegation
against my book because it broke the sacrosanct phonetic laws.
I proposed, and others have done the same, that in various
languages the sonants, on vocalizing, sometimes produce
anomalous timbres taken from the consonants they are in
contact with (ur, for example, after a guttural, in Greek,
instead of ar; or the neutral timbre ar instead of or or ur in
Latin and Germanic); that in a number of languages there are
vacillations between tro and tro > toro (in Spanish we can
occasionally find cornica for crnica, Ingalaterra for Inglaterra);
that there are likewise vacillations between tara and tr: that
in Hittite, where the laryngeal was disappearing but was still
producing occasional geminations, there are vacillations /
/ .
This doctrine was condemned to remain unknown, as
were proposals of morphologization that are, I believe,
important for the origins of Indo-European morphology: for
example, for the origin of inflections like xrw/ xroWw in
Greek, dym / divs in Old Indic, of the relation between
Greek glvw and Old Slavic zly, all this in the noun. In the
verb, for the origin of perfects in -u, like the Greek teynhWw
together with tynhka, or the Latin amau- as opposed to am-;
of the verbal themes in -ye/o (Latin mone(y)o beside mons).
And a thousand other things, which can be read in my books.
At least Cardonas review was based on a general principle
that I contravened to a certain extent, justifying my position,
of course. Melchert's is made up of small specific attacks with
no comprehensive vision. Individual words or word-classes are
discussed atomistically, with little or no regard to the larger
context of which they are part, he said. That is exactly the
opposite of the truth, I replied. It is a coherent system. Each
phonetic result has many parallels within the adequate
136
contexts.
Melchert points out examples in which a word has w in
one language and y in another; but there are suffixes and
desinences that extended beyond the place where they
originated, a situation I would be the last to deny. Then he
argues about something that is a misprint. And he says that
the purpose of this book remains obscure to me. But the
purpose was perfectly clear, I replied, namely, to offer, in
German, a brief and clear exposition of a system previously
presented principally in Spanish and therefore perhaps less
accessible or comprehensible. Prejudice or the lack of
information, I concluded, has kept the reviewer from any
understanding of the book at all.
I must admit that reviews like these two were quite
demoralizing for me. I realized that I was making proposals
that required study and criticism. But there was no study and
no criticism, a result of a perspective that focused on its own
tradition and rejected on principle any new viewpoints.
I limited, or almost desisted for some time in my
publications on Indo-European; other studies attracted me
more. But now I am returning in order to at least make my
viewpoints known. They are presented more extensively in my
Manual de Lingstica Indoeuropea of 1995-98 (in collaboration), which will now appear in English. This will be an
opportunity for these ideas to be known directly and not
hidden behind reviews like the two mentionedwhich did
indeed receive wide dissemination! But it was gratifying at the
time to see that the new ideas in morphology that I and others
proposed were being considered, although, as I have
recounted, there was a terrible immobilist reaction.
Immobilism and advances in the history of Indo-European
morphology
Really, to imagine a static, unitary Indo-European
language that only disintegrated when the diverse linguistic
families were created (be it around 2000 BC or around 1000
BC or even later) is to imagine the impossible. A unified and
relatively static language can only exist, and that partially, if
there are a unified culture, state and society in a period already
137
alphabetized and literary. Otherwise, languages exist in a state

of geographical, dialectal and evolutionary dispersion.
But the Indo-Europeanists, ever since the studies of
Schlegel, who so admired the culture of India, including
Sanskrit, the perfect language, and those of Bopp, have
attempted to reconstruct a unitary language, with a maximum
morphology, which should classify everything within its
categories and functions. And in spite of this, Bopp10 still
speaks of the growth of Indo-European and the origin of
certain forms based on agglutinations.
It was Bruggman who insisted on the reconstruction of a
perfect and unified languagethe old Indo-European. He
projected onto it the maximum of categories and functions of
the various languages, especially of Sanskrit and Greek (which
sometimes goes beyond Sanskrit in its innovations). Every
suffix, every desinence, according to him and many of his
followers, had a single original value. For example, the case
endings in the noun or the desinences of person in the verb,
and the formative elements and suffixes.
This, in the long run, creates terrible problems: how is it
that -s in the noun can function sometimes as nominative and
sometimes as genitive? And in the verb, sometimes as 2nd
person or as 3rd person singular? Or how is it that, in the case
of the formative elements, the thematic vowel e / o can mark
sometimes the indicative and sometimes the subjunctive? Or
that the -s can be used for the desiderative, or the aorist or the
subjunctive or the future? This can only be explained by
various developments in different contexts; there are no
various -ss in IE, each with a different meaning.
But this was the model that was being offered. And if in
the languages derived from Indo-European there was lacking
one of the proposed elements of reconstruction (the perfect
or the subjunctive, for example), the explanation was that it
had been lost. Evolution was, in short, corruption; the perfect
state, the linguistic paradise, was the original state: the IndoEuropean reconstructed in this way.
This way of thinking, implicit to a certain extent, was
10
See Adrados 1994b.
138
what kept the newly discovered languages, especially Hittite

but also Tocharian and, I would add, Etruscan, 11 from being
used to redraw the history of Indo-European. Hittite,
deciphered in 1917 by Hrozny, was, as I have written (Adrados
1994b: 11), like the member of the family who turned up at a
family gathering at the wrong moment and was therefore
unwelcome. It had no feminine, no comparative, no aorist, no
perfect, no subjunctive, no optative! It was decreed that they
had all been lost.
This was the opinion, dating from the twenties of the
past century, of Pedersen, Pisani and Bonfante. In 1937, in
the new edition of his well-known manual, A. Meillet himself
said that the Hittite deciphered by M. Hrozny does not
require us to change anything essential in the doctrines
presented here. And certain linguists like H. Eichner (1975),
E. Risch (1975) and more recently J.H. Jasanoff (2003), have
gone to great lengths to discover in Hittite vestiges of these
forms that were supposedly lost.
I have criticized this again and again, and will do so in my
Historia de las lenguas de Europa, where I give the bibliography
and the arguments. Other authors, as we shall see, either
simply do not mention the information on Hittite or declare
apodictically that Hittite has lost the forms I refer to.
In other words, Hittite, which contributes so much, has
been practically unused, and nevertheless, before its
decipherment and also afterwards, there were many linguists
who, like Meillet or Specht, spoke of the recent character of
the feminine, of the thematic vowel or of the inflection of
the noun, for example. All this has been confirmed by Hittite.
Later there have been many others, like Brosmann, Carruba,
Fairbanks, Lehmann, Schmalstieg, etc., 12 who have continued
in that same line, as have I.
In 1935, E. Benveniste spoke of the monosyllabic IndoEuropean root, of its lengthenings, of the use of roots and
11
On Etruscan see, after other works, Adrados 2005b. Tocharian should be

taken into account for the history of the creation of the subjunctive; see
Adrados 1974: 416 ff.
12
For details see my Las lenguas de Europa, in press.
139
pure themes in inflection. Actually, all those who have written

about the development of inflection, and there have been
many, have postulated the early existence of a non-inflected
Indo-European, earlier even than Anatolian. But Anatolian
preserves numerous vestiges of forms with no desinence in its
inflection. I have written about this on many occasions.13
I have no choice but to bring myself into this story now,
in order to then go on with it. Beginning in the fifties and for
many years I taught Indo-European Linguistics at the
University of Madrid (later called the Universidad
Complutense de Madrid). My guide at the beginning was
mainly A. Meillets Introduction, an excellent book, as is well
known. But at a certain moment, particularly when I learned
about Hittite, I felt that what this language had to offer for
the reconstruction of Indo-European was not being taken into
account.
I found especially disappointing the work of J. Kurylowicz
(1958), where, following Pedersen and others, he posited that
the categories of the traditional reconstruction of IndoEuropean that were missing in Hittite had simply been lost in
that language. I have already said that Meillet himself affirmed
this. But they all depended on a tradition that required them
to express themselves that way. I had no tradition whatsoever
behind me, I looked at things directly, with new, unclouded
eyes, and this way of looking led me to think that it was the
other Indo-European languages that had created new
categories.
On the other hand, I was reading, in articles by Meillet
himself, in Hirt, in Specht, in Benveniste, in others, things
about the recent character of many elements of the traditional
reconstruction of Indo-European: the feminine, the thematic
vowel, the sigmatic aorist, the perfect, the future, the entire
nominal inflection. Hittite, for me, confirmed all this.
And it added something more: the fact that the
preservation in Hittite of the Indo-European laryngeals proved
that it was an archaic language. No one was denying this by
13
Cf., for example, Adrados 1988b. And many other publications, for example,
Adrados - Bernab - Mendoza 1996.
140
then. Starting from there, I wrote my Estudios sobre las

laringales indoeuropeas (Adrados 1961), with considerable
audacity, I have to admit. I was challenging doctrines accepted
by everyone and I was doing this from a position with no
tradition in these matters.
But this book took me in the same direction: toward the
recent character of a series of suffixes and elements of IndoEuropean: -, - and -ei in the noun, -ye/o and the perfect
participles in the verb, etc. My point of departure was my
previous studies on the vocalization of the sonants14 and
studies of mine on the phenomenon of grammaticalization:
conversion of lengthenings and various suffixes in
morphological characteristics, this in the context of various
oppositions. 15
But the laryngeals that I proposed were not the decisive
factor in my new proposals for the reconstruction of IndoEuropean; I will return to this later. The case is that structural
consideration was not popular among the Indo-Europeanists,
who felt, in general, that the different morphological
elements came from an older phase and had not changed
their meaning since then. I proposed, instead, that several of
them, whatever their origin, could have acquired the
grammatical values that we know only in the context of new
oppositions that were created, especially those elements that
did not exist yet in Hittite.
It was a very risky position to take, as the future proved: it
clashed with a venerable tradition. But there was a moment
that encouraged me: when I held in my hands E. H.
Sturtevants little book (1942). He reached the obvious
conclusion from the preservation of the laryngeals in Hittite:
that it was an archaic Indo-European language. For Sturtevant
there were Hittite and Indo-European, two sister languages
derived from an ancient Indo-Hittite.
14
Later included in the 2nd ed. of the book, now entitled Estudios sobre las
sonantes and laringales indoeuropeas (Adrados 1973).
15
Adrados 1962a, among other works. See later, with reference to IndoEuropean, Adrados 1965 and 1968. Of a later date, and related to my
laryngeal theory is Adrados 1981a, among other works.
141
Sturtevant did not mention anything except the

laryngeals, but it was a beginning. However then, in 1946,
Kerns and Schwartz (1946) proposed a hypothesis, in brief and
rather confusing form: the existence of various opposing
themes in the verb of the traditional reconstruction could be
an innovation with respect to the monothematic conjugation
of Hittite.
I developed this thesis further in an essay published in
1962 (Adrados 1962b), which included a paper given by me in
the Fachagung of the Indogermanische Gesellschaft held in
Innsbruck in 1961. I presented more extensively and explicitly
the thesis of two phases of Indo-European: one represented,
for us, by Anatolian, in which inflection (not only verbal but
also nominal) was monothematic; the other, more recent,
being the one described in the traditional reconstruction,
from which were derived Indo-Iranian, Greek, Germanic, etc.,
etc. In this latter phase, at times, various themes with different
grammatical meanings were opposed: the feminine, the grades
of comparison of the adjective, the themes of the aorist, the
perfect, the future, the subjunctive and the optative in the
verb. In some cases not all the verbs were affected; and the
heteroclitic inflection of the noun and the coupling of a base
verb and another verb with a specific Aktionsart were
antecedents of polythematism in Hittite.
All this was quite bold when expressed by people who
were not included in the strict circle of traditional IndoEuropean scholars. My case was worse because I was writing,
with that one brief exception, in Spanish, a language scarcely
read in Germany. And I spoke of structuralism, which was not
very popular. But all considered, I must admit that the German
journals devoted to Indo-European studies later published my
articles both in German and in English.
I don't include the extensive bibliography16 here. I will
only make specific reference to the two books, both in
Spanish, in which the theory was first launched: my Evolucin y
16
The most important works can be found in Historia de las lenguas de Europa
and Must we again postulate a unitary and uniform Indo-European?, both in
press.
142
estructura del verbo indoeuropeo (Adrados 1963, 1974) and

Lingstica indoeuropea (Adrados 1975). The bibliography
mentioned, whether in Spanish, German, English or French,
defended and expanded the original theory.
These books and articles were very explicit with regard to
the morphology of Hittite and of Anatolian in general: these
would be not a new phase of Indo-European, but a derivation
of a former phase of Indo-European, a new phase prior to the
known one, since they have innovations of their own. This is
what I call IE II (IE I, which I arrived at later, is the preinflectional or Proto-Indo-European, PIE). From IE II a second
branch would stem: IE III, that of the traditional
reconstruction. In the books and articles cited I explained in
detail how they were created through the organization, within
a single inflection, of apparently independent themes.
These books, little read outside Spain, received scarce
attention, and the articles published in English or German in
various journals not very much either, since the books
mentioned, on which they were based, were hardly known and
received, in the best of cases, incomprehensive reviews. As
occurred with my Laringales, this impaired the diffusion of my
ideas on Indo-European morphology.
And nevertheless, there came a moment when these
ideas began to be known, partly, in spite of everything,
because of the influence of my books, and also because the
facts are absolutely clear to anyone who considers them
without prejudice. If the feminine, the aorist, the subjunctive,
etc. presented vestiges of recent morphologization, why must
we suppose that their absence in Hittite was the result of
having been lost? These categories were simply more recent
than Hittite.
But there was an episode in which I found myself
unintentionally implicated. Beginning at a certain moment in
1975, there was an extensive movement in Germany
supporting the thesis of the recent character of polythematic
inflection (in the noun, the adjective and the verb). In an
article published in 1992 in Indogermanische Forschungen
(Adrados 1992), I gave a relatively detailed version of this
movement in favor of the archaism of Hittite and of the
143
recent character of polythematism in the Indo-European of

the traditional reconstruction.
I was not the only factor in this evolution in the thinking
of the Indo-Europeanists; the facts, as I have already said, were
clear in themselves. But it was very disappointing for me to see
that frequently the hypothesis was attributed to W. Meid and
E. Neu, very distinguished Indo-Europeanists, of whom, they
said, I was a follower. This is what K. Strunk wrote, for example,
in 1984, E. Polom in 1985, W. P. Lehmann in 1987, J.
Tischler in 1989 and J. H. Jasanoff in 2003. 17 I refuted this in
my article in IF in 1992, but to no avail. The facts are as
follows:
The point of diffusion of the new ideas was an article by
W. Meid in 1975. It did not cite me, which was the origin of
the error, compounded by the fact that in 1982, I had
published a book in German (Adrados 1982) with almost the
same title, which was a translation of a 1979 article in Spanish
(Adrados 1979). The doctrine was very similar and it was
believed, without giving it further thought, that as these works
came after Meids, they were based on it.
But this is not the case; quite the contrary. Meid had read
my much earlier 1963 book, Evolucin y estructura del verbo
indoeuropeo, which I have mentioned. Meid was familiar with it
and had written a review of it in IF 70, 1965, pages 346 to 350,
an unfavorable review, to be sure. It would seem that he later
changed his ideas and followed me. Indeed, his article of 1975
follows the ideas presented in my book of 1963.
These are the facts and they are the reason why what was
really an Adrados hypothesis, with certain precedents,
became a Meid or Meid-Neu hypothesis. Not providing
bibliography and not giving adequate attention to it are the
cause of lapsus like this one.
In the article mentioned, The New Image ..., I
described in certain detail, as I said, the diffusion of this
theory after the appearance of Meids 1975 article. As I said
there, it is very difficult to decide in each case if the ideas
asserting the recent character of traditional IE come from me
17
Cf. also Rieken 1999: 505.
144
or from Meid, or if they simply come from a dispassionate study

of the facts. Certain of Kurylowicz's and Watkins's ideas on the
Indo-European verb can easily come from me, as well as from
Meid. I gave Kurylowicz (who never cited anyone) a copy of
the Verbo Indoeuropeo; a student of his told me once that it was
in the Library of the University of Krakow, heavily annotated
by Kurylowicz. Watkins cites the Verbo Indoeuropeo explicitly,
though with errors. On the other hand, authors such as O.
Carruba and B. Barschel do not cite the Verbo Indoeuropeo, but
they do cite the article Hethitisch und Indogermanisch. The
details can be read in the article mentioned.
Nevertheless, alongside the unpleasant inaccuracy which
I have just mentioned, there was at the time one pleasing
thing: the ever-increasing diffusion of the theory of the strata
of Indo-European. In The New Image ... can be seen the
long, though incomplete, list of the Indo-Europeanists who
were adhering to the new theory. Neu is one of them, but
there are many others. I also make reference there to those
who did not even mention the theory or argued against it,
adducing supposed vestiges of the feminine or the aorist, for
example, in Hittite. In short, they continued to adhere to the
old tradition.
The new immobilism since the nineties
Now, unexpectedly, from the nineties on we have the
decline of the theory which proposes the two strata of IndoEuropean, the monothematic and the polythematic. There is
one exception: the three laryngeals H1, H2 and H3 are
generally accepted with their descendents and in Hittite.
But even so, what the manuals include most frequently is the
traditional reconstruction of Indo-European: the archaism of
Hittite and even Hittite itself are hardly mentioned at all, or if
they are mentioned, it is considered that the categories that
are missing have been lost. Of course there are exceptions,
like W. P. Lehmann, who continues not to give credit to the
Brugmannian reconstruction, which he calls a kind of
storehouse (1993: 28 ff.).
But from the seventies on there has been a series of
manuals on Indo-European like those by O. Szemernyi
145
(1970) and V. Georgiev (1981), and later R. Schmitt-Brandts

(1998), in which the only possibility mentioned is the
traditional scheme of Indo-European. In other cases there is
some vacillation, but in the end the theory of the archaism of
Hittite is not accepted. This is the case of A. Giacalone Ramat
and P. Ramat (eds.), Le lingue Indo-europee (1993): no
conclusion is reached, but the general presentation by C.
Watkins and the exposition of Anatolian by S. Luraghi follow
the traditional lines, with some hesitation as regards Anatolian.
The theme is barely touched on in Warren Cowgill's
Einleitung to volume I of his and M. Mayrhofer's
Indogermanische Grammatik (1986): the traditional unitary and
uniform Indo-European is taken for granted. This was also the
position of J. H. Greenberg (2000), and, I should add, that of
H. Rix in a recent work on the lexicon of the Indo-European
verbs (2001). He presents the primary verbal themes (present,
perfect, aorist, causative-iterative, desiderative, intensive and
essive) and the modals as characteristic of all the IndoEuropean languages. He accepts, then, with no explanation
given, that they also existed in Anatolian. In the end, the
most he does is to mention at times the two hypotheses: the
loss of categories in Hittite and its archaism, leaving the
subject undecided.18
All of this represents a backward step. Only as regards
phonetics is it recognized that Hittite comes from a stage
older than the rest of Indo-European, a stage in which the
three classical laryngeals still existed.19 A curious imbalance
that I have already noted: Hittite could be archaic in
phonology but not in morphology. Of course, there is no
attempt at serious criticism of my theory of the laryngeals with
labial and palatal appendices, merely unfavorable references
made in passing.20 But I do not want to go into this here; it has
18
This also occurs in Mallory-Adams 1997: s.u. Anatolian Languages.

Thus in works such as Bammesberger 1988; Mayrhofer 1986; Lindeman
1997; Mayrhofer 2004; Kimball, 1997.
20
Mayrhofer 2004: 35, where it simply makes reference to a critique by G.
Cardona in Language 39, 1963, 91 ff. Melchert, Kratylos 42, 1997, 170 ff, does a
critique, which I consider partial, of my work Laryngale mit Appendix? (Adrados
1994a). I replied with a commentary (unpublished): An answer to an unfair
19
146
been discussed above.

To return to morphology, new publications even affirm
that the grammatical categories that do not exist in Hittite
have been lost. Thus the manual of R. P. Beekes, who says
(1984: 31), speaking of Hittite Morphology, that its simplicity
does not suggest antiquity, but could rather be owing to loss.
Pure assumption, with no attempt at proof.
And C. Melchert (1994: 122) affirms that the evidence
for a common prehistoric development (of the Anatolian
languages) does not settle the issue of whether the rest of the
Indo-European languages underwent a period of common
development. He presents Anatolian as a subgroup of IndoEuropean, alongside Germanic, Slavic, etc. All of this is mere
personal assumption with no arguments as proof.
Let me cite finally the book by S. Zielfelder (2002) on
the theme. She vacillates, declaring only the feminine as truly
recent.
This is the recession to which I alluded above: by way of
mere asseverations with no attempt at proof, once again it is
affirmed, as it was in the time of Pedersen, Kurylowicz and
others, that Anatolian and, within it Hittite, had lost
categories that appear in the other Indo-European languages.
Categories that many had maintainedand we continue to
maintainwere created secondarily by the IE III that I have
been discussing. It is the heir to IE II and conserves vestiges of
it, as I have said.21
The only one, as far as I know, who has recently tried to
demonstrate this loss of categories (the feminine, the
comparative and the various themes of the verb) within
Anatolian is J. H. Jasanoff, 22 who in 2003 attempted to
demonstrate the same thing that H. Eichner and E. Risch
tried in 1975. I do not think that he really provides any proof
review, to which I have already referred.

21
Nevertheless, there continue to be published works that sustain the idea of
the secondary creation, in the later Indo-European, of categories lacking in
Hittite. See, for example, on gender Matasovic 2005 (and my review in
Emerita 74, 2006, pp. 169-170).
22
Jasanoff 2005. This is a continuation of another work, Jasanoff 1994.
147
whatsoever.23
This, unfortunately, is the immobilism that, with the
pertinent exceptions, is what we have today. We have
returned to the traditional descriptions of Indo-European, with
no arguments or with arguments that are absolutely
insufficient.
This is not always the case, of course. The immobilist
reaction is not complete. For example one can find
affirmations saying that the augment was a recent innovation
of Greek, Indo-Iranian and Armenian (Meier-Brgger 2000:
166), that the subjunctive and optative come after the
separation of Hittite (Meier-Brgger 2000: 170), that the
sigmatic aorist is also recent (Drinka 2005), and that the
opposition masculine/feminine is recent as well (Matasovicz
2005; Zieffelder 2002). On Hittite archaisms in nominal
inflexion, cf. E. Rieken (1999: 505), who proposes eine
frhzeitliche Abspaltung des Anatolischen.
Much more bibliography could be cited. Nevertheless
today the doctrines most widely disseminated point in the
other direction.
On Proto-Indo-European
This immobilism extends to the subject of Proto-IndoEuropean, because, as I have already said, all the hypotheses
on the recent character of the inflection in Indo-European
(in IE II and III) point, in the end, to one conclusion: that in
its earliest stage, Indo-European (IE I or PIE) was not
inflectional. Pure roots or pure themes were organized in
groups, in phrases, by means of various procedures, not by
inflection. And sometimes, in later Indo-European (IE II and
even in III), pure roots or themes appeared in the inflections
of the noun (nominative singular in , or nominative plural
in -, dative singular in -ei, etc.) or of the pronoun (accusative
singular of the personal pronoun of the type, for example,
accusative singular Greek me), or of the verb (thematic 1st
singular, present indicative or subjunctive, in , 2 nd singular
23
On this see my article in IF (in press: Must we again postulate a unitary and
uniform Indo-European?) and my arguments therein.
148
imperative of the Latin type -ei, -i, or Greek ge, Latin age,
etc.).
Now really no one denies this possibility of an uninflected
Indo-European, but it has ceased to be an object of interest.
Very few give detailed attention to the subject. There are
exceptions, naturally. The main one is W. P. Lehmann (2005),
who proposes an old active Indo-European with a system of
classes. And I myself. 24
The objection is sometimes raised as to how a sentence
can be constructed in a language with no inflections, based on
monosyllabic root-words. But this is habitual in, for example,
Chinese and in various languages of southeastern Asia. IndoEuropean made use of the fact that some of these root-words
were only nouns, others only verbs; it made use of word order,
lengthenings, reduplication, tone, the determination of one
word by another, composition. Vestiges of all this have
remained in later IE.
But it is noteworthy, really, that Indo-European began as
a language with a minimal morphology that later germinated
and grew gradually, its complexity reaching its peak in IndoIranian and above all in Greek, and then gradually diminished
(cf. Adrados 2001; 2005a). The culmination of this process is
found in the languages that have eliminated, or practically
eliminated, the inflection of the noun, have reduced to the
minimum the inflection of the verb, have made maximum use
of uninflected words and of word order, etc.
In spite of everything, the different phases of IndoEuropean have much in common: the same word classes,
transitives and intransitives, lengthenings and thematic vowels
added to the right, etc. But it is a fact that much less attention
is being devoted to this evolution of Indo-European and there
is, increasingly, a return to a unitary language with a maximum
of morphology. I have fought against these tendencies all my
life, but as can be seen, they are very strong. The idea persists
that evolution is, more than anything else, the destruction of
an old, complex and perfect system, whose elements, to the
24
Cf. Adrados 1972; 1973a; 2000. I have emphasized this theme in Adrados Bernab - Mendoza 1996: 134 ff., 381 ff.
149
extent that they are preserved, have not changed their

semantic and grammatical values. I believe that this is an
error.25
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1998
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1989
Relative Chronology: the case of Proto-Indo-European, in Y.
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Zielfelder, S.
2002
Archaismus und Ausgliederung. Studien zur sprachlichen Stellung des
Hethitischen. Heidelberg.
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual

Los Angeles, May 26-28, 2000
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PIE Root Nouns; Origin of 3rd Pers. in IE; *bhuH- in Luwian & Prehist. of Past &
Perf. EPIGRAPHY & ETYMOLOGYWORDS & THINGS: Poggio Sommavilla
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IE Languages. MYTHOLOGY & POETICSFORM & FANCY: The IE Formula
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2000. RETHINKING ARCHAEOLOGYMYTH, CULTURE, & MODELS: Bird
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Edited by Martin E. Huld, Karlene Jones-Bley,
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PAPERBACK: ISBN 0-941694-79-8 retail: $46.00


JIES Reviews
Archaeology
Trevor Bryce. Life and Society in the Hittite World. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2002. 2 maps, 14 figures, 312 pages.
Trevor Bryces aim in this book is to produce a work that
compliments his Kingdom of the Hittites (1998). While the latter
book is more of a straightforward history, this new volume
takes on subjects that might better be referred to as social
history. If the reader has not previously read Kingdom, it would
be worthwhile to have it close at hand for reference while
reading Life and Society as it is frequently referred to.
After a short review of the discovery of the Hittite script
and a brief synopsis of Hittite history, there are fourteen
chapters that take up various occupations, such as the Scribe,
Farmer, Merchant, and the Warrior, but begins with the King,
Court, and Royal Officials. Other chapters are devoted to the
Gods, Marriage, Curers of Diseases, Death, Burial and the
Afterlife, as well as Festivals and Rituals, and Myth. The
penultimate chapter is devoted to the description of the
Capital city and the final chapter gives the reader Links across
the Wine-Dark Sea.
The focus of the book rests in the Bronze Age because it
was during this time that the Hittite kingdom lasted for about
500 years from the early 17th to the 12th century BC. As is
common practice, Bryce divides Hittite history into two parts
the Old Kingdom to c. 1400 BC and the New Kingdom from
the 14th to the early 12th century BC: the New Kingdom was
the kingdom at its height and the vassal states had
considerable autonomy. It was in the early 12th century BC
that the capital was burned and not long after the Hittite
kingdom came to an abrupt end. Despite its demise, Hittite
elements continued down to the time of the Assyrian king
Sargon II (717-708 BC).
As with Kingdom of the Hittites, Life and Society in the Hittite
World uses the translations by other scholars of the Hittite
texts extensively. We find that the Hittites borrowed freely
from other peoplesboth predecessors and contemporaries.
156
Reviews
Not only are parallels easily found between the Hittites and
the Greeks but also with the Near East. The archives provide
enormous amounts of material, and Bryce reminds us that at
least eight languages are found in the tablet archives and
more were probably spoken.
Bryce tells us that although IE speakers may have come to
Anatolia as early as the 3rd millennium BC during the Assyrian
Colony period, it is possible that they came earlier.
Chapter 1, King, Court, and Royal Officials, begins with a
quote from a document that tells of the scene of king Hattusili
Is death and his condemnation of his sister, the mother of
the nephew who had earlier been declared successor but was
now in disgrace. She is blamed for her sons faults. The
document ends with the kings appeal to an unknown woman,
Hastayer, not to forsake him. The document is interesting in
itself because the revelation of what today would be referred
to as a dysfunctional familytime has passed, empires have
come and gone, but little has changed within the human
family.
What stands out in the passage is the enmity the king
shows for his sister and the power she seems to have had over
her son. This suggests that she, herself, wielded power. This
first chapter also tells us that a fair amount is known about
some female members of the court. Suppiluliumas Babylonian
wife was considered particularly tyrannical, but above all the
most famous and powerful of Hittite women was Puduhepa,
wife of Hattusili III (1267-1237 BC). Puduhepas power and
influence is well known and ranged from her arranging
marriages, governing in the absence of her husband, and
probably being the instigator of religious reform.
The Hittite kings were remote from the populace being
seen only at festivals and royal pilgrimages. Contamination
seems to have at least contributed to this remoteness. Bryce
notes that even the kings shoes and chariots were made from
animals grown in the palace compound for fear of
contamination. But despite this royal seclusion, the king was in
close contact with his ministers and the affairs of state. Chief
among these ministers was the BL MADGALTI (Hitt. auriyas
ishas) lord of the watch towerthe kings district governors
who were responsible for frontiers, roads, irrigation, and
collecting taxes; through correspondence we know the names
of several. Also appointed by the king were the keepers of the
Reviews
157
royal storage houses, who needed to be completely trustworthy

and reported directly to the king. The king in turn was
accountable to the Storm god from whom the king received
his powerheaven and earth belonged to the Storm god. The
king was the highest authoritydeputy of the Sun god and he
was hands on. Unlike the Egyptian Pharaoh, the Hittite king
was not a living god but a god in the making, that is, he
became a god upon his death. The king, or Labarna, was also
called My Sun and associated with a winged sun disc. His
elevation to this position probably came about at the Festival
of Enthronement about which we know little. The king was
chief priest and commander-in-chief.
Although the king is said to have been appointed by a
god, more specifically the Storm god, hereditary succession was
firmly established by the time of our earliest records in the
time of Hattusili I (1650-1620 BC).
The royal court consisted of the Tawananna, the
reigning queen and chief consort of the king, high priestess
of he Hittite realm and sometimes a politically powerful figure
in her own right, who retained her status until the end of her
life even if she outlived her husband (21). There was also the
crown prince, not necessarily the eldest son, the tuhkanti, who
would be schooled in the military and religious duties. Other
major members of the court were the appointments to the
viceregal kingdoms of Carchemish and Aleppo, and the chief
body guard, again a man whose loyalty was beyond repute.
These were chosen from the royal family. The MESEDI were
something like the praetorian guard of Rome and were
personal body guards to the king but much smaller in number.
Additionally, there were the golden spearman who were also
guards, and it is suggested that the two groups insured the
loyalty of each. Chief of the Wine (stewards) was also a military
position.
Bryce points out that concubinage was necessary in order
to make sure there were princes for the royal jobs and one
wife was not enough to supply the king with the number of
princes necessary. Because of his many duties, the king had to
delegate particularly to members of his family. However, prince
and princesses held status according to their motherwives
were more important than concubines, the chief wife was the
most important, and so on down the line. After the son of the
first rank wife came the son of the second rank, esertu, wife,
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and then the son-in-law of the king, the husband of the

daughter of chief wife. Sons of concubines of lower birth
(napartu) were not eligible for kingship but could serve in the
royal household.
In Chapter 2, The People and the Law, we see a picture
of a highly regulated society. Hittite law which was based on
the principle of redressfair compensation not retribution or
merely punishment of the offender. The laws seem to have
been meant to guide not prescribe. Local authorities were
allowed considerable leeway. There is no preamble of intent in
the Hittite Laws but principles can be found from within.
Through the laws, we learn how a society is supposed to work
and we can glean insights into the overall philosophy and
principles which helped shape them (32). For example, the
most famous set of laws that preceded the Hittite Laws, the
Code of Hammurabi in the 18th century BC, was designed so
that that the strong may not oppress the weak, that justice be
given to the orphan and the widow (32). One of the defining
features of the Hittite Laws was the concern for ordinary
people not just elite, and governors were admonished to be
fair to high and low alike but that they should also regard local
custom including those that held to capital punishment.
Unlike modern US law the compensation aspect allowed for
the victim to profit by punishment of the criminal. Another
principle of Hittite law was that Justice must be dispensed
fairly to all, regardless of wealth or status; and all members of
the community have the right of appeal to the king against
what they believe to be an unjust judgment (42).
Bryce always links the Hittites to the Near Eastern world,
but it is to the IE world that we are interested and a
comparison with other Indo-European law codes such as the
Irish Laws and The Laws of Manu would make an interesting
study.
The sources of the Laws that have come down to us
include not only the Laws themselves that date to ca. 1650 BC
of the Old Kingdom and are clearly based on earlier versions,
but also minutes of court proceedings and the Palace
Chronicles that are a collection of anecdotes.
Punishment included mutilation, but it was in reality rare.
Later, mutilation was abolished for free people. Over time
there was an increasing emphasis on equating punishment
with compensation to the victim. This was part of a general
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movement away from severe punishment as execution or

mutilation (an eye for an eye). Compensation was more
practical. This also indicates a movement from customary law,
such as Hammurabi, to statute law. The death penalty
remained for acts which caused pollution or defilement,
physical or moral, like certain prohibited sexual liaisons (42),
also polluting the environment of the king or god, as well as
acts of negligence in the service of king or god, undoubtedly
for fear of the wrath of a god. Capital offenses such as
prohibited sexual liaisons and sorcery by slaves were offenses
referred to the kings court. Judgments by judicial authorities
appointed by the king were absolute.
The Hittites seem to have been fixated on sex and
infection as there were a large number of laws regarding
sexual offencesbestiality, incest, or the lesser crimes of rape
and adultery14 of 200 clauses in the Laws deal with these.
Death was required for those who engaged in intercourse with
pigs, dogs, and sheep, even consent between man and sheep
required death. The death penalty was explicitly excluded for
those who had intercourse with horses or mules. But even
intercourse with a horse or mule disqualified a person from
being a priest or service to the king. Bryce says we dont know
why this is so, but reminds us that biblical law has a blanket
prohibition against bestiality (48). Bryce suggests the danger
of infection. Communicating with the gods required
purification. Under later Hurrian influence one could be
purified under some ritual. Hittite laws about sex subjected the
vassal states to this law. Bryce doesnt mention the Avamedha
but perhaps Hittite law is an old reflection of it. We are told
there was no prohibition of homosexuality, and it seemed to
be accepted in Hittite society. More surprisingly, necrophilia
was sanctioned (50).
Slavery was important and probably indispensable to the
Hittites. Slave life does not appear to have been harsh, nor
were slaves at the bottom of society. That honor went to the
free unattached person without a secure home or any sense
of belonging (55) much like that found in Homeric tradition.
There was a clear distinction between slave and free and
imposed compensation was twice on a slave. Nevertheless,
slaves could marry non-slaves. Non-payment of taxes was only
one way to be reduced to slavery, but most slaves came about
through military conquest.
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Chapters 3-5 deal with the lives of scribes, farmers, and

merchants, all of whom had important positions in society. The
chapter on the scribe lays out the education and influence of
scribe who by dint of his education and abilities had great
influence. Bryce also points out that because of the schools for
scribes, various stories such as Gilgamesh were written down
and thus remembered.
Because the Central Anatolian plateau is a harsh and not
always productive environmenthot dry summers with
unnavigable rivers and bitterly cold winters with deep snow,
efficient farming was vital. Rainfall rarely exceed 500 mm. Still
with efficient use of the land by means of intensive
cultivation, a wide variety of products were produced.
Uncultivated land was cheap but already cultivated land was
expensive. The state ensured that all land was used to its
capacity, and animals were pastured on land not suitable for
farming. Given what sounds like an inhospitable land, one
needs to ask why did people choose to live there? Bryce
answers this question, and it is much the same for all places
that are not ideal. For persons at all levels of Hittite society
and in almost all occupations, who understood it and used it
efficiently, there could be prosperity and good quality of life
(73). Farming was subject to taxes usually in produce. Wool
production was vital to the economy and was also used as a
magical material in ritual (n. 22).
Chapter 5, The Merchant, reminds us of the many
languages that were used in trade because most of Hittite
international trade was carried out by foreigners. Moreover,
because the land of the Hatti was landlocked, the Hittites had
no navy to speak of and maritime activities were carried out by
vassal states.
In Chapter 6, The Warrior, Bryce tells us that fighting was
as natural as cultivating, and that the king led the army. Bryce
calls war a business because it provided revenue by way of
tribute and manpower by way of prisoners of war. There was no
ideology of peace nor duties of peacejust warsuch as the
goddess of war Ishtar/Shaushka. However, unlike Egyptian and
Assyrian reliefs none of the Hittite reliefs show dominance
over enemies, and the texts only rarely glorify the victories.
War was the method of restoring peace and order, the
disruption of which was caused by the enemy. In western
Anatolia, Hittite rulers sought mostly to resolve problems by
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diplomatic means rather than military. When Bryce makes a

point but doesnt go into great length, he helpfully references
his 1998 work for a wider discussion.
Because the Hittite homeland seems always to have been
underpopulated, the manpower provided by prisoners of war
was essential. Hittite society was based primarily on agriculture
but large numbers of men were needed for the army which
took the field mostly during the season of agricultures
greatest need. Importation of prisoners or transporters from
subject territories probably eased the labor shortage. Although
these transporters were essentially slaves, they were a valued
commodity and, as we are told in Chapter 2, had a number of
legal rights including the right to own property.
While the kingdoms that lay to the west of Hittite
territory posed security threats, the preferred method of
dealing with these threats was through diplomacy. This allowed
the greatest military strength to concentrate on the eastern
borders where the major trade routes and great kingdoms lay.
The Hittites had particular trouble with the Kaska people from
the Pontic Zone who Bryce compares to the Germanic tribes
who were so troublesome to the Romans (114). A fuller
discussion of these people (with references) can be found in
The Kingdom of the Hittites.
Rebellion from within made the kingdom easy prey for
outsiders and this was a problem from the earliest period of the
Hittites. Most famous of the internecine problems came
around 1267 BC and is documented in The Apology. It is in
this document that Hattusili III defends his seizing power from
his nephew Urhi-Teshub. In it he states that the gods said the
rebellion was rightbut then the god(s), as Bryce rightly
points out, are always on the side of the victor. The official
records never tell us of a bad king, but we do hear about the
coups which were often bloody. Perhaps because of this
seeming contradiction, Bryce compares the Hittite royal court
to that of Byzantium.
Chapter 7, on marriage, brings some surprises to those
not familiar with Hittite society. The Hittites were quite
modern in there marital views. Pre-nuptial agreements were
common and divorce was not uncommon. Moreover divorce
could be initiated by the woman. The disposition of the
children were of particular concern. Marriage was a contract
between the two families and the transfer of property its main
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concern. The rights and obligations of both the man and

woman were spelled out in the Laws. A girl (or boy) could not
be compelled to enter a marriage against his or her will.
Widows were provided for and they could disinherit her sons if
the son didnt care for her. Levirate marriages were allowed,
but it seems more for the care of the widow than the carrying
on of the husbands family name.
The Laws dealing with divorce are fragmentary but seem
to concern property and child custody. Grounds for divorce are
not spelled out, but this may have appeared in the marriage
contract. Between partners of equal status all children but one
went to the wife and one to the husband. Both men and
women could equally begin divorce proceedings and property
and children divided equally regardless of status.
The process leading to marriage began before the
betrothal when a gift was given to the girl by the boy. At
betrothal he gave a more substantial gift to her family. The girl
received a dowry from her father and this remained her
property throughout the marriage, but the husband controlled
it; it only became his if she died before he did. Interestingly,
the Hittites had both patrilocal and matrilocal marriages (about
which Bryce says very little). With the latter, if there were
children and the wife died in her fathers house, the children
received the dowry not the husband.
In theory, adultery was a capital offense and two clauses in
the Laws speak to it. Punishment of the guilty parties,
however, seems to have been left to the aggrieved. For
example, if a husband caught his wife with another man (the
reverse is not mentioned), he could kill them both and it
would be a crime of passion (128). However, he had to kill
them at the time not later. Later, he would have to take the
matter to court and here he could only ask for the death of
both his wife and her lover, not just the lover. Alternatively,
he might also come to a financial arrangement with the other
man.
While most if not all of society was probably monogamous
with the possible exception of levirate marriage, this was not
true of the royal family clearly engaged in polygamy.
In Chapter 8, The Gods, we find that the Hittites were
excessively polytheistic. Everything had its resident god, and
the gods of conquered people were transferred to them much
as the Romans entreated the Etruscan gods to go to Rome.
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They boasted of being the people with a thousand gods and

with all the adopted gods there was a high degree of religious
tolerance. Despite the plethora of gods, over half of the
surviving prayers are to solar deities and Bryce compares the
Sun god to Mesopotamian gods, particularly to the Babylonian
Shamash but makes no comparison to other IE gods. The
Hittites lacked a religious text such as the Bible or even Rig
Veda. Late in the empire the powerful Queen Puduhepa,
perhaps in conjunction with her son Tudhaliya IV, tried to
bring order and reform to the religious system, but it is unclear
to its success.
While the Sun god seems to be omnipresent and
supreme, there is no indication of monotheism. Aside from
the Sun god, the Sun goddesses adopted from the Hattic
people who were goddesses of heaven and the underworld
were of great importance. The Sun goddess of Arinna was the
most important. The Storm god, who predates the Hittites, was
the Supreme lord and protector of the Hatti. Depicted with ax
and lighting bolt, he kept order and could unleash the
elemental forces. From the Old Kingdom, the Storm god of
Hatti and Sun goddess of Arinna were the paramount couple
in the Hittite pantheon (145), but various offspring were also
worshipped and sometimes acted as intermediaries to the
higher gods. The Hattic name for the Storm god was Taru
(Luwian/Tarhunt-,
Hurrian/Teshub,
Akkadian/Adad,
Ugaritian/Balu), and he shared characteristics with the Old
Testament, Yahweh, as well as Zeus, and Jupiter. Each group
even thought of him as a universal god but specific to them.
They were each the chosen people. With the adoption of
cuneiform each local god used the Mesopotamian ideogram for
Storm god. Bryce speculates this duality was a result of
unresolved traditions of invading Indo-European peoples with
the autochthonous population and compares this to a similar
situation among the Greeks
The Hittite temples were much like medieval
monasteries, primarily they served the deity but also had
economic and educational concerns. The temples were houses
of individual gods, and the gods were summoned by ritual.
There were rigid restrictions for those who prepared and
served food within the temples; they needed to be very clean.
Absolute cleanliness in food preparation (again fear of
contamination) was required and punishment for lack of
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cleanliness was to drink urine and eat excrement or worse

death. This also applied to someone who failed to report the
transgression. Death was the punishment for theft of the
gods food. Since it was believed that a person with a disease
could contaminate, objects they touched had to be burned
even if not a disease such as the plague.
Gifts were commonly presented to the temples and
certification of these gifts from the temple authorities were
strict, but Bryce claims theft was common and relates it to the
trafficking in antiquities today.
Images of dead kings might appear in temples but rarely
live kings. The gods were represented as mortals, sometimes in
bronze, gold, silver, iron or even precious and semi-precious
stones. Descriptions of these statues have come down to us but
none has survived, except for a few on cylinder seal
impressions and a few reliefs such as at Yazlkaya, where the
gods are recognized by size and appearance which are
different from mortals.
Chapter 9, The Curers of Diseases, tells us that there was
a hierarchy of doctors, but we know nothing of their training.
However, they probably could read and write as there are texts
on many ailments and magical texts that would have been
used. Physicians were international as in other parts of the
ancient world and were often lent out. We have several letters
to Ramesses II requesting medical help. Mesopotamian and
Egyptian doctors came to the Hittites on a number of
occasions thus we can conclude they were better doctors and
medical texts from Hattusa based on Babylonian texts.
Egyptian and Babylonian medicine was particularly well
thought of. When all else failed the gods were called upon to
cure, and often the roles of doctor and priest overlapped or at
least there was a collaboration.
While most were male some female physicians are known.
Women were particularly prevalent in healing and restorative
rituals as well as midwives and incantations for wellness,
particularly for newborns. Rituals were used for chronic or not
well understood ailments, e.g. impotence and barrenness.
Surprisingly, we do know that the standard fee was three
shekels of silver but more for royal appointees.
Death, Burial, and Afterlife is the subject of Chapter 10.
The death of the king was the great catastrophe. His death
was followed by 14 days of ritual and then cremation of the
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body and offerings and libations to several gods were

performed. On the sixth day the bones were taken to a house
of stone and followed by a funeral banquet that included fresh
baked bread and roasted meat as well as slaughtered animals
for the afterworld. After death, the king became a god and was
thus worshipped.
Cremation and inhumation rites were both found as at
the Osmankayas cemetery that contained more than 200
burials, but some cemeteries, e.g. Kazanskaya, had only
inhumations. Along with cist and ground burials, pithoi were
employed. The use of pithoi was apparently a lower class burial;
the old practice of burial under house floors was still in
evidence. Royal burials were always cremationat least during
the New Kingdom.
Bryce compares the burial rite with that of Egypt but
doesnt discuss IE burial except for a brief mention of
Mycenaean inhumation.
The Hittites, like other IE people, believed in the
afterlife. It was a subterranean realm and again Bryce compares
this with the Near East and remains silent on other IE people.
The Underworld goddesses Istuslaya and Papaya were originally
Hattic but likened to the Greek Morai who spun the thread of
a mortals life. The afterlife resembled several traditions and
was thought of as a lush meadow as described in Homer and
much like the Egyptian Field of Reeds or Gardens of Paradise
in the Koran.
Chapter 11, takes up the subject of Festivals and Rituals.
With so many gods, it is not surprising that there were many
festivalsup to 165 on the official calendar and some lasting
days but others just hoursimportant ones weeks. This put
pressure on the economy and personnel. Chief among the
festivals were the four major festivals. One spring festival for
the Sun goddess of Arinna, the chief female deity of the
Hittites, lasted 38 days and was adopted from Hattic.
The ritual site of Yazlkaya was used by the Hittites at
least from 1600 BC. Yazlkaya was most likely only used
occasionally as it was carelessly constructed. Several indications
suggest this site had to do with death and burial (both
inhumation and cremation). This would be consistent with the
wide belief that this was the site of the New Year celebration.
Tudhaliya IV is the only human depicted at the site, and it may
have been his tomb, hekur.
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Chapter 12 deals with our limited knowledge of Hittite

Myth. With all the Hittite gods and rituals, its not unfair to
believe that the Vanishing god myths and the two versions of
Illuyanka must only be a few of their myths, and that there
must have been others that have not survived. Others that
have survived are in fragments. Unfortunately, texts are often
broken off at crucial points as with the story of Zalpa and her
30 sons and 30 daughters, but it picks up and eventually ends
on an historical basis. Bryce suggests that it may tell the story
of the coming of the IE people around the end of the 3rd
millennium BC but discounts the supposition that it is the
Amazon tale of Greek myth. The Vanishing god myth
undoubtedly was preceded by ritual and used to explain the
effects of often disastrous weather, unlike the myth of
Persephone and Demeter which explained regular cycles.
It is from religious festivals that we find native Anatolian
myth. Those that were foreign in nature were set down in
Hittite texts by professional scribes probably by way of scribal
schools. The Hurrian myths of Kumarbi father of the gods
was most likely the most important foreign element. It is from
one of its songs, Theogony, that there is a close comparison
between Kumarbi and Kronos. Other parallels with Greek are
the battles between Teshub-Ullikummi and Zeus-Typhon
which are both fought at Mt. Hazzi/Kasios. It is not clear how
close the Hittite version is to the original Hurrian which in
turn is based on the Mesopotamian version.
Chapter 13, The Capital, describes the city according to
Neves and Bittels excavations and there is mention of some
of the more recent finds, particularly inscriptions.
Although Hattusa was first destroyed by Anitta during the
pre-Hittite Assyrian Colony period, it was rebuilt a century
latter probably by Hattusili I. There were five phases of the
city, but Bryce concentrates on the 3rd and 4th when it was
the seat of the Hittite empire. In 1360 BC, Hattusa was sacked
and burned but Suppiluliuma I saved the day and the New
Kingdom and most glorious time began its 4th phase. The city
was completely rebuilt. Suppiluliuma was preoccupied with
military affairs and the city he left to his son Mursili may have
been in a state of disrepair, and population suffered from the
plague. Mursili was also occupied with military campaigns. His
son, Muwatalli, moved the capital south to Tarhuntassa but
Hattusa was restored as the capital a few years later. At nearly
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the end of the kingdom under Tudhaliya IV the capital

reached its finest point and the city reached its final shape.
Under him the design and execution took place. Also the
Yazlkaya sanctuary was built. Twenty-one temples were placed
in the upper city confirming its sacred character. It had clearly
been planned and not just allowed to grow as the Old, Lower
city, had. Temples had similar design and layout but differed in
size. Most of the temples were built in the last decades of the
kingdom possibly in an attempt to pacify the gods. Hattusa by
the last century of its existence had become a sacred,
ceremonial city according to Neve. But Bryce takes exception
to this conclusion and points to other ancient cities with
numerous religious complexes.
The rebuilding of Hattusa was meant to impress, much as
Washington DC was designed to do. Singer suggests that the
new fortifications were meant to impress the gods more than
holding off attacks. The Temple of the Storm god was
enormous, many times larger than other temples. Food
shortage may have occurred because laborers were taken off
the land to build the city.
Bryces last chapter details many of the well-known links
between the Near East and Greece. Certainly we know there
was abundant trade (the Ula Burun shipwreck) which would
account for many of these similarities. Near Eastern people
traveled to the Greek world and told their storiessome
similarities are too close for coincidence. Near Eastern ritual
practices appear in Homer. The introduction of writing drew
Greeks into the Near Eastern literary world, and Bryce quotes
Martin West a strong proponent of Near Eastern influence on
Homer. There was also the westward movement of craftsmen
and merchants from the Levant in the Late Bronze Age.
Linear B text seems to confirm this. This last chapter
mentions IE only in passing, and links are only given to the
Near East. There, of course, is the problem that only the Near
East had literature but a look to the archaeology might suggest
other links. It is this lack of linkage with other IE groups that
I find the weakness of this study. At times it appears that Bryce
is purposely ignoring these connections. While he connects
the Hittites with the Greeks, there is little if any attempt to
link them with other IE people. Burial practice alone provides
linkage, but here it is necessary to look at both the
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archaeology and other IE literature (see Jones-Bley 1997 and

2002).
The book would have profited from better illustrations
and binding. The pictures are murky and the discussion of
Hittite sphinxes could use a picture. While Fig. 7 is interesting
as it shows Yazlkaya from a distance, it is quite unclear. The
same is true of Fig. 14, the Temple of Storm god. Figure 9 of
the 12 gods at Yazlkaya is particularly poor. When describing
the city a better or more detailed map would have been
helpful. Nevertheless, this book provides another important
contribution in our knowledge of the Hittites.
References
Bryce, Trevor
1998 The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Clarendon Paperbacks.
Jones-Bley, Karlene
1997 Defining Indo-European Burial. In: Papers in Memory of Marija
Gimbutas: Varia on the Indo-European Past. Miram Robbins Dexter
and Edgar Polom (eds.). (Journal of Indo-European Monograph
Series, No. 19), Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man,
194-221.
2002
Indo-European Burial, the Rigveda, and the Avesta. In: Complex

Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC.
Karlene Jones-Bley and D.G. Zdanovich (eds.) (Journal of IndoEuropean Studies Monograph Series 45), Washington, D.C.:
Institute for the Study of Man, 68-81.
Karlene Jones-Bley
Linguistics
Adolf
Erhart.Ausgewhlte
Abhandlungen
zur
indogermanischen
vergleichenden Sprachwissenschaft. Herausgegeben von Bohumil
Vykypl. bersetzt von Iris Kneisel. Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kova,
2006. (PHILOLOGIA Sprachwissenschaftliche Forschungsergebnisse
87.) ISSN 1435-6570. Pp.426.
This volume contains 24 articles on various topics of IndoEuropean linguistics published by Adolph Erhart (1926-2003),
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professor at the Masaryk University (Brno). They were

selected predominantly from the later periods of his scholarly
life (80s and 90s); the majority of them are in German (with
one in French and one in Czech). In my critical survey of the
volume I will above all concentrate on A. Erharts tackling of
some of the perennial issues in IE linguistics based on his
command of the vast literature from Eastern Europe and Russia
which is not so well known in North America.
Section I. Generalia contains four papers dealing with the
aims of comparative linguistics, classification of languages, and
the origins of the IE languages and their relationship to other
language families. The latter paper (co-authored with A.
Lamprecht in 1967) hypothesizes the existence of two archaic
phyla (Grossfamilien) to account for the linguistic diversity of
Europe, Mediterranean area and Western Asia: Eurasian (NeoEuropean) and Mediterranean (Paleo-European). The authors
suggest that the IE language family arose by the secondary
expansion of one member of the Eurasian phylum (hence the
common features with Semitohamitic and Caucasian
languages); the Uralic family arose by the secondary
expansion from another member of the Eurasian phylum. The
southern group of Caucasian languages continues one of the
members of the Mediterranean phylum (while the northern
group is a typical relict of an archaic phylum). The hypothesis
of the origin of the Semitohamitic languages in the
secondary expansion from the Mediterranean phylum has
more recently been overcome in numerous publications on
Afro-Asiatic/Afrasian (Hamito-Semitic) languages. The cradle
of this phylum was definitely in East Africa (most likely in
North Sudan) with the only branch (Semitic) expanding to
the Middle East. In their speculations about the Caucasian
languages the authors rely on a number of very little known
publications by Russian and Caucasian scholars (N. D. Andreev,
G. B. Dzaukjan, A. Klimov, G.I.Maavriani).
A later ambitious paper (1976) deals with the glottogeny
of the IE languages under two methodologies: differentiation
and integration. The former explicates well the dispersal
from the original homeland. Within the Eastern area the
Proto-Ionians reached the Aegean litoral ca. 2000 B.C.; the
Indo-Aryan tribes had to travel a longer distance and reached
the Gangetic plains during the 14/13th c. BC; and we are in
the dark about the earlier migrations of the Thracian tribes.
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About 1200 B.C. some of them (accompanied apparently by

certain Proto-Illyrian tribes) moved to Asia Minor. The
mixture of their dialects (of both centum and satem
characteristics) gave birth to Phrygian whose written
documents seem to represent three different languages (cf.
Haas 1960). Another Asia Minor language, Armenian, permits
one to distinguish the Thracian base (i.e. the East IndoEuropean base of common features with Indo-Iranian and
Hellenic), Phrygian, Anatolian and ultimately Iranian
components. The integration with (or rather the dialect
mixing within) the Anatolian component must have been
quite complex (the speakers of Proto-Armenian came into
contact with Luwians, Hurrians and Urartians). (More
recently, I. M. Diakonoff (1984) identified the speakers of
Proto-Armenian with the tribe of Muki who reached the
valleys of the Upper Euphrates in the second quarter of the
12th c. after having destroyed the Hittite empire).
Section II. Phonologica et morphonologica features 12 papers
on the IE phonological system (esp. consonants), accent and
laryngeal theory. The number and variety of the issues in
these papers (written in the 70s through 90s) permit me only
to comment on a few of them. The paper on the role of the IE
accent (1975) is interesting in connecting accent with the
enlargement of the IE root. The latter was claimed to serve
mainly the purpose of the renewal of the durative Aktionsart.
A. Erhart based his proposal(s) on the situation in the Old
Indo-Iranian aorist marked originally by the accent on the
root-final vowel (the type yunakti joins - aorist ayujat). He
observed that in most cases the C2 represented actually the
enlargement of the root (yunak-ti x yu-ti; krnt-ati cut, aorist
akrt-at x kerv; bhinat-ti split x OCSl bi-ti beat; limp-ati
smear, aorist alip-at x Latin li-n; etc.). The root-enlargement
CV carried the accent (CR(A) : CAR(A)C) and implemented
thus in a number of instances the semantic opposition
diffuse/imperfective : compact/perfective. CAR(A) and CARCA were
ultimately perceived as two different roots and the primary
aspectual opposition was lost (hence the postradical accent of
the OIA conjugation VI tud-ti strike). The relationship
between the IE thematic aorist and variously marked present
formations can be explained by the loss of the iterative
meaning inherent in the roots with nasal infix. According to
A. Erhart (p.173), during the first phase of this development
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171
there was an opposition between the unenlarged root

(imperfective) and its enlarged variants (perfective): YAU YUG; during the second stage the enlarged root became the
marked member of the multilateral opposition: YAU
(imperfective) - YUG (perfective) - YUNG (iterative); and
during the last stage the enlarged variant YUNG assumed the
place of YAU as an exponent of imperfectivity (while YUN was
earlier lost): YUNG (imperfective) - YUG (perfective). The
latter form, *CC is ancestral to the thematic aorist, while its
ablauted variant *CoC became the spore (Keimzelle) for the
IE perfect. (A. Erhart developed these and other ideas in his
major work Das indoeuropische Verbalsystem (1989)).
In Section III. Varia there are several stimulating papers
on the prehistory of Slavic languages and several perennial IE
problems (affixes and prepositions). Erharts thinking about
the ethnogeny and glottogeny of the Slavic family
developed over years, crystallized in several presentations (esp.
in 1985) and was influential in Lamprechts (1987)
authoritative presentation of this involved issue. Central to
Erharts thinking (p. 304) is the formative pre-Slavic phase
(ca. 700 BC - 300 AD) marked by a relatively intensive
contact with the archaic Scythian (Iranian) dialects. During
this phase pre-Slavic differentiated itself from other ProtoBaltic dialects maintaining, however, the character of a
conservative IE language. (The two preceding phases, ProtoBaltic (1500-700 BC) and West Indo-Germanic (3000-1500
BC) are characterized as Proto-Baltic and Proto-European
continua, respectively). The formative ethnogenetic process
of individual Slavic nations took place during the Proto-Slavic
phase (300-1000 AD) marked by fundamental innovations in
phonology which made their incipient national languages
incomprehensible to other (Proto-)Baltic dialects. In his
discussions of integration processes in the Balkans one would
like to learn more about the Slavic, Roman, Greek and PaleoBalkanic layers in the glottogeny of Albanian, labeled relic
language (p. 294). Erhart did not comment on E. Hamps ideas
(1976, 1978) that there was an Albanoid family extending
north of the Balkan mountains, stretching westward from the
Ukraine as far as northern Albania. (E. Hamp (1966) also
pointed out that there is a fundamental isogloss linking
Albanian, Baltic and Slavic languages and setting them apart
from the eastern (Indo-Iranian and Hellenic) and western IE
172
Reviews
languages (Germanic, Italic and Celtic), namely the fact that

they continue the IE aorist as the basis for their preterite but
form their past active participle from the perfect stem).
The short paper Zur Morphologie der indogermanischen
Prpositionen (1987) examines the constant renewal of the
prepositional/postpositional inventory necessitated by the
constant erosion of their phonological material. Two types of
the renewal process are distinguished (i) the freezing of case
forms (Erstarrung/Hypostasierung), and (ii) compounding. An
important distinction is that of primary/seconday/tertiary
prepositions/postpositions. Erhart maintains that the primary
postpositions of PIE are actually compounds of postpositions
(deictic CV-elements) and various endings, such as /, -(t)i,
-ter, and frequently -s (as in *eg(h) ~ *eg(h)-s > k ~ j, Latin
ex). There are some controversial reconstructions in his list of
14 PIE prepositions. There is no need of *ugh (p. 312) based
on Lithuanian uz, Slavic vz- from; these forms can be traced
back to *ud-s (the adverbial particle ud on high is
documented in Sanskrit ut, Gothic ut- and Slavic vy-). Its
counterpart, ni downward, is not included; and the privative
preposition, *beghi without, is reconstructed only on the
evidence of Sanskrit bahh. and Slavic bez (one could add Old
Prussian b(h)e). Another privative preposition can be
reconstructed on the basis of Sanskrit sanutr, Greek neu,
Latin sine, German ohne, Tocharian sne/ai: *(s)nh 1(e)u ~ *(s)nh 1
i (cf. Beekes 1995: 221).
In his 1995 paper on the IE s and its substituents the
author makes an interesting observation on the source of the
aorist marker -s (the two current hypotheses are either the
root *es- esse (Bopp, Meillet, Watkins) or an epenthetic
consonant (Kurylowicz 1977:76-82)). Erhart, starting from the
priority of aspect over tense, observes the parallelism between
the aspect and number (with nouns), and compares imperfective
(> present) and perfective ( > aorist) with the number
indifferent and singulative. The formal identity obtains
between the IE perfective ( > aorist) and the singulative form
of animate nouns ( > nominative singular) in that both are
marked with the suffix *-s.
The last (and the only paper in Czech) deals with the
etymology of the ethnonym ech Czech (published in Slavia
67 (1998): 289-294). There have been some 20 etymologies of
it so far. Erharts old/new proposal starts with the familiar
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173
parallelism with the ethnonym L<ch Pole (archaic Russian

) whose earlier form contained the nasal (cf. Lithuanian
lnkas Pole). The Old Russian derived adjective
,
Hungarian lengyel and Middle Greek Legzenioi indicate that
L<ch is a shortened form of *land in l<dnin inhabitant of
fallows. Slavic l<do fallow can be traced back to the IE root
*lendh (land in Gothic, etc.) whose original meaning low
lying flat land (quoting Merlingen 1978:72). As a counterpart
to * l<dnin/lex *inhabitant of a lowland Erhart postulates
an existence of inhabitant of a hilly country and reconstructs
its form *elnin (the IE root *kel protrude, high is seen in
Lithuanian klti lift, klnas hill, Latin ex-cell, collis , OE hyll,
etc.). Its shortened hypocoristic form ch would arise in the
same fashion as * l<dnin > l<ch. A propos the existence of
the antonyms lowlander - highlander in the Slavic world
Erhart mentions plausible parallels such as Lithuanian
Zemaiai (zmas low) versus Aukstaiai (ukstas high) and
Moravian Dolan versus Horan, and speculates that it could be
the Moravians who called their western neighbors esi, i.e.
(z)horci highlanders, (trans)mountaineers. Surprising is
the absence of the ethnonym Czech in the early Latin
documents of the 9th c. by the Frankish chroniclers (here
Sclavi, qui vocantur Bohemi, etc.) or even in Kosmas chronicle
(12th c., Bohemus). The earliest attestation of the ethnonym
ech in Czech written documents appears as late as the 14th c.
in Dalimils chronicle.
The volume is equipped with Adolph Erharts biography
(pp. 349-398) by Bohumil Vykypl, the editor of the volume,
and the bibliography of his writings covering the period of
1951-2006 (pp. 399-420).
References
Beekes, Robert S. P.
1995
Comparative Indo-European Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Erhart, Adolf
1989
Das indoeuropische Verbalsystem. Brno: Univerzita J.E.Purkyn
1998
Odkud mme jmno ? [Where does our name come from ?] Slavia
67, 289-294.
Haas, Otto
1960
Die phrygische Sprache im Lichte der Glossen und Namen.
Balkanksko ezikoznanie 2:25-68.
174
Reviews
Hamp, Eric
1966
The position of Albanian. Ancient Indo-European dialects, 97-122.
Berkeley.
1976
On the distribution and origin of vatra. Opuscula slavica et
linguistica, 201-10. Klagenfurt.
1978
Strunga. Balkansko ezikoznanie 20:115-19
Diakonoff, Igor M.
1984
The Pre-History of the Armenian. Delmar, N.Y.: Caravan Books.
Kurylowicz, Jerzy
1977
Problmes de linguistique indo-europenne. Wroclaw. Prace
j<zykoznawcze. 90.)
Lamprecht, Arnot
1987
Praslovantina [Proto-Slavic]. Brno: Opera Universitatis
Purkynianae Brunensis. Facultas philosophica. 266.
Merlingen, W.
1978
Ueber eine Bedeutungsverzweigung im indogermanischen
Lexikon. Indogermanische Forschungen 83:40-106.
Vit Bubenik
Department of Linguistics
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St.Johns, NL
Canada A1B 3X9
Languages in Prehistoric Europe. Edited by Alfred Bammesberger

and Theo Vennemann, in collaboration with Markus
Bieswanger and Joachim Grzega. (Series: Indogermanische
Bibliothek.) Heidelberg: Universittsverlag Winter, 2003. Pp.
364.
The volume contains the papers read at a conference that
took place at the Katholische Universitt Eichsttt in Germany
on 4-6 October 1999, with the addition of a few papers
submitted by invitation of the editors. The issue of the
linguistic prehistory of Europe is not new, but in the last two
decades the interest has been rekindled, and we have seen a
number of individual publications as well as proceedings of
scholarly conferences and meetings (see, among others, the
papers in JIES nos. 17, 18, 19, Markey and Greppin 1990,
Drews 2001, and others).
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175
The volume opens with a few remarks by Michael MeierBrgger (pp. 11-16), summarizing the main points presented
at the conference and pointing out the directions for further
research. The rest of the papers can be grouped into two
categories: those that discuss possible interrelations and
interactions among various historical (viz. attested) languages
of Europe (Indo-European and non-Indo-European), and
those that deal with the substrate theme.
Four papers deal with matters Greek: Klaus Strunk
(Vorgriechisch/Pelasgisch: Neue Erwgungen zu einer
lteren Substrathypothese, pp. 85-98) tackles the question of
Pre-Greek or Pelasgian substrate as suggested for instance
by Georgiev, van Windekens, and others. After reviewing a few
cases (supposedly representing such substrate material), e.g.
Gk. sw /w, sga, slaw, etc; and tmbow/ tfow, mbrow/
frw, etc. he concludes that we are here dealing with
phenomena of heterogeneous origin and/or order. Some must
be labeled as loans of unknown origin (of the type of Eng.
dentist/tooth), some others of certain substrate origin, and
various other items of genuinely Greek origin (see also
Morpurgo Davies 1986: 108). Oswald Panagls contribution
(Paralipomena zur vorgriechischen Substratforschung, pp.
99-103) comes als Funote zum methodenkritischen Vortrag
von Klaus Strunk (Panagls phrase, p. 100), since it addresses
the same issue, adding a few remarks mainly of methodological
nature, especially with regard to Otto Haas substrate theory in
Greek. For instance, doublets of the type blow / palw, zvrw
/ zlow, yvmw / dmow (dmow), etc., or derivatives from the
root *lei- with or without a prothetic vowel and with an IE (=
Gk.) oi vs. pre-Gk. ai vocalism point to two strata: one Greek
and another pre-Greek, strata which perhaps represent two
varieties of Greek speech, one of the ruling elite and the
other of the language of the commoners, or even two
different varieties of the same object. In his paper (IndoEuropean or Substrate? ftnh and kruj, pp. 109-115) Robert
S. P. Beekes explains the two words as substrate words,
suggesting that we must give up the traditional etymologies
from IE *bhendh- and *krHu- (or the like) respectively.
Onomastics, and particularly place names, have provided
from the beginning a fertile ground for discussions of
substrate relics and survivals in older (IE and non-IE)
languages. This has been particularly intense in the case of
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Greek, something that goes as far back as Pott, Fick, Meyer,

and Kretschmer and continues quite vividly to our days. If we
rely on onomastics in drawing conclusions about linguistic
prehistory, we run into a large number of difficulties;
nevertheless, place names may have something special to tell
us about substrate features in the historical languages. In this
spirit moves the brief contribution by Thomas Lindner (Das
Problem der vorgriechischen Toponymie, pp. 105-108). The
author attempts to devise criteria for determining what is not
of IE provenience (1. absence of appellatives, 2. items with no
etymology, 3. items characterized by typical suffixes for the
Aegean substrate). There is also another type of word that
points to a substrate with typical prefixed characteristics, i.e.
doublets of the type Grai/Lgura, Pyow/Lpiyow,
Mnyow/Kmunyow, Larnassw /Parnassw, etc. (all place
names).
Three papers deal with the languages of the wider Baltic
and Slavic area: On the basis of the etymology of Lith. lkas
and ON slag (pp. 245-252), Dirk Boutkan tries to identify
influence on IE from a North European substrate. His solution
is that we probably have a root of the shape *slV(n)K- from
which, with various substitutions of the initial s-, we could
explain all forms in Germanic and Baltic allegedly deriving
from it. Frederik Kortlandt (An Indo-European substratum in
Slavic?, pp. 253-260) proceeds to a commentary on 45
etymologies that were suggested by Holzer (1989) as evidence
for an unknown IE substratum language on Baltic and Slavic
(which he calls Tamematic). On the basis of a number of
phonological features (e.g., voiceless aspirates, loss of
glottalization and the rise of voiced obstruents, etc.), this
substrate language seems to have existed after the move of
the Graeco-Phrygians into the Balkan peninsula and the
subsequent move of the ancestors of the speakers of Germanic
to the West. As stated by Kortlandt (p. 260) ...it is important
to note that it [viz. the presence of Tamematic, GKG] fits
our picture of the original Indo-European dialects very nicely.
There follows a paper by William R. Schmalstieg (An isogloss
uniting Baltic, Slavic, Germanic, pp. 261-278), in which it is
argued, contra Gamkrelidze & Ivanov (1995: 345), that
there may be a connection between the existence of
oblique cases in *-m and the lack of a nasal in the *-o stem
neut. nom.-acc. sg. in Baltic and Slavic (p. 261), but there is
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177
no Germanic evidence of *-m in the *-o stem neut. nom.-acc.

sg.
The origins of and the interrelations among the Italic
languages are discussed by Helmut Rix (Ausgliederung und
Aufgliederung der italischen Sprachen, pp. 147-172), whereas
the linguistic prehistory of ancient Hispania is covered by the
paper of Jrgen Untermann (Zur Vorgeschichte der
Sprachen des alten Hispanien, pp. 173-181).
A number of papers deal with the linguistic situation in
the North-West Indogermania and Europe: Norbert Oettinger
(Neuerungen in Lexikon und Wortbildung des NordwestIndogernanischen, pp. 183-193) discusses 68 roots that in
one way or another show certain innovative features in lexical
or morphological survivals in NW Indo-European. These roots
are divided into two major groups, first those that are obviously
innovations of NW IE, and then those which show innovations
(in meaning and/or phonology, in combinations of root +
affixes, in root-variations, or, finally, supposedly non-IE roots).
All these are very interesting and point the way one should
move in this direction and into more geographical areas, with
detailed documentation and discussion of the relevant
material. Such a research project would hopefully reveal
interesting facets of Indo-European dialectology, of groupings
and subgroupings, and of possible sub- and/or adstrata in the
different areas. The ultimate goal of this project could be the
writing of a substratum grammar of Indo-European. Peter
Schrijver (Early developments of the vowel systems of NorthWest Germanic and Saami, pp. 195-226) addresses three issues
that in the end seem to support his claim for a Northern
European substratum language. This account explains a
number of etymological and/or phonological correspondences
between Finno-Saamic and Indo-European, especially NorthWest Germanic and Saami vowel systems. The three seemingly
unrelated issues addressed are the Germanic Auslautgesetze,
phonological parallels between Early North and West
Germanic and Saami, and the possibility of a non-IndoEuropean substratum language in Northern Europe, which
would serve as the background of the similarities between
NWGmc and Saami.
Two papers focus on the IE-Uralic connection. Over the
years, Jorma Koivulehto has perhaps produced the richest and
most systematically treated evidence for the early contacts
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between IE and Finno-Ugric (see, for instance, his 1991 book

Uralische Evidenz fr die Laryngaltheorie, or his collected essays
under the title Verba Mutuata of 1999, and many others). In
his contribution here (Frhe Kontakte zwischen Uralisch und
Indogermanisch im nordwestindogermanischen Raum, pp.
279-317) Koivulehto provides further evidence for early
contacts between Uralic and Indo-European in the NW IndoEuropean area. These contacts, he says, go as far back as the
proto-languages but they also continue later on between the
historical languages (IE and Uralic) in both directions from IE
to Uralic and from Uralic to IE. As expected, such contacts are
especially frequent on the level of lexical borrowings. Petri
Kallio (Languages in the Prehistoric Baltic Sea Region, pp.
227-244) tries to identify prehistoric cultural complexes of the
Baltic Sea region as reconstructed by archaeologists with
linguistic groups as reconstructed by linguists. Admittedly, the
experiment is risky and, without going into the details of the
argument but summarizing the views of various scholars on the
matter, Kallio offers an interesting synthesis which can have
its own worth as a potential explanation, but it seems that it
remains ambiguous and questionable. Kallio, however, goes
into some more details in his 2004 work, where his
argumentation and findings are more complete and
convincing.
The volume closes with two papers by Theo Vennemann:
Languages in prehistoric Europe north of the Alps (pp. 319332), and Syntax und Sprachkontakt: Mit besonderer
Bercksichtigung der indogermanischen Sprachen des
Nordwestens (pp. 333-364). In these, the author develops his
familiar thesis with regard to the Semitic susbstrate in the
languages of (Western) Europe. The linguistic evidence for
this theory is too vague and too speculative to merit serious
consideration, and the archaeological evidence is left to the
specialists to be evaluated. The second paper is the only one in
the collection that deals with syntax. The syntactic features
discussed in it are seen in the context of the substratum
theory, and Vennemann suggests both theoretical and
methodological tools for approaching the matter. The basic
problem investigated here is word-order in Indo-European: was
IE an SVO, SOV or VSO language? As parallel cases the non-IE
languages Akkadian and Amharic are also presented. His
conclusion is that we are dealing rather with free word-order in
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179
older IE and, as time goes on, this changes into more

consistent and less free word-order in the historical languages
under the influence of substrate as well as superstrate
languages (a good modern example for this is provided by
English). Thus, the development of the syntactic systems of
the individual Indo-European languages is the result of a
combination of many factors: internally motivated changes and
changes brought about by contacts of the Indo-European
languages with non-Indo-European languages. The problem is
that the syntactic phenomena cannot be described by rigorous
rules as in other levels of language study, namely phonology or
morphology. As a consequence, syntactic change is hard to
capture in well-formed and accurate formulations.
Two papers have a theoretical and methodological
orientation. They are Colin Renfrews Time Depth,
Convergence Theory, and innovation in Proto-Indo-European:
Old Europe as a PIE linguistic area (pp. 17-48), where the
author stays within his earlier theory of language-and-farming
dispersal, this time suggesting the Balkans (an area identified
by Gimbutas as Old Europe) as a secondary convergence area
for the IE languages, but insisting that the original homeland
was in Anatolia. His argument seems to rely on the linguistic
situation, albeit no linguistic evidence is used, but only as a
general, abstract and rather vague theoretical model. In order
for this discussion to have substance, it needs to be anchored
on specific and real linguistic data; theoretical models are
good, but proof is better. The other paper of this type is by Ivo
Hajnal
(Methodische
Vorbemerkungen
zu
einer
Palaeolinguistik des Balkanraums, pp. 117-145). On the basis
of a number of isoglosses Hajnal explores the possibility of
some sort of Sprachbund in the Balkan area during the Bronze
Age, viewed within the framework of Gimbutas kurgan
hypothesis (e.g. the vocalization of word-final laryngeal *-ih2
as *-i). His conclusion is that such an idea cannot be
supported by the data, since we seem to operate with both
inherited and innovative features that create a rather complex
picture. What we could do instead is to indicate certain points
of contact (Kontaktverwandschaft), e.g. the use of */-si/
instead of */-su/ in the loc. pl., or the possessive suffix
*/-eiio-/, and similar things, and map in this way certain
features of the dialect geography of the area.
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The question as to whether, using linguistic and other

evidence, we can reconstruct proto-cultures alongside protolanguages is an old one, and one on which opinions differ.
Alexander Husler addresses this very question in his richly
documented contribution under the title Urkultur der
Indogermanen und Bestattungsriten (pp. 49-83). Husler
sides with the school of the sceptics on this issue. His case
study is the burial tradition of Indo-European and, after a
rather succinct and detailed discussion, he concludes by saying
that An IE culture in a proto-homeland is but a fiction.
From a methodological point of view it is clearly erroneous to
seek a connection of a culture of the IE in a protohomeland with a certain racial anthropological type (p. 72).
He seems to disagree with Gimbutas wave-theory of the
expansion of the Indo-Europeans from their proto-homeland
in the steppe area, adopting rather the wave-of-advance model
propounded by Renfrew and others, as regards the spread from
some center of the Indo-European language and culture.
Some general remarks and prospects. The volume represents
an effort to investigate the very interesting, intriguing and
difficult question of the linguistic prehistory of Europe.1 Such
efforts are significant and have their own merit. On the other
hand, we believe that in spite of the merits of such
contributions, little has been added at the end of the day in
comparison to the total ocean of the unknown. A case in point
is Greek: despite the long tradition of research on the
substratum of Greek, the issue is still quite nebulous, and we
can imagine how much harder it is for scholars to identify such
substrate or adstrate influences in less-studied languages. One
wonders what else can be done in order to break the shell of
mystery that the prehistory of language keeps in secrecy. In
other words, we would like to suggest that we need an
organized and coordinated interdisciplinary research effort by
One would perhaps be more correct in saying that the issue here is much
wider than just the linguistic prehistory. The uncovering of relics of substrate
features in the languages of ancient Europe concerns the cultural, the
ethnogenetic and the glottogenetic prehistory of Europe, something that
goes far beyond the scope of this collection, although relevant questions are
raised and in part addressed.
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181
a group of researchers who will cover the whole area, if not of

Indo-European, at least of the linguistic prehistory of Europe.
One approach is to do a typology of the linguistic
evidence of the pre-Indo-European substrate of the languages
of Old Europe as carried out by Huld (1990). However, one
difficulty here (which becomes a real danger) is, like in all
taxonomic systems, the lumping together of all sorts of
heterogeneous and unrelated items, whose IE provenience we
are unable to prove. This would be in the best case misleading
and in the worst disastrous. A further complication might be
whether we are dealing with a center from which a spread (=
migration/split) took place or with a spread zone. In the latter
case we cannot be very optimistic about an immediate solution.
Before taking the next step, one needs to establish accurate
filtering devices in order to identify with the highest possible
degree of accuracy what is not Indo-European, and then
proceed to a typological classification of the sort suggested by
Huld. In other words, we need to upgrade and refine the
etymological method in such a way and to such a degree that
labels of the type of unclear origin, unknown etymon etc.
are reduced to a minimuman accomplishment which, I fear,
remains quite distant. In this context one question arises: is
this typology possible if we rely on linguistic data alone? This
question becomes even more pressing when such a typology is
aligned with semantics: how are formal and semantic features
put in line? At this level things become complicated and one
returns to the starting point, running the risk of moving
round a circle. And it is at this point that the whole issue turns
interdisciplinary, i.e. it falls within the common ways of doing
business in Indo-European studies. One point seems
undeniable: the linguistic prehistory of Europe presents a
remarkably complex picture, with many layers of linguistic and
cultural phyla which coexisted for some time and/or which
were superimposed upon each other in certain areas. We need,
then, to establish a linguistic stratigraphy of the area to be
studied and then move on to some kind of typology of the sort
mentioned earlier. Is this possible today? The answer is both
yes and no, depending on the specific area we address.
Another direction for future research on this problem
would be of a sociolinguistic nature. The pre-IE substratum may
be due, to some (undetermined and indeterminable) extent,
to intermarriage of Indo-European (male) speakers with
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(female) speakers of local non-IE languages. It would be

interesting and productive to orient research on this area to
material that is more likely to reflect this intermarriage fact,
e.g. household items, and the like. (For some ideas on this
point, see Darden 2001: 219ff.). Zimmer (1990a, b) speaks of
the so-called colluvies gentium and the snowball system, i.e. the
possibility of formation of new societies and linguistic
communities by means of gathering together of an originally
heterogeneous group of people of different backgrounds,
origins or linguistic identities, their gradual integration, and
the ultimate domination of one of these linguistic groups over
the others but with the survival of many features from the
collective. Such might be the story of the genesis of many
languages of Old Europe (see also the remarks by Polom
1990: 333, and by Thomason and Kaufman 1988: 111). This is
also what sociolinguistics and anthropology teach. All these are
interesting topics to be dealt with in the future, but for now
the situation remains quite dim.
In conclusion, much of what this volume contains is
speculative, but just as much stands on solid grounda familiar
state of affairs for prehistoric research. And to this end this
volume is a significant contribution. One simply hopes and
wishes for far more work in this direction.
References:
Campanile, Enrico (ed.)
1983
Problemi di sostrato nelle lingue indoeuropee. Pisa: Giardini.
Darden, Bill
2001
On the Question of the Anatolian Evidence of Indo-Hittite. In:
Drews, Robert (ed.). Greater Anatolia and the Indo-Hittite Language
Family, 184-228. (JIES Monograph Series, No. 38). Washington,
D.C.: The Institute for the Study of Man.
Gamkrelidze, Thomas V. and Vyaeslav V. Ivanov
1995
Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans. Berlin and New York:
Mouton de Gruyter.
Heubeck, Alfred
1961
Praegraeca: Sprachliche Untersuchungen zum vorgriechischindogermanischen Substrat. Erlangen: Universittsbund.
Huld, Martin E.
1990
The Linguistic Typology of the Old European Substrata in North
Central Europe. JIES 18.3&4: 389-423.
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Kallio, Petri
2004. Studia Indo-Uralica. The Early Relations between Indo-European and
Uralic. University of Leiden Ph.D. Dissertation.
Katiic, Radoslav
1976
Ancient Languages of the Balkans. The Hague: Mouton.
Lehmann, Winfred P
2002
Pre-Indo-European. (JIES Monograph Series, No. 41). Washington,
D.C.: The Institute for the Study of Man.
Mallory, James P.
1989
In Search of the Indo-Europeans. Language, Archaeology and Myth.
London: Thames & Hudson.
Markey, Thomas L. and John A.C. Greppin (eds.)
1989
When Worlds Collide. Indo-Europeans and Pre-Indo-Europeans. Ann
Arbor: Karoma Publishers, Inc.
Morpurgo Davies, Anna
1986
The Linguistic Evidence: Is There Any? In The End of the Early
Bronze Age in the Aegean, G. Cadogan (ed.), 93-123. Leiden: Brill.
Polom, Edgar C.
1989
The Indo-Europeanization of Northern Europe: The Linguistic
Evidence. JIES 18.3&4: 331-338.
Schlerath, Bernfried
1973
Die Indogermanen. Das Problem der Expansion eines Volkes im Licht
seiner sozialen Struktur. (IBS Vortrge und Kleinere Schriften 8).
Innsbruck: Institut fr Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft der
Universitt.
Thomason, Sarah G. and Terrence Kaufman
1986
Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley /
Los Angeles / Oxford: University of California Press.
Windekens, van A.J.
1952
Le Plasgique. Essai sur une langue indo-europenne prhellenique.
Louvain: Publications Universitaires, Institut Orientaliste.
Zimmer, Stefan
1990a Ursprache, Urvolk und Indogermanisierung. Zur Methode der
indogermanischen Altertumskunde. (IBS Vortrge und Kleinere
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1990b The Investigation of Proto-Indo-European History: Methods,
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Georgios K. Giannakis
Department of Linguistics
University of Ioannina
GR-451 10 Ioannina, Greece
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David Stifter, Sengodelc: Old Irish for Beginners. 2006. Syracuse:

Syracuse UP. $45.00 ISBN: 0815630727. xii 391 p.
The last year and half has seen the publication of three
new introductory handbooks of Old Irish: McCone 2005,
Tigges 2006, and the book under review (Stifter [henceforth
S] 2006). Each of these is a fine work in its own way. McCone
presents a systemic overview of grammar with topical chapters,
e.g., a chapter on phonology and orthography, a chapter on
the nominal declensions, a chapter on the forms of the
substantive verb and copula, etc. Each chapter has several
short passages taken from ancient texts, although the passages
are difficult enough so that the book will be tough going for
the absolute beginner. Especially useful is McCones lengthy
chapter on Middle Irish. Tigges bookthe shortest of the
threeis a handy overview of the language, and because
Tigges teaches in a program that also includes Modern Irish,
his book may be the best for students familiar with the spoken
language, to which forms of the ancient language are
frequently compared. Still, of the three books, Ss is probably
the best suited for the beginner. Its lessons are carefully
graded, its presentations are unusually thorough, and its
passages for translation are exceptionally well chosen.
Moreover, because Ss book has extensive discussions of the
pre-history of the language, it will be most useful for readers of
this journal.
Like E. G. Quins Old Irish Workbook (1975)a book
which has been the only truly serviceable introduction to the
language for over a quarter centuryS structures his book
around a series of translation sets: twenty sentences in Old
Irish (to be translated into English) followed by phonetic
transcriptions followed by similar English sentences (to be
translated into Old Irish). However, despite this pedagogical
similarity, Sengodelc is quite different from Quin, and a closer
examination quickly reveals those differences. Ss book is far
more comprehensive with a complete glossary, paradigms, and
extensive discussions. The order of presentation also differs (S
introduces the preterit far earlier than Quin), as does the
discussion of formsand even the sentences for translation
are new. While Quin mostly made up sentence in a simplified
Old Irish, S has, whenever possible, taken sentences directly
(or with slight changes) from Old Irish texts. The source for
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each sentence is cited, and a simple notation marks whether

the text has been simplified or not (the glosses, Strachans
Tain and the Immram Brain are among the texts heavily
quoted). To offset these more advanced translations, S has
added a large number of workbook exercises: fill-in-the-blank,
the translation of verbal complexes, declension of word lists,
etc. In addition to the translation sets and exercises, short
poems and prose passages for translation are also scattered
throughout the book.
The book falls into fifty-eight chapters, the first of which
introduces the Celtic languages, giving a brief overview of
Indo-European and brief discussions of Gaulish, Celtiberian,
and the other Celtic languages. A second chapter continues
this general introductory material with a discussion of early
Irish and a brief survey of Ogam. Chapters three and four
begin the study of the language in earnest by going over the
phonological system of Old Irish, describing the problems of
Old Irish orthography, and introducing the system of initial
mutations. After these preliminary discussions, the book
establishes a rhythm where chapters fall into broad groups of
three (occasionally more) chapters with a chapter on nominal
morphology, a chapter on verbal morphology and a chapter of
Varia containing odds and ends and the translation sets.
Hence, although the book in hand has more chapters than
Quin, it has far fewer translations sets (sixteen as opposed to
Quins forty). Phonetic transcriptions are given for all the
prose passages, poems, and sentences for translation and for
many examples in the discussions as well. English translations
for all the Old Irish translations, Old Irish translations for the
English-to-Irish exercises, and answers to all the other
workbook exercises are given in an appendix of Solutions. In
addition to the Solutions, the final appendices also contain
Abbreviations, Selected Bibliography, Further Reading,
Wordlist, and Tables.
Despite Ss claim to have produced a work that is selfexplanatory without making reference to a classical language
(p. xi), his presentation offers extensive historical analysis
throughout. True, the book makes only occasional reference
to Greek and Latin and has no systemic historical phonology,
but the presentation of data is thoroughly diachronic. Many
aspects of Irish phonology are scattered throughout the book:
especially good are his discussions of syncope (p. 49), and
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palatalization and depalatalization (p. 49, 79 f. etc.). Moreover,

the treatment of historical morphology is unusually complete.
For most morphological categories we are presented with
multiple column charts giving the prehistory of each paradigm.
Thus, for the o-stem masculine noun ech horse (p. 43 f.) we
have the Old Irish paradigm in columnar form, next a column
of Primitive Irish (*euah, *eu, *eu , *euan etc.), then a
column of Proto-Celtic (*ekuos, *eku, *h1 ekuosio, *eku i -
- , *ekuom etc.), and finally a column of Proto-Indo-European
forms (*h1 ekuos, *h1 ekuos[io], *h1 ekui -oh1 -d, *h1 ekuom
etc.).
Similar charts are given for all nominal classes and most
verbal forms (the imperfect is a notable exception: S does not
attempt a reconstruction here). Certainly, in some cases he
does little more than give the briefest sketch, e.g., after giving
the Insular Celtic reconstructions *-mi, *-si, *-ti, etc. versus
the conjunct *-m, *-s, *-t, etc. S says little more than [the
absolute and conjunct distinction] has nothing to do with the
distinction between primary and secondary endings in PIE, but
is the result of a special Insular Celtic development: early loss
of inherited final short -i, but retention of the vowel before
enclitic particles (p. 69). No attempt is made to discuss the
large number of problems with this oversimplified scenario,
although reference is made to some of the bibliography in the
section on Further Reading (p. 319). No doubt, some readers
will want more of the historical analysis, but many will want
less, and S has chosen a good balance in providing enough of a
historical overview to explain the unusual structures of the
language.
In addition to the historical charts, S gives abstract
patterns of each morphological category, and these are
extremely helpful. For instance, the singular of the o-stem
noun is schematized this way:
Nominative
Genitive
Prepositional
Accusative
Vocative
{L}C
{R}CL
{R}(u)CL
{L}CN
CL
The one especially odd bit of usage is that instead of the

traditional term Dative, S has opted to call this case the
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187
Prepositionalcertainly one can see why, but in a broader

sense, the introduction of new terminology should be used
sparingly, and this term does not seem to offer any clear
pedagogical advantage. The {L} and {R} represent the
(possible) lowering or raising of the preceding vowel. The
(u) represents the u-insertion common in the prepositional
(i.e. dative) singular. The C represents the final consonant
with the apostrophe designating palatalization and the final
superscripts representing L(enition), N(asalazation) or
(A)spiration of the following consonant (S uses the term
aspiration to refer to the insertion of h-before vowels; students
should be aware that some older grammars use the term
aspiration to refer to what we now call lenition). Note that all
historical and abstract charts are accompanied by extensive
prose explanations.
For the verbal forms, the same abstract patters are
especially helpful. Overall, the discussions of the verbal system
may be the most useful aspect of the book. The presentations
of the preterit (p. 199-205, 213-220), and the perfective
preverbs (p. 250-256) are extremely clear and thorough, as is
the extensive overview (both synchronic and diachonic) of
the subjunctive (p. 265-278). Overall, much of this discussion
is based on McCones work on the verb (especially 1997, but
see also 2005), and S follows him in dividing the verb in three
groups: W(eak), S(trong), and H(iatus).
I can make only a few negative comments about the book
as a whole. There are a few typosmost significantly in the
solutions to exercisessuch as 13.3 #14 (p. 330) Dont kill
troops a warrior, which is not English; or p. 139, 26.3 #5, frisna
rrgai which is translated as a plural to the queens (p. 339); or
p. 172, 35.2#17, where nddlegat mn is translated as a
singular: a woman is not entitled (p. 344); or p. 352, 45.6
#15, he did translating bebais died (p. 223) etc. S uses
thou for the singular second person and you for the plural,
but occasionally he forgets, thus exercise 22.4 #2 You follow
(p. 109) is translated as Lenai (p. 336). Occasionally, the crossreferencing of passages could be clearer; presumably, in some
earlier version, the text was divided into a smaller number of
much longer chapters, so that at some points S says in the
next lesson (e.g. p. 119, similar at p. 199), but then refers to
a topic which is not discussed until several chapters later.
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The vocabulary, which all but closes the book, is adequate,

although it lacks cross-references for many common verbal
forms which may confuse a student trying to track down a
difficult form, e.g., tochair fell is listed only under dotuit,
although this, and all such forms, are explained in the prose
sections of the book (e.g., on p. 219). More serious is the lack
of any vocabulary drills or even chapter-by-chapter lists of
important lexemes. Ss approach is simply to throw the
students into the translation and have them look up each
word. Pedagogically, it would be better to have some systemic
approach to learning the most common words in the Old Irish
corpus.
Finally, I should say something about the sheep.
Scattered throughout the book are these odd little
[h]umorous ovine illustrations (p. xi), to quote Ss own
characterization. At first, I found them a bit silly, but they grew
on me as I read through the text: many of themwith their
brief captions in Old Irishare quite funny. Ultimately,
however, there is no way to write a book Old Irish Made Simple,
and no amount of fancy graphics or cute illustrations can make
up for the inherent complexity of the language. Still, in the
end, this book is a wonderful addition to the slim (but
growing) shelf of usable introductions to Old Irish. The overall
format of the book is excellent. The charts are unusually clear
and well-printed, and the explanations are in general lucid and
well executed. This book will be a great asset to anyone trying
to teach or learn Old Irish.
References
McCone, Kim
1997
The Early Irish Verb. 2nd ed. Maynooth: National University of
Ireland.
2005
A First Old Irish Grammar and Reader: Including an Introduction to
MiddleIrish. Maynooth: National University of Ireland.
E. G. Quin
1975
Old Irish Workbook. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.
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189
Tigges, Wim in collaboration with Feargal Barra

2006
An Old Irish Primer. Nijmegen/Mnster: Stichting Uitgeverij de
Keltisch Draak/Nodus Publikationen.
Miles Beckwith
Iona College
Mythology and Culture

Michael J. Enright. The Sutton Hoo Sceptre and the Roots of Celtic
Kingship Theory. Dublin/Portland, OR: Four Courts Press. ISBN:
1-85182-636-x. 387 pp. NP
The sceptre found in the important Sutton Hoo royal
burial site in East Anglia is a puzzle. About two feet long, the
main body of the artifact is a four-sided hone or whetstone,
topped by an iron ring which is in turn topped by a bronze
stag. Eight human heads are carved into the stones surface,
four at each end, and the stone also ends in two bulbs or balls
(once painted bright red). The royal figure buried with the
Sutton Hoo treasure was a Saxon (German) king, and the
presumption has been that the sceptre was emblematic of
Germanic kingship. This conclusion, says Enright, is wrong:
the sceptre was created by Celtic artisans, and represents the
culmination of perhaps a thousand years of Celtic kingship
ideology. This book is his exhaustive attempt to enunciate,
explicate and buttress that point of view.
To introduce this significant new perspective on this
object the author, without becoming overly polemical, sets
aside the Germanic argument and begins to set up his
specifically Celtic parallels, which will be extensive and
multiform and, in the main, persuasive. These include the
well-known and important Celtic head-cult, certain Celtic
divinities and their activities and attributes, other Celtic ritual
whetstones, and what he sees as a Celtic influence on other
objects found at Sutton Hoo, in particular the so-called parade
shield boss. Most pertinent, however, will be the connection
he constructs with (continental) Celtic artifacts and materials
dated to the La Tne period, and most specifically to the nowfragmentary Pfalzfeld pillar (probably a royal grave-marker)
dating from that era. The relationship between the pillar and
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the whetstone are central to his proceeding argument: the

sceptre, he avers, descends from La Tne though one may
detect influences from even farther afield, especially from
Etruria. The two stones are then conjoined or related in his
third (and shortest) chapter, The language of stone, where
Enright elegantly lays out his technique for allowing us to
read the sceptre as a document. This takes him, and us, from
the sceptres carved heads, to the wider theme and
significance of the torced or chained head, to the
confection of whetstone, speakers tongue, and sharp or
whetted words, on to the point where he introduces two
important Celtic (insular) deities, Ogma and his brother, the
egregious Dagda, who are known to us in the Irish myth-tales,
and who will return later and in extenso.
The author gets down to cases with his fourth and fifth
chapters, more than two hundred pages in all, making up, one
might say, a sizeable monograph and with no internal
divisions. This might be a problem for some readers, for
Enright moves through an astonishing, even efflorescent array
of material and the topics these materials expose (only some
of which Ill have space to identify here) but I must admit that
I, as a reader, was drawn on relentlessly from point to point,
partly by the authors enthusiasm, partly by the sheer mass and
array of his sources, and even when I was not quite convinced
by his ultimate conclusions.
In Sound, fire, water and wind in the sceptres vision of
kingship we are introduced again to the privileged position of
the smith and to a key magico-technical conception of
kingship especially shown in the iron-casters iconic furnace,
but also the smiths involvement in the combinatory concepts
of speech, sun, and metal, or fire, speech, judgment and
lordship and (apropos of the sceptre) the combination of
stone and metal. In fact a central notion of the book (and a
fortiori of this long chapter) is the Celtic conjugation of king
and craft (the point is iterated and reiterated). Along the way
we have animal associations (bird, horse, stag), the
assumptions and powers of the poet, and the whole wheel
complex sun-wheel, chariot-wheel, the rotation of the sun
and the kings ceremonial rotation that claims his territory,
the direction of the wind or winds. One image that is often
repeated is the centrally significant fire below, fire above
(the iron-smiths furnace below and the orb of the sun above,
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connected by ascending smoke or in a more abstract or

metaphysical vision by an imaged axis mundi or a World Tree).
Nor is poetry lacking: Sailing on these windy vectors comes
the solar bird-man (237) an elevated image that would
almost seem to show that the author has himself flown up into
the empyrean, but when read in its context makes sense.
The second long chapter, The pillar, the sceptre and the
good god returns with much more detail to the language of
stone and to the La Tne period Pfalzfeld monuments
antecedents, as well as its penumbra of signs and significances,
and its reverberations in the Celtic world a millennium later.
Specialists more knowledgeable than I am may or may not
accept (and certainly will argue over) Enrights view of the
Etruscan influence on La Tne, though it certainly is true that
in the Mediterranean world associations between furnaces,
kilns, hearths and sexuality were commonly seen. I might
remark that the sacral/fertility aspect of kingship is not one
that Enright over-emphasizes, though he has some intriguing
insights on the Celtic fertility goddess as successor to the kingmaking smith (why, we might ask? Especially as Christianity was
gaining sacred ground in Ireland?). The author also brings in
other sceptres and pillars, and meditates on the hearth and its
meaning, even its phallic meaning all connected to the
fiery coming of kingship or a kingship born in flames
(bringing in Irelands luciferous Saint Brigit along the way).
We have more nets or chains of association constructed, woven
or linked, and I couldnt possibly list all of these. I do want to
remark, however, on a source Enright uses, in this chapter, in
which I have a special interest, and that is C. J. Lynns work on
Navan Fort.
Here in Ulster (this is Emain Macha of the Ulidians) a
very large (250 meters in diameter) circular wooden structure
was put together about 100 B.C.E., and then was
ceremoniously set on fire. A quantity of stones and then a
layer of turves and earth was deposited on the ashes to create a
huge mound, still very impressive to this day. This ritual
conflagration would have been a most dramatic illustration of
Enrights notion of the fire below (the Navan fire also
included a central post-axis, and this all has a certain
resemblance to that hostel or bruig, also burnt, of Irish mythtales, where the death of the king is accomplished). Navan
Fort (as it is called today) almost certainly was used as a royal
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installation mound but there are, however, no remnants

connecting the large site to the activity of smiths. On the
other hand, Enright might want to pay attention to the
nearby Kings Stables pool, a manmade depression 10 meters
across and two meters deep, a site which probably was used for
sacrifice and where a new, hot king might have been
bathed or even quenched.
What I think is amply demonstrated in Enrights big book
is how precisely to tackle Celtic religio-political phenomena
(such, of course, as kingship) and that is to emphasize, as he
does, links, nets, tentacles, ever-crossing webs of meaning
the multidimensional and the multiform, in brief. This is a
disciplinary field dependent on sources that we might say
resist, even reject, ordinary linearity and the straight line of
inquiry, which is why the authors very long key chapters seem
to work as well as they do, luring us on to new connections and
novel or un-obvious permutations. This may be the place to
mention that Enright sees no particular utility in bringing in,
or up, a Dumzilian trifunctional approach, and in fact makes
this point in his analysis of Lynns work on Navan Fort (full
disclosure: I was one of those who encouraged Lynn to adopt,
or adapt, the Dumzilian moyen danalyser). For Enright to use
a trifunctional approach in this present study might either
help him to sort and organize his material, or on the other
hand might oversimplify the analysis, but to look at N. J.
Allens quadripartite or even quintipartite suggestions for
expanding the original functionalism of the French master
might clarify, for example, such a complex figure as the Dagda,
whose divine powers are so multiple and even contradictory
(typically, in fact, for a Celtic divinity). We can recall the
problems that arise because the interpretatio romana demanded
that we cut and delineate categories and so establish a
factitious clarity of outline.
I should note that one question that the authors
extensive, thorough, and imaginative investigation raises but
does not answer, except obliquely, is of course why a Saxon
king (and that seems to be established) would display and
even ritually emphasize a piece of regalia embodying, even
boasting, a vivid projection of Celtic kingship theory. Enright
says that the kings East Anglian audience (his subjects, that
is) must have included Celts as well as Germans, but to use and
to believe in the traditional potency of such an royal artifact
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surely indicates that the Celtic presence was not only, at this
time, large but might have been dominant, and this situation
in turn attaches to or complicates the various arguments about
the effect of the Germanic invasion of the island and the
replacement (or non-replacement) of Celtic culture there.
Others may argue this point, which is not at all a minor one.
But setting aside those few places in this book where his
arguments seem to stretch the data too much, demanding
unlikely, over-complex readings (where one might say that a
quick shave with Occams Razor might not go amiss), and
forgiving an occasionally awkward passage (Enright is usually or
unusually an energetic and lucid writer, and not at all given to
jargon or obfuscation) I find this an admirable and, in the end,
a most valuable study. I say this because it is a book that raises
nearly as many questions as it answers is provocative in the
best sense of the word and shows clearly how very unclear,
shadowy, shifting and elusive (and yet undeniably powerful)
were the foundations and manifestations of the whole
complex of kingship in the Celtic thoughtworld a
conjugation of images of power and iconic representations we
still do not completely understand.
Dean Miller
Champlin, Edward. Nero. Cambridge, MA/London: The

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0-67401192-9 (pbk). 346 pp.
The nature and essence of power as it was perceived in
pre-modern polities continues to be a matter of scholarly
attention and concern, and perhaps no more pregnant topic
within this general rubric is the imperial formation, a
culmination of notions of sacred, supreme rulership or
kingship, or of absolute sovereignty. Then within this topic
there arises the fascinating phenomenon of the bad ruler
the ruler whose evil propensities move him toward near-mythic
status. And so we come to Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus that is, to Nero.
Nero, the well-known monster, is here granted a sort of
revisionist treatment, which we might describe in capsule form
as Though he did have his mother murdered, and kicked his
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pregnant wife to death, nevertheless he was a skilled citharode

and had a pleasant tenor voice. We could set out such a
statement, but probably it would be a mistake, for Champlins
work is not so baldly perverse, and in many ways will richly
repay close attention and at least a temporary suspension of
faith in the accepted opinions about this ruler, the last of
the Julian line of emperors.
In eight chapters (The Once and Future King, Stories
and Histories, Portrait of the Artist, The Power of Myth,
Shining Apollo, Saturnalia, One House, Triumph) plus
an Epilogue, the author himself relies heavily for his chapter
topics on the incidents showing the evil character Nero was
given in the Roman sources, especially Suetonius, Dio Cassius,
and Tacitus, each with his particular style and special approach.
It is Champlins task, then, to either modify or to contradict
what we know. That is, Neros general reputation as a lunatic
tyrant is belied by the fact that he seems to have been highly
popular even after his death (the opinion of the Roman crowd
is very important in Champlins treatment); his boasted artistic
triumphs were based on genuine gifts and talents; his solar
pretensions were explicable by the general acceptance of
powerful ouranal symbols; his strange displays of sexual
behavior was Saturnalian (that is, he was dedicated to
showing the power of reversal and the power of a good
show), his Golden House was simply a house open to all; his
triumphs, celebrated though he never saw active military
service, merely extended patterns already seen in Roman
ceremony. Champlin, setting this pattern of reversal and
revision, even begins his book with Neros ending, the
emperors tawdry suicide, and, in his Epilogue, sets out the
details of the book he did not write.
There is no question but that the sources, and especially
the three authors listed above, are hostile to Nero but,
together with some information gained from fragmentary
narrative evidence and to some extent from archaeological
finds, this is all that we really have in order to form a judgment
of his reign and of his character. This book, however, is not so
much a biography of the man and the ruler, but a description
of a persona the Nero created by Nero, which can only be
re-created by the closest possible examination of the evidence,
hostile as it is to him. Partly this can be done by indicting
those who, some considerable time after his reign, wrote down
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their estimations of him, adding a good dollop of malicious

gossip and, in the case of Tacitus, betraying this authors
republican bias that naturally was opposed to Neros imperial
poses. Partly the balanced re-estimation of Neros acts and
attitudes demands a knowledge, an acceptance, of Roman
reality the revivification of cultural attitudes, or a collective
psyche, or simply patterns of thought.
Obviously the author cannot ignore the sources, but he
can show inconsistencies, the effect of bias, or downright
falsification. And he must do some complex and sometimes
convoluted analysis of this or that particular incident so as to
emerge with what we might call the more likely scenario.
Sometimes, I regret to say, Champlins line of approach
produces what has to be called a nave, even a risible passage:
for example, in competing in the Greek Pythian games Nero
was (according to this author) absolutely punctilious in his
behavior toward the judges, following protocol to the letter.
The judges, not being total idiots, awarded him first prize
that is, awarded the prize to the man who commanded twenty
legions, and whose mere whim could have made Greece a
desert and its people slaves. Nero may have been a
Grcophile, but there are limits even to this sort of
enthusiasm.
In another passage the author hypothesizes that the
destruction of the Temple of Luna in the burning of Rome
caused the emperor to order the bodies of Christians to be set
alight in his estates extensive gardens to light up the night
again (123). One does not have to be a moral absolutist (or a
Christian apologist) to see either obscene calculation or true
madness here especially if Nero knew perfectly well who had
set the fire. To go on: the death of Poppa Sabina was a
tragic accident. We must mourn the loss of Neros own plays
(perhaps, but these plays could, of course, have been rotten).
And did he really love the people of Rome? His bizarre public
liaisons, even the weddings celebrated with castrated slaves
or male prostitutes were, in Champlins reading, less erotic in
character than dramatic (in fact there is a great deal of the
wildly dramatic in Neros behavior, and Champlin is certainly
right in emphasizing his ferocious creativity). By and large, if
a particular act or incident involving this emperor can be
explained either by megalomania or by adroit manipulation for
dramatic effect, Champlin chooses manipulation every time,
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manipulation with an eye toward drama. On the other hand,

there was nothing but cold political calculation in the order
that caused the death of his younger brother Britannicus by
poison; Britannicus existence threatened him, and that was
that.
In one chapter Champlin performs a neat dramatic
reversal of his own, and that is in regard to the great fire of 64
AD, a fire that destroyed large parts of Rome and caused great
suffering and many thousands of deaths. The usual sources
blame the emperor for starting the blaze (though Tacitus isnt
sure), and after outlining the well-known Suetonian and
Cassian biases and their twisting of evidence and the
emperors own exculpatory behavior (the charge against Nero
was exacerbated by the accusation he laid against the Christian
community, who of course have vilified him as the archpersecutor ever since) the author comes to his own
conclusion: Nero did have the fire set. He did this, however,
for the best of reasons: in order to rebuild Rome and especially
to erect, in an area cleared by the fire, the prime sign of his
Golden Age, the Domus Aureus, the magnificent palatial
structure called the Golden House not, Champlin says, the
closed, inward-oriented, sacred precinct of the Hellenistic
kings, but the one house built for all the Romans and open
to all Rome.
If we set aside the fire, the scandals, the profligate
spending, and a few murders, the core of Champlins study has
to do with the emperor as, obsessively, an actor. Here
Champlin is almost too persuasive: that Nero had a great talent
for assuming roles, for converting even the most terrible
crimes into dramas in which he could play the center like his
melding of the murder of Agrippina (and suspicions of incest
with her) into his own star turn, on the stage as Oedipus. The
author is equally persuasive at explaining Neros manipulation
of the past (his pose as the heir of both Octavian and Mark
Antony, integrating in himself the two strains of revolution
in Rome), and his adaptation of solar signs, association with
particularly resonant deities (Apollo, Hercules), and his
interest at least in the symbols of deification Champlin does
not think that Nero thought of himself as a living god, nor did
the emperor want others to think him one. The last word has
certainly not been said on this problem.
Reviews
197
Biography is always a risky enterprise, perhaps the riskiest

of any historical undertaking, and that risk is very visible here,
for the subject of the biography can entrance, beglamor, the
biographer. Has that happened in this case? In the end
Champlin says that he had not tried to justify [Neros] actions
of to rehabilitate his character which of course is thoroughly
disingenuous Nero emerges from Champlins text as a more
interesting figure one might say as a good actor rather
than a bad actor and as neither a fiend nor a madman,
which has to be an improvement for his reputation. He strove
to give his subjects The Greatest Show on Earth, and he
succeeded for a time, even if he bankrupted the state,
distorted the fabric and bases of the imperial office, and
caused a political crisis that took years to repair. In the end this
is careful, honest revisionist history, solidly researched, usually
well written, if with a sly touch of the perverse and the
contrarian in it.
Dean Miller

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REFERENCES:
References should follow the following formats:
Books
Puhvel, Jaan
1987
Comparative Mythology. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins
Press.
Edited Books
Birnbaum, Henrik and Jaan Puhvel (eds.)
1966
Ancient Indo-European Dialects. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California.
Article in edited book

Watkins, C.
1966
Italo-Celtic revisited. In: Birnbaum, Henrik and Jaan Puhvel (eds.)
Ancient Indo-European Dialects, 29-50. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
Article
Sarianidi, Viktor
1999
Near Eastern Aryans in Central Asia. Journal of Indo-European
Studies 27: 295-326.
The Journal of Indo-European

Studies Monograph Series
1133 13th Street, NW, C-2, Washington, DC 20005
www.jies.org, email IEJournal@aol.com
Telephone 202 371-2700, FAX 202 371-1523
Proto-Indo-European Syntax:: The Order of Meaningful Elements
Monograph No. 1 By Paul Friedrich
The Argument; AN; NG; Comparison SA~AS; MC (RC; SVO; Homeric Greek
and PIE as Greenbergs III; NG; SA~AS; MC ( RC; SVO; Preverbs and
Prepositions the Locative Auxiliaries; The Eurasian Type III Linguistic
Area; Armenian; Iranian (1) Old Persian; Iranian (2) Avestan; Indic and
Dravidian; Anatolian and its Area; A Special Digression Tocharian Syntax;
The Crucial Evidence of Italic (e.g., Latin); The Evidence of Old Irish; From
PIE to Old Irish; Proto-Slavic; Conclusions Overview; The Trichotomization
of PIE; Diachronic Perdurability; Recapitulation; Methodological Postscript
Indeterminacy in Syntactic Derivation.
ISBN 0-941694-25-9
1975 (1996), Pages 76, Paperback: $18.00
Linguistic Reconstruction::
Its Potentials and Limitations In New Perspective
Monograph No. 2 By Henrik Birnbaum
Linguistic structure entities, levels processes; Methods of reconstruction;
Diachrony reconstruction and prediction; Grouping genealogy and
typology; Phonological reconstruction; Morphological reconstruction (and
the nature of linguistic change); Syntactic reconstruction; Semantic
reconstruction; Distant genetic relationship and typology toward the
reconstruction of preprotolanguages the case of Nostratic; Linguistic
change and reconstruction.
ISBN 0-941694-26-7
1977, Pages 78, Paperback: $20.00
Homage to Georges Dumzil

Monograph No. 3 Edited by Edgar Polom
Jean Haudry: Comparative Mythology and Comparative Philology; Jaan
Puhvel: The Warrior at Stake; Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense; Udo Strutynski:
From Swords in the Earth to the Sword in the Stone; C. Scott Littleton: A
Possible Reflection of an Alano-Sarmatian Rite of Passage in the Arthurian
Tradition; Bruce Lincoln: Places Outside Space, Moments Outside Time; Alf
Hiltebeitel: Brothers, Friends, and CharioteersParallel Episodes in the
Irish and Indian Epics; Franois-Xavier Dillmann: Katla and Her DistaffAn
Episode of Tri-Functional Magic in the Eyrbyggja Saga?; J.C. Rivire: The
Three Counsels; T.L. Markey: The Cosmology of Lear and His Daughters;
Eric P. Hamp: Beowulf 2863a [g].
ISBN 0-941694-28-3
The Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series
201
Essays In Memory of Karl Kernyi

Monograph No. 4 Editor, Edgar C. Polom
Edgar C. Polom: Karl KernyiA biographical sketch; Edgar C. Polom:
Some thoughts on the methodology of Comparative Religion, with special
focus on Indo-European; R. Panikkar: YamaA Myth of the Primordial Man;
Frithjof Hallman: The Labyrinth; Mythology and landscape; Hellmut
Sichtermann: Kernyis humanistic approach to ancient religion; Johannes
Kleinstck: Mythical night and night of a myth; Furi Jesi: Reflections on the
Pseudo-Euripidean Rhesos; Godo Lieberg: The Theologia Tripertita as an
intellectual model; Geo Widengren: Was Not Then Our Heart Burning in
Us?; Hans Peter Isler: The animal frieze in archaic Greek art.
ISBN 0-941694-20-8
The Evolution of Indo-European Nomenclature

For Salmonid Fish::
The Case of Huchen (Hucho Spp.)
Monograph No. 5 By A. Richard Diebold, Jr.
Preamble Dramatis Personae; Novel referents conceptual and lexical
gaps, and lexical-semantic change; Novel faunal species; Filling lexical gaps;
Ethnoscience and folk biological taxonomy; IE Salmonid semantic
domains and word-fields; Salmonid referents what are the Salmonids?; A
metaterminology for Salmonids; Indo-Europeans and Salmonids huchen
etymologies; Slavic Bighead Hungarian Galca; Czech Siven as Gray(Fish);
Serbocroatian Mldica; German Lurker? Taunter? Jughead; Rumanian
Lostrita; Russian Taiment; Russian Cevica Goi; Huchen Hypernymy;
Bibliography.
ISBN 0-941694-24-0
Essays on Germanic Religion

Monograph No. 6 By Edgar C. Polom
Introduction; The Indo-European Component in Germanic Religion; Some
Comments on Vlusp, Stanzas 17-18; Divine Names in Indo-European;
Germanic Religion; Postscript.
ISBN 0-941694-34-8
1989, Pages 148, Paperback, Illustrated: $30.00
Perspectives on Indo-European Language, Culture and Religion
Volume 1: Studies in Honor of Edgar C. Polom

Monograph No. 7 Edited by Roger Pearson
Mohammad Ali Jazayery: Edgar C. PolomA Biographical Sketch; Homer
Thomas: Indo-EuropeanFrom the Paleolithic to the Neolithic; Emily Lyle:
Markedness and Encompassment in Relation to Indo-European Cosmogony;
V. N. Toporov: Indo-European *egh-om (*He-gh-om) *men-. 1 Sg. Pron. Pers.
in the Light of Glossogenetics; Hans Henrich Hock: On the Origin and Early
Development of the Sacred Sanskrit Syllable OM*; G.A. Klimov: The
Kartvelian Analogue of Proto-Indo-European *sumb(h)o- spongy, porous;
Vitaly Shevoroshkin: On Carian Language and Writing; F. Villar: The
Numeral Two and Its Number Marking; Onofrio Carruba: Searching for
Woman in Anatolian and Indo-European by; H. Craig Melchert: Death and the
Hittite King; Jos Weitenberg: The Meaning of the Expression To Become a
202
Wolf in Hittite by; Pierre Swiggers: The Indo-European Origin of the

Greek MetersAntoine Meillets Views and their Reception by mile
Benveniste and Nikolai Trubetzkoy; K.R. Norman: As Rare as Fig-Flowers;
Guy Jucquois: Rgles dchange, voeux monastiques et tripartition
fonctionnelle; Wolfgang Meid: Ethnos und Sprache.
ISBN 0-941694-37-2
Apollo the Wolf-God

Monograph No. 8 By Daniel E. Gershenson
Apollo and the Wolf; Evidence for the Wind-wolf; The Wolf-name in
Toponymy; Heroes of Greek Myth who bear the Wolf-name or partake in its
wider context; The Dolphin and the Wolf; The Wolf and Death; Werewolfconfraternities and wind evidence; Epilogue; The Stoic Explanation of the
epithet Lykeios; The Trial of Old Thies, 1691; Lykos and LykeiosNotes
toward a theory of the forms of ancient Indo-European religiosity; Indexes.
ISBN 0-941694-38-0

Kenneth G. Zysk: Reflections on an Indo-European Healing Tradition; Peter
Buchholz: Ancient LoreOral Tradition in Medieval Scandinavia;
Dominique Briquel: Twins and Twins in the Legend of the Founding of
Rome; Elmer Seebold: Was Haben die Germanen unter einer Braut
verstanden?; Stephan Zimmer: On Language GenesisThe Case of Afrikaans;
Joe Salmons: Northwest Indo-European Vocabulary and Substrate Phonology;
Hans F. Nielsen: Continental Old English and S-Plurals in Old and Middle
Dutch; Daniel Dubuisson: Les enjeux dune exegse; Franoise Bader: Boire
de leau; Norbert Oettenger: Der Wolf im Helmbrecht; Karl Horst
Schmidt: Zur Vorgeschichte des Keltischen und Germanischen; Riccardo
Ambrosini: On The Wanderer and The Seafarer Once Again, but from a
Numerological Point of View; Viktorija N. Jarceva: The Problem of
Existence of the Literary Language in Anglo-Saxon Britain; Rgis Boyer: Sur
la construction dsgardr.
ISBN 0-941694-39-9
1992, Pages 256, Clothbound: $50.00
The Glottalic Theory::

Survey and Synthesis
Monograph No. 10 By Joseph C. Salmons
The Prehistory of the Glottalic Theory; T H E G L OT TA LI C T H E OR Y : Classic
Statements of the Theory; Critical Responses; Refinements & Additional
Variants. I M P LI C ATI O N S O F TH E G L OT TA LI C T H E OR Y : Reformulating Some
Laws of IE; Dialectal Developments; Distant Genetic Relationships; K E Y
I S S U E S A N D S O M E M I D D L E G R O U N D : The Traditional Plain Voiced Series;
The Traditional Voiced Aspirate Series; T H E C H R O N O L O G I C A L S O L U T I O N :
On the Role of Typology in Reconstruction; Theoretical Issues; Phonetics &
Phonology in Reconstruction; A Note on Linguistic Methodology; Summary;
Conclusion, and Outlook.
ISBN 0-941694-40-2
203
The Anthropomorphic Stelae of the Ukraine::

The Early Iconography of the Indo-Europeans
Monograph No. 11 By D. Ya. Telegin & J. P. Mallory
T H E C O P P ER A G E S T E LA E O F TH E U K R AI N E : Introduction; Simple Stelae;
Statue-Menhirs; Altar Sanctuaries; The Creators of the Stelae. I MA G ER Y A N D
M Y T H : Context; Anatomy and Dress of the Statue-Menhirs; Anatomy and
Mythology; The Stela as Royal Figure; Indo-European Deities?; Diffusion?.
S T E LA -O B E LI S K S O F TH E C I M M ER IA NS : Introduction; Single-Headed Stelae;
Deer Stones of the North Caucasus; The Function of the Cimmerian Stelae.
S T E LA E O F TH E S C Y THIA NS A N D S AR MATIA NS : Introduction; Statue-Stelae;
Schematic Stelae and Statutory Reliefs; The Georgiyevka Stela. S LA V IC
S T E LA E : The Zbruch Idol; The Sanctuary on Bogt Mountain. S T O N E B A BA S
O F T H E P O L O V T S IA NS . Conclusions; AppendixA Catalogue of Copper Age
Stelae.
ISBN 0-941694-45-3
1994, Pages 134, Clothbound, Illustrated: $40.00
Linguistic Typology, Universality

and the Realism of Reconstruction
Monograph No. 12 By Frederick W. Schwink
Relationship and Reconstruction; Principles of Typology; Typology and
Reconstruction; Indo-European Phonology; Morphology; Indo-European
Nominal Morphology; Indo-European Verbal Morphology; Bibliography.
ISBN 0-941694-43-7
The Sigmatic Aorist in Indo-European:

Evidence for the Space-Time Hypothesis
Monograph No. 13 By Bridget Drinka
Introduction; Indo-Iranian; Old Church Slavonic; Latin; Greek; Other
Languages (Hittite, Tocharian, Armenian, Celtic); Conclusion, Language
Specific and General.
ISBN 0-941694-46-1
A Student Guide to the Genitive of the Agent

in Indo-European Languages
Monograph No 14 By William R. Schmalstieg
ISBN 0-941694-47-X
An Introduction to Old Russian

The Cyrillic Alphabet; Brief Remarks on Phonology; The Adjective, Pronoun
and Numeral; The Noun; The Verb; A Few Remarks on Syntax; Reading
Selections; Vocabulary; References.
ISBN 0-941694-49-6
Indo-European Religion after Dumzil

Monograph No. 16 Edited by Edgar C. Polom
N. J. Allen: Romulus and the Fourth Function; Wouter Belier: The First
FunctionA Critical Analysis; Enrico Campanile: Today, after Dumzil;
Daniel Dubuisson: Penser Les Mythologiques (Dumzil, Eliade,
Lvi-Strauss); Emily Lyle: Broadening the Perspective on Dumzils Three
204
Functions; Edgar C. Polom: Indo-European and non-Indo-European

Elements in Germanic Myth and Religion; Jaan Puhvel: After Dumzil,
What?; William Sayers: Tripartition in Early IrelandCosmic or Social
Structure?; Jens Peter Schjdt: Archaeology, Language and Comparative
Mythology.
ISBN 0-941694-51-8
The Indo-Europeanization of Northern Europe

Monograph No .17 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley and Martin E. Huld
ANTHROPOLOGY: J.P. Mallory: The Indo-European Homeland
ProblemA Matter of Time; Einar stmo: The Indo-European Question in a
Norwegian Perspective; Algirdas Girininkas: The Narva Culture and the
Origin of Baltic Culture; Rimute Rimantiene and Gintautas Cesnys: The PanEuropean Corded Ware Horizon (A-Horizon) and the Pamari (Baltic
Coastal) Culture; Algimantas Merkevi ius: Burial of the West and East Balts
in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages; Ilze Loze: Some Remarks about Northern
Europeans in the Forming of the Balts; Aleksander Koko: The VistulianDnieper Community of the Sub-Neolithic Cultures; Karlene Jones-Bley:
Ceramics and AgeA Correlation in Early European Pottery. LINGUISTICS:
Martin E. Huld: Meillets Northwest Indo-European Revisited; Saulius
Ambrazas: The Ancient Relationship of the Baltic and Germanic Languages
from the Standpoint of Word Formation; rika Sausverde: Seewrter and
Substratum in Germanic, Baltic and Baltic Finno-Ugrian Languages; Angela
Della Volpe; Indo-European Architectural Terms and the Pre-IndoEuropeans; Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak: The Pre-Germanic Substrata and
Germanic Maritime Vocabulary. CULTURE AND MYTHOLOGY:
Norbertas Velius: Marija Gimbutasthe Investigator of Baltic Mythology;
Miranda Aldhouse Green: Concepts of Sacrifice in Later Prehistoric Europe;
Elvyra Usaiovait 9 : Customs of the Ancient Prussians in German; Walter L.
Brenneman Jr.: Religious Authenticity at the Holy Wells of IrelandA
Methodological Problem; Miriam Robbins Dexter: Dawn-Maid and SunMaidCelestial Goddesses among the Proto-Indo-Europeans; Adrian
Poriuciuc: Indo-European Implications of an Old English Document;
Romualdas
Apanavi ius:
Ancient
Baltic
According
to
Ethnoinstrumentological Data. PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Gintautas
esnys: Anthropological Substratum of the Balts in Prussia and Lithuania;
Irene Bali ntene: The Odontological Characteristics of Lithuanian Balts and
their Roots; Ken Jacobs, Jeffrey M. Wyman and Christopher Meiklejohn:
Multi-Ethnicity in Pre-Indo-European Northeast EuropeTheoretical and
Empirical Constraints on the Interpretation of Human Biodiversity; Rimantas
Jankauskas and Adomas Butrimas: Changes of Population Biological Status
during the Indo-Europeanization of Lithuania; Raymond V. Sidrys: The Light
Eye and Hair ClineImplications for Indo-European Migrations to Northern
Europe.
ISBN 0-941694-52-6
ISBN 0-941694-53-4

1996, Paperback: $48.00
205
The Kurgan Culture and The Indo-Europeanization of Europe

Monograph No. 18 Papers by Marija Gimbutas
Edited by Miriam Robbins Dexter and Karlene Jones-Bley
On the Origins of North Indo-Europeans; The Indo-Europeans
Archaeological Problems; The Relative Chronology of Neolithic and
Chalcolithic Cultures in Eastern Europe North of the Balkan Peninsula and
the Black Sea; Proto-Indo-European CultureThe Kurgan Culture During
the Fifth, Fourth, and Third Millenium B.C.; Old Europe c. 7000-3500 B.C.
The Earliest European Civilization Before the Infiltration of the IndoEuropean Peoples; The Beginnings of the Bronze Age of Europe and the
Indo-Europeans 3500-2500 B.C.; An Archeaologists View of *PIE in 1975; The
First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralists into Copper Age Europe; The
Three Waves of the Kurgan People into Old Europe, 4500-2500 B.C.; The
Kurgan Wave #2 (c.3400-3200 B.C.) into Europe and the Following
Transformation of Culture; Primary and Secondary Homeland of the IndoEuropeans, Comments on Gamkrelidze-Ivanov Articles; Remarks on the
Ethnogenesis of the Indo-Europeans in Europe; Accounting for a Great
Change; Review of Archaeology and Language by C. Renfrew; The Collision of
Two Ideologies; The Fall and Transformation of Old Europe.
ISBN 0-941694-56-9
Varia on the Indo-European Past:

Papers in Memory of Marija Gimbutas
Monograph No. 19 Edited by Miriam Robbins Dexter and Edgar C.
Polom
Miriam Robbins Dexter: Introduction; E.J.W. Barber: On the Origins of the
vily/rusalki; Frank Battaglia: Goddess Religion in the Early British Isles; Kees
W. Bolle: The Great Goddess; Angela Della Volpe: The Great Goddess, the
Sirens and Parthenope; Miriam Robbins Dexter: The Frightful Goddess
Birds, Snakes and Witches; Michael Herity: Irish and Scandinavian Neolithic
Pottery VesselsSome Comparisons; Martin E. Huld: The Childhood of
HeroesAn Essay in Indo-European Puberty Rites; Karlene Jones-Bley:
Defining Indo-European Burial; W. P. Lehmann: Frozen Residues and
Relative Dating; Wolfgang Meid: Der mythologische Hintergrund der
irischen Saga; Edgar C. Polom: Animals in IE Cult and Religion.
ISBN 0-941694-58-5
Studies in Honor of Jaan Puhvel Part One:

Ancient Languages and Philology
Monograph No. 20 Edited by Dorothy Disterheft, Martin Huld and John
Greppin
Preface; Philip Levine: Bibliography of Jaan PuhvelDear Jaan.
ANATOLIAN MATTERS: Harry A Hoffner Jr.: On Safari in Hittite Anatolia;
Michael Kearns: A. Lydian Etymology for the Name Croesus; Calvert
Watkins: Luvo-Hittite lapan(a). CULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS: Angela
Della Volpe: Problems of Semantic Reconstruction PIE *dei - to show;
Robert L. Fisher; The Lore of the Staff in Indo-European Tradition; John
A.C. Greppin: A Note on the Etymology of English Horehound; Martin E.
Huld: Magic, Metathesis and Nudity in European Thought; Colin Ireland: The
Ambiguous Attitude toward Fosterage in Early Irish Literature.
206
GRAMMATICAL STUDIES: Dorothy Disterheft: The Evolution of the IndoEuropean Infinitives; Eric P. Hamp: Intensive and Perfective prin Latin;
Craig Melchert: Denominative Verbs in Anatolian; Erich Neu: Zu einigen
Pronominalformen des Hethitischen. INDOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Jay
Jasanoff: Where Does Skt. bhvati Come From?; Andrew L. Sihler: The Myth
of Direct Reflexes of the PIE Palatal Series in Kati; Cheryl Steets: jahd u
dv mithunaa note on gveda 10.17.1-2. THE LEXICAL DOMAIN: E. J. W.
Barber: On 6ig as protection; Karlene Jones-Bley: Red for the Deada
Corpse of a Different Color; J. P. Mallory: Some Aspects of Indo-European
Agriculture.
ISBN 0-941694-54-2
Studies in Honor of Jaan Puhvel Part Two:

Mythology and Religion
Monograph No. 21 Edited by John Greppin and Edgar C. Polom
John A. C. Greppin: For an Indo-Europeanist, Upon His Retirement;
Franoise Bader: Voix DivinesReflexions Mtalinguistiques IndoEuropennes; Walter L. Brennemann, Jr.: The Drunken and the SoberA
Comparative Study of Lady Sovereignty In Irish and Indic Contexts; Miriam
Robbins Dexter: Born of the FoamGoddesses of River and Sea in the
Kingship in Heaven Myth; Dorothy Disterheft: Irish Evidence for IndoEuropean Royal Consecration; Angelique Gulermovich Epstein: The
Morrigan and the Valkyries; Stephanie W. Jamison: A Gndharva Marriage in
the OdysseyNausicaa and her Imaginary Husband; Linda A. Malcor: First
BathThe Washing of the Child Motif in Christian Art; C. Scott Littleton
and Linda A. Malcor: Did the Alans Reach Ireland? A Reassessment of the
Scythian References in the Lebor Gab la; Erenn; Dean A. Miller: In Search of
Indo-European Inter-Functional War; Edgar C. Polom: Some Reflections on
the Vedic Religious Vocabulary; William Sayers: Psychological Warfare in
Vinland (Erks saga raud a); The Sins of Siegfried; Udo Strutynski: Echoes of
Indo-European War Crimes in the Nibelungenlied and its Analogues.
ISBN 0-941694-55-0
Indo-European, Nostratic and Beyond::

Festschrift for Vitalij V. Shevoroshkin
Monograph No. 22 Edited by Irn Hegeds, Peter A. Michalove
and Alexis Manaster Ramer
Vitalij Viktorovich Shevoroshkin: Selected Publications; Raimo Anttila:
Beating a Goddess out of the Bush?; Vclav Blazek: Indo-European Seven;
Claude Pierre Boisson: The Phonotactics of Sumerian; J. C. Catford: The
Myth of the Primordial Click; Madhav M. Deshpande: Pnini and the
Distinctive Features; Joseph H. Greenberg: Does Altaic Exist?; Eric P.
Hamp: A Far-Out Equation; Irn Heged s: On Grammaticalization in
Nostratic; Pramila Hemrajani: Three Kisses; Peter Edwin Hook: Relative
Clauses in Eastern Shina; Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: Luwian Collective and
Non-Collective Neutral Nouns in ar; Brian D. Joseph: Macrorelationships
and Microrelationships and their Relationship; Mark Kaiser: Rigor or
VigorWhither Distant Linguistic Comparison?; Leonid Kulikov: Vedic
mriyte and other pseudo-passivesNotes on an Accent Shift; Alexis Manaster
Ramer: The Polygenesis of Western Yiddishand the Monogenesis of
Yiddish; Karl Heinrich Menges: Etymological Problems with Words for
207
Blood in Nostratic and Beyond. Peter A. Michalove: Altaic Evidence for

Clusters in Nostratic; Vladimir Orel: New Albanian Etymologies (Balkan
Etymologies 116-145); Ilya Peiros: Macro FamiliesCan a Mistake Be
Detected?; Richard A. Rhodes: On Pronominal Systems; Merritt Ruhlen:
Proto-Amerind *KAPA Finger, Hand and Its Origin in the Old World;
Sergei A. Starostin: On the Consonant Splits in Japanese; Alexander Vovin:
Some Japanese Etymologies.
ISBN 0-941694-59-3
Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp Volume One

Monograph No. 23 Edited by Douglas Q. Adams
Douglas Q. Adams: On the PIE Antecedents of Verbal Accent in Tocharian B;
Francisco R. Adrados: Verbo Celta Antiguo y Verbo Indoeuropeo; Franoise
Bader: Autour de gr. eedua phontique historique des laryngales et prosodie;
Philip Baldi: The Morphological Implications of Certain Prosodic Rules in
Latin; Alfred Bammesberger: Celtic BOIOS; Thomas V. Gamkrelidze: A
Relative Chronology of the Shifts of the Three Stop Series in Indo-European;
Henrik Birnbaum: The PIE Nominal Stem Formations in -i/iy-, -u/uw-, -i/yand Some Related IssuesThe Slavic Evidence; Henry M. Hoenigswald:
Analogy in Cyrene and Elsewhere; Jean Haudry: Religious Polemics In the
Heroic AgeSome Linguistic Hints; Martin E. Huld: Satom, Centum and
Hokum; Stephanie W. Jamison: Sanskrit prin hya household goods
Semantic Evolution in Cultural Context; Jay H. Jasanoff: An Italo-Celtic
IsoglossThe 3 Pl. Mediopassive in *-ntro; Guy Jucquois & Christophe Vielle:
Illusion, Limites et Perspectives du Comparatisme Indo-EuropenPour en
finir avec le mythe scientifique des proto-langues/-peuples.
ISBN 0-941694-57-7
The Development of Verbal Reduplication in Indo-European

Monograph No. 24 By Mary Niepokuj
Preface; Introduction; Overview; Note on Proto-Indo-European transcription.
THE HIS TOR ICAL BEH AVIO R AN D GRAMMA T ICA LIZAT ION OF
R E D U P L I C A T I V E S Y S T E M S C R O S S - L I N G U I S T - I C A L L Y : Introduction;
Compounding reduplication; Turkish, Diyari, Lardil; Fixed-segment
reduplication; Fixed-vowel reduplication; Tarok nominal reduplication,
Salish, Fe?Fe? Bamileke, Other Niger-Congo languages, Nez Perce, Malay
nouns denoting similarity, Synchronic descriptions, Malay, Javanese,
Georgian; Initial fixed-consonant reduplication; Fixed affix-final consonant;
Affixes with two or more fixed segments; Theoretical approaches to
reduplication, The copy-and-association model, The full-copying approach;
The grammaticalization of reduplicative affixes. T H E S E M A N T I C
B E H A V I O R O F R E D U P L I C A T I O N : Introduction; Plurality of some sort;
Intensification; Childrens reduplication; Expressives and ideophones;
Echo-words; Reduplication for strictly grammatical reasons; Conclusion. T H E
I N D O - E U R O P E A N P E R F E C T : A N O V E R V I E W : Introduction; Vedic Sanskrit;
Gathic Avestan; Greek; Latin; Germanic; Armenian; Old Irish; Tocharian;
Balto-Slavic. I N D O - E U R O P E A N P E R F E C T R E D U P L I C A T I O N : T H E S H A P E
O F T H E P R E F I X : Introduction; The Old Irish prefix; The Latin prefix; The
Sanskrit prefix, The Proto-Indo-European reduplicated prefixa new
analysis. T H E D I S T R I B U T I O N O F P E R F E C T R E D U P L I C A T I O N I N
208
P R O T O - I N D O - E U R O P E A N : Introduction; Reduplication and o-grade

vocalism in Greek and Indo-Iranian; Reduplicated perfects in Western
Indo-European, Old Irish, Latin, Gothic; Perfects based on TeT- roots;
Germanic, Old Irish, Sanskrit, Tocharian, Conclusion. P R E S E N T - T E N S E
R E D U P L I C A T I O N I N I N D O - E U R O P E A N : Introduction; The Vedic Data; The
Greek DataAthematic verbs; Reduplicated thematic stems; Forms with the
suffix *-ske/o-; The shape of the present reduplicating prefix in Proto-IndoEuropean; Other issues. I N D O - E U R O P E A N I N T E N S I V E S : Introduction;
Hittite; Typological parallels; Comparative evidence; The linking vowel -i-.
Conclusion; Further prospects. Bibliography; Index.
ISBN 0-941694-60-7
Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp Volume Two

Jared S. Klein: Early Vedic th and tho; Frederik Kortlandt: PIE
Lengthened Grade in Balto-Slavic; H. Craig Melchert: PIE Dental Stops in
Lydian; T. L. Markey: Deixis, Diathesis, and DualityShifting Fortunes of
the IE 1st and 2nd Plural; Mary Niepokuj: Differentiating SynonymsSome
Indo-European Verbs of Cutting; Alan J. Nussbaum: A Note on Hesychian teru
and teuuaV; Edgar C. Polom: A Few Notes on the Gmc. Terminology
Concerning Time; Don Ringe: On the Origin of 3pl. Imperative -utou;
Helmut Rix: The Pre-Luconian Inscriptions of Southern Italy; Joseph C.
Salmons: Naturalness Syndromes and PIE Voiced Stops; Bernfried
Schlerath: Name and Word in Indo-European; William R. Schmalstieg: Slavic
kamy and the First Person Singular Ending; Karl Horst Schmidt: Zur
Definition des Inselkeltischen; Kazuhiko Yoshida: A Further Remark on the
Hittite Verbal Endings; I pl. -wani and 2 pl. tani; Calvert Watkins: Just Day
Before Yesterday
ISBN 0-941694-62-3

Of Eastern Central Asia
Monograph No. 26 Edited by Victor H. Mair
(in two volumes)
VOLUME 1: A R C H E O L O G Y , M I G R ATI O N A N D N O M A D I S M , L I N G U I S TI C S :
Map of Eastern Central Asia. I NT R O D U C T I O N : Victor H. Mair: Priorities.
A R C H E O L O G Y : AN Zhimin: Cultural Complexes of the Bronze Age in the
Tarim Basin and Surrounding Areas; Elena E. Kuzmina: Cultural Connections
of the Tarim Basin People and Pastoralists of the Asian Steppes in the Bronze
Age; David W. Anthony: The Opening of the Eurasian Steppe at 2000 BCE;
Asko Parpola: Aryan Languages, Archeological Cultures, and Sinkiang
Where Did Proto-Iranian Come into Being and How Did It Spread?; Fredrik
T. Hiebert: Central Asians on the Iranian PlateauA Model for Indo-Iranian
Expansionism; SHUI Tao: On the Relationship between the Tarim and
Fergana Basins in the Bronze Age; HE Dexiu: A Brief Report on the
Mummies from the Zaghunluq Site in Chrchn County; J.P. Mallory: A
European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia; Colin Renfrew: The Tarim
Basin, Tocharian, and Indo-European OriginsA View from the West.
M I G R ATI O N A N D N O M A D I S M : Karl Jettmar: Early Migrations in Central Asia;
Natalia I. Shishlina and Fredrik T. Hiehert: The Steppe and the Sown
209
Interaction between Bronze Age Eurasian Nomads and Agriculturalists;

Jeannine Davis-Kimball: Tribal Interaction between the Early Iron Age
Nomads of the Southern Ural Steppes, Semirechive, and Xinjiang; Claudia
Chang and Perry A. Tourtellotte: The Role of Agro-pastoralism in the
Evolution of Steppe; Culture in the Semirechye Area of Southern Kazakhstan
during the Saka/Wustun Period (600 BCE-400 CE); Tzehtley Chiou-Peng:
Western Hunan and Its Steppe Affinities. L I N G U I S TI C S : Eric P. Hamp: Whose
Were the Tocharians?Linguistic Subgrouping and Diagnostic Idiosyncrasy;
Werner Winter: Lexical Archaisms in the Tocharian Languages;
Georges-Jean Pinault: Tocharian Languages and Pre-Buddhist Culture;
Douglas Q. Adams: On the History and Significance of Some Tocharian B
Agricultural Terms; Alexander Lubotsky: Tocharian Loan Words in Old
ChineseChariots, Chariot Gear, and Town Building; Don Ringe, Tandy
Warnow, Ann Taylor, Alexander Michailov, and Libby Levison:
Computational Cladistics and the Position of Tocharian; Juha Janhunen, The
Horse in East AsiaReviewing the Linguistic Evidence; John Colarusso:
Languages of the Dead; Kevin Tuite: Evidence for Prehistoric Links between
the Caucasus and Central AsiaThe Case of the Burushos; LIN Meicun: Qilian
and KunlunThe Earliest Tokharian Loan-words in Ancient Chinese;
Penglin Wang: A Linguistic Approach to Inner Asian Ethnonyms; William
S-Y. Wang: Three Windows on the Past. VOLUME 2: G E N E T I C S A N D
P H Y S I CA L A N T HR O P O L O G Y : Paolo Francalacci: DNA Analysis on Ancient
Desiccated Corpses from Xinjiang (China)Further Results; Tongmao Zhao:
The Uyghurs, a Mongoloid-Caucaseid Mixed PopulationGenetic Evidence
and Estimates of Caucasian Admixture in the Peoples Living in Northwest
China; HAN Kangxin: The Physical Anthropology of the Ancient Populations
of the Tarim Basin and Surrounding Areas. M ET A LL U R G Y : Ke Peng: The
Andronovo Bronze Artifacts Discovered in Toquztara County in Ili, Xinjiang;
Jianjun Mei and Colin Shell: Copper And Bronze Metallurgy in Late
Prehistoric Xinjiang; Emwa C. Bunker: Cultural Diversity in the Tarim Basin
Vicinity and Its Impact on Ancient Chinese Culture; Katheryn M. Linduff:
The Emergence and Demise of Bronze-Producing Cultures Outside the
Central Plain of China. T EX T I L ES : E.J.W. Barber: Bronze Age Cloth and
Clothing of the Tarim BasinThe Krorn (Loulan) and Qumul (Elami)
Evidence. Irene Good: Bronze Age Cloth and Clothing of the Tarim Basin
The Chrchn Evidence. G E O G R A PH Y A N D C L I M AT O L O G Y : Harold C.
Fleming: At the Vortex of Central AsiaMummies as Testimony to
Prehistory; Kenneth J. Hs: Did the Xinjiang Indo-Europeans Leave Their
Home Because of Global Cooling? H I S T OR Y : Michael Puett: China in Early
Eurasian HistoryA Brief Review of Recent Scholarship on the Issue; E.
Bruce Brooks: Textual Evidence for 04c Sino-Bactrian Contact. M Y TH O L O G Y
A N D E T H N O L O G Y : Denis Sinor: The Myth of Languages and the Language of
Myth; C. Scott Littleton: Were Some of the Xinjiang Mummies
Epi-Scythians? An Excursus in Trans-Eurasian Folklore and Mythology;
CHEN Chien-wen: Further Studies on the Racial, Cultural, and Ethnic
Affinities of the Yuezhi; Dolkun Kamberi: Discovery of the Tklimakanian
Civilization during, a Century of Tarim Archeological Exploration (ca.
1886-1996); Dru C. Gladney: Ethnogenesis and Ethnic Identity in China
Considering the Uygurs and Kazaks. C O N C L U S I O N : Victor H. Mair: Die
SprachmbeAn Archeolinguistic Parable. A P P E N D I X : Victor H. Mair and
210
Dolkun Kamberi: Place, People, and Site Names of the Uyghur Region
Pertinent to the Archeology of the Bronze Age and Iron Age.
ISBN 0-941694-66-6
1998, Pages 912, Paperback,

2-volumes, with maps and illustrations: $96.00
Proceedings of the Seventh UCLA Indo-European Conference:

Los Angeles, 1995
Monograph No. 27 Edited by Angela della Volpe
in collaboration with Edgar C. Polom
Henning Andersen: A Glimpse of the Homeland of the SlavsEcological and
Cultural Change in Prehistory; Jeannine Davis-Kimball: Burial Practices
Among the Iranian Sarmatians; Angelique Gulermovich Epstein: Divine
DevouringFurther Notes on the Morrigan and the Valkyries; John D.
Frauzel: Impersonal Absolutes in Indo-Iranian, Greek, Latin and Baltic and
the Origin of the Indo-European Absolute Construction; Gayan Hagopian:
The Classical Armenian Term Skndik; Yelena Izbitser: Wheeled Vehicles and
the Homeland of the Indo-Europeans; Anatoly Liberman: English Girl under
the Asterisked Sky of the Indo-Europeans; Dean A. Miller: Destroyer or
Builder and other BifurcationsNotes on Indo-European Sovereignty;
Marianna Nikolaidou: Religious Symbols in Minoan Scripts and
IconographyElements of Formulaic Expression; Yevgeniy Novitskiy:
Semantic Analysis of the Early Metal Period Sculpture of the Northern Black
Sea Region; Christopher M. Stevens: The Consonants of German and
Germanic.
ISBN 0-941694-64-X
Proceedings of the Ninth UCLA Indo-European Conference:

Monograph No. 28 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley, Angela Della Volpe,
Miriam Robbins Dexter, and Martin E. Huld
Theo Vennemann: Andromeda and the Apples of the Hesperides; Vycheslav
Ivanov: Indo-European Expressions of Totality and the Invitation to the Feast
of All the Gods; Miriam Robbins Dexter: Queen Medb, Female Autonomy in
Ancient Ireland, and Irish Matrilineal Traditions; Anna M. Ranero: An Old
Indo-European Motif RevisitedThe Mortal Combat between Father and
Son; Christopher Wilhelm: Prometheans and the CaucasusThe Origins of
the Prometheus Myth; Andrew Minard: Of Horses and HumansThe Divine
Twins in Celtic Mythology and Folklore; Dean Miller: The King, The Hero
and the GodsAn Exploratory Note on the Functions and the Supernatural;
Martin E. HuldAlbanian Evidence for the Sigmatic Aorist; Kazuhiko
Yoshida: Assibilation in Hittite. Index.
ISBN 0-941694-65-8
On the Bifurcation and Repression Theories

of Germanic and German
Monograph No. 29 By Christopher M. Stevens
Evidence for the bifurcation and repression theories of German is evaluated
and the author presents new evidence in support of the traditional inventory
211
of Proto-Germanic consonants, as well as for the traditional view of the origin

and spread of the Second Consonant Shift.
ISBN 0-941694-67-4
Language Change and Typological Variation.

In Honor of Winfred P. Lehmann on the Occasion of his 83rd
Birthday
Volume 1:: Language Change and Phonology
Monograph No. 30 Edited by Edgar C. Polom & Carol F. Justus
Preface; Winfred P. Lehmann List of Publications; Mohammad Ali Jazayery:
Winfred P. Lehmann An Appreciation. I. ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE
CHANGE: A. E A R L Y E U R O P E : Edgar C. Polom; A Few Remarks on
Proto-Indo-European Substrates; Francisco Villar: Hispanoceltica o
Celtibrico. B. G R A M MAT I CA L C H A N G E : Charles J. Bailey: How Grammars of
English Have Miscued; T. Givn: Internal Reconstruction, on its Own. C.
G E R M A NI C D A TA : Elmer H. Antonsen: Reng di Pr Vingi (Am. 4.2) Vingi
distorted them Omitted runesA question of typology? Wolfgang Meid:
wair und andere Bezeichnungen fr Mann im Gotischen. D. N U M E R A LS :
Onofrio Carruba: Die indogermanischen ZahlwrterNeue Ergebnisse und
Perspektiven; Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: On Terms for Half, Moiety in
Indo-European and Germanic; Eugenio Lujn Martinez: Towards a Typology
of Change in Numeral Systems. II. PHONOLOGY: A. P H O N O L O G I C A L
U N I V ER S A LS : Henry M. Hoenigswald: Secondary Split, Gap-filling &
Bifurcation in Historical Phonology; Gregory K. Iverson & Joseph Salmons:
Umlaut as Regular Sound ChangeThe Phonetic Basis of Ingenerate
Umlaut; Frans Van Coetsam: Umlaut as a Reflex of Accentual Structure. B.
P H O N O L O G I C A L T Y P O L O G Y : Thomas V. Gamkrelidze: Italic Consonantism in
the Light of the Glottalic Theory; Frederik Kortlandt: Lachmanns Law
Again; Ladislav Zgusta: Some Thoughts on the Laryngeal and Glottalic
Theories: Frederick W. Schwink: On the Role of Typology in Reconstructing
Phonological Rules. C. I E P H O N O L O G I C A L P ARTI C U LARS : Anatoly Liberman:
Schrfung / stootoon and Tgheitsakzent / sleeptoon in the Rhein-Limburg area
and Their Scandinavian Analogues; Franoise Bader: Fonctions des
allitrations; Werner Winter: Consonant Harmony in Armenian.
ISBN 0-941694-68-2
1999, Pages vi + 319, Paperback: $48.00

Birthday
Volume 2:: Grammatical Universals & Typology
Monograph No. 31 Edited by Carol F. Justus & Edgar C. Polom
P R EF A C E : Grammatical Abbreviations; Bibliographical Abbreviations. I.
UNIVERSAL ISSUES: Paolo Ramat: On Categories and Categorizations;
Pieter A. M. Seuren: Topic and Comment; Robert Longacre: A Footnote to
Lehmanns OV/VO Typology. II. TYPOLOGICAL ISSUES: A. C A T E G O R I ES
A N D R E LA TI O N S : Theodora Bynon: Schleichers Reconstruction of a
SentenceBack to Pre-Pre-Indo-European; Francisco R. Adrados: Hacia una
tipologa de las combinaciones de rasgos lingusticos; Henrik Birnbaum: On
the Relationship of Typology and Genealogy in Language Classification
212
Some Theoretical Considerations and Applications to Indo-European;

Anthony Aristar: Typology and the Saussurean Dichotomy. B. C O N S T IT U E NT
O R D E R : Subhadra Kumar Sen: On the Syntax of the Anitta Text; Douglas
Mitchell: Lehmanns Use of Syntactic Typology; Michael Clyne: Typology and
Language Change in Bilingualism and Trilingualism. C. A L I G N M E N T &
TY PE:
Bridget
Drinka:
Alignment
in
Early
C O NT E NTIV E
Proto-Indo-European; Helena Kurzov: Syntax in the Indo-European
Morphosyntactic Type; Georgij A. Klimov: On the Pre-accusative Component
of the Structure of the Kartvelian Languages; Karl Horst Schmidt: On
Congruence in Languages of Active Typology; Lszl Desz: On the
Structuring of Early Indo-European in Areal-Typological Perspective;
Bernard Comrie & Maria Polinsky: Gender in Historical Perspective
Radial Categories Meet Language; Brigitte Bauer: Impersonal Habet
constructions in LatinAt the Crossroads of Indo-European Innovation; Carol
F. Justus: Indo-European havea Grammatical Etymology.
ISBN 0-941694-69-0
Proceedings of the Tenth UCLA Indo-European Conference:

Monograph No. 32 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld,
Angela Della Volpe, and Miriam Robbins Dexter
Introduction; LINGUISTIC INVESTIGATIONS: Calvert Watkins: A Celtic
Miscellany; Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: Palatalization and Labiovelars in Luwian;
Darya Kavitskaya: Vowel Epenthesis and Syllable Structure in Hittite; Ilya
Yakubovich: Stative Suffix / i-a/ in the Verbal System of old Indic; Carol F.
Justus: The Arrival of Italic and Germanic have in Late Indo-European;
Apostolos N. Athanassakis: keanos Mythic and Linguistic Origins; Martin E.
Huld: IE bear Ursus arctos, Ursa Major, and Ursa minor. STUDIES IN POETIC
DICTION: Dean Miller: Kings Communicating - Royal Speech and the
Fourth Function; Thomas R. Walsh: Towards the Poetics of Potions - Helens
Cup and Indo-European Comparanda; Ralph Gallucci: Studies in Homeric
Epic Tradition; Edwin D. Floyd: Cometas, On LazarusA Resurrection of
Indo-European Poetics? INDO-EUROPEAN EXPANSION: Edwin F. Bryant:
The Indo-Aryan Invasion DebateThe Logic of the Response; Jeannine
Davis-Kimball: Priestesses, Enarees, and Other Statuses among Indo-Iranian
Peoples; Andrew Sherratt: Echoes of the Big BangThe Historical Context
of Language Dispersal.
ISBN 0-941694-70-4
Miscellanea Indo-Europea
Edgar C. Polom: Introduction; Alain de Benoist: Bibliographie
Chronologique des tudes Indo-Europenes; Garrett Olmsted: Archaeology,
Social Evolution, and the Spread of Indo-European Languages and Cultures;
Alexander Husler: Nomadenhypothese und Ursprung der Indogermanen;
Franoise Bader: Homre et le plasge; Carol Justus: Can a Counting System
be an Index of Linguistic Relationships?; Nick Allen: Hinduism,
Structuralism and Dumzil; Dean Miller: Who Deals with the Gods? Kings
and Other Intermediaries; Edgar C. Polom: IE Initial /b/ & Gmc. Initial
213
/p/; Edgar C. Polom: Views on Developments in Indo-European Religions

During the Last Decade of So.
ISBN 0-941694-71-2
Sub-Grammatical Survival::
Indo-European s-mobile and its Regeneration in Germanic
Monograph No. 34 By Mark R. V. Southern
Introduction; The Question; Phonological Distribution; Root Structure.
SandhiMosphological & Word-Boundary Issues, Phonetics and Language
Acquisition; Germanic Layers of EvidenceThe Continuation of the
Linguistic Process. The Cross-Cultural ContextPhonetics and Phrasal
Domains, Comparative Baltic Evidence, Implications. Summation.
ISBN 0-941694-72-0
Proceedings of the Eleventh UCLA Indo-European Conference:

Los Angeles, June 4-5, 1999
Monograph No.35 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld,
Angela Della Volpe
Introduction; Language Abbreviations; Stephanie Jamison: On Translating
the Rig VedaThree questions; Jorma Koivulehto: Finno-Ugric Reflexes of
North-West Indo-European and Early Stages of Indo-Iranian; Olga Petrova:
Grimms Law in Optimality Theory; Joshua T. Katz: Evening DressThe
Metaphorical Background of Latin uesper and Greek speroV; Martin E. Huld:
Reinventing the Wheelthe Technology of Transport and Indo-European
Expansions; Kristin M. Reichardt: Curse Formulae in Hittite and
Hieroglyphic Luwian; Ilya Yakubovich: Laryngeals from Velars in HittiteA
Triple-Headed Argument; David Atkins: An Alternative Principle of
Succession in the Hittite Monarchy; Christopher Wilhelm: On the Possible
Origins of the Philistines; Sandra Olsen: Reflections of Ritual Behavior at
Botai, Kazakhstan; John Leavitt: The Cow of Plenty in Indo-Iranian and Celtic
Myth; Betsy McCall: Metathesis, Deletion, Dissimilallon and Consonant
Ordering in Proto-Greek; Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen: The Growth of IE
AblautContrastive Accent and Vddhi; Harold Koch: Order and Disorder in
the Reconstruction of the Ablaut Pattern of Athematic Verbs in
Proto-Indo-European; Carol F. Justus: The Age of Indo-European Present -R
Person Endings; Alexander Nicholaev: PIE Ergativity and the Genitive in
*-osyo; Anatoly Liberman: Pseudolaryngeals (Glottal Stops) and the Twilight
of Distinctive Voice in Germanic; Vycheslav V. Ivanov: Early
Slavic/Indo-Iranian Lexical Contacts; Index
ISBN 0-941694-73-9
The One-eyed God::

Odin and the (Indo-) Germanic Mnnerbnde
Monograph No. 36 By Kris Kershaw
Abbreviations; Glossary. T H E E Y E I N T H E W E L L : grandaevus altero orbus oculo;
Odins pledge; Heiti relating to Odins eyesight; Blindr; Other possible heiti;
Blind, not the blinder; Other depictions of Odin/Wodan; Snorri and
Saxo; Wodan, Woden, et. al; Iconography; Odin the Wolf-god; An overview of
the book; PART I. HERJANN: T H E E I NH ER IAR : Snorris description of the
Einheriar; The word einheriar; Herr and Herjann; PIE *koryonos; Thor Einheri and
214
the Einheriar. D ER S C H I M M E LR EI T ER : The Host and the Hunt; Legend, myth,

and cult; The matter of the Mnnerbund; The Dead and the living; Age sets
and ancestor cult; Masks; Masks and ancestor cult; Demon horses; The
Rider-god; The Ancestors bring blessings; Feasts of the Changing Year;
Harlequin. F ER A LI S EX ER C IT U S : Harii; Chatti; Weihekrieger; Civilis; Haraldr
Hrfagr; The hairstyles of the Suevi; Procopius and Ammianus on youthful
warriors; An analog from Doric Greece; The liminal state (marge); Exiting
marge; Demon warriors; An initiation scenario in Vlsungasaga; Dmon
warriors among the Chatti; Two armies of the dead; Mercurius; Hermes at the
boundaries of space and time. F U R OR T E U T O N I C U S : *wo p-; dr; dinn; The
suffix -no-; Examples; A Fhrersuffix?; The suffix -no- in divine names;
Poets god and Rune-master; Ecstasy, Possession, Inspiration, Madness; Ecstasy;
Furor heroicus; War dances; Dancing gods; Mysterium and Mimus in the Anabasis;
The sword-dance in Germania; Mars and the Salii; KorhteV, KourteV,
KorbanteV; The Maruts; Some conclusions; Veratr; PART II. THE
INDO-EUROPEAN MNNERBUND: * T E U T A N D * K O R Y O S : Equites and
pedites; Village and Forest. T H E * K O R Y O S : Raubrecht; The Manes; Animal
transformations; EkstasiV; Times and seasons; Festivals; Seasonal activities;
Sub-groups; Small bands; Groups of 50; Older *koryos-bndler; Weihekrieger;
Men without property; Robbers and riff-raff; Mnnerbund and Gefolgschaft.
C A N I S A N D T H E * K O R Y O S : Wolf and Dog; Ethnonymns and Mnnerbnde;
Wolf-men as founders of city-states; An historical example; Mythical
foundation stories a) The founding of Rome b) Caeculus and the founding of
Praeneste; The ver sacrum; Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire; Wolf-folk
and Dog-folk; Ethnic names a) Wolf-folk of Anatolia b) An Ossetian wolf-clan
c) Other wolf-folk d) Dog- folk e) Hundingas and Ylfingar; Wolf-priests a)
Hirpi Sorani b) Some Hittite cult functionaries; Mythical ancestors a) Miletos
b) Lamissio, king of the Langabards c) The Welfs of Swabia; Wolf-men and
Dog-men; The Lombards; Germanic wolf-names; Irish dog and wolf names;
Greek heroes with wolf-names; Wolf- and dog-men of the Scythians; Slavic
wolf-men; Kunokfaloi a) Zu den litauischen Werwlfen b) Slavic dog-heads
c) Survivals of the kunh/ lukh; Alkimtatoi kneV; Ver sacrum bei den
[Indo-]Germanen?; Canine/ lupine qualities; O D I N A NA L O G S : India; Iran;
The Ossetes; The Celts; The Balts and Slavs; Greece; Italy; Mars; Faunus;
Veiovis; *teut-god and *koryos-god; Un rite dagrgation; PART III. THE
VRTYAS: W A RR I OR - BRAH MI NS : An oath-brotherhood; Vratya clothing and
weapons; Seasonal activities; The brahmacrin; The education of a brahmin;
The vr tyastoma; Vrtyastoma and sattra; Sattra; Daksin ; Vr tyas and sattrins;
R U D R A : Rudras armies; Ganapati; The rudras; The Maruts; A troop; The
Maruts are both like and unlike Rudra; The Maruts as *koryos; I-Ir. *marXa;
Marut epithets; Priestly activities; War-god; The Wild Hunter; Canis; Dogs and
the Lord of Dogs; Dasar ; Le jeu du Cheval; Ttes coupes; The hunter with the
spear; Some conclusions; Death; Fertility; Ekstasis; The Feast of the Changing
Year; The Dragon-Slayer; Initiation; Natar ja; The Ekavr tya; C H O O S I N G A
L EA D E R : The Slagava sacrifice; Two stories; The vr tyas as rudras; The dice
game in early India; The dice; How it was played; An army of dice; The dog
and the dog-killer; Kali, the dog; Kali ekok ah and ekk a; The One and the
Dog; The ritual dice game; sennr mahat gansya; Sabh and irina; Sabh and
solstice; Herjann; ExcursusThe Vr tyastomas; D AR K N E S S , D O G S , A N D
D E A TH : ConclusionThe Wolf-god and the Eye in the Well; Bibliographies;
Primary Sources; Works Cited; Index.
ISBN 0-941694-74-7
215
The Historical Morphology of the Baltic Verb

Monograph No. 37 By William R. Schmalstieg
The purpose of this book is to suggest a possible scenario for the history of
Baltic verbal morphology with relatively little attention to semantics and
syntax. The various stages of development from a reconstructed Proto-IndoEuropean verbal system to the attested systems of the extant Baltic languages
are proposed. Various innovative theories of the author and other
contemporary specialists in Baltic historical linguistics are discussed and
evaluated, in many cases making available the results of their work available
in English for the first time. In addition to a large bibliography on the Baltic
verb the book is supplied with an index of each word form discussed.
ISBN 0-941694-76-3
Greater Anatolia and the Indo-Hittite Language Family:

Papers presented at a Colloquium hosted
by the University of Richmond, March 18-19, 2000
Monograph No. 38 Edited by Robert Drews
Robert Drews: Introduction and Acknowledgments, Opening Remarks;
E.J.W. Barber: The Clues in the ClothesSome Independent Evidence for
the Movement of Families; Paul Zimansky: Archaeological Inquiries into
Ethno-Linguistic
Diversity
in
Urartu;
Peter
Ian
Kuniholm:
Dendrochronological Perspectives on Greater Anatolia and the Indo-Hittite
Language Family; Discussion Session, Saturday Morning; Colin Renfrew: The
Anatolian Origins of Proto-Indo-European and the Autochthony of the
Hittites; Jeremy Rutter: Critical Response to the First Four Papers; Discussion
Session, Saturday Afternoon; Margalis Finklelberg: The Language of Linear
AGreek, Semitic, or Anatolian?; Alexander Lehrmann: Reconstructing
Indo-Hittite; Vyacheslav V. Ivanov: Southern Anatolian and Northern
Anatolian as Separate Indo-European Dialects and Anatolian as a Late
Linguistic Zone; Bill J. Darden: On the Question of the Anatolian Origin of
Indo-Hittite; Craig Melchert: Critical Response to the Last Four Papers;
Discussion SessionSaturday Morning; Robert Drews: Greater Anatolia,
Proto-Anatolian, Proto-Indo-Hittite, and Beyond; Geoffrey D. Summers:
AppendixQuestions Raised by the Identification of Neolithic, Chalcolithic
and Early Bronze Age Horse Bones in Anatolia. Index.
ISBN 0-941694-77-1
2001, Page xiv and 305, Paperback: $52.00
A Definitive Reconstructed Text of the Coligny Calendar

Monograph No. 39 By Garrett S. Olmsted
The fragmentary calendar plate from Coligny (near Lyons) apparently dates
to the second-century AD, although the Gaulish calendar engraved on this
plate is plainly the result of a long transmission process. The 25-year-cycle
calendar, the final system of this transmission process, probably originated
early in the first-century BC, before Caesars conquest. It is within this late
pre-Roman period that the calendar took on its final form and notation to
enter a two-century long transmission process. Since only 40% of the original
Coligny calendar survives as a fragmentary mosaic, the reconstruction of the
original whole depends upon recognizing repetitive patterns and filling in
the missing sequences of these patterns. The most significant of these patterns
is that discerned in the schemes of the TII and the N lunar/solar counting
216
marks and their associated notation. Here the chronological cycles implied by
these notational patterns are explained in detail. Also provided is a glossary of
the functional and etymological significance of terms utilized in these daily
notational patterns. The fragmentary calendar is brought to photographic
completion utilizing the original wording and engraving found on the
surviving fragments.
ISBN 0-941694-78-X
2001, Pages 120, Paperback, 70 plates: $40.00
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference: Los Angeles, May 26-28, 2000
Monograph No. 40 Edited by Martin E. Huld, Karlene Jones-Bley,
Introduction;
Language
Abbreviations;
PHONOLOGY
AND
MORPHOLOGYSOUND AND SENSE: The Sound-Systems of Proto-Indow
European, George Dunkel; Against the Assumption of an IE *k etures Rule,
Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen; The Reflexes of Indo-European *#CR- Clusters
in Hittite, Aleksei S. Kassian and Ilya S. Yakubovich; Proto-Indo-European
Root Nouns in the Baltic Languages, Jenny Helena Larsson; Verb or Noun?
On the Origin of the Third Person in IE, Birgit Anette Olsen; Indo-European
h
*b uH- in Luwian and the Prehistory of Past and Perfect, Vyacheslav V. Ivanov.
EPIGRAPHY AND ETYMOLOGYWORDS AND THINGS: The Poggio
Sommavilla Inscription, Giovanna Rocca; The Etymology of Some Germanic,
Especially English Plant Names (Henbane, Hemlock, Horehound), Anatoly
Liberman; Elephant in Indo-European Languages, Vclav Blazek.
MYTHOLOGY AND POETICSFORM AND FANCY: The Persistence of
the Indo-European Formula Man-Slaying from Homer through Gregory of
Nazianzus, Edwin D. Floyd; Hermes and Agnia fire-god in Greece?, PaulLouis van Berg; Dumzil, a Paradigm, and Iliad, Thomas R. Walsh; Dumzil
in 2000An Outline and a Prospect, Dean A. Miller and C. Scott Littleton.
RETHINKING ARCHAEOLOGYMYTH, CULTURE, AND MODELS: The
Bird Goddess in Germanic Europe, Mary Lynn Wilson; Village Life to
NomadismAn Indo-Iranian Model in the Tien Shan Mountains (Xinjiang,
China), Jeannine Davis-Kimball; Perpetuating Traditions, Changing
Ideologiesthe Bell Beaker culture in the British Isles and its implications
for the Indo-European problem, Marc M. Vander Linden; Towards an
Understanding of the Indo-European Origin ProblemTheoretical and
Methodological Interfaces, Bryan K. Hanks. EPILOGUENEW RESEARCH
TOOLS: The Internet and Publication and Research in Indo-European
StudiesPresent State and Future Prospects, Deborah Anderson; Index.
ISBN 0-941694-79-8
Pre-Indo-European
Monograph No. 41 By Winfred P. Lehmann
THE BASES FOR RECONSTRUCTING PRE-IE: Advances in the Sciences
and Fields Relevant for Indo-European Studies; Pre-Indo-Europeanan
Active Language; Genetics and its Importance for Identifying the IndoEuropean Speakers in their Spread; Archeology and its Contribution to our
Information on the Early Period of Indo-European Speakers; Indo-European
as one of the Nostratic Languages; The Primary Bases for Reconstructing PreIndo-European. FROM PIE TO PRE-IE: The Common Source; The
Comparative Method; The Method of Internal Reconstruction for
217
Morphology and Syntax; The Use of Residues; Determination of

Chronological Strata in Language; Typological Findings as Guides to
Interpretation of Data; Characteristics of Active Languages; Inferences Based
on Application of these Methods and Conclusions concerning Language
Structures; Earlier Analyses of the Lexicon that Support the Assumption of
Pre-Indo-European as an Active Language; Stages of Proto-Indo-European.
RESIDUES IN PIE THAT PROMPT ITS IDENTIFICATION AS A REFLEX
OF AN ACTIVE LANGUAGE: The Importance of Examining Residues as
Illustrated by the Clarification of Germanic Phonology by Jacob Grimm and
his Successors; Explanations of such Residues by a Historical Approach and the
Assumption of Stages in Languages; Pre-Indo-European as an Agreement
Language of the Active Sub-type; Doublets as Reflexes of Earlier Active
Structure in the Lexicon; Reflexes of Active Languages in Nouns, Verbs, and
Particles; Sentence Patterns of Active Structure as Found in the Early
Dialects; Morphological Patterns Reflecting the Earlier Active Structure;
Previous Recognition and Explanation of Active Language Characteristics in
the Indo-European Languages; Conclusion. LEXICAL STRUCTURE: The
Lexicon in Active LanguagesNouns, Verbs, and Particles; Nouns
Active/Animate and Stative/Inanimate, and the Introduction of Gender
Classes; Sets of Nouns in Accordance with their Meaning; Words for the
Family and its Arrangements; VerbsActive and Stative; Involuntary Verbs;
Centrifugal and Centripetal Uses of Verbs; Particles; The Particles Proper.
SYNTAX: Active Language Syntax in Pre-Indo-European; Basic Word Order
in the Sentence; Complex Sentences; the Use of Participles and Other Nonfinite Verb Forms; Uses of Participles in the Early Dialects; Subordinate
Clauses and the Development of Particles to Conjunctions; Classes of Particles;
The Meanings and Origins of Selected Particles, and their Application as
Morphological Markers; The Position of Particles with Reference to Nouns
and Verbs; Examples of Early Texts that Reflect the Syntax of Pre-IndoEuropean. DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY: Attention to Indo-European
Derivational Morphology in the Major Handbooks; Theoretical Assumptions
in Previous Attention to the Earlier Derivational Patterning; Evidence for
the Basic Derivational Processes; The Role of Particles in the Pre-IndoEuropean Lexicon; Production of the Earliest Suffixed Nouns; Production of
the Earliest Suffixed Verbs; Evidence in Compounds; The Increasing Use of
Suffixes in the Formation of New Verbs; Conclusion. INFLECTIONAL
MORPHOLOGY: Views in the Handbooks on Earlier Inflectional
Morphology; The Active Verb System of Pre-Indo-European; of the Injunctive
that Illustrate those of Earlier Verb Forms in Pre-Indo-European; Uses of the
Perfect and of the Hittite hi-Conjugation Forms that Illustrate those of their
Etymon in Pre-Indo-European; Non-finite Forms of the Verb in Pre-IndoEuropean; Verbal Nouns; The Development of Inflections in the Noun;
Adjectives; Pronouns; Conclusion, with Examples that may Reflect Pre-IndoEuropean Texts. PHONOLOGY: Theoretical Bases of the Phonological
Systems Proposed for Proto-Indo-European and Pre-Indo-European; Three
Phonological Systems that have been Proposed for Proto-Indo-European;
Period of Movable Pitch Accent and its Effect on Ablaut; The Period of Stress
Accent and its Effect on Ablaut; Chronology of Ablaut Changes; The
Obstruent System; the Glottalic Theory; The Palatals and Velars; The
Resonants; The Pre-Indo-European Phonemic System. THE CULTURE OF
THE PRE-INDO-EUROPEAN SPEAKERS: Evidence for the Civilization and
Culture of the Pre-Indo-European Speakers; Criteria for Assuming a
218
Preceramic Neo-lithic Period and its Relevance for Pre-Indo-European;

Social and Economic Conditions; Livestock and Agricultural Activities in the
Pre-Indo-European
Community;
Terminology
Indicating
Gradual
Development from Hunting-Gathering to a Settled Society; Tokens, their
Distribution, and implications for Settlement Areas of the Indo-European
Speakers; Art, Literature and Religion of the Pre-Indo-European Speakers;
Life in the Pre-Indo-European Period; Bases of the Preeminence of the IndoEuropeans. PRE-IE AND POSSIBLE RELATED LANGUAGES: Pre-IndoEuropean in Relation to Nostratic and Eurasiatic; Principles to be Observed
in Reconstructing Macro-families; The Need to Reconstruct Proto-Languages
for Macro-families; References; Index.
ISBN 0-941694-82-8
2002, Pages xvi+ 287, Paperback: $52.00
The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern

Sources of the Armenian Epic
Monograph No. 42 By Armen Y. Petrosyan
INDO-EUROPEAN AND ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN MYTHOLOGICAL
PARALLELS: The Sasna CQer and the Basic myth; Covinar, Inara, and *}ner;
The Equine Myths; Bull and Cow as the Symbols of the Thunder and Storm
Deities; The Sun God, Divine Twins, and Their Sister; The Early Twins and
Triplets of the South of Armenia; Sanasar and Baldasar, Indra and Agni,
Tessub and Tasmisu; Sanasar, Eruand, and Pirwa; Angel, Nergal, and Kur; The
Third God Vahagn, Davit`, and Asag; The Indo-European Dog Slayer
Hayk, Davit` and David. EPONYMOUS PATRIARCHS, THUNDER GOD,
AND BLACK AND WHITE MYTH: Aram, the Black Hero; Hayk and
Aram; The Birth of the Black Hero; The White Hero; The Myth of the
Black and White Cities. THE DYING GOD AND THE ADVERSARIES OF
THE ARMENIAN HEROES: Ara Gel ec`ik, Mher, and their Cousins;
Adversaries
of
Heroes.
ARMENIAN
AND
INDO-EUROPEAN
MYTHOLOGICAL PATTERNS: Black and White, Boar and Dog; The
Principal Genealogical Scheme of the Armenian Epics; The Three Functions
of Indo-European Mythology; Daredevils of Sasun, Ethnogonic Patriarchs,
Urartian and Armenian Gods. MYTH AND HISTORY: Historical Prototypes
of the Sasna CQer; Mus and TarunThraco-Phrygians and Armenians; Davit`,
Mus el, and Murs ili; The Iliad and the Epics of the Sasun-Tarawn.
ETHNOGENESIS AND PREHISTORY: Cosmogony and Ethnogeny;
Ethnonymic Ar(a)m- Armenians and Aramaeans; The Proto-Armenians and
the Caucasus; HA.A, Hayasa, Hatti, and Etiu; Hurrians and Urartians; The
Ancestors and Descendants of HaykPrehistoric Movements. Abbreviations.
Works of Medieval Armenian Authors. Bibliography. Index. Note on
Armenian Phonology.
ISBN 0-941694-81-X
Indo-European Perspectives
Monograph No. 43 Edited by Mark Southern
Preface; Miles C. Beckwith: Greek verbs in - A paradigmatic solution;

Hope Dawson: Deviations from the Greek in the Gothic New Testament;
George E. Dunkel: Vedic janapads and Ionic 6 : with notes on
Vedic drupadm and IE *pdom place and fetter; Joseph F. Eska: Remarks
on linguistic structures in a Gaulish ritual text; Benjamin W. Fortson IV:
Linguistic and cultural notes on Latin Inius and related topics; John
219
Harkness: Observations on appositions in Beowulf; Hans Henrich Hock: Vedic

ta stv ma: Subordinate, coordinate, or what?; Brian D. Joseph: Balkan
insights into the syntax of *m : in Indo-European; Carol F. Justus: Hittite and
Indo-European gender; Ronald Kim: The distribution of the Old Irish infixed
pronouns, Cowgills particle, and the syntactic evolution of Insular Celtic; Sara
Kimball: Hittite kings and queens; Jared S. Klein: Homoioteleuton in the
Rigveda; H. Craig Melchert: Hieroglyphic Luvian REL-ipa indeed,
certainly; Edgar C. Polom: Some thoughts about the Indo-European
homeland; Charles Reiss: Towards an explanation of analogy; Don Ringe:
Tocharian B Up and; Douglas P.A. Simms: A word for wild boar in
Germanic, Italic, Balto-Slavic and Greek and its possible Semitic origins; Ann
Taylor: The distribution of object clitics in Koin Greek; Bert Vaux:
Szemernyis Law and Stangs Law in non-linear phonology; Brent Vine: On
full-grade *-ro- formations in Greek and Indo-European; Michael Weiss:
Observations on the South Picene Inscription TE 1 (S. Omero).
ISBN 0941694844
2002, Pages vi + 306, Paperback, $58.00
Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference: Los Angeles, November 9-10, 2001
Monograph 44 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld,
Introduction; Language Abbreviations; MIGRATION AND LANGUAGE
CONTACT: J.P. Mallory: Indo-Europeans and the Steppelands: The Model of
Language Shift; Petri Kallio: Prehistoric Contacts between Indo-European
and Uralic; IDEOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY: Paul-Louis van Berg and Marc
Vander Linden: Ctesias Assyriaka: Indo-European and Mesopotamian Royal
Ideologies; Edwin D. Floyd: Who Killed Patroklos? Expressing the
Inexpressible through an Inherited Formula; Arwen Lee Hogan: The
Modesty of Odysseus; Dean Miller: Theseus and the Fourth Function;
LANGUAGE: TYPOLOGY, ETYMOLOGY AND GRAMMATOLOGY:
Andrii Danylenko: The East Slavic HAVE: Revising a Developmental
Scenario; Anatoly Liberman: English Ivy and German Epheu in Their
Germanic and Indo-European Context; Paul B. Harvey, Jr. and Philip H.
Baldi: Populus: A Reevaluation.
ISBN 0-941694-85-2
2002, Pages x + 191, Paperback: $46.00

Complex Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1st
Millennium. Volume 1: Ethnos, Language, Culture; General
Problems; Studying Statistics; Studying Sintashta; The Eneolithic
and Bronze Ages
Monograph 45 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley D. G. Zdanovich
Introductions by Karlene Jones-Bley and D.G. Zdanovich. I. COMPLEX
SOCIETIES
OF
CENTRAL
EURASIAETHNOS,
LANGUAGE,
CULTURE: Colin Renfrew: The Indo-European Problem and the
Exploitation of the Eurasian SteppesQuestions of Time Depth; E.E.
Kuzmina: Ethnic and Cultural Interconnections between Iran and Turan in
nd
the 2 Millennium BC; Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: Towards A Possible Linguistic
Interpretation of the ArkaimSintashta Discoveries; I.V. Pyankov: Arkaim
and the Indo-Iranian Var; A.P. Medvedev: Avestan Yimas Town in
220
Historical and Archaeological Perspective; Karlene Jones-Bley: IndoEuropean Burial, the Rig Veda, and Avesta; L.T. Yablonsky:
Archaeological Mythology and Some Real Problems of the Current
Archaeology. II. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIA
GENERAL PROBLEMS: L.N. Koryakova: Social Landscape of Central
Eurasia in the Bronze and Iron AgesTendencies, Factors, and Limits of
Transformation. III. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIA
STUDING SINTASHTA: G.B. ZDANOVICH AND I.M. BATANINA:
Planography of the Fortified Centers of the Middle Bronze Age in the
Southern Trans-Urals according to Aerial Photography Data; A.V.
Epimakhov: Complex Societies and the Possibilities to Diagnose them on the
Basis of Archaeological Data: Sintashta Type Sites of the Middle Bronze Age
of the Trans-Urals; A.V. Epimakhov: The Sintashta Culture and the IndoEuropean Problem; T.S. Malyutina: Proto-towns of the Bronze Age in the
South Urals and Ancient Khorasmia; R.A. Litvinenko: On the Problem of
Chronological Correlation between Sintashta Type and MRC Sites; V.N.
Logvin: The Cemetery of Bestamak and the Structure of the Community;
D.G. Zdanovich and L.L. Gayduchenko: Sintashta Burial SacrificeThe
Bolshekaragansky Cemetery in Focus; P.A. Kosintsev: Animals in the Burial
nd
Rite of the Population of the Volga-Ural Area in the Beginning of the 2
Millennium BC. IV. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIATHE
ENEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGES: N.L. Morgunova: Yamnaya (Pit-Grave)
Culture in the South Urals Area; T.M. Potemkina: The Trans-Ural Eneolithic
Sanctuaries with Astronomical Reference Points in a System of Similar
Eurasian Models; V.T. Kovalyova and O.V. Ryzhkova: Circular Settlements in
the Lower Tobal Area (Tashkovo Culture); I.I. Dryomov The Regional
Differences of the Prestige Bronze Ages Burials (Peculiarities of the
Pokrovsk Group); N.M. Malov: SpearsSigns of Archaic Leaders of the
Pokrovsk Archaeological Culture; A.N. Usachuk: Regional Peculiarities of
Technology of the Shield Cheekpiece Production (Based on the Materials of
the Middle Don, Volga, and South Urals); Index to Volumes 1 & 2.
ISBN 0-941694-83-6
2002, Pages xxxviii + 364, Volume 1, with illustrations, $52.00

Millennium. Volume 2: The Iron Age; Archaeoecology,
Geoarchaeology, and Palaeogeography; Beyond Central Eurasia
V. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIAIRON AGE: K.A.
Akishev: Archaeological Reference Points in Prognostication of the
Structures of Ancient Societies of the Eurasian Steppe; Bryan Hanks: Societal
Complexity and Mortuary RitualityThoughts on the Nature of
Archaeological Interpretation; N.P. Matveeva: Interpretation of Models of
Sargat Culture Settlements in Western Siberia. VI. ARCHAEOECOLOGY,
GEOARCHAEOLOGY, AND PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL
EURASIAN COMPLEX SOCIETIES: V.A. Demkin and T.S. Demkina:
Paleoecological Crises and Optima in the Eurasian Steppes in Ancient Times
and the Middle Ages; L.L. Gayduchenko: Organic Remains from Fortified
Settlements and Necropoli of the Country of Towns; V.V. Zaykov, A.M.
Yuminov, A.Ph. Bushmakin, E.V. Zaykova, A.D. Tairov, and G.B. Zdanovich:
221
Ancient Copper Mines and Products from Base and Noble Metals in the
Southern Urals; A.V. Matveeev, N.Ye. Ryabogina, T.S. Syomochkina, and
S.I. Larin: Materials on the Palaeogeographic Description of the Andronovo
Age in the Trans-Urals Forest-Steppe. VII. BEYOND CENTRAL EURASIA:
Leif Karlenby: Communication and Interaction with the East in Bronze Age
Scandinavia; Eva Hjartner-Holdar and Christina Risberg: Interaction between
Different Regions of Europe and Russia during the Late Bronze Age in the
Light of the Introduction of Iron Technology; E. Bnffy: A Stuck Process
Urbanisation in the Carpathian Late Neolithic; Marta Guzowska: The Trojan
Connection or Mycenaeans, Penteconters, and the Black Sea; Philip Kohl,
Magomed Gadzhiev, and Rabadan Magomedov: Connections between the
rd
Caucasus and the West Eurasian Steppes during the 3 Millennium BC; V.M.
Masson: Bronze Age Cultures of the Steppe and Urbanized Civilization of
the South of Middle Asia; L.T. Pyankova: South TajikistanSynthesis of
Settled and Steppe Cultures at the End of the Bronze Age; V.I. Sarianidi:
Chamber Graves of the Gonur Necropolis; Kathryn Linduff: At the Eastern
nd
EdgeMetallurgy and Adaptation in Gansu (PRC) in the 2 Millennium BC.
Index to Volumes 1 & 2
ISBN 0-942694-86-0
Procee d ings of the Fourte enth Annua l UCLA Indo-European

Confe r ence: Los Angeles, November 89, 2002
Introduction; Abbreviations; I. FORM AND MEANING IN INDOEUROPEAN: Helmut Rix: Towards a Reconstruction of Proto-Italic: the
Verbal System; Joseph F. Eska: The Distribution of the Old Irish Personal
Object Affixes and Forward Reconstruction; Annamaria Bartolotta: Towards a
Reconstruction of Indo-European Culture: Semantic Functions of IE *men- ;
Nicoletta Puddu: Reflecting on *se-/s(e)we-: From Typology to Indo-European
and Back; Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen: The Marker of the Animate Dual in
Indo-European; Brian D. Joseph: Evidentiality in Proto-Indo-European?
Building a Case; Karl Praust: A Missing Link of PIE Reconstruction: The
Injunctive of *HIes- 'to be'; II. STYLE, SENSE, AND SOUND: Craig
Melchert: PIE "thorn" in Cuneiform Luvian?; Martin E. Huld: An IndoEuropean Term for 'harvested grain'; Giovanna Rocca: Ideology and Lexis:
Umbrian uhtur, Latin auctor; Angelo O. Mercado: A New Approach to Old
Latin and Umbrian Poetic Meter; III. UNMASKING PREHISTORY: Jon
Christian Billigmeier: Crete, the Dorians, and the Sea Peoples; Gregory E.
Areshian: The Zoomorphic Code of the Proto-Indo-European Myth Cycle of
"Birth-Death-Resurrection": A Linguistic-Archaeological Reconstruction;
Karlene Jones-Bley: Basal Motifs and Indo-European Ritual; IV. MOLDING
AND MODELLING THE PAST: Paul-Louis van Berg: Arts, Languages, and
Reality in the Mesopotamian and Indo-European Worlds; Marc Vander
Linden: The Band vs. the Cord, or Can Indo-European Reconstructed
Institutions Be Tested against Archaeological Data?; Index
ISBN 0-941694-87-9
222
Dictionary of Some Languages and Dialects of Afghanistan

Monograph No. 48 Transliterated, Translated, and Edited by Hamid
Badhghisi
Introduction by A. Richard Diebold, Jr.
Originally compiled in Pashto by Shah Abdullah Badakhshi and published
in Kabul in 1960
A collection of vocabulary from the Ariaii dialects of Manji, Ishkashmi, Wakhi,
Sanglichi, Shughni, Farsi, and Pashto with English equivalents.
ISBN 0-941694-88-7
ISBN 0-941694-89-5

2004, Pages 258, Hardcover: $78.00
Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference
MYTHOLOGY AND CULTURE: E. J. W. Barber and P. T. Barber: Why the
Flood is Universal but only Germanic Dragons have Halitosis: Using Cognitive
Studies to Help Decode Myth; Paul-Louis van Berg: Daidalos, Theseus, and
the Others: The Melding of Indo-European and Mediterranean Traditions;
Gregory E. Areshian: Herakies, the Sun-God-Archer, Tr, and Kerberos; John
McDonald: The Cow and Her Calf: A Case in Indo-European Poetics and
Iconicity; INDO-EUROPEAN EXPANSIONS: E. E. Kuzmina: The Genesis of
the Indo-Aryans in the Light of Data of Historical Tradition and Archaeology;
Marc Vander Linden: The Roots of the Indo-European Diaspora: New
Perspectives on the North Pontic Hypothesis; INTERPRETING SOUND:
Hans Henrich Hock: Fish, Push, and Greek R + y Clusters: A Return to
Danielson 1903; Michael Rieler: On the Origin of Preaspiration in North
Germanic; Martin Huld: An Albanian Reflex of Proto-Indo-European *E 1kuo-s
'Horse'; MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX: Hope C. Dawson: On
Generalizations Lost and Found: -/-au Variation in Vedic i-stem Locatives;
Markus Egetmeyer: The Organization of Noun-Stems, Cases, and Endings in
Ancient Cypriote Greek; Silvia Luraghi: Null Objects in Latin and Greek and
the Relevance of Linguistic Typology for Language Reconstruction; Olav
Hackstein: From Discourse to Syntax: The Case of Compound Interrogatives
in Indo-European and Beyond.
ISBN 0-941694-90-9 Paperback
ISBN 0-941694-91-7 Hardback
2005,Pages 298 $48.00

2005, Pages 298 $78.00
Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference
Victor H. Mair: Recent Physical Anthropological Studies of the Tarim Basin
Mummies and Related Populations; Paul-Louis van Berg: Spit in My Mouth,
Glaukos: A Greek Indo-European Tale about Ill-gotten Knowledge; Miriam
Robbins Dexter and Victor H. Mair: Apotropaia and Fecundity in Eurasian
Myth and Iconography: Erotic Female Display Figures; Stephanie W. Jamison:
Linguistic Aspects of the Persona of the Gth Poet; Jared Klein: Notes on
Categories and Subtypes of Phonological Repetition in the Rig Veda; Hans
223
Henrich Hock: The Insular Celtic Absolute: Conjunct Distinction Once Again
A Prosodic Proposal; George E. Dunkel: Latin -pte, -pe, -per, -pse; IE Limiting *p-te, *-pe-r, and *pti- master; Yaroslav Gorbachov: The Origin of the
Phrygian Aorist of the Type edaes; Valentina Cambi: The Hittite Adverb kar
formerly, earlier; already; Olga Thomason: Location, Direction, and Source
in Biblical Greek, Gothic, Old Church Slavonic, and Classical Armenian;
Hyejoon Yoon: The Substantive Present Participles in nd- in Gothic: With
the Survey of Other Old Germanic Languages; Joshua T. Katz: To Turn a
Blind Eel.
2005,Pages 302 $48.00

2005, Pages 302 $78.00
UKKO: The God of Thunder of the Ancient Finns and

His Indo-European Family
Monograph 51 Unto Salo
The mythology of the ancient Finns and its sources; Iron Age society and its
gods; Ukko and other euphemisms for the God of Thunder; Rauni; Ukko
behind his euphemism; Ilmari, the God of the Winds; Ilmarinen, forger god
and heroic smith; Ukko and shooting the fire; By Hieros gamos; The
testimony of the elliptical fire stones; Ukkos cloak; Thunderbolts; Ukkos
wedge, nail, fingernail, arrow, and chisel; Foreign thunderbolts; Ukkos
sword; Ukkos hammer, ax, and club; The Thunder God and Mother Goddess;
The Battle Axe Culture and the God of Thunder; Tapering-headed battle axes
and the God of Thunder; Ukko in the skies of the lake region?; The evidence
of the Late Neolithic shaft-hole axes; The Bronze Age shaft-hole axes;
Historical-linguistic viewpoints; The Bird God; Ukkos long history:
Conclusions, arguments, assumptions; Abbreviations; plus Eighty Illustrations
ISBN 0-941694-95-X Paperback
2006, Pages 146 $46.00

2006, Pages 146 $68.00
Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference, October 27-28, 2005
Monograph 52 Edited by Karlene-Bley, Martin E. Huld,
Michael Janda: The Religion of the Indo-Europeans; Gregory E. Areshian:
Cyclopes from the Land of the Eagle: The Anatolian Background of Odyssey
9 and the Greek Myths Concerning the Cyclopes; Hannes A. Fellner: On the
Developments of Labiovelars in Tocharian; Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen: Some
Further Laryngeals Revealed by the Rigvedic Metrics; Ilya Yakubovich:
Prehistoric Contacts between Hittite and Luvian: The Case of Reflexive
Pronouns; Ranko Matasovic: Collective in Proto-Indo-European; Birgit
Olsen: Some Formal Peculiarities of Germanic n-Stem Abstracts; Chiara
Gianollo: Tracing the Value of Syntactic Parameters in Ancient Languages:
The Latin Nominal Phrase; Martin E. Huld: Indo-European hawthorns; Jay
Fisher: Speaking in Tongues: Collocations of Word and Deed in Proto-IndoEuropean; Lisi Oliver: Lex Talionis in Barbarian Law; Katheryn Linduff and
Mandy Jui-man Wu: The Construction of Identity: Remaining Sogdian in
Eastern Asia in the 6th Century; Index.
2006, Pages 250 $78.00

2006, Pages 250 $48.00
224
Proto-Indo-European The Archaeology of a Linguistic Problem:

Studies in Honor of Marija Gimbutas
Edited by Susan Nacev Skomal and Edgar C. Polom
A. Richard Diebold, Jr.: Linguistic Ways to Prehistory; Winfred P. Lehmann:
Linguistic and Archaeological Data for Handbooks of Proto-Languages; Jnos
Nemeskri and Lszl Szathmry: An Anthropological Evaluation of the IE
Problem; Nikolai Ja. Merpert: Ethnocultural Change in the Balkans in the
Eneolithic; Sndor Bknyi: Horses and Sheep in the Copper and Bronze
Ages; Homer L. Thomas: The Indo-EuropeansSome Historical and
Theoretical Considerations; Jnos Makkay: The Linear Pottery and the Early
Indo-Europeans; Eric P. Hamp: The Pig in Ancient Northern Europe; Ralph
M. Rowlett: Grave Wealth in the Horodenka Group; Christopher Hawkes:
Archaeologists and Indo-EuropeanistsCan They Mate?; Edgar C. Polom:
Who are the Germanic People?; Gregory Nagy: The IE Heritage of Tribal
OrganizationEvidence from the Greek polis; Bruce Lincoln: On the
Scythian Royal Burials; Calvert Watkins: Linguistic and Archaeological Light
on Some Homeric Formulas; T.L. Markey: Morning, Evening, and the
Twilight Between; Wolfgang P. Schmidt: Indo-EuropeanOld European;
Colin Renfrew: Old Europe or Ancient Near East? Clay Cylinders of Sitagroi;
Edgar C. Polom: Marija Gimbutas, A Biographical Sketch.
ISBN 0-941694-29-1
1987 (1994), Pages 400, Paperback with illustrations: $52.00
Indo-European Origins:: The Anthropological Evidence

By John V. Day
A comprehensive survey of the evidence from biological anthropology for
Indo-European origins, based on the authors Ph.D. thesis prepared under
Professor James Mallory. The author first considers the various ways that
languages can spread and the possible biological implications of these
expansions. He then embarks on an exhaustive survey of over 2,600 books and
articles relating to the physical anthropology of the earliest identified
speakers of Indo-European languages, based on ancient texts, artworks and
lexicons. Covering Europe and Asia from the Neolithic onwards, His study
surveys dermatoglyphics, mummified corpses, skeletal remains and genetic
material for evidence of ancient population movements. An attempt is then
made to integrate findings from biological anthropology with data from
linguistics, archaeology and social anthropology to test the validity of
migration theories in relation to the dispersal of the Indo-European
languages and the possible location of a hypothecated proto-Indo-European
language. The bibliography lists over 2,600 books and articles.
ISBN 0-941694-75-5
2001, Pages xxvi +546, Paperback, 41 figures: $68.00

ISSN 0092-2323
Publisher and Founding Editor
Roger Pearson
The Journal of Indo-European Studies is a thirty-five year old refereed
journal, published by the Institute for the Study of Man, which serves as a
medium for the exchange and synthesis of information relating to the
anthropology, archaeology, mythology, philology, and general cultural history
of the Indo-European-speaking peoples.
Editorial responsibility is vested in an editorial board, comprised as
follows: General Editor: James P. Mallory (Queens, Belfast); Linguistics Editors:
Douglas Adams (Idaho), Vyacheslav Ivanov (UCLA), Peter Schrijver (Munich);
Archaeology Editors: David Anthony (Oneonta). Kristian Kristiansen
(Gteborg); Mythology and Anthropology Editors: Nick Allen (Oxford), Scott
Littleton (Occidental).
Manuscripts should be sent to the General Editor, Professor James P.
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Tel: 44 028 90 273188 Fax: 44 028 90 313628.
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A COMPLETE LIST OF ARTICLES

PUBLISHED IN
THE JOURNAL OF
INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES
VOLUME 1 (1973)
TO
VOLUME 35 (2007)
AND ALSO
A COMPLETE LISTING OF
INDO-EUROPEAN MONOGRAPHS
NUMBERS ONE TO FIFTY-TWO
AND ARTICLES
PUBLISHED THEREIN
CAN BE VIEWED AT
WWW.JIES.ORG
ORDERS MAY BE PLACED USING
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OR AT IEJOURNAL@AOL.COM
OR BY TEL: (202) 371.2700 FAX: (202) 371.1523
OR BY CHEQUE MAILED TO:
THE JOURNAL OF INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES

1133 13TH S T NW #C-2
WASHINGTON D.C. 20005
The Journal of
INDO-EUROPEAN
STUDIES
In Memoriam Winfred P. Lehmann 1916 2007 ................................ 225
In Memoriam Carol F. Justus ................................................................ 229
DEAN MILLER
The Deep History of Stories: University of Edinburgh 2007 ......... 231
N. J. ALLEN
The Heimdall-Dyu Comparison Revisited ...................................... 233
JOHN SHAW
A Gaelic Eschatological Folktale, Celtic Cosmology
and Dumzils Three Realms....................................................... 249
HARRY NEALE
Ibls and the Threefold Death Motif in a
Medieval Persian Hagiography ....................................................... 275
KAREN BEK-PEDERSEN
A Myth in Folktale Clothing............................................................ 285
ARMEN PETROSYAN
The Indo-European *H2ner(t)-s and the Dnu Tribe ..................... 297
DEAN A. MILLER
Legends of Hair: Tracing the Tonsorial Story of
Indo-European King and Hero....................................................... 311
MARIA MAGDOLNA TATR
The Myth of Macha in Eastern Europe .......................................... 323
VICTORIA KRYUKOVA
Gates of the Zoroastrian Paradise................................................... 345
DAVID BUYANER
The Myth of the Bridge of Separator: a Trace of
Shamanistic Practices in Zoroastrianism? ...................................... 357
JIES REVIEWS
Archaeology..................................................................................... 371
Culture ............................................................................................. 387
Linguistics ........................................................................................ 390
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTORS ............................................... 437
INDEX FOR VOLUME 35 ..................................................................... 439
Volume 35, Numbers 3 & 4
Fall/Winter 2007

GENERAL EDITOR
James P. Mallory
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Linguistics: Douglas Adams, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Peter Schrijver
Mythology and Anthropology: Nick Allen, Scott Littleton,
Dean A. Miller
Archaeology: David Anthony
Book Review Editors: Linguistics: Bridget Drinka, Archaeology:
Karlene Jones-Bley, Mythology and Anthropology: Dean A.
Miller, John Colarusso
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
FRANOISE BADER
JEAN HAUDRY
La Sorbonne, Paris
University of Lyon III
MARTIN HULD
R. S. V. BEEKES
University of Leiden
California State University, L.A.
PAOLO RAMAT
ANGELA DELLA VOLPE
California State University, Fullerton
University of Pavia
WILLIAM R. SCHMALSTIEG
MIRIAM ROBBINS DEXTER
University of Califomia, L.A.
Pennsylvania State University
RDIGER SCHMITT
A. RICHARD DIEBOLD, JR.
University of Arizona
University of Saarland
KARL H ORST SCHMIDT
WOLFGANG DRESSLER
University of Vienna
University of Bonn
1. DURIDANOV
JRGEN UNTERMANN
University of Sofia
University of Cologne
JEAN VARENNE
PAUL FRIEDRICH
University of Aix-en-Provence
THOMAS V. GAMKRELIDZE
BRENT VINE
Georgian Academy of Sciences, Tbilizi
ALEXANDRU VULPE
JOHN GREPPIN
Cleveland State University
Academy of Sciences, Bucharest
WERNER WINTER
ERIC HAMP
University of Kiel
STEFAN ZIMMER
University of Bonn
In Memoriam
Winfred P. Lehmann
1916 2007
Winfred P. Lehmann, Louann and Larry Temple
Centennial Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the
University of Texas at Austin, died on August 1, 2007, in
Austin, Texas. Author of over 50 books and special issues of
journals as well as 250 scholarly articles, Lehmann was a wellrespected Indo-Europeanist and Germanicist, as well as a
pioneer in the field of machine translation.
Born in Surprise, Nebraska, on June 23, 1916, he earned
a B.A. in Humanities at Northwestern College in Watertown,
Wisconsin in 1936, and went on to receive an M.A. in 1938
and a Ph.D. in 1941, both in Germanic Linguistics at the
University of Wisconsin. His wife, Ruth Preston Miller
Lehmann, who died in 2000, was also a distinguished historical
linguist. Early in his career, during World War II, he served in
the U.S. Army Signal Corps as Officer-in-Charge of the
Japanese Language School and Japanese instructor. Following
the war, he became Assistant Professor in the Department of
German at Washington University, and was recruited in 1949
to the University of Texas as an Associate Professor of
Germanic Linguistics. After his promotion to Full Professor in
1951, he served as Chair of that department from 1953-1964,
while at the same time directing the Program in Linguistics.
He was largely responsible for developing that program into
the Department of Linguistics at the University of Texas, and
served as its first Chair, from 1964-1972. He was thus
responsible for launching two extremely successful
departments at the University.
Lehmanns international renown is clearly to be
recognized in his awards, appointments, and offices. Recipient
of a Fulbright Research Fellowship to Norway in 1950-1951 and
a Guggenheim Fellowship from 1972-73, he also served as
Director of the Georgetown English Language Program in
Ankara, Turkey in 1955-6, as Chairman of the Linguistics
Delegation to the People's Republic of China in 1974, and as
Volume 35, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2007
226
In Memoriam Winfred P. Lehmann 1916-2007
Co-Chairman of the Commission on Humanities and Social

Sciences to the People's Republic of China in 1981. He was
elected President of the Association for Computational
Linguistics in 1964; in addition, he is the only person to have
served as both the President of the Linguistic Society of
America, in 1973, and the Modern Language Association of
America, in 1987.
On the occasion of his retirement in 1986, scholars from
the Soviet Union, Western Europe, and the U.S. gathered at
the University of Texas to honor him at an IREX Conference
on Linguistic Reconstruction. The volume which grew from
this conference, Reconstructing Languages and Cultures, 1992,
edited by Edgar C. Polom and Werner Winter, points to the
impact that Lehmanns work had on the field of IndoEuropean and historical linguistics world-wide. Lehmann was
also honored by two other Festschrifts, in 1977 and in 1999.
One of Lehmanns special achievements was the
establishment of the Linguistics Research Center at the
University of Texas at Austin, for which he served as Director
from 1961 until his death. The LRC was at the forefront of
software development for machine translation; it eventually
also became an important clearing house for historical
linguistic and Indo-European documents and resources.
Among the most well-known of Lehmanns books on
Indo-European and historical linguistics are the following:
Proto-Indo-European Phonology (1952), Historical Linguistics
(1962) (3rd ed. 1992), A Reader in Nineteenth-Century Historical
Indo-European Linguistics (1967), Proto-Indo-European Syntax
(1974), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986), Theoretical Bases
of Indo-European Linguistics (1993), and Pre-Indo-European
(2002). Across his career, Lehmanns work centered around
such crucial issues as the sorting out of the archaic strata of
Proto-Indo-European from the innovative layers, the use of
typology to inform reconstruction, and the enhancement of
classical models of linguistic analysis by means of new
approaches, such as those developed by Soviet and Russian
scholars. All of these factors helped shape the direction of his
most recent work, which focused upon his claim, following
Klimov (1977) and Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (G & I) (1984,
1995), that Pre-Indo-European was active/stative in alignment,
rather than nominative/accusative. With Gamkrelidze and
Ivanov, Lehmann accounted for the fact that the IE middle
In Memoriam Winfred P. Lehmann 1916-2007
227
and perfect paradigms resemble the Hittite hi-conjugation by

claiming that an ancient stative ancestor existed for all three.
In his most recent book (2002), he assembled extensive data
from the nominal and verbal systems, from the lexicon,
phonology, and syntax of the ancient IE languages, to argue
that remnants of this archaic active / stative alignment
persisted in a number of locations. This book and other recent
works argue what an active, engaged Indo-Europeanist
Lehmann remained, to the end of his life.
For his former students and colleagues, the loss of this
energetic teacher and supportive mentor is particularly painful.
Professor Lehmann was remarkably generous with his time,
and made every effort to ensure the success of his students.
From 1951 to 1986 he directed approximately fifty doctoral
dissertations, and served on the committees of many others.
He respected his students, and expected much from them,
asking them, for example, to help translate some of the
nineteenth-century Indo-European treatises or work on
several entries for the Gothic dictionary. In other words, he
engaged his students deeply in the real work of historical
linguistics. His energy was boundless and legendaryeven
after his retirement, he would still dash up the five flights of
stairs to the Linguistics Department in Calhoun Hall, refusing
to take an elevator. That energyso evident in his publication
record, his commitment to program-building and scholarly
leadership, his active mentoring of his studentswill be sorely
missed by all who knew him and admired him.
Bridget Drinka
University of Texas at San Antonio
A COMPLETE LIST OF ARTICLES

PUBLISHED IN
THE JOURNAL OF
INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES
VOLUME 1 (1973)
TO
VOLUME 35 (2007)
A
AND ALSO
COMPLETE LISTING OF
INDO-EUROPEAN MONOGRAPHS
NUMBERS ONE TO FIFTY-THREE
AND ARTICLES
PUBLISHED THEREIN
CAN BE VIEWED AT
WWW.JIES.ORG
ORDERS MAY BE PLACED USING
MASTERCARD/VISA ON THE SAME WEB PAGE

OR AT IEJOURNAL@AOL.COM
OR BY TEL: (202) 371.2700 FAX: (202) 371.1523
OR BY CHEQUE MAILED TO:
THE JOURNAL OF INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES

1133 13TH S T NW #C-2
WASHINGTON D.C. 20005
In Memoriam
Carol F. Justus
Carol F. Justus, Adjunct Associate Professor of Classics and
Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and
member of the JIES Editorial Board, died on August 1, 2007, in
Austin, Texas. She was Coordinator of the Indo-European
Documentation Center at the University, and a Research Fellow
in the Classics Department.
Justus earned her M.A. in Lingusitics and Comparative
Philology at the University of Minnesota in 1966, and went on
to study Hittite and Cuneiform at the Institut fr Assyriologie
und Hethitologie at Ludwig-Maximillians Universitt in Munich
from 1967-69. She earned her Ph.D. in Indo-European
linguistics from the University of Texas in 1973, focusing on
relative clause constructions in Hittite and other IE languages.
Her dissertation director, Winfred P. Lehmann, ironically and
sadly, died on the same day that she did. She is survived by her
husband, Darien McWhirter, who collaborated with her on a
number of projects.
Justus began her career at SUNY-Oswego, where she served
as Coordinator of the Linguistics Program and Director of the
1976 LSA Linguistic Institute. She went on to teach at UCBerkeley and later at San Jose State University, where she served
as coordinator for the Linguistics Program. Between these two
positions, she also held a research position at the University of
Texas at Austin, working at the Linguistics Research Center
with W.P. Lehmann on the Gothic Dictionary and on natural
language processing. Her more recent affiliation at the
University of Texas lasted from 1994 till the time of her death,
and included the teaching of courses on Indo-European
language and culture, as well as research in connection with the
Linguistics Research Center, and the coordination of the IE
Documentation Center.
Justus was awarded several prestigious honors and grants,
the most noteworthy of which was a Salus Mundi Foundation
Grant from 2003-2007. She wrote or co-edited three books and
over forty articles and reviews on Indo-European language,
230
In Memoriam Carol F. Justus
historical linguistics, numerals, Hittite studies, and many other

topics. She made several contributions to the Hethitisches
Wrterbuch, and served as General Editor for the journal General
Linguistics from 2000-2005. She organized an Indo-European
Workshop entitled Dating Dialectal Changes in Grammatical
Category at the International Conference on Historical
Linguistics, held at Madison, Wisconsin, in 2005. At the most
recent ICHL, held in Montreal in August, 2007, a similar
workshop was convened, one in which she had planned to
participate; it was decided that the papers presented there
would be collected in a volume dedicated to Carols memory.
She will be remembered as a tireless advocate for IndoEuropean Studies, and as a scholar truly dedicated to her work.
Her vibrant personality and infectious, cheery smile will be
deeply missed by all her friends and colleagues.
Bridget Drinka
University of Texas at San Antonio
230
The Deep History of Stories

University of Edinburgh
2007
Introduction
The conference with the central theme or title of The
Deep History of Stories was convened on 28 August 2007 and
ran though 30 August 2007; the papers were read in two venues
on George Square, part of the University of Edinburgh
complex, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Two sponsoring
organizations were involved: the Traditional Cosmology Society
and the International Association for Comparative Mythology,
and in organizing the event Emily Lyle (Emerita, The
University of Edinburgh, and well-known in these pages) and
Michael Witzel (Harvard) acted as enablers and prime movers.
The following papers were mainly, but not exclusively, drawn
from the day-long conference session devoted to The IndoEuropean Focus within the main thematic category.
As one can see from the papers published below (several
having been expanded and re-cast and re-edited, as compared
to their original format when read at the conference) the IndoEuropean aspect of the stories in question has been treated
(dissected, analyzed) in quite different ways and displayed
according to different modalities by these authors. In terms of
what we might call a central theory of Indo-European forms
and activities, we have N. J. Allen comparing two I-E sources,
the Norse mythic and the Vedic, and continuing to suggest a
modification (and expansion) of Dumzils tripartite schema,
in favor of Allens theorized pentadic structure. J. Shaw, on the
other hand, investigates an eschatological folktale and finds
significant traces of Dumzils tripartition in it; this is also true
of H. Neale, who locates the Threefold Death drama in a
Persian original. K. Bek-Pedersen also builds her paper on the
important fragments of archaic myth to be located in folktale,
like Shaw drawing on Gaelic-Celtic narratives.
A Petrosyan examines a range of I-E sources bearing on
the theme of a mythic combat between river/water deities and
232
The Deep History of Stories, University of Edinburgh 2007
heroic antagonists; my own contribution also takes a

particular theme (and the so-called capital complex) and sees
it emergent in several Indo-European contexts, while M. M.
Tatr pursues the intricacies of an abused horse-goddess
drama from a Celtic to an Eastern European recrudescence,
here bordering on or embedded in a non-Indo-European
culture I should also note the non- Indo-European elements
stressed (and symmetrically contrasted) in two other
contributions: Petrosyan sees a Semitic influence visible in his
Blos<Baal divinity; Neale sees a Khurasanian (Persian) relic in
the shaping of the Korans diabolic Iblis. We also have
investigations of specific Indo-European themes set in specific
Indo-European contexts; citing G. Ducoeurs examination of
the crossing the flood theme unfolding in the Vedic and
other Indic formations, and V. Kryukovas decryption, using the
skills of the art historian, of certain patterns in ancient
Zoroastrian and modern Parsi religious practices, the
manipulation of sacred space, and some surviving customs.
Finally, D. Buyaner examines another aspect of the PersianZoroastrian heritage, and specific mystical trends within it
trends observable in other I-E contexts. I assume that Emily
Lyles conference contribution, in which she refines her
radically shaped Edinburgh reference set (with specific
reference to an investigation of the young goddess theme)
will be published in a later issue of this journal.
This was a stimulating, lively, and highly productive
meeting, and I hope that this selection of papers will
successfully show the range, the variety, and the ingenuity of
the approaches to Indo-European themes and contexts that
were revealed in Edinburgh.
Dean Miller
232
The Heimdall-Dyu Comparison Revisited

N.J. Allen
University of Oxford
In the Rgspula the Norse god Heimdall travels among men

under the name Rgr. Already in the 1950s Dumzil
proposed a rapprochement between Heimdall and Dyu
(from *Dyeus) who, according to the Mahbhrata, is
incarnated in the hero Bhma. With the aid of the
pentadic theory of IE ideology and of the hypothesis of an
IE protonarrative, Dumzils comparison can be confirmed
and elaborated, casting new light on both texts.
Of the IE deities whose name can be reconstructed the

best known is *Dyeus, Heaven, whose reflexes include Vedic
Dyu or Dyaus, Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter (= Ju-father). It is
often thought that, apart from his role as father, little can be
said about any mythology Dyu may once have possessed;
certainly the Vedas offer little help. However, in the 1950s the
situation changed. Dumzil examined the incarnation of Dyu
in the hero Bhma, a major figure in the Mahbhrata, and
having previously studied the Norse god Heimdall, proposed a
Heimdall-Bhma rapprochement (Dumzil 2000: 151-188; or,
briefly, 1968: 182-190). The similarities arose, he thought,
because the Mahbhrata originated in India when myths of IE
origin were transposed into stories about epic heroes; and one
such IE myth had as protagonist a figure ancestral to both
Heimdall and Vedic Dyu. Among his major sources for
Heimdall was the Eddic poem the Rgspula (Rgrs List), on
which I shall be concentrating. In interpreting this he naturally
drew on his trifunctional theory.
For some years I have favored replacing the transposition
theory with the theory of an early IE Mahbhrata-like
protonarrative, and also of subsuming the three functions
(F1,2,3) within a larger pentadic theory. The five elements of
this theory have the classical functions at their core (the
definition of F1 being retouched), but the core is bracketed by
two halves of an Otherness function (F4); the half at the top
234
N. J. Allen
of the hierarchy is valued, that at the bottom is devalued. 1 A

certain amount of IE material has already been analysed or
reanalysed in terms of the pentadic schema, and I try here both
to add to this and to support the protonarrative theory.
For the Rgspula, a poem of great thematic richness, I
mainly use Ursula Dronkes parallel-text edition plus
commentary (1997: 161-238), but also Klaus von See (2000:
477-665). After a two-sentence prose introduction the poem
proper (seven pages in Larringtons 1996 translation) consists
mostly of three parallel episodes, but then, for the last 6 of its
49 stanzas, it as it were changes key. 2 The introduction says
that the poem is about Heimdall, who during this episode calls
himself Rgr (King, a Celtic loanword). Rgr visits in
succession three childless couples, receives the hospitality they
offer, and spends three nights lying between the spouses in
their marital bed. Nine months later each couple produces a
son who shares some of his human parents attributes. The sons
(Thrall, Karl and Jarl) are eponyms of the three social classes
slaves or servants, free peasants (churls), warrior nobility
(earls) and, having married an appropriate wife, they beget
children who have appropriate names and activities. However,
in the last six stanzas attention shifts to the youngest son of Jarl,
who is contrasted with his older brothers. Although he is called
Konr Ungr, meaning Young Kin/Scion, his name is a pun for
konungr king, so we have shifted from the social classes, with
their plural membership, to a new social position, that of
monarch. It is this shift that I label the change of key. When
the poem ends or (more likely) breaks off, Konr Ungr is being
encouraged by a crow to attack Danr and Danpr of Denmark
and apparently to marry there and start a royal line.
Most of the Mahbhrata data that we need comes from
book 1 (between 1.57 and 1.115, Crit. Ed.) and can be
summarized in the simplified genealogy of Fig. 1. In the bottom
row the five Pna va brothers, the central heroes of the poem,
1
The difference between the two schemas can be summarized thus:
Trifunctional theory
Pentadic theory
F4+ valued otherness, transcendence
F1 magico-religious sovereignty F1 knowledge, esp. of the sacred and of law
F2 physical force and war
F2 (unchanged)
F3 fecundity, fertility, wealth
F3 (unchanged)
F4- devalued otherness, exclusion
2
Dronke bisects st. 33; most texts give 48 stanzas.
235
are begotten by various gods, but the diagram indicates only

the three gods who impregnate Kunt and beget the three older
brothers, Yudhihira, Bhma and Arjuna.
Male
G+3
Parara
amtanu
female
male
female
Satyavat
Edda
Thrall
G+2
Vysa
Vicitravrya
Amblik
Afi
Karl
G+1
Gods
G0 (egos)
Pnu
Pnavas
(slave, black)
Amma
(peasant, red)
Kunt
Fadir Mdir
Draupad
Jarl
(noble, fair)
==
Konr Ungr
Figure 1. Comparison between selected genealogical data drawn

from the Mahbhrata and the Rgspula. G stands for generation.
For simplicity, the Mahbhrata diagram omits Bhma, son of
amtanu by his earlier union with Gang, the Ganges, and lumps
together the three Pnavas born from Kunt. Broken lines show
socially recognized filiation (Pnu counts as the son of
Vicitravrya), as distinct from biological filiation (Pnu was
begotten by Vysa). The Rgspula diagram omits each couples
daughter-in-law and grandchildren, apart from Konr Ungr. ==
indicates change of key.
The aim of the paper is to compare the Norse poem and

the Indian genealogy, bearing in mind Dumzils HeimdallBhma rapprochement. I cannot attempt a full summary of
Dumzils argument, but it is based on the following: the
chronological framework (both as regards cosmic time and
generational time); 3 the fact that despite their closeness to
kingship neither figure is actually king; their mission, that is,
the steps they take to ensure either a continuous sequence of
kings or the emergence of the first king; their role in the
education of kings; their lack of socially recognised wives or
children; and their birth stories, which involve eight plus one
3
Both figures are killed at the end of a more or less eschatological battle and,
one can add, by figures who are in some sense female: Loki adopts female
disguises, ikhanin was born female.
236
N. J. Allen
beings linked with water. Moreover, both of the gods take on

human form: Heimdall claims to be Rgr, while Dyu incarnates
as Bhma.
1. Three plus one generations
In the Sanskrit, as is discussed in Allen (2007b), Bhma,
who himself does not marry, organises the marriages of his
relatives over three generations. In G+3 he makes possible the
second marriage of his father amtanu; in G+2 that of his halfbrother Vicitravrya, and in G+1 that of his nephew Pnu; but
his matchmaking ceases with the third generation. The
Pnavas in G0 have many dealings with Bhma, but they
acquire their joint wife Draupad without his help.
In the Norse the three couples are not genealogically
linked with each other, but they are named as if by generation.
i and Edda mean Great-grandfather and Great-grandmother,
Afi and Amma are Grandparents, and Fadir and Mdir are
(transparently) Parents. The three-generation pattern ends
with the change of key after which, we shall argue, Konr Ungr
represents a fourth element in the pattern.
2. Plural fatherhood
In the Norse Thrall, Karl and Jarl are in identical
situations. Each has an ordinary human father a married
householder, but in addition each somehow owes his birth to
the visit of Rgr. The nature of this debt is not clear since the
text leaves it open whether Rgr impregnates his hostess (as
most scholars have assumed, including Dumzil) or whether he
promotes conception in some other way. Rgr does claim Jarl as
his son (st. 37), but he is not necessarily claiming biological
fatherhood (any more than a Christian thinks biologically when
addressing a prayer to Our Father). Leaving this matter on one
side, let us just say, vaguely, that we have three cases of dual
fatherhood.
In the Sanskrit we have both dual and triple fatherhood.
In G+1 we can contrast the gods, who are biological fathers or
(in anthropological terms) genitors, with Pnu, who is the
social father or pater; and in G+2 we have as genitor Vysa
(human but supernaturally gifted), and as pater Vicitravrya
(now deceased). In these generations, we can speak
straightforwardly of dual fatherhood. However, in G+3, although
the two fathers can be contrasted in various ways (e.g., in terms
of the duration of their liaison with Satyavat), they have
237
different sons, and one cannot talk of dual fatherhood in the

same sense. Similarly, in G0, the Pnavas polyandrous
marriage produces five sons, one for each husband. One can
merely note, in both stories, a tendency for more than one
male to be involved in fertile marriages.
But there is more to it. Both amtanu in his second
marriage and the two paters after him in G+2 and G+1 only have
sons of any sort because Bhma has brought them together
with their wives. Though he is never a genitor, over three
successive generations Bhma ensures the legitimate continuity
of the lineage, and in that sense promotes paternity. So if the
protonarrative was like the Sanskrit, then (however it may have
appeared to mediaeval Norse poets) a proto-Rgr promoted
conception without himself impregnating. The literature (e.g.,
Dronke 1997: 193) already suggests a possible interpretation.
There existed an Indo-European custom whereby, during the
first three nights of a marriage, the couple were not permitted
sexual intercourse. The prohibition was sometimes symbolised
by an object placed in the bed between the couple a sword in
various European narratives, a decorated staff in a Sanskrit
ritual text. Presumably the custom was intended to promote
unions that would ultimately be fertile, and one can imagine
that Rgrs intervention was effective in the same way as the
sword or staff. 4
3. Location of ego in G0
The numbering of generations implies a starting point or
ego, and in the Sanskrit this position is obviously filled by the
Pnavas, who are the central heroes of the whole epic
amtanu, Vicitravrya and Pnu have all died before the main
action begins.
The Norse is more complicated, since the story uses the
concept of generation in at least two separate ways, which seem
to fuse towards the end. Within each class three generations are
represented in the ordinary way by the original couple, their
son and daughter-in-law and their grandchildren; and the
structure recurs three times. But these three triads are
subsumed within the superordinate structure implied by the
4
As West points out (2007: 437), swords were not yet current among early IEspeakers, so the staff variant is no doubt the older. For the staff (dana) see
pastambas Grrhyastra 3.8.9. Presumably the fatherhood of *Dyeus patr
lies somewhere in the background of the story.
238
N. J. Allen
nomenclature of the original couples, and this three-generation

sequence (great-grandparents, grandparents, parents) implies a
fourth generation occupied by ego. At the level of the
subordinate triads Konr Ungr is exactly analogous to the
children of Thrall and Karl, and one cannot speak of an ego.
But in the superordinate perspective, situated as he is after the
change of key, Konr Ungr becomes a candidate for the role of
ego. Rather than three times three, the overarching structure
has the form three plus one.
4. Location of Protagonist in G+2
In the Sanskrit, Bhma is often referred to as
Grandfather (pitmaha) by the main heroes of the epic. In
other words, not only does the genealogy locate him in G+2, but
this location is emphasized by the kinship term applied to him.
The Norse is again more complicated. After leaving their
homes, Rgr has nothing further to do with Thrall or Karl.
However, when Jarl is old enough, Rgr returns, teaches him
runes, gives him the name Rgr, and recognises him as his son.
This recognition has no equivalent in the earlier generations,
and implies that Rgr situates himself in the generation
immediately before Jarls, namely G+2 relative to Konr Ungr. By
itself the argument from silence is not particularly strong, but it
can be reinforced by noting yet another set of three
generations. The name or title Rgr is used by three individuals:
the god Rgr gives it to his son Jarl, and it is then won by Jarls
youngest son Konr Ungr (st. 46). To put it the other way round,
the first human king succeeds to a title introduced by the god
who is in some sense his grandfather. Arguments 3 and 4 are
thus interlinked.
5. G+3 as a starting point
The Norse story clearly starts in G+3 with i and Edda. At
first this sight contrasts with the Sanskrit where amtanus line
extends backwards more than thirty generations, to start with
gods. However, there are several senses in which amtanu
constitutes a beginning. amtanu is the first figure who really
belongs in the action of the poem (Dumzil 1971: 238).
Vaiampyana, the main narrator of the epic, puts the same
point in another way when he announces that he will be
celebrating the virtuous amtanu, whose glorious history is
called the Mahbhrata (1.93.45-6). amtanu is the first
member of his line to be an incarnation of someone else he
239
incarnates a human king called Mahbhia who rose to heaven

but offended Brahm and was punished by return to earthly
life: and Mahbhias story begins (1.91.1) with a turn of phrase
that is typical of IE story openings: There was once a king
named so-and-so.5 The lack of reference to Mahbhias
parents may also hint at primordiality. 6 So, despite the lengthy
Sanskrit genealogy, probably the protonarrative started with the
great-grandparents of some ego.
5. Sequence of generations and functions
In the Norse the superordinate generations relate clearly
to Germanic social structure slaves, peasants, warriors three
estates or classes which fall readily under F4-, F3, F2. Dumzil
notes that the Germans had no F1 priestly class comparable to
Brahmans or Druids, but interprets Konr Ungr as representing
the first function by virtue of his magical sovereignty. The
interpretation seems to me correct, at least in part, but
pentadic theory removes sovereignty from the definition of the
first function, so the interpretation needs support on other
grounds. Let us follow the Sanskrit generations downwards.
amtanu. In heaven Gag is attracted to Mahbhisa, and when
he falls to earth she takes human form to pursue her affair. So
amtanus first marriage is essentially with a goddess, who seeks
the union. His second is quite different. Satyavat, born from a
fish in the Yamun river, operates the ferry across that river
when amtanu meets her and falls in love. Her adoptive father,
King of the Fishermen, initially makes the match impossible,
but when he observes his love-sick father pining, Bhma takes
action and is able to bring the couple together. Two
oppositions coincide here. The Ganges contrasts with the
Yamun as pure and aupicious versus impure and inauspicious;
and Gag contrasts with Satyavat as goddess versus fisher-girl
or ferry-girl lowly occupations that in caste terms are confined
to Untouchables. Moreover, the goddess seeks out the king and
thereby exalts him, while the Untouchables at first reject him.
Thus in his second marriage the first of the marriages
organised by Bhma the king puts himself on the level of
outcastes, who surely represent F4- (Allen 2007a: 279-282). The
5
rjst prthivpatih| Mahbhia iti khytah, a king there was, lord of the
earth, called M. For literature on this incipit see West (2007: 93-4).
6
Both the opening formula and the lack of parents applies equally to
Satyavats father Uparicara. According to 1.1.50, some of those who learned
the Mahbhrata started with the story of Uparicara (1.57.1).
240
N. J. Allen
parallel is with the first stage of the sociogony, namely the F4slaves.
Vicitravrya. This prince is so handsome that he matches the
Avins in beauty (1.96.56). He devotes himself to making love
with his paired wives (Ambik is not shown in Fig. 1), and he
dies from sexual excess. If one relates him to his brothers
(Bhma; the adopted Brahman Krpa; the bellicose Citrngada;
and the anomalous and ugly Vysa), he is a clear representative
of F3 (Allen 2005a: 35-38). As such he parallels the F3 peasants
in the Norse.
Pnu. Immediately after marrying his two wives (his second,
Mdr, is not shown in Fig. 1), Pnu decided to conquer the
world, and he soon vanquished all the kings of earth, coming
to resemble Indra (1.105). So he is intrinsically a conqueror.
The only passsage that deals with the matter (15.39.9) makes
him an incarnation of the host of Maruts, the warlike
companions of Indra. Moreover, if one relates him to the other
biological sons of Vysa (Allen in press), he falls squarely under
F2.7 The comparison is of course with the F2 nobility in the
Norse.
Pnavas. In G0, the eldest Pnava, Yudhihira, the legitimate
heir to Pnu, takes the throne after the Great War and retains
it till he dies. Dumzil showed convincingly that he represents
the first function. Son of the god Dharma (Sociocosmic Law),
he is law-minded, learned and pious, and when he has to go
into hiding, he chooses to disguise himself as a Brahman. As we
noted, Dumzil also construed Konr Ungr under F1, but he did
not compare the two figures directly. Three points are relevant.
Firstly, both figures are clearly contrasted with their more
belligerent brothers. Whereas Jarls other sons are warlike (st.
43), the youngest is introduced in st. 44 as knowing about runes
right from his birth; and it seems that he would not undertake
the military expedition without urging from the crow. Similarly,
Yudhihira is an unenthusiastic warrior, barely competent. He
resists the hawkish urgings of his family, avoids participating in
the conquest of the four quarters in book 2, and in book 3
leads a pilgrimage while Arjuna is visiting heaven to get
7
Dumzil interprets Pnu as if he were an incarnation of Varuna, hence F1,

but his arguments do not convince me.
241
weapons from Indra.

Secondly, both figures are subjected by their fathers to
tests of knowledge. Konr Ungr disputes runes with Rgr Jarl and
knew better than he (46/1-4). In India, as their twelve-year
exile nears its end, the five Pnavas set out together in pursuit
of a deer. One after another, they visit a lake and are tested by a
supernatural being (3.295-9). The four younger brothers all
fail, but Yudhihira, having succeeded triumphantly, learns at
the end that his questioner is his father Dharma, disguised as a
crane. This is one of not very many contexts where Yudhihira
comes last in a sequence compare the position of Konr Ungr
in the birth order.
Thirdly, both heroes are addressed by birds. The crow
speaks to Yudhihira during and immediately after his test.
After his session with Jarl, Konr Ungr rides off to shoot birds
and encounters the crow on a tree in st. 48.
Although the knowledgeable Konr Ungr fits well under F1,
there is more to him. As well as knowing runes (spells and
secret knowledge), he is a First King, and such figures typically
represent F4+, as do Arjuna and Romulus (Allen 2005a); he has
the strength of eight men (F2, recalling Bhma); and he knows
how to deliver the new-born and pacify the ocean (F3). These
latter abilities are not attributed to the Pnava Twins, but their
divine fathers, the F3 Avins, are the physicians of the gods and
(like the Greek Dioskouroi) rescue mariners at risk of
drowning. The functional attributes do not form a
straightforward list, but even so Konr Ungr appears to combine
in his own person the qualities that in the Sanskrit are
distributed among the five Pnavas.
These two interpretations can be reconciled by means of a
distinction. Regarded vertically, in terms of the sequence of
social roles, Konr Ungr represents F1; but regarded
horizontally, in himself or within his generation, he spans the
upper four fifths of the pentadic schema. In the horizontal
perspective, the emphasis should probably be placed on Arjuna
and his position as representative of F4+, the top slot (Allen
1999); moreover, Konr Ungr is the youngest of Jarls sons, and
in the story where the Pnavas incarnate five Indras from
different world ages, Arjuna incarnates the most recent, i.e. the
youngest (1.189.28). The vertical dimension operates on a
larger and more holistic scale and for that reason can be given
242
N. J. Allen
analytical priority. 8
6. Colors
Among its many other themes the Rgspula alludes to
color. Thrall is born black (svartr), Karl is redhaired and rosy
(raudr ok ridr), Jarl is blond haired (bleikr) and bright cheeked.
According to Dumzil, the correlation between functions and
colors is usually F1 white, F2 red, F3 black, and in this case he
argues for a glissement, a slippage, whereby the lack of a priestly
(F1) component of society has caused the colors to descend by
one rank relative to their standard associations. When I
explored the topic in 1998, I noted the fit between black (the
absence of color), and the negative connotations of F4-, and
suggested that the traditional IE color for F3 was yellow/green.
However, here we have only the triad black-red-white, which in
world-historical terms is thought to represent an earlier stage in
the development of color terms. So let us leave aside the fourcolor idea and focus on comparison with the Mahbhrata.
In 1.90.51 Satyavat is given another name, Gandhakl:
gandha means smell (a reference to the fishy smell that she is
born with and that she retains until her encounter with
Parara), but kl is from kla black. 9 Moreover, her son Vysa
has the additional name Krna Dvaipyana the Black One
born on an Island (a dvpa, in the Yamun). He too is smelly
(gandha again) and so ugly that Ambliks elder sister Ambik
closes her eyes when making love to him (1.99.43, 100.5).
Thrall is ugly as well as black (8/3-9), and although Edda is not
described as black those associated with a given social status
tend to share attributes.
In Vicitravryas name, vicitra means variegated, manycolored, motley. 10 This is not the same as red or ruddy, but can
reasonably be taken to include it.
Pnu means yellowish-white, white, pale, and his third
8
It is interesting that one of Arjunas names, presented both as deeply

meaningful and as that of an ancient sage, is Nara, Man (1.1.117, 210.5, and
often), and that the figure of First King (here Konr Ungr) is in many
mythologies closely related to the figure of First Man.
9
The Southern mss call her simply Kl. In IE contexts, blackness is often
attributed to the earth (West 2007: 179-180), and in Smkhya philosophy
(Allen 2005b) earth is the element linked with F4- and correlated with the
sense of smell.
10
vrya means manliness, both in the sense of heroism, which Vicitravrya
conspicuously lacks, and in the sense of virility (it can even mean semen),
which accords with the kings uxoriousness.
243
son (F4+) is Arjuna, whose name means white, clear. Pnus

color is explained in the Sanskrit by the story that Amblik
went pale when she saw the ugliness of Vysa, but a deeper
explanation is needed to account for the full sequence. In both
stories, as we move down the generations from G+3, we move up
the color spectrum from the usually devalued black via
intermediate hues to white (usually associated with purity).
It is interesting that at both ends of the triad the coloring
relates not to an individual but to a parent-son dyad
(Satyavat+Vysa, Pnu+Arjuna). This recalls the intergeneration sharing of attributes in the subordinate triads in the
Norse, but the rapprochement is perhaps too slight to justify
conclusions about the protonarrative. Independent parallel
development is a possibility, and the picture is complicated the
two Blacks in G0 (Krna the god-man, and his sister, Krn,
another name for Draupad).
7. Location of protagonist in functional schema
As is well recognised, the Rgspula is not only about the
structure of human society but also about social evolution or
the progress of man (to cite Dronke 1997: 179). The
progression from the poor and crude life-style of the slave to
the refinement of the noble is echoed in the progression from
black to white and, more abstractly, from F4- to F2; and despite
the complexities, we have argued that the vertical functional
series continues, after the change of key, to F1.
In the Sanskrit the life-styles are not so neatly ranked:
Vicitravrya and his wives in G+2 are not obviously of lower
standing than Pnu and Kunt in G+1. Even so, the advance is
clear from the lowly fishergirl in G+3 at the start of the triad to
the princess in G+1 at the end. We have suggested that the
colors accord with this progress and that again the functional
series continues to F1.
G+3
G+2
G+1
G0
slaves
peasant s
nobles
king
black F4red
F3
white F2
F1
amtanu
Vicitravrya
Pnu
Yudhihira
with his Black wife

Motley Manliness
White
F4F3
F2
F1
One wonders next whether the stories contain a

representative of F4+, and the answer is obvious. Each story is
held together as a whole by the matchmaker-protagonist
Bhma and Rgr respectively. Both are good candidates for this
half-function. Within his own generation this is certainly where
244
N. J. Allen
Bhma belongs, and Rgr, being a god, stands above and on a

different level from the humans whose social organisation he
creates.11
If one looks at the columns of functions, the natural
location for this representative of F4+ would seem to be in G-1,
which would fit well with the column of social roles the rising
hierarchy would culminate in the god. However such an
allocation makes little sense within the myth as a whole:
creators precede creation. From this point of view the natural
location is G+4. Moreover, Rgr is old (aldinn, 1/3) when he
approaches is house, and Bhma incarnates a god who is
certainly senior to the Mahbhia incarnated in his father
amtanu. Such thoughts may perhaps have occurred to early
narrators, but the myth as we have it associates both Bhma
and Rgr with G+2 (argument 4). This is half way between G+4
and G0 and right in the middle of the three generations that
form so prominent a group (dominating the structure of the
Norse, delimiting the span of Bhmas matchmaking, being
correlated with colors). Previous scholars have noticed the
number of references to Rgr being in the middle of something
(Dronke 1997: 193). This centrality also seems to be the reason,
or part of it, why Arjuna, the F4+ Pnava brother, occupies
only the third position in birth order: it is the middle position
in a pentad.
8. Ego and three previous generations
Having so far only discussed narrative (except for the staff
in the bed), we can end with a brief reference to ritual I
attempt only to indicate a line of research. In India an ancient
and well known ritual called rddha is performed by a male, in
principle monthly, to honour his deceased father and his
paternal grandfather and great-grandfather, each of whom
receives one rice ball. When the performer dies, his son takes
over the duty of performing the ritual, but he no longer
honours his fathers great-grandfather, who is merged into the
host of nameless ancestors; so the ritual always involves ego and
11
Comparable creator figures are Vedic Purua, Avestan Yima and Nuristani
Imra, all of whom have been seen as representing F4+ (Allen 2007a: 274-5;
2000). Interestingly, Heimdall has prodigious auditory acuity (Dumzil 2000:
172), and hearing is the sense correlated with F4+ in Smkhya philosophy
cf. note 7 on smell and F4-. Some analysts have emphasised similarities
between Rgr and Odin, the All-Father and head of the Norse pantheon, but
I do not pursue this.
245
G+1,2,3.12 Referring to this ritual, Manu (9.186) denies the

involvement of a fifth element, but the nameless ancestors, who
transcend the human condition (Dumont 1980: 18), are part
of the conceptual field within which the ritual operates.
The relation between the ritual and the narrative raises
questions beyond our present scope, but it is clear at least that
the ritual, like the narratives, focuses on a set of three
generations starting in G+3, but involves both the generation
after the triad and the ones before it the latter being taken as
a unit. In other words, the ritual shows a 1+3+1 structure. Since
this structure is also typical of the pentadic ideology, we ought
to consider the relation between the two structures, as well as
between the ritual and our narratives. For the moment at least,
I cannot see whether or how to attach functions to the
generations in the ritual, so the comparison remains somewhat
abstract. It is not even clear whether in the rddha the earliest
generation of the triad is of higher or lower rank than the
latest. So let us devise a notation which leaves that question
open (row 2).
1. rddha generations
2. functions (rank order indeterminate)
3. generations in Rgspula & Mahbhrata
4. functions in Rgspula & Mahbhrata
G>+3
G+3
F4a F1/3
(G>+3) G+3
F4+
F4-
G+2
F2
G+2
F3
G+1
F3/1
G+1
F2
G0
F4b
G0
F1
In row 2 one can either suppose that, for ego, he himself is

the centre of attention and transcends everyone else (the only
consciousness he fully knows about is his own), in which case
the remoter the ancestor the less he is valued, so F4a stands for
F4- and we have a rising hierarchy; or one can suppose that the
remoter the ancestor the closer he is to deification and the
more he is valued, so F4a stands for F4+ and the hierarchy
descends. In row 3, as we saw, the protagonist, the figure who is
ultimately of highest rank and most senior (respectively Rgr
and Bhma), appears in disguise or as an incarnation, and not
in the leftmost slot but in the central one (as could be indicated
by drawing an appropriate arrow). In their human form both
protagonists situate themselves in G+2, along with
representatives of F3 (peasants and Vicitravrya), but whether
they have other affinities with that function is a question I do
12
This may reflect Indo-European practice: in legal Latin the parentes, who
were worshipped annually at the Parentalia, comprised just those three
generations (West 2007: 395).
246
N. J. Allen
not examine.
In conclusion
Despite many unanswered questions, I hope at least to
have confirmed that Dumzil was right in comparing Heimdall
and Rgr with Dyu and Bhma, that his rapprochement can be
taken a good deal further than he realised, and that, like so
many others, it makes better sense in the light of pentadic
theory than of the three classical functions. The comparison
has implications for the understanding of both texts. For
instance, the suggestion of Scher (1963: 404) that it is futile
to speculate about why the three original couples are named as
they are ignores the types of argument and evidence that we
have here brought to bear on the question; and yet further
reason has been given to reject a view of the Sanskrit epic as a
hotch-potch of entertaining tales or ballads. The prehistory of
the texts takes on new aspects, and the question arises whether
Konr Ungr represents a fusion among proto-Pnavas. As
regards theory, it is interesting to find a protonarrative 1+3+1
structure in which the triad does not correspond to the classical
functions a form of slippage, but not quite what Dumzil
envisaged. One notes the flexibility with which the ancient
bards could manipulate their ideology. But at this stage
conclusions can only be provisional, since the present paper
needs to be combined with analyses of the reflexes of *Dyeus in
other branches of Indo-European.
247
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2007
Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford: University Press.

Complex Societies of Central Eurasia
from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium.
Monographs No. 45 and 46
Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley and D. G. Zdanovich
Volume 1: Ethnos, Language, Culture; General Problems; Studying

Statistics; Studying Sintashta; The Eneolithic and Bronze Ages
I. COMPLEX S OCIETIES OF C ENTRAL EURASIAETHNOS, LANGUAGE, CULTURE II.
C OMPLEX S OCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIAGENERAL P ROBLEMS : III. COMPLEX
SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIASTUDING SINTASHTA:. IV. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF
CENTRAL EURASIATHE ENEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGES:
Volume 2: The Iron Age; Archaeoecology, Geoarchaeology, and

Palaeogeography; Beyond Central Eurasia
V. COMPLEX S OCIETIES OF C ENTRAL EURASIAIRON A GE : VI. ARCHAEOECOLOGY,
G EOARCHAEOLOGY , AND P ALEOGEOGRAPHY OF C ENTRAL E URASIAN C OMPLEX
SOCIETIES: VII. BEYOND CENTRAL EURASIA:



A Gaelic Eschatological Folktale, Celtic

Cosmology and Dumzils Three Realms
John Shaw
ATU 20C is an international tale with an eschatological theme and

a wide distribution throughout the world. Gaelic variants
recorded in Ireland and Scotland during the 19 th and 20 th
centuries have been observed to contain cosmological themes and
formulae, along with the pagan theonyms Crom and Donn. These
are examined in their relation to a medieval Irish cosmological
formula appearing in the Tin and other sources. The preChristian traditions, particularly that of a tripartite cosmological
structure consisting of sky-earth-sea, are discussed within the
contexts of early Celtic belief. Comparisons with Iranian, Indic,
Greek, and Germanic systems indicate the presence of three such
cosmic realms from Indo-European times, suggesting that the
modern Gaelic variants, taken together, may be regarded as a
remarkable instance of long-term oral transmission.
The main outlines of the international tale type ATU 20C

(AT 2033), more familiar to the English-speaking world as
Chicken Little, can be summarised as follows (adapted from
Uther 1: 28):
20C The Animals Flee in Fear of the End of the World.
(Including the previous [AT] Type 20C.) A chicken (cat,
mouse) is frightened by a nut (acorn, leaf) that falls on
its head (tail), or another animal is frightened by a noise.
The chicken thinks this is a sign of an approaching war
(the end of the world, the sky is falling down), and flees
in panic together with the rooster (they go to tell the king
about the disaster). They meet other animals (e.g. goose,
hare, dog, bear, wolf, fox) who come to share their fear
and go along with them. Often the animals bear odd or
comical names. The misunderstanding is cleared up, or
the animals fall into a pit (see Type 20A). In some
variants they arrive at the fox's den. The fox invites them
inside and eats them.
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John Shaw
Considering the popularity of the tale, along with its

dramatic eschatological theme, it is surprising how little
attention it has received from folktale scholars.
Modern Gaelic Variants
In terms of understanding the cosmological component
of the tale, it is instructive to examine the modern Gaelic
variants, which arise from oral traditions that were still strong
during the twentieth century, and contain clear and constant
references, situated within the familiar international
framework, to a major cataclysm. Their potential importance in
this regard has been briefly remarked on previously, raising
the question as to whether they might retain echoes from
medieval or indeed ancient times. A survey of primary sources
from fieldwork carried out in Scotland and Ireland since the
mid nineteenth century reveals the main characteristics of the
Gaelic type:1
One character, or two (in some versions a hen, in
others human) receives a signal the sky is about
to fall on the earth, or simply of the approach of
death (bs) or doom (brth). In some variants
they are down by the shore, and are made aware
of the impending disaster by being struck by an
object falling from the sky. They set out to carry
the news to others (animals or humans) in
succession, all of whom bear distinctive, often
comical names, using a formula along the lines of:
Who has seen or heard it? My eyes have seen
it, my ears have heard it, and my soles (or back[side]) have felt it. They form a growing
procession as they go through the country until
they reach a destination of sorts: in many variants
a white horse carries them to a river where they
are drowned.
We can classify the Gaelic variants into three types
according to structure and content. Type 1 consists of Irish
1
My thanks to Prof Samus Cathin and the UCD Delargy Centre for Irish
Folklore for providing me with copies of transcribed versions of ATU
20C/AT 2033 from their archive.

and Dumzils Three Realms
251
variants mostly from Galway and Kerry, centering round the

theme of heaven and earth falling together. The setting,
where specified, is by the seashore, and as a rule they contain
the formula My eyes have seen it, my ears have heard it
referring to the event and occurring in that order in nearly
three fourths of the variants surveyed. This type with its
description of the collapse of heaven and earth set beside the
sea appears in Gaelic Scotland in a single variant recorded in
1967 from a reciter from Bernera, Harris in the Outer
Hebrides.2
It is worthwhile to observe the degree to which the
further Scottish Gaelic variants, along with some Irish ones,
listed under the next two types, differ from this mainly Irish
variety. Under the second type comes Mr nighean Smid Mr
the daughter of Smid, published in the tenth volume John
Francis Campbells manuscript collection, apparently taken
down from a nursemaid in Islay in the second half of the
nineteenth century and printed in J.G. MacKays More West
Highland Tales (2: 62-66). Like the variants under Type 1, it is
a cumulative tale:
Mr the daughter of Smid falls and thinks that death
(Bs) has come. She meets Ewan MacAlc, saying to him,
Beware of death. Have you seen or heard him? She
replies, My ear has heard, my eye has seen and my foot
has felt. She then encounters a series of characters:
Priest Speckled Boy, the One-eyed Man, the Lark that was
on the Nest and the Wren that was on the Rock, the
Thatcher of the Kiln, the Grinder of the Mill, Little Rory
of the Rock, Big Rory of the Rock, and the Old Woman
of the Bothy. Finally as they flee together they come to a
river and the Horse with the White Trews offers to take
them across. They all climb up on his back and the
whole group of them are carried away by the river.
Type 2 is found over a wide geographical area. MacKay lists

Irish variants from S.W. Waterford, W. Kerry and S.W. Donegal,
which is hardly surprising in the light of the contacts between
Northern Ireland and the southern isles of Scotland.
SA 1967/88/A2
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John Shaw
A third type with the opaque title Tuaireadaire Teallaich

appears in two variants recorded in Scotland from South Uist
in the Outer Hebrides. Both variants were taken down during
the nineteen-fifties, from the famous South Uist reciter
Duncan MacDonald and his neighbor Ronald Macintyre (DJ
MacDonald MS:8. 690-97; 49, 4556-68). Type 3 is likewise in
the form of a chain tale:
Tuaireadaire Teallaich meets Cromach nighean a Chromach on
the shore. Where are you going? she asks. Fleeing from
doom (brth), he replies. Who heard or saw it? I heard
and saw it. It was under the soles of my own feet. They
collect Tamhasg nighean an Tamhasg, the Ghost of the Fordmouth, Fs a chl an t-sionnaich, the Grey Man and his
son, the Cliamhain and his crowd (cruit, musical
instrument), Deer between two Hills, Fox in a Hollow,
Ruairidh Mr of the Crag, Bloigh Meise, Cheese-Back,
Yellow Blaze on Palm, Two Women Grappling, Woman
Harvesting Wisp. Finally they encounter the Lame White
Garron of the Peat who says, Get up on my back and I
will save you. When they do he takes them out to sea and
they are all drowned.
A further variant belonging to this type came to light

unexpectedly in 1978 in the course of field work carried out by
the writer in the Gaelic areas of Cape Breton Island, Nova
Scotia (MacLellan: 351-53, 417). The title, Croma-Ghille
Cromaidh agus Donna-Ghille Donnaidh, is partially reminiscent
of the South Uist version above:
Croma-Ghille Cromaidh is walking one day along the
seashore and the sea comes in about his feet and he
becomes frightened. So off he runs until he reaches
Donna-Ghille Donnaidh, asks, What is wrong? CromaGhille Cromaidh replies The day of doom is coming
(Tha am brth a tighinn). Who saw and heard it? (C
chunnaic s a dhfhairich e?) his companion asks, and
Croma-Ghille Cromaidh replies, It is I that saw and
heard it. Didnt it come beneath the soles of my feet? (S
mis a chunnaic s a dhfhairich e. Nach ann fom bhonnaibh a
thnaig e?). Away they go, as in the Uist variant, to spread
the news to a succession of characters (the Priest of the
Desolate Glen, a Chliath sa Chruit Fear Liath and his son,
et al.) using the same verbal formula each time and
collecting the characters as they go. Finally they reach Big

253
Fionn Mac Crslaig, who is engaged in spreading

manure. His reaction to the news of the impending
cataclysm is less than reverent: Ill tell you what well do.
Well all stay here together, and its my strong opinion
that if the day of doom comes, well certainly notice it.
But I believe it will not arrive at all.
The reciter, Lauchie MacLellan, of Dunvegan, Inverness

County, belonged to a noted family of tradition bearers
originating in Morar on the Scottish mainland near Skye. A
fragment of the same variant, this time originating in the
Inner Hebridean Isle of Canna was also recorded also in Cape
Breton, and a further one from Arisaig, within a few miles of
Morar, has been identified in the SSS sound archive (Figure
1).3 That variants should appear in Arisaig and Canna is of
Clanranald
Territory
South Uist
Canna
Morar
Figure 1
3
SA 1954/56/B15
254
John Shaw
particular interest when we remember that areas of the

mainland that included Arisaig, together with the islands of
Canna and South Uist, were in constant contact from medieval
times, belonging as they did to the territories of the
Clanranald of South Uist, an area noted for its cultural
conservatism.
The three Gaelic variant types can be set out and
compared in the tables below:
Types, Events, Formulae
Type 1
Ireland
Event
Seaside (location)/
+falling object
Heaven
Earth
Type 2
I.
Event
Beware of death (Bs)
Type 3
Event
Seaside (sea around feet)
Doom is coming (brth)
Islay
Uist, Canna, Mainland

(>Cape Breton) =
(Clanranald)
Formula
Eyes Saw
Ear Heard
Strikes hens back(side)
Formula
Ear heard
Eye saw
Foot felt
Formula
Saw
Heard
Under my soles
Table 1
In Types 1, 3 there is a clear link, as indicated above, between
the initial event occurring at the seaside and the third part of
the formula.
In their events and incorporated formulae the modern
variants lead to intriguing questions as to whether they retain
discernable echoes of earlier cosmological beliefs within an
eschatological theme. Such questions can be approached by
examining the relation of our variants to what is known of the
belief systems in earlier Gaelic society, and elsewhere.
Mythological Personages: Crom and Donn
A feature of the Clanranald variants immediately apparent
to those with an interest in early Irish mythology is the
presence of what appear to be the names of well-known preChristian gods, Crom and Donn; we may well ask what

255
significance, if any, can the presence of the names have to our

story with its cosmic elements. For such pagan theonyms to
appear in any modern folktale in Scotland is a rarity, though
both names appear briefly in scattered traditions, mostly
rhymes, recorded in Scotland from Argyll to the Western Isles
during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In both cases
the Irish traditions are more extensive and detailed.
Crom (whose name seems to mean crouching, bent
over) is best known in the Irish older sources as an important
and formidable adversary of St Patrick. In that capacity his
name is associated with those most infamous of pagan
practices, idolatry and human sacrifice, as described in a
passage from the famous medieval compilation of place-name
lore, the prose Dindshenchas (Stokes 1895): 4
Mag Slcht. Whence was it named? Answer: it is there the
king-idol of Ireland was, i.e., Crom Crich, and the
twelve stone idols around him; but he was of gold. And
until the coming of Patrick he was the god of every
people that occupied Ireland. It is to him they used to
offer the first-born of every stock and the first-born of
every family. It is to him that the King of Ireland,
Tigernmas son of Follach, came at Samhain, together
with the men and women of Ireland, to adore him. And
they all bowed down before him, until their foreheads,
and the soft part of their noses, and the caps of their
knees, and the points of their elbows, broke; so that
three-fourths of the men of Ireland died in these
prostrations.
Such legends, together with their elements of preChristian belief, have survived into modern times as part of the
oral repertoire of Irish storytellers, proving that some pagan
cults survived with vigor until well into the Christian era
(Ford: 40-47). Curiously, Crom, or Crom Dubh (the Dark, Bent
One), the embodiment of pagan deities, does not appear
among the pantheon of the older Irish gods, and his name
may merely be an epithet meaning the Black Croucher, an
apt image for the devil. Nevertheless he appears in later
4
A parallel account is found in the metrical version of the Dindshenchas
(Gwynn 1924).
256
John Shaw
popular legend tradition in a primary role, where he is

associated inter alia with the festival of Lughnasa, control of
the elements and the provision of food (MacNeill: 409-415;
hgin: 128).
Donn (brown in modern Gaelic, earlier also dark) in
contemporary Irish folk tradition is likewise surrounded by a
variety of associations, some of which (weather, dwelling on
hilltops, stock and crops, death and fatal forebodings) he
shares with Crom (Mller-Lisowski 1950: passim). In a legend
from Clare the two are linked in the name of a fairy-king
Donn MacCromin, who presents the owner of a small holding
with a fatal gift (op.cit.: 169-172). At all periods Donn is
frequently portrayed on horseback, in modern legend often
exiting from his subterranean dwelling mounted on a white
horse ( hgin: 166). Unlike Crom, there is little doubt
concerning Donns rich and undoubtedly ancient mythological
antecedents among the older gods. Since the medieval period
his primary associations are with the realm of death and every
otherworld place, his most important role being that of King
of the Dead; he was one of the sons of Ml, and by some
accounts perished during their invasion of Ireland. He was
buried in an island off the south coast of Munster known as
Tech Duinn Donns House where the dead were believed to
assemble (Rees and Rees: 96-97). His role is confirmed
elsewhere in a 9th century medieval text where he says Cucum
dom thig tssaid uili / ar bar n-caibh to me, to my house you
shall all come after your deaths (Mller-Lisowski: 148).
Regarding his underworld role, parallels have been drawn
between Donn and Ds Pater, the Gaulish god of the dead
mentioned by Julius Caesar, and comparative evidence
indicates that the concept is inherited from Indo-European
times. The Indo-European etymology advanced for Donn is
*dhus-no- dark in colour, a word that lends itself well to the
obscurity associated with the abode of the dead. Comparatists
have proposed further parallels between Donn and the
Sanskrit Yama, described in the Vedas as the first man to die
and lord of the dead. Corresponding to the Indic Yama
(Twin), both in function and the eytmology of the name, is
the Norse god Ymir, who was slain by the other gods and his
body used to form the cosmos (Puhvel 1989: 183; Rees and
Rees: 107-108).

257
The Spatial Context: Celtic Cosmology

Compared to the wealth and detail displayed in the
cosmological system surviving in the written records of their
Germanic neighbors in western Europe, ancient concepts of
the cosmos among the Celts can only be sketched in the most
general terms from classical sources, and from the fragmentary
medieval sources that survived the spread of Christianity.
There is evidence from a number of accounts from classical
times of a belief in a column at the centre of the earth, an axis
mundi, that supported the heavens that was destined to
shatter, bringing about a cataclysm (de Vries: 268). A
continuation of this widespread belief may be found in one of
the medieval Irish immrama (wonderous voyages), where Mael
Din and his companions encounter a great column of silver, 8
oar-strokes in circumference, without a sod of earth about it,
but the endless ocean. They are unable to see its base, or its
top on account of its great height (Loth: 366). Alwyn and
Brinley Rees (1961: 325) have proposed that such wondrous
voyages, with their religious trappings, are remnants of an
earlier doctrine: the tattered remains of an oral Celtic book
of the dead which proclaimed that the mysteries of the world
beyond death had been at least partially explored and the
stations of the souls pilgrimage charted. Regarding life after
death, the same authors observe that little remains from Irish
sources to indicate what the pre-Christian doctrine was,
though classical authors indicate a belief in an afterlife and a
realm of the dead (op.cit.: 325; de Vries: 256-65). Lucan
(Pharsalia I.450-68), writing of the Gauls during the first
century CE, provides some indication of what the doctrine may
have been:
According to you [the druids] as authorities, the shades
do not travel to the silent abodes of Erebus and the
pallid dominions of Ds in the deep. The same spirit
rules over bodily members (artus) in the other world:
death is the midpoint of a long life, if you sing things
which are rightly known (transl. Lincoln: 119).
Later accounts from medieval Ireland, doubtless influenced by

Christian belief, portray a further Otherworld, this time
brighter, more pleasant, and not subject to the passage of
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John Shaw
time. Mag Mell The Pleasant Fields, Tr na n-g Land of the

Young, etc. is often located somewhere beyond the ocean and
is comparable to the Elysian Fields of classical literatures (de
Vries: 265-67; cf. Puhvel 1989: 108-109, 138-40).
It is evident from classical sources that the ancient Celts
conceived of the end of the world; they also feared, and thus
believed, that the world would end in a cataclysm. Strabo
provides an account of Alexander the Greats visit to Celts on
the Adriatic around 335 BCE:
Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, says that during this campaign
some Celts living near the Adriatic arrived seeking good
will and friendship. Alexander received them warmly and
while they were sharing a drink asked them what they feared
the most, thinking they would say him. They answered that
they feared nothing except that the sky might fall down on
them but that they honoured the friendship of a man like
him more than anything. Ptolemy I (s.v. Strabo 7.3.8;
Koch: 23-24).
Beyond such fragmentary survivals and their parallels in

neighouring cultures - e.g. the shivering of the cosmic ash
Yggdrasil from pre-Christian Scandinavian cosmology later
sources in prose or poetry contain little to throw light on older
doomsday scenarios in Ireland or elsewhere in the Celtic world.
Immaccallam in d thuarad The Colloquy of the Two Sages an
eschatological text in MSS dating from the 12th century,
contains strong similarities in its apocalyptic vision to the
Norse Vlusp/Ragnark, portraying the collapse of the social
order and destruction of the material world, but does not
aspire to a cosmological scale (Stokes 1905: passim).
Despite the scarcity of surviving records in the literature,
comparative work on Indo-European eschatology has lent
indirect support by providing a probable context. Based on
comparisons of Norse (Vlusp/Ragnark, and Brvellir in Saxo
Grammaticus), Irish (the Second Battle of Mag Tured), Indic
(Kuruksetra in the Mahbhrata ) and Latin (the Battle of
Lake Regilius) mythical and historical accounts, OBrien
(1976) reconstructs a ten-stage model for an Indo-European
eschatological battle leading to a final cataclysm. Interestingly,
the Irish comparanda are seen to adhere to the reconstructed

259
pattern in his system more closely than those of the other

groups (op.cit.: 318). On a larger scale, Bruce Lincoln (1986:
131-36), comparing Norse, Greek and Iranian traditions, sees
the related eschatologies in Indo-European traditions as
belonging to a cosmic cycle consisting of a cataclysm followed
by a regeneration of the cosmos and the beginning of another
age.
Cosmological Formulae?
Direct accounts bearing on concepts of the cosmos are
thus at best suggestive for older Irish traditions, but a study of
formulae in their various contexts has yielded more fruitful
results. William Sayers in an insightful series of comparisons
draws attention to a passage in the Old Irish epic Tin B
Cuailnge The Cattle Raid of Cooley: 5
Mono theth in fhirmiminti cona frossaib rtland for dunignis
in talman n mani th in fharrgi eithrech ochargorm tulmoing in
bethad n mani me in talam, ... gu brunni mbrtha 7 betha ...
Unless the firmament with its showers of stars fall upon
the surface of the earth, or unless the blue-bordered, fishabounding sea come over the face of the world, or unless
the earth quake ... we shall never ..
(Sayers: 100; LL version ll. 4731ff).
Here the breaking of an oath is associated with the

catastrophic collapse of the cosmic order and the rupture of
the boundaries separating the three cosmic regions of sky,
earth and sea, corresponding to the elements air, earth and
water. The same formula, with the sky falling, the earth
quaking or opening up, and the sea flooding over the world
occurs in other MS versions of the Tin, as well as in further
medieval Irish sources: In all cases we have the negative
consequences of a violation of natural boundaries, a maleficent
example of the liminal situations so characteristic of early
Celtic literature (Sayers: 105). Sayers, followed by others, has
noted that the formulae express a tripartite cosmic structure
that may be related to the elements present in the medieval
Irish motif of the Threefold Death (op.cit.: 107; MacMathna
5
A Gaelic oral version of this, the most famous of all early Irish epics, was
recorded on the island of South Uist, Scotland in the 1950s.
260
John Shaw
1997: 533, 540), and the doomsday aspects of the formulae

recall the classical accounts given above of the heavens falling.
As to the order of the three regions, the sky as a rule is first,
with some variation in the sequence or earth and sea; but the
prevailing pattern in the examples studied is the descending
order of heaven earth sea. MacMathna (1997; 1999)
traces the frequent replacement of the inherited triad nem
(sky), muir (sea), talam (earth) by the heaven-earth
opposition of Christianity, which in turn is reflected in a
number of the modern Irish oral versions of ATU 20C. Also in
common with the modern folktales is the ending of the older
formula (mani ) gu brunni mbrtha (unless) never (lit. to
the day of doom), with the identical word brth retained in
the Scottish variants. It is likely that at least the aquatic
element of the medieval eschatological tradition has survived
into modern times in Scotland in the form of a rhymed
prophecy predicting a cataclysmic flood engulfing Ireland and
Islay and likewise incorporating the word brth:
Seachd bliadhna ron bhrth
Thig muir thar irinn ri aon trth
S thar le ghuirm, ghlais
Ach snmhaidh Chaluim chlirich
Seven years before the day of doom
The sea will come over Ireland in a single watch
As well as Islay green and grassy,
But Iona of Columba the cleric will float.
(Carmichael 2: 348 ).
The phonetic similarity in Gaelic between the words brth

doom and bs death together with their similar semantic
ranges offers the most plausible explanation for the
appearance of the latter word in variants of the modern
folktale in both Gaelic traditions. Only the Scottish Clanranald
variants have been conservative enough to retain the original
brth present in the earlier oath formulae.
Returning to the modern folk variants of our story, it is
evident that the tripartite cosmic structure in early Irish belief
revealed by the oath formulae and other contemporary
medieval sources bears a close relation to later oral tradition, as
Sayers (116 n. 53) suggested it might. Following the earlier
261

paradigm, a comparison of the structures of Types 1-3 above

shows that when we combine the three variant types of the
folktale, it is apparent that together they provide a more
detailed version of the tale, particularly when we fill in the
gaps covered by the more general concepts brth/bs
doom/death to restore a full paradigm:
Types 1-3
Ireland
and
Scotland
Event
Heaven (nem)
Earth (talam)
1
1
Seaside (sea around

feet) (muir)
1,3
Formula
Eyes Saw
Ears Heard
1,2,3
1,2,3
Struck Back(side)
Foot Felt
Under My Soles
1
2
3
Table 2
A common variant of Types 1 and 2 would be based on the
falling object from the sky striking the hen, an effective
symbol for the catastrophic meeting of heaven and earth.
Curiously, the reference to the aquatic realms in the events
column of Types 1 (Ireland) and 3 (Clanranald) is always found
at the beginning of the narrative, while it is always assigned
last place in the formulae (the association is explicit in Type
3), when it occurs at all, and the same holds for the falling
object variants. I would suggest that the placing of the water
element in initial position, and its demotion from an element
to a setting (the shore) has something to do with a
suppression of explicit cosmic structure brought about by the
growing influence of Christian doctrine. The order and nature
of the events were changed because they openly referred to
specific cosmic realms; the corresponding formulae (which will
be examined in more detail below) were perceived as less of a
challenge to christianisation and retained their original order.
At this stage we may ask how fragments of such an
apparently ancient system of structured belief persisted in oral
form into our own time. The most likely channel of
transmission was a process, perhaps lasting centuries after the
establishment of Christianity in Ireland, where the formula in
which the belief system was encoded survived by being grafted
onto the ostensibly neutral genre of a childrens tale. In this
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John Shaw
context ATU 20C, an international tale with cosmic and

eschatological overtones, could not be a better candidate for
attracting and harbouring an item of cosmological lore whose
social and sacred contexts had been superseded by another
system.
Cosmic Structure and Indo-European Ideology
The formulaic nature of the earliest Irish evidence
provides an indication that the concept of a tripartite cosmic
structure whose realms correspond to three elements may well
be an inherited one. A structure of this kind has been
regarded as an extremely archaic concept in Europe for some
time (Grambo 1973: 92), as well as being widespread.
Nevertheless, little work along these lines has been carried out
by comparative mythologists for Indo-European traditions to
date. It is possible, however, to draw comparisons from a variety
of literatures over a wide geographic area which indicate that a
tripartite cosmological structure of this kind with its
constituent elements or one very like it existed from
common Indo-European times.
One of the most fruitful comparisons to this end was
made by Georges Dumzil (1938) in his study of the Armenian
god Vahagn, whose name derives from the Iranian dragonslayer Vrragna. The Armenian ritual poem describes how
heaven and earth were in tumult, as was the purple sea, and on
the sea was a red reed from which a flame issued. Out of the
flame a small adolescent emerged at speed with hair of fire, a
moustache of flame, and eyes like the sun. This was Vahagn,
the slayer of dragons. Dumzil draws attention to an episode in
Indic from in a postvedic source, Book 5 of the Mahbhrata,
where the dragon-slayer Indra, after breaking the prohibition
against killling a Brahman by his slaying of the serpent Vrtra,
flees to the ends of the worlds and conceals himself in a lotus
plant in the waters, thereby provoking cosmic disorder. After
an unsuccessful expedition by his wife to persuade him to
return, the god Agni is charged with searching the cosmos,
seeking through the realms of the earth and air without
success until, following orders, he enters the third realm, the
waters, and finds Indra, now the size of an atom, within a lotus
fiber. Dumzil points to the comparison as an apt example of

263
the value of later Sanskrit sources for the reconstruction of

prehistoric mythologies.6 Further on in the same work (169)
he draws attention to an additional allusion to the three
cosmic realms in an episode where Vrragna gives to Zoroaster
the gift of unlimited vision in the sea, on land, and in the sky
the cosmos in ascending order.
The theme of the fugitive in the three realms appears in
a further tradition from the periphery of the ancient Iranian
world: that of the Scythians as recounted by Herodotus (4:
131-32). The Persian king Darius upon receiving a bird, a
mouse, a frog and five arrows as gifts from the Scythians
interprets their message as one of surrender. His selfaggrandising view is promptly challenged by another in the
company: Unless, Persians, ye can turn into birds and fly up
into he sky, or become mice and burrow under the ground, or
make yourselves frogs, and take refuge in the fens, ye will
never make escape from this land, but die pierced by our
arrows.
The earliest recorded cosmic structure in Indic sources is
conventionally represented as three levels consisting of
heaven, atmosphere and earth. These in turn are integrated
6
A further comparison, not mentioned by Dumzil, appears from a more

westerly region of the Indo-European world. The Greek philosopher
Empedocles in his discourse on the eternal interplay in the universe between
the forces of love and strife describes how the end of the worlds golden age
was brought about by animal sacrifice involving the spilling of blood and
sacrificial dismemberment. He then describes the consequences of the ritual
killing on a cosmic scale (Lincoln: 52-53):
Whenever some one of those daimns who were apportioned long lasting
life,
Should defile his dear limbs with gore []
He will wander for three thousand years away from the blessed ones,
Springing forth in forms of mortal bodies through time,
Exchanging one painful path of life for another.
For the force of the force of the air drives him to the sea
And the sea spits him onto the surface of the land: Earth (sends him)
To the beams
Of the radiant sun, which toss him to the eddies of air.
One receives him from the other, and all abhor him.
Here Empedocles lists his four elements, but the sky-earth-sea triad appears
within them, and the theme of separation from the company of the gods after
a slaying and dismembering, to become a wanderer or fugitive in the cosmic
realms, is consistent with the story of Indra in the Mahbhrata.
264
John Shaw
into a set of homologies involving the human body and

sacrificial practices (Lincoln: 7, 56). Yet passages from the
earliest Indic texts, those of the Rig Veda, indicate the
possibility of an alternative set, contemporaneous or earlier,
along the lines of that Dumzil has noted for postvedic and
Iranian traditions. A passage concerning funerary rites (RV
10.16.3) contains the following:
Rv 10.16.3
sryam cakur gachatu vtam tm dym ca gacha prthivm ca
dharman
apo va gacha yadi tatra te hitam oadhu prati tih ariraih
Your eye must go to the sun, and your self (must go) to
the wind.
You must go to heaven and earth, according to what is
right
Or you must go to the waters (op.cit.: 124).
In RV 10.2.7 (cf. 10.46.9, 10.45.1) Agni, the god of fire who

played a central role in locating Indra in the Mahbhrata
episode, is said to be born of the sky, the earth and the waters,
and of the god Tvastr. (Brown: 91).
Rv 10.2.7
yam tv dyvprthiv yam tvpas tvast yam tv sujanim
jajna
Thou whom the Heaven and Earth, thou whom the
Waters, and Tvastr, maker of fair things, created
Upon his creation by the gods Agni became known

throughout the three cosmic levels (10.88.8):
sktavkam prathamam d id agnim d id dhavir ajanayanta
davh | sa em yajo abhavat tanps tam dyaur veda tam
prthiv tam pah
First the Gods brought the hymnal into being; then they
engendered Agni, then oblation.
He was their sacrifice that guards them: known to the
heavens, the earth, the waters. 7
7
Cf. The passage from the Old Irish Senchus Mr (1, 22), where the druids,
practitioners of the sacrifice, claimed that they made the sky and earth and

265
A passage concerning the functions of the healing gods, the

Avins, attests to the links between a heaven-earth-waters
cosmic structure and the medical doctrine that was inherited
from Indo-European times and corresponds to Dumzils three
functions (RV 1.34.6; Puhvel 1970: 381 fn 19):
Rv I:34.6
trir no avin divyni bheaj trih prthivni trir u dattam
adbhyah
Thrice, Avins, grant us the medicines of heaven, thrice
those of the earth, and thrice those of the waters.
Greek sources contain evidence for the same belief, and are of
particular interest not only because they derive from some of
the earliest recorded traditions, but because their form, which
is that of an oath naming the three cosmic realms, parallels
closely the Irish oaths examined above. In Homers Odyssey,
Odysseus, confined on an island with the sea nymph Calypso
and longing to depart, is assured by her that she intends to
subject him to no hardships on his release:

,

,
Now let the earth be my witness in this, and the wide
heaven above us,
and the dripping water of the Styx, which oath is the
biggest and the most
formidable oath among the blessed immortals (Od. 5,
184-6).
The passage itself indicates that there was some degree of

significance attached to the oath, which may explain why it
occurs twice more in early sources, both times verbatim,
suggesting its formulaic nature. In the additional instances the
sea and so forth, the sun and moon and so forth (cited in Lincoln: 63).
Another of Indras allies, the god Visnu, the wide-strider, strode out as Indra
departed to combat the serpent Vrtra (RV. 4.18.11). Visnu was also known as
the three-stepper in reference to his crucial primordial three strides that
somehow measured out and affirmed the habitable universe for gods and men
alike (Puhvel 1987: 56).
266
John Shaw
oath is likewise made by a female divinity: in the Iliad (15, 3638) it is Hera speaking to an angered Zeus; in the Homeric
hymn to Apollo (84-86) Leto swears the gods powerful oath
that a temple to the god will be built on a certain spot.
Corroboration of a specific sky-earth-sea/waters cosmic
structure for Indo-European likewise appears at various times in
history and in various genres in the traditions of the Germanic
peoples. An example from a West Germanic modern oral
source - coincidentally or not - closely parallels the theme of
the fugitive between cosmic realms. In the Scottish ballad The
Twa Magicians (Child no. 44) a shape-shifting lady, pursued by
a blacksmith with similar abilities, changes herself into a dove
to fly up in the air, then into an eel to swim in the water, and
finally as a hare to run on a hill (Lyle 1979: 79). In this
connection Child cites the Welsh tale of Gwion Bach
(appearing in manuscripts from the sixteenth century and
associated with the conception story of the bard Taliesen),
pursued on land, in the water and in the air and undergoing
the appropriate theriomorphic transformations suited to earth,
land and sea (op.cit.: 79-80). Doubtless the must dramatic
example from Germanic, and one showing close parallels with
the medieval Irish traditions, is the eschatological passage in
the Old Norse poem the Vlusp The Sybils Prophecy with its
description of Ragnark, the violation of boundaries and the
collapse of the cosmos (Plsson: 54, 89):
54. Sl tr sortna,
sgr fold mar,
hverfa af himni
heiar stiornur.
Geisar eimi
vi aldrnara,
leikr hr hiti
vi himin silfan.
The sun will turn black,

the earth will sink into the sea;
bright stars will vanish from the sky.
Fires will burn against flames,
and immense heat play against
heaven itself.
Sacrificial practices recorded in early Germanic sources are

also useful in providing some indication of the homological
associations between Dumezils three functions and the cosmic
levels examined here. They suggest the presence of a
tripartite society in ancient times, where three varieties of
post-battle human sacrifices were carried out corresponding to
the social hierarchy (Ward 131-33). The techniques described

267
are hanging (1st function), wounding with a weapon (2 nd

function) and sacrificial drowning or live burial (3rd function).
In the examples given the descending order is usually
retained, with the third function sacrifice as a rule in last
place. Ward then draws attention to close Celtic parallels from
ancient and medieval records. A revealing instance is recorded
in the Commenta to Lucan, where human victims were
sacrificed to Esus by hanging, to Taranus by burning, and to
Teutates the peoples god by drowning in a vat. 8 The second
function mode of sacrifice, burning, is regarded as the Celtic
counterpart of the Germanic death by wounding (op.cit.: 13435). The later sources from medieval Irish literature echo the
same practice in the well-known accounts of the Threefold
Death (cf. Sayers: 107). All of the comparisons from Germanic
and Celtic accounts point back through time toward an
inherited Indo-European sacrificial practice solidly integrated
into a larger, pervasive tripartite ideology.
Archaic Structures Observed in a Folktale
If we accept that comparative evidence, often wideranging, can be deployed to shed light on individual items
within a specific culture, it is worthwhile re-examining the
formulae contained in ATU 20C in the context of the
foregoing comparisons. Relative to the variations in the
events of the story, we have noted that the formula column
has remained relatively stable. The question, of course, is what
relation the formulae, which are all expressed through the
sensory modalities (visual, auditory, tactile), can have to the
cataclysmic events in the tale, or to an inherited tripartite
ideology. Bruce Lincoln has outlined a system of homologies
between macrocosm and microcosm among Indo-European
speaking peoples relating to the human body, cosmology, the
elements, the senses, etc. that provides at least a partial
answer. In this scheme the heavens, the first-function realm,
are identified with the upper body; the sun and the eye being
the two orbs involved in the act of vision are regularly
associated in Indo-European cultures, as witnessed by the
derivation of OIr. sil eye from a form of IE *swel- sun and
cf. the passage from RV 10.16.3 above. Homological links
8
For Esus, Taranis, Teutates see Puhvel 1987: 168-72
268
John Shaw
between the acoustic sense and the earth are less clearly
represented, but have been advanced as part of a set
comprising the other four senses (Lincoln: 12). The final
cataclysm as portrayed with its violation of the boundaries
maintaining the natural order in the older Irish sources
describes the tumultuous and dramatic acoustic effect (in faim
9
7 in fothrom, in sestn 7 ssilbi) of the heavens falling onto the
earth, or of the earth itself quaking or splitting as the
underworld thrusts upwards (Sayers: 104-105). Although the
place of the tactile sense is not clearly stated for the tripartite
system, the fact that physical contact with the approaching
catastrophe in the modern folktales occurs with the back(side)
or feet, i.e. the lower part of the body, reveals clear links with
the concepts of the third function and its attendant
homologies.
Early Irish cosmological structure as encoded in the oath
formulae appears relatively straightforward, since it is limited to
a world routinely accessed by the senses. However the
presence of the underworld god Donn (and Crom with his like
characteristics) in the modern folktale variants raises further
possibilities regarding structure, at least for Celtic cosmology.
Put simply, does the folktale suggest a broader cosmological
structure than that contained in the perceptible triad, and if
so, how would it relate to the earlier proposed structures? A
useful theoretical construct, based on Dumzils work, has
been developed by N.J. Allan where a fourth function (F4),
characterised by Otherness and possessing not only a
negative but also a positive aspect is proposed (Allen 1996: 13;
2000: 105-106, 129-40). Lyle (1980; 1990: 1-5), also proposes a
fourth category along with the classical triad, which consists of
a representation of the whole added to the three components,
drawing on examples from Ireland and Rome.
In cosmological terms, the Celtic Otherworld,
appropriately represented by Donn, the king of the dead,
would be the obvious choice for a fourth function, since, in
the gods own words (Cucum dom thig tssaid uili / ar bar ncaibh to me, to my house you shall all come after your
9
Both alternating pairs are formulaic. The first is still routinely drawn on in
Scottish Gaelic folktales to describe the approach of a giant. The second
appears in various MS versions of the Tin, and elsewhere (DIL S: 199-200).

269
deaths) it represents the whole as being the inevitable

destination of all classes of society. Remnants of cosmological
belief among the Celts are also easily compatible with the
positive and negative aspects of a fourth function existing
outside the sphere of mortality and day-to-day perception. As
we have seen, two otherworlds are described: Mag Mell, with its
pleasant, non-transitory aspects, and the obscure kingdom of
Ds/Tech Duinn. It is these traditions, ultimately surviving from
Indo-European ideology, that can best account for the
otherwise curious presence of the pre-Christian theonyms
Crom and Donn in the Clanranald variants of the folktale.
Folklore and Comparative Mythology
The above comparisons from the Celtic world, and from
the Indo-European world of 2-4 millennia earlier, indicate that
we have a folktale containing particular corresponding items,
additionally supported by structural correspondences, that are
recognizable as part of an established conceptual framework
for Indo-European society, mythology, and cosmology. The
survival of extremely archaic cosmological themes and
formulaic representations, all located within a recognised
structure, also of great antiquity, leads to larger theoretical
issues that have been with us since the beginnings of the
study of the folktale. In a time where the historical aspects of
folklore are receiving less attention than in the past, ATU
20C, on the basis of the comparisons above, would seem to be
one of the most remarkable examples known of the kind of
historical survival over extended periods of time termed
gesunkenes Kulturgut, bringing to mind the Grimm Brothers
romantic and widely discredited nineteenth century view of
vernacular folktales as being broken-down myths (Thompson:
368-72). This leads to the next question: over what length of
time can the oral transmission of identifiable cultural items
occur with little or no support from written sources? To my
knowledge there are no written Gaelic versions of ATU 20C
surviving from before the 19th century. The older Irish
formulae gathered by Sayers have an obvious bearing on the
modern tale in their specific contents as well as in the wider
contexts of cosmological belief that they represent, but there
is no evidence of manuscript transmission from medieval times
270
John Shaw
that would have accounted for the characteristics of the recent

vernacular variants. We should note, in fact, that the latter
contain associated features such as the formulaic presence of
sensory modalities associated with the classic functions, as well
as otherworld theonyms, that are not associated with the
cosmological triad in manuscript sources but are consistent
with the body of archaic Celtic and Indo-European
cosmological belief. Further examples of medieval or ancient
materials appearing in oral traditions recorded during the
twentieth century include patrician legends from Ireland
(Ford 1983); William Hansens (2002) work on modern
international tales and their earlier variants in classical sources;
Albert Lords noting of similarities between the Serbo-Croatian
Return Song and the Odyssey of Homer, raising the
possibility of a continuous tradition of Return Songs in the
Balkans from at least Homeric times; and broader questions of
continuity posed by Lord through analytic comparisons of
formulae and other narrative features in modern and ancient
Greece (Foley: 44, 50).
For the comparative mythologist, the Goidelic evidence
from various periods lends support to the concept of an
identifiable cosmic structure at some stage in Common IndoEuropean times. We have seen that the concept of a tripartite
cosmos containing the descending realms of heaven, earth
and sea and corresponding to Dumzils three ideological
functions is widely distributed in the Indo-European world, and
is intimately linked to ideas of cosmic order, eschatology,
sacrifice and medical doctrine. The modern folktale materials
reinforce William Sayers views, and in various of their aspects
suggest additions to the incomplete picture available to us
from written medieval sources. For folklorists the Gaelic
variants of ATU 20C can serve to demonstrate that identifiable
cosmological traditions of extreme antiquity are capable of
surviving through oral transmission unto our own lifetime. In a
folktale tradition of the extent and depth as that shared
between Ireland and Scotland, we can look forward to further
basic research and interpretation as likely to reveal much more
concerning the historical significance of modern tales, and
having a bearing on the analysis of traditions that existed
centuries ago in medieval times, or millennia ago in prehistory.
It is evident from our study that the materials available do not

271
lend themselves easily to analysis, nor to neat and tidy

formulations, but the methodical use of modern folklore
materials to investigate ancient narratives and belief systems,
though in its infancy, is well placed to develop.
References
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Aspects of the Patrician Legend. In Celtic Folklore and Christianity.
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Traces of Shamanism in Norwegian Folktales and Popular
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The Twa Magicians as Conception Story. Scottish Studies 23: 79-82.
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Cosmos and Indo-European Folktales. Arv: Nordic Yearbook of
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Brgh an rain/A Story in Every Song. The Songs and Tales of Lauchie
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Ibls and the Threefold Death Motif in a Medieval

Persian Hagiography
Harry Neale
University of California, Berkeley
On the basis of a comparison with the motifs of threefold

sacrifice/death that are found among the various Indo-European
peoples it is likely that a curious anecdote in a 12th century Persian
hagiography indicates a survival of this motif in the folklore of
Khurasan. This article shows that an anecdote concerning Ibls
(an aspect of the Devil in the Qurn) and his son adheres closely
to the pattern found in the earliest attestations of the threefold
death motif.
The Deep History of Stories1 could also qualify as an apt

subtitle for the collection of saints lives compiled and
elaborated in the late 12th century by the Persian mystic Poet,
Fard al-Dn Ar of Nishapur. The stories in Ars
Takiratul-awliy (Memorial of Gods Friends) proved to be
immensely popular throughout the Persian-speaking Islamic
world and the work is still hailed as a masterpiece of early
Persian prose. One of the reasons for the popularity of
Takiratul-awliy is its engaging stories and delightful
anecdotes. Ar was a great storyteller and incorporated many
disparate sources into his compositions. A comparative analysis
of his hagiography reveals elements from folklore, popular
storytelling traditions, such as may be found in the Arabian
Nights, as well as pre-Islamic religious motifs. A recurrent
character in these saints lives is Ibls, the Quranic Lucifer. Ibls
often appears in these stories as a wily tempter who challenges
the power of Gods friends, almost always to no avail. In one
anecdote concerning Ibls, however, there appears to be a far
older Indo-European source, to wit, the threefold death motif,
which is the topic of this article.
Ars most original contribution to the development of
the Ibls character in Sufi literature occurs in the Life of }akm1
The title of the conference at which this article was originally presented as a
paper on August 29, 2007 in Edinburgh.
276 Harry Neale
i Tirmi (d. circa 279/892). Al-Tirmi says the following

concerning the dangers of the nafs (the base self): Beware, for
Satan is located within [mankind] (Ar: 462).2 By way of
illustrating this important point, he then relates the following
anecdote:
When Adam and Eve came together and their repentance
was accepted, one day, Adamupon whom be peacewent
out to do something. Ibls came with his own childnamed
Khanns brought him before Eve and said: I have
something important I must do. Watch over my child until I
come back. Eve agreed and Ibls went away. When Adam
came back he asked: Who is this? He is the son of Ibls
who has been entrusted to me, said Eve. Adam chastised
her saying: Why didst thou accept? He became angry and
slew the child, cutting him into pieces, and hung each piece
from the bough of a tree and went away. Ibls returned and
asked where his son was. Eve told him what had happened:
He cut him into pieces and hung each piece from the
bough of a tree. Ibls called to his son. He became whole
again and alive and came before Ibls. A second time he
said to Eve: Take him, for I have another important affair.
Eve did not accept. [Ibls] entreated her and lamented
until she accepted and then he went away. Adam came back
and asked: What is this? Eve explained the matter to him.
Adam beat Eve and said: I know not what the mystery is in
this that thou dost not my bidding but rather the bidding of
Gods foe by whose words thou art beguiled! Then [Adam]
slew [Khanns] and burned him, scattering half of the
ashes in the water and the other half in the wind then he
went away. Ibls came back and sought his son. Eve told him
what had happened and Ibls called to his son. The pieces
[of his body] came back together and he became alive and
sat before that accursed one, to wit, Ibls. Then Ibls said
again to Eve: Accept him again. Eve would not accept,
saying: Adam will destroy me. Ibls made her swear an
oath and she accepted. Adam came, saw [Khanns] and was
wroth. As many times as [Ibls] entrusted [Khanns] to Eve,
Adam beat her and slew Ibls son. At last Adam said: God
knows what will happen. Thou heedest [Ibls] words and
not mine. Then he became wroth, slew Khanns, and
cooked him. [Adam] ate half and gave the other half to
p. 462. Al-Tirmis words seem to echo the had: Inna al-Sayna yajr min alinsni majr al-dam/Verily Satan flows through man like his blood. AlBukhr, ahh, vol. 4 (Cairo: Dr wa mabi al-sab) p. 150.
2
Ibls and the Threefold Death Motif in a Medieval Persian Hagiography
277
Eve. Some say that the last time Ibls brought Khanns in
the shape of a sheep. When Ibls came back and sought his
son Eve told him what had happened saying: He slew him
3
and cooked [him in a] stew (qaliya kard). I ate half and
Adam the other. This was my goal, said Ibls, to place
myself inside of Adam. Since his breast has become my
abode my goal is achieved. Thus has Godmay He be
exaltedsaid: [Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind,
the King of mankind, the god of mankind, from the evil of
the Whisperer,] Al-Khanns, who whispers in the breasts of
mankind among Jinn and men/[Qul au bi-rabbi al-ns,
maliki al-ns, ilhi al-ns, min sarri al-wasws] al-khanns
4
alla yuwaswisu f udri al-ns, min al-jinnati wa-al-ns.
This exegesis of sra 85 of the Qurn occurs for the first

time in Ars Takiratul-awliy (Ar: 463-464). Nothing in
the Qurn or had even remotely alludes to such a succession
of events, nor does it have a precedent in Sufi hagiography.
Given Ars creative gifts as a poet and storyteller, one would
perhaps assume that the basis for this anecdote was entirely the
product of the authors imagination. Certainly, this is partially
true insofar as Ar drew on folklore and earlier storytelling
traditions for some of the material that he transformed into the
substance of his manavs (extended narratives couched in
rhyming couplets) and hagiography. It is likely that the
inspiration for this anecdote was Tirmis own Nawdir al-ul,
a work concerning primarily had. In the two hundred and
thirty-ninth section of the book, the following explanation is
given following a quotation from Qurn 51:22 (And in Heaven
is your daily bread and that which ye have been promised/wa-f
al-sami rizqukum wa-m tadna) (Qurn: 51:22):
3
Dehkhoda gives the following definition for qaliya: Gst bar tba biryn karda
suda u ba istiml-i gst ki dar rawan miyn-i dg biryn karda nnkhras
szand khras ast ki dar n gst hast Dehkhod, Aliakbar, Loghatnme
(Encyclopedic Dictionary) eds. M. Moin and Jafar Shahidi (Tehran: Tehran
University Publications, 1998) p. 18,841.
4
This story also occurs in Ars masnavi, the Ilh Nma with a few minor
differences, most notably Adams disposal of Khanns body after the first
slaying. In the Ilh Nma, he scatters the pieces of the corpse willy-nilly in a
field (bikust n baa-r u pra kardas/ ba ahr burdas u vra kardas) rather
than hanging them from a tree (n baa-r bikust u pra pra kard u har pra-
az skh-i darakht dar vkht u biraft.) as in Takiratul-awliy. Ar, Ilh
Nma, p. 123.
278 Harry Neale

And God did cause this water to be sent down and
designated it cleansing/pure (ahran). But Satan (alSayn), in his filth and uncleanliness, found a way to enter
the belly (jawf) of Adam and that came about when Adam
upon whom be peaceate of the tree that the Foe (aladuw) indicated to him to eat thereof. The Foe forged a
path to [Adams] stomach and made there [his] abode, and
this is why it stank in [Adams] belly when he was cast out of
the Garden, because of the filth and uncleanliness of the
5
Foe (Al-Tirmi: 159).
Ar must have then elaborated the basic premise of this idea

(i.e. the Devils physical presence in man) drawing on oral
folklore, which he then adapted to the story he wanted to tell in
order to elucidate sra 85 in the Qurn. Thus, Ar was
responding to an Indo-European element, to wit, a variant of
the threefold death motif, that had survived in the local culture
of Khurasan. A comparison between the motifs in this
exegetical tale and those of similar tales in the traditions of
various Indo-European peoples reveals a far older source that
harks back to an early Indo-European sacrificial tradition. The
three ways in which Adam brings to naught the son of Ibls: a)
cutting him into pieces and hanging them from the branches of
a tree; b) burning him and scattering the ashes in water and
wind; and c) cooking him in a stew, are akin to the three
sacrifices to the triumvirate of gods that are attested in early
Germanic and Celtic pre-Christian ritual.
Among Germanic peoples three means of offering a
sacrificial victim to the gods existed: by hanging, weapon, or
drowning. In Celtic religion, the three means were hanging,
burning, and drowning; fire replacing the weapon in the Celtic
sacrifice (Ward 1970: 131-135). Although the threefold sacrifice
is found in its most complete and probably oldest form in
Germanic and Celtic culture as related in Latin sources, it is
also attested as a folkloric/mythological motif among many
other Indo-European peoples as well.6
The basic methodology for the analysis of the threefold
Al-Tirmis awr al-umr also deals quite extensively with Ibls as he is
portrayed in the Qurn and had.
6
For further discussion of the threefold death motif in the modern folklore of
Indo-European peoples see R. Brednich, Volkserzhlungen und Volksglaube
von den Schicksalsfrauen, Folklore Fellows Communications 193 (Helsinki: 1964)
pp. 138-145.
5
279
death motif is derived from Georges Dumzils ideas

concerning tripartition in Indo-European myth, religion, and
social stratification. The first of the three functions concerns
religious and legal sovereignty; the second, armed might; the
third, wealth and fruitfulness. These three functions are,
according to Dumzil, evinced in the three social classes of
ancient Indian and Celtic society, to wit, the priestly caste, the
warrior class, and the agricultural/merchant class (Dumzil:
1958). Each of these functions also corresponds to a god whose
domain
concerns
one
of
the
three
functions:
sovereignty/religious authority, war, and fertility. Among the
Gauls, a different sacrifice was made to the three primary gods:
for Esus, the god of the first function, the victim was hanged;
for Taranis, the god of the second function, the victim was
burned alive; and for Teutates, the god of the third function,
the victim was drowned in a vat (Evans 1979: 154). 7
Many other similar practices may be found among ancient
and medieval Germanic, Italic, Celtic, and Hellenic cultures.
Medieval Irish saints lives provide a number of examples of the
threefold death motif. In the Life of Saint Moling, there is a
certain son of malediction named Grac who spends his time
robbing and rebelling and steals a cow that the saint has
bestowed upon a woman who has complained of having no
kine. Saint Moling foretells the doom of Grac but the woman is
unconvinced, saying: The more likely, meseems, he will have a
long life! If then, it were thy wish to burn him, [says Saint
Moling] (this) would be done. The more likely, meseems,
that a great fire would be got for him if he should feel cold,
says the woman. Or if it be better to drown him, (this) would
be done, says Moling. The more likely, meseems, that a drink
would be got for him if he should be athirst, replies the
woman. Saint Moling then sends his followers in pursuit of him.
When they reach the thief, he has already killed the cow and is
taking its flesh out of a cauldron. When he perceives his wouldbe captors, he flees from them, climbing into the top of a tree.
In the tree he is wounded, falls thence into the fire, and then
into the river where he is drowned (Stokes 1966: 287). Gracs
falling from the tree may be interpreted as a symbolic hanging,
7
There are some complications, however, in the identification of these Celtic

deities. See Claude Sterckx, Les dieux protens des celtes et des
indoeuropens, Ollodagos (Mmoires de la Socit Belge dtudes Celtiques)
4 (Bruxelles: 1994).
280 Harry Neale
a transformation of the hanging motif that occurs in other

examples of the threefold death motif. Following the death of
Grac, the people bring the flesh of the cow and wrap it in its
hide, whereupon Moling restores it to life. It is worth noting
that Molings revivification of the slaughtered cow recalls Ibls
revival of Khanns following the first two occurrences of his
slaying by Adam. A further example of the threefold death
motif is found in the Life of Saint Brendan of Clonfert, in
which a certain King Diarmait is cursed to die by burning,
drowning, and slaying (Plummer 1922: 87). In his work
Germania, the Roman historian Tacitus remarks that capital
punishment was meted out by the Germanic tribes in a manner
that is akin to the three sacrifices of the Gauls. The condemned
was executed according to the type of crime committed. A
traitor was hanged from a tree, while the crime of unnatural
sexual practices (i.e. contra fertility) was punished by drowning
in a bog.8 The threefold death of Agamemnon in the Orestia
trilogy of Aeschylus (5th century BCE) has been convincingly
elucidated in Evans article. Upon his return from the Trojan
War, Agamemnons wife, Clytemnestra, murders him by
entangling him in a cloth and then slaying him with the sword
of her lover, Aegistheus, while he is taking a bath (Evans 1979:
160). In comparison with the Celtic and Germanic threefold
sacrifice, the entangling of Agamemnon in a cloth may be read
as a symbolic hanging, while the bath may be read as a symbolic
drowning. A similar occurrence of an even more symbolic
rendering of the threefold death motif is found in the Welsh
Mabinogi. In the book of Math fab Mathonwy, the character Lleu
Llaw Gyffes reveals to his treacherous wife that he may only be
killed under the following circumstances:
Tacitus, Germania, book 12 (distinctio poenarum ex delicto: proditores et

transfugas arboribus suspendunt corpore infames caeno ac palude iniecta insuper
crate mergunt.)
281
I cannot be killed inside a house nor outside, said he. I

can neither be killed on horseback nor on my feet. Well,
said she, in what manner mayest thou be killed then? I
will tell thee, said he. [If] a bath be made for me on the
bank of a river and the framework of a roof be made above
the tub/vat (cerwyn) and its roof be quite watertight after
that. A billy goat [must] be brought, said he, and placed
near the tub and [I must] place one foot on the billy goats
back and the other on the edge of the tub, whoever should
strike me thus would slay me.
His wife, wishing to have him out of the way so that she may be
united with her lover, makes the necessary preparations and
asks him to demonstrate how he would stand. Suspecting no
treachery, Lleu Llaw Gyffes does as she asks and forthwith her
lover, Gronw Bebr, casts a spear at him. In this example, the fall
from the tub and goats back when the spear hits Lleu may be
read as a symbolic hanging, the bath represents drowning, and
the spear is, of course, the weapon (Math uab Mathonwy: 16).
A more recent example of the threefold death motif in
Indo-European folklore was collected by D. Lorimer, a scholar
of West Iranian languages, whose work includes a translation of
many folk and fairy tales from the Bakhtiyr language. In one
of these, a king asks his three astrologers to speak regarding his
newborn sons destiny. The first foretells that the prince will be
bitten by a snake when he is fourteen; the second foretells that
at fourteen he will fall down from a height; and the third
foretells that he will be drowned in the water at age fourteen.
The king refuses to accept that more than one of these
predictions may come true, nonetheless, he appoints a guard to
watch over his young son, bidding him never to allow the boy to
leave the garden in the palace courtyard. It so happened that in
this garden was a tree in which a sparrow had built her nest and
beside the tree was a large tub of water. In his fourteenth year,
the prince climbs the tree to get the nest. When he places his
hand on the nest a snake bites him, which causes him to fall
down from the tree and into the tub in which he drowns
(Lorimer 1919: 333-334).9
It is probable from a comparison with the motifs of
9
A similar tale is found in the medieval Spanish Libro de buen amor, however,
the death predicted by the kings astrologers concerning his son is fivefold:
stoning, burning, falling, hanging, and drowning. Juan Ruiz, The Book of Good
Love, trans. E.D. Macdonald (London: Everyman, 1999) pp. 40-43.
282 Harry Neale
threefold sacrifice and death that are found among the various
Indo-European peoples as attested in ancient, medieval, and
modern sources, that the anecdote concerning Ibls and his
son, Khanns, is based on a survival of this motif that was
ostensibly current in the folklore of 6th/12th century Khurasan.
An analysis of the three ways in which Adam slays Khanns
reveals this tales conservative adherence to the threefold death
motif. In the first slaying, Adam kills Khanns, cuts him into
pieces, and then hangs the pieces from a tree. In consideration
of the many symbolic ways in which the threefold death motif
has evolved in Indo-European folklore, it would be no great
stretch of the imagination to interpret the bedecking of a tree
with the rent pieces of Khanns flesh as a symbolic hanging.
The second slaying hardly needs analysis insofar as the manner
of killing is concerned. The burning of Khanns by Adam
conforms closely to the earliest attestations of this secondfunction sacrificial slaying among the Celts of Gaul. The third
slaying, to wit, killing Khanns and cooking him in a stew, may
be interpreted as a symbolic drowning as the cooking of a stew
implies the use of some type of vessel such as a pot or cauldron.
Thus it may be posited that the drowning of Khanns in a
stew is akin to the other examples of drowning a victim in a vat
or barrel.
The slaying of Khanns by Adam is not the only
occurrence of the threefold death motif in Takiratul-awliy.
In the Life of }allj, with which Ar concludes his
hagiography, the execution of the subject at the command of
the Abbasid caliph exhibits clear signs of the threefold death
motif: he is hanged from the gallows/crucified (bar sar-i dr
sud); he is slowly dismembered, beginning with his hands and
feet, followed by the plucking out of his eyes, the cutting out of
his tongue, and finally he is beheaded; the next day they burn
his body and the words an al-}aqq/I am the Truth/God are
heard coming from his ashes; on the third day they cast his
ashes into the Tigris river. Thus }allj dies on the first day by
hanging, on the second day by dismemberment by a weapon,
and on the third day by burning and drowning. }allj foretells
the threefold nature of his impending doom when, following
his arrest, a dervish asks him concerning the meaning of love
(isq): Today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow thou wilt
behold [the meaning of love] (Ar: 516-518).
In light of the evidence for the threefold death as a
283
sacrificial, legal, and folkloric/mythological motif among IndoEuropean-speaking folk, the analysis of the tale of Ibls,
Khanns, and Adam and Eve that occurs in Ars Takiratulawliy in the Life of }akm-i Tirmi contains what is
undoubtedly a manifestation of this motif. Although the
Bakhtiyr folktale confirms the existence of the threefold
death motif among Iranian-speaking peoples, its occurrence in
Takiratul-awliy is startling in its preservation of the motif as
it is found in ancient sources (e.g. Celtic and Germanic pagan
religious practices). Not only does the analysis of the story of
Ibls and Adam and Eve broaden our understanding of the rich
folkloric element that is manifested throughout Takiratulawliy but it also casts new light on our knowledge concerning
the diffusion among the Indo-European-speaking peoples of
the threefold death motif in its various guises.
References
Ar, Fard al-Dn
1383
Takiratul-awliy, ed. M. Istilm. Tehran: Intisrt-i
Zavvr.
Brednich, Rolf
1964
Volkserzhlungen und Volksglaube von den Schicksalsfrauen.
Folklore Fellows Communications 193: 138-145.
Al-Bukhr
ahh, vol. 4. Cairo: Dr wa Mabi al-Sab.
Dehkhod, Aliakbar
1998
Loghatnme (Encyclopedic Dictionary). Eds. M. Moin and J.
Shahidi. Tehran: Tehran University Publications.
Dumzil, Georges
1958
Lidologie tripartite des Indo-Europans. Brussels: Collection
Latomus.
Evans, David
1979
Agamemnon and the Indo-European Threefold Death Pattern.
History of Religions 19:2: 153-166.
Lorimer, D.L.R
1919
Persian Tales: Written Down for the First Time in the Original
Kermn and Bakhtir. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd.
284 Harry Neale

Math uab Mathonwy
1999
Ed. P. Ford. Belmont: Ford and Bailie Publishers.
Plummer, Charles
1922
Bethada Nen n renn/Lives of Irish Saints, vol. II. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Qurn
Ruiz, Juan
The Book of Good Love, Trans. E.D. Macdonald. London: Everyman.
Sterckx, Claude
1994
Les dieux protens des celtes et des indoeuropens. Ollodagos
(Mmoires de la Socit Belge dtudes Celtiques) 4.
Stokes, Whitley
1966
The Birth of Moling and his Life. Revue Celtique tome XXVII, 1906.
Reprint, Nendeln: Kraus Reprint Ltd. 287.
Al-Tirmi ,Muhammad
1992
Nawdir al-ul f marifat ahd al-rasl, vol. 2. Beirut: Dr alKutub al-Ilmiya.
A Myth in Folktale Clothing?

Karen Bek-Pedersen
In this article it is argued that folktales may hold key

information pertaining to pre-Christian traditions in
Northern Europe. Through cautious application of the
comparative method it is made evident that a number of
19th-century Irish folktales concerning Balor have much in
common with 13th-century Danish tradition regarding
Balderus. Although the Danish and Irish sources each
make their own sense of the narrative in question, the
closely matching details appear to reveal that they share a
common root.
This article is in many ways a follow-up to two previous

articles (Bek-Pedersen 2006a and 2006b) that deal with some of
the same material. It concerns the substantial narrative
complexes that surround, on the one hand, the Irish characters
Lug and Balor, Welsh Lleu and, on the other hand, the Norse
god Baldr whose name in Danish tradition has been latinised as
Balderus.
The parallels that can be (and have been) drawn between
the story of Balor and that of Baldr are not only numerous, they
are also bewilderingly complex (Rooth 1961: 90-161; BekPedersen 2006a: 6-11). An etymological link between the two
names Baldr and Balor may be possible but what really
connects them is their strikingly similar death stories and the
clear parallels in the descriptions of the characters that
participate in the plots (Bek-Pedersen 2006a: 6). These
parallels are undoubtedly clear although they are by no means
easy to sum up or explain in a succinct and coherent manner.
Connecting lines are criss-crossing each other in all directions
and on several levels, and the results achieved through
comparisons between the separate yet similar traditions vary
significantly depending on the character or motif in focus.
Therefore, casting the net as widely as I am going to do here,
looking to include Irish, Icelandic and Danish traditions,
necessarily makes for a high degree of complexity if all aspects
are taken into account. However, my present focus will be
286
Karen Bek-Pedersen
limited to just one part of the larger story complex, namely the
birth story.1 This is a good example of how a narrative can be
held in oral tradition for a significant length of time and still
remain very much the same.
The starting point for the present exploration are the 19th
century Irish folktales concerning Lug and Balor. There are
several versions (Curtin 1894; Gruffydd 1928; Larminie 1893),
all of which follow the same basic pattern: The evil but
invulnerable Balor steals a special cow from a blacksmith;
Balors daughter is kept away from men because it is
prophesied that her son will kill Balor, yet under peculiar
circumstances she gives birth to a son who later kills Balor with
an impossible weapon made by the blacksmith.
In particular two of the folktales are of interest because
they contain rather similar accounts of how the boy whose birth
Balor tries to prevent is actually born. The first one, Balor of the
evil eye and Lui Lavada his grandson, is found in Curtin (1894:
296-311):
The evil Balor is the leader of the pirating Lochlin who
come to Ireland to fight against the Fir Bolg. Balor steals a
particular cow from the blacksmith Gavinin Gow and it seems
that, because of the theft, he now rules all of Ireland. The theft
of this cow forces the smith to abandon his forge so that he can
watch over the cow instead of making weapons for the Fir Bolg.
The sons of the queen of the Fir Bolg come to get weapons
from the blacksmith and they promise to watch over the cow
while he works but the cow escapes. Balor becomes furious
and threatens to burn all of Ireland with his evil eye, which
destroys everything it looks at. This is a disaster because Balor is
invulnerable; the only person who can kill him is his own
daughters son, and even he can only do it with a special spear
made by the blacksmith and only in one specific place at one
specific time and the spear must go right through Balors eye.
But the queens sons will not give up and they set out to bring
the cow back to the blacksmith. One of the sons, Cian, is made
invisible and so is able to get in to the place where Balors
daughter Ethne is kept. Because Cian is invisible, Ethne
becomes frightened when she realizes that there is someone
there with her and she screams. But Balor, her father, instead
1
It should be noted that Irish tradition includes two different birth stories.
The one explored here is found predominantly in the 19th century folktales;
the other one is discussed in Bek-Pedersen 2006b.
287
of showing concern, threatens to kill her if she is not quiet, so

she calms down. Cian eventually sleeps with Ethne and he
returns nine months later for the child, Lui, that she gives birth
to. Cian, without revealing his identity and whilst working for
Balor, is aided by Ethne who helps him to get hold of the cow.
Now Cian can finally give the cow back to the smith so the
smith can make the magical spear for the boy Lui, and Lui, who
has grown up in the meantime, can kill Balor with the spear just
as Balor is opening his evil eye to burn all of Ireland.
The second version I want to include here is found in
Gruffydd (1928: 72-74):
The robber Balor lived on Tory Island; he had one eye on
his forehead and one on the back of his head. He stole a cow
from three brothers on the mainland. Because it had been
foretold that his grandson would kill him, Balor kept his
daughter Ethnea confined in a tower with twelve other women.
One of the brothers, dressed as a woman, gained access to
Ethnea and slept with her. Later, she bore three sons, whom
Balor drowned, but one escaped. The brothers brought up the
surviving boy to be a smith. Balor killed the boys father, but
when he had grown, the boy, Lug, killed Balor by thrusting an
iron bar into his eyes.
The folktales quite clearly relate to the older Irish material
concerning Cath Maige Tuired, the Second Battle of Moytura, a
battle of eschatological dimensions that shows the gods, the
Tatha D Danann, in fierce combat against the monstrous
Fomoire who have taken over Ireland. The long story of this
battle carries strong indications of belonging to a pre-Christian
Irish mythology though it has probably undergone some
changes in order to survive a millennium or more into the
Christian period; how the story was told by the pagan peoples
of Ireland is something we will never know. The two
manuscripts that contain the story of Cath maige Tuired are both
from the first half of the 16th century and the differences
between them are marginal to the topic at hand. The following
is summarised from Gray (1982):
The Tatha D Dannan made an alliance with the Fomoire
wherein Balor of the Fomoire gave his daughter Ethne to
Can of the Tatha D Dannan. Ethne later bore the
glorious child Lug Samhildnach who was skilled in all the
arts. But the alliance between the two sides breaks down
and the narrative continues with a detailed account of the
288
Karen Bek-Pedersen
battle that ensues. Lug arrives among the Tatha D
Dannan to fight against Balor. Balor has an eye which
paralyses those he looks at, but Lug puts out the eye with a
shot from his sling. Balor dies and the Tatha D Dannan
win the battle.
The sling-shot provides a small but significant detail, firstly

because Lug is otherwise always associated with a spear and
secondly because the sling-shot is so reminiscent of the biblical
story of David and Goliath ( hgin 1991: 44). The sling is
Lugs weapon in both versions of Cath Maige Tuired but they are
the only sources to connect Lug with a sling, all other sources
connect him with a spear (Davidson 1993: 59; MacKillop 2004:
306).2 It is the spear that is Lugs special weapon, and it is a
spear that we find also in the folktales. It seems as if the learned
manuscript tradition has added this biblical gloss to the story
whereas the folk tradition has maintained the original attribute.
What is interesting about this is that it might indicate that the
folktales could hold more keys to the pre-Christian mythology
than we sometimes believe them to do.
The birth of the glorious child Lug and the theft of cattle
are very minor points in the extant versions of the mythological
battle these accounts emphasise the battle itself, describing
everything pertaining to it in great detail in that very
characteristic Irish way which can significantly extend a story.
But in the folktales the situation is almost reversed so that the
circumstances surrounding the birth of Lug and the theft of the
cow take up most of the narrative, with the actual battle taking
up a relatively small part. It is this birth story that is interesting
in the present context.
Irish tradition on its own does not allow us to discover
much more about the birth of Lug, we just have these 19th
century folktales. But that the story has at least a few more
centuries behind it becomes clear if we involve some
comparative material from Norse tradition, namely the storycomplex surrounding the Old Norse god Baldr.
The myth of Baldr, too, is part of a rather complex body of
narrative material that is difficult to sum up briefly, especially
because the Danish and Icelandic traditions differ widely from
2
The spear of Lug ensured victory in battle and was one of the four treasures
of the Tatha D Dannan. One of Lugs by-names, Lamfada Of the long arm
/ hand, suggests a power to wield weapons over distance; both spear and
sling would fit in with this.
289
each other. Yet, it is evident that the Danish and Icelandic

traditions on the one hand and the Irish and Welsh sets of
stories on the other relate to each other in some sort of way.
Whereas the Irish material is fairly consistent in telling the
same story of how the heroic Lug kills the evil but invulnerable
Balor, the Norse material presents very different versions of the
Baldr-myth that do not look as if they are immediately
compatible. 3
The best-known versions of the Baldr-story are the
Icelandic ones from 13th and 14th century manuscripts of the
Edda.4 This story is told in three poetic sources:
In the eddic poem Vlusp 31-33 it is said that the mistletoe
became a deadly missile when Hr threw it at Baldr. Baldrs
brother Vli will be born to avenge him. Vli, when he is but
one night old, will carry Hr to the funeral pyre (Gsli
Sigursson 1998: 10-11).
In the eddic poem Baldrs draumar, Baldr has sinister
dreams foreboding evil. inn, Baldrs father, goes to consult a
long-dead seeress in the underworld. Concealing his identity,
inn draws information from her. She says that Baldr will die
at the hands of Hr and that Vli, yet unborn son of Rindr
and inn, will avenge him when just one night old (Gsli
Sigursson 1998: 380-383).
Also a stanza by the skld Kormkr, found in
Skldskaparml of Snorri Sturlusons Edda refers to the story,
stating that Yggr (a heiti or by-name for inn) won Rindr by
magic (Faulkes 1998: 9).
These three sources give clear indications of a revenge
motif attached to the Baldr myth and are consistent in their
employment of the names in that revenge motif: inn, Vli
and Rindr. In particular the allusion to inns employment of
magic in order to win over Rindr is of interest but also the
insistence that Vli will kill Hr at an extremely young age
could be taken to explain the curious time-lag in the Irish
folktale where Lui seems to grow up very quickly. 5
3
Their compatibility becomes apparent when the focus is shifted away from
the portrayals of individual characters to the more general themes of the
narrative (Lindow 1997: 20-28).
4
Of the material cited here, Vlusp is found in the manuscript Gks 2365 4to
from c. 1270, Baldrs draumar in AM 748 I 4to from c. 1300-1325, and
Kormkrs stanza in, amongst others, Gks 2367 4to of Skldskaparml from c.
1300-1350.
5
In Curtins version, a longer time period is inserted into the folktale at this
290
Karen Bek-Pedersen
A fourth version of the Baldr myth is told in Gylfaginning

49 of Snorri Sturlusons Edda and this is possibly the best known
version of them all. The reason I am not including Gylfaginning
here is that that version of the story does not contain the part
which I am presently interested in it goes off in a different
direction after Baldr dies.6
The Danish version is known from the 13th century Latin
work by Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum, book 3.7 In the
present context, it is exactly the Danish story of Balderus (the
Latin version of Baldrs name) that is interesting. My focus at
present is a part of the story which often comes into Baldrscholarship only as an aside, namely the account of the birth of
Balderus avenger. 8
The long (and long-winded) story told by Saxo goes as
follows:
The hero Hotherus and the evil Balderus are rivals for the
kingship of Denmark and for the hand of the beautiful Nanna.
Balderus, who is a son of the god Othinus, cannot be killed
except by a special sword which it is near impossible to obtain.
Yet, Hotherus manages to gain possession of the sword and
eventually he kills Balderus.
This is followed by the revenge story, and Saxo devotes a
significant amount of attention to the account of how Bous, the
avenger, is born:
After Balderus is killed, Othinus is told that Rinda will bear
him a son who will avenge Balderus. Othinus sets out,
disguising himself, and tries to gain access to the girl by
point, allowing Lui to grow up, although it is simultaneously maintained that
Balor is just about to destroy all of Ireland.
6
The relevance of each version is obviously dependent on the focus of any
given study of Baldr but I disagree with those who rely solely on the
Gylfaginning version. There is no evidence that this is the authoritative
version, it is simply the account that is best known to most modern scholars.
There is a danger of skewing our findings if we decide to read all other
accounts through Snorris, as though it constituted a checklist for the Baldr
myth. The mere fact that Snorris revenge story concerns only Loki and not
Hr whilst bearing absolutely no resemblance to the remaining Icelandic
sources is in itself noteworthy.
7
The textual transmission of Saxos work relies almost entirely on the 1514
edition printed in Paris (Friis-Jensen 1987: 12).
However, medieval
manuscript fragments do not differ substantially from the printed text and it
is generally assumed that the Paris edition reflects its medieval exemplar with
a high degree of accuracy (Friis-Jensen 1987: 12; Boserup 1981: 13-14).
8
John Lindow (1997: 152-157), however, does give it a lot of attention in his
book on Baldr.
291
working for her father but without any luck. On Rindas third
refusal of him he strikes her with a rune-staff so that she
becomes like a mad person. He then approaches her father one
final time. Dressed as a woman and claiming to know the art of
healing, he tells her father that he can cure Rinda, but that she
must be tied down to her bed due to the strong medication.
While she is thus unable to resist and her father has turned his
back and left her, Othinus rapes her. The son later born by
Rinda is Bous.9 He proves a very keen fighter, and Othinus
summons him to avenge his brothers death. Bous later kills
Hotherus, although he himself dies from his wounds on the
same occasion.
Thus, we see that there is a rather high degree of similarity
between the birth stories attached to Lui and Bous: 1) The
woman whom it is almost impossible for the man to get near to.
2) The employment of magic, disguise and deception in order
to get into her abode. 3) The way in which her father
(unwittingly) compels his daughter to submit to the mans
sexual advances. 4) The fact that the man later on summons his
son to carry out the deed that he was born to perform to
avenge Balderus or Baldr, or to kill Balor. 10
The correspondences between the two Irish folktales
summarised above and the Danish account given by Saxo are
rather close and, I would argue, so close that it does seem as if
we are looking at different versions of what is in fact the very
same story. I mean story in the most general sense but I do
believe that the Irish and Danish strains present us with stories
of a somewhat different nature, which brings up the tricky issue
of the terminology alluded to in the title of this article. When is
a myth a myth and when is it a folktale? The distinction I wish
to make is simply that a myth is a form of meta-narrative often
concerning gods whilst a folktale is more of an ordinary
narrative often concerning humans (Raudvere 2002: 40-41).
Myths, as stories about gods, are almost by definition attached
to a belief system and, in the case of the present material, a
non-Christian belief system. Myth and folktale can overlap
significantly in terms of plot, and often they do, but the folktale
9
The names Bous and Vli bear no relationship to each other. It is clear that
the characters fulfil the same role in the story complex and the reason for this
shift in names is obscure.
10
Arguably, Lug Samhildnach is also an avenger because his killing of Balor
can be seen to avenge the death of Nuadu Argatlam, leader of the Tatha D
Dannan whom Balor kills during the battle of Mag Tuired.
292
Karen Bek-Pedersen
lacks the magnitude that is present in the myth. If Jack

overcomes the giant then this is beneficial for Jack, at most for
the whole kingdom; if a god overcomes a monster this has an
impact on the entire universe. Whereas the tale about Baldr is
therefore clearly a myth (his death is followed by the Old Norse
eschatology, Ragnark), the tale about Lui and Balor is merely
a folktale.11 The tale about Balderus appears, in fact, to fall
somewhere in between.12
The birth story discussed here is attached to narrative
complexes
that
display
a
significant
amount
of
correspondences: the Balor story and the Baldr story (Rooth
1961: 90-161; Bek-Pedersen 2006a). Although the Celtic and
Norse sources each make their own sense of the birth story, it
does not appear coincidental that the story occurs in
comparable contexts.
It should be also added that the differences between the
traditions are as intriguing as the similarities and that we
cannot equate the story complexes as such or argue that they
are truly the same. It is clear, though, that the stories discussed
here each make sense in their respective traditions; Baldr,
Balderus and Balor share significant traits but by no means are
11
Exactly where the line should be drawn between these two terms,
both of which are, of course, modern and as such are never used in
the sources themselves, is not easy to determine. Nor is there any
complete scholarly agreement regarding this issue, certainly not on an
interdisciplinary level; at best, the borderline takes the form of a grey
area.
12
Some of the differences between the Danish and Icelandic traditions is due
to the different cultural climates characterising the two countries in the early
medieval period. Whereas Icelandic tradition was concerned with the
preservation of the old vernacular poetry for younger generations of poets
(probably in connection with the fact that Icelanders had a reputation for
being the best poets among the Scandinavians and the fact that Iceland lost
its independence to the Norwegian crown in 1262-1264, thus spurring on a
surge of interest in the Icelandic national self-image), Saxo was commissioned
by the king and archbishop of Denmark to write for his fellow countrymen a
national history that would prove to other nations that Denmark was their
equal (cf. Friis-Jensen 2000: 98-101). To some extent, this accounts for the
more sympathetic attitude towards the heathen gods in early Christian
Iceland: the prime aim was to preserve the knowledge and therefore preserve
the mythology. In early medieval Denmark, Saxo could not very well express
much sympathy towards the heathen gods, and we also note that his most
detailed descriptions of heathendom are deferred to areas outside of, or at
least on the outskirts of, the contemporary national boundaries of Denmark
(Friis-Jensen 1994: 216-219; Friis-Jensen 2000: 101).
293
they exactly equal to each other. The Irish Lug or Lui is born
under peculiar circumstances so that he can kill the evil Balor;
the Norse Bous or Vli is born under the same peculiar
circumstances so that he can avenge the evil Balderus, or the
good Baldr. Explaining the similarities does not seem overly
difficult, they may be due to a common root or to cultural
interaction over a period of time. Explaining the differences,
however, would be a much more demanding task though also
probably a much more interesting one; if the similarities are
genuine, then how do we account for the very significant points
at which the traditions deviate from each other? I leave the
question open.
It is, however, not impossible that the parallels drawn here
could potentially be due to other things than the tenacity of
oral memory (it cannot, for example, be ruled out that the
story known from later Irish tradtion has come from Saxo) but
with the source material available to us it is as difficult to
disprove as it is to prove a direct connection. What I have
presented above is merely based on observing what is found in
the sources and should not be taken as absolutely conclusive.
The plots of the stories about the birth of Lui and the
birth of Bous are really very similar. Exactly what this tells us
about Irish mythological tradition potentially rearing its head
disguised as the stuff of folktales is hard to say, but it does seem
to tell us that this particular 19th century folktale has a depth of
some 6-7 centuries behind it. It is tempting to take a fresh look
at Irish folktales with this in mind. The point of this article has
been to draw attention to the fact that comparative methods of
working with mythology and folklore can be very fruitful as long
as it is done with due caution. As for the many folktales and
folktale motifs for which no proper comparative material can
be found to prove their potentially substantial time depth, we
simply cannot tell how old they truly are.
References
Bek-Pedersen, Karen
2006a Oppositions and cooperations in the Baldr myth, with Irish and
Welsh parallels. Journal of Indo-European Studies 34: 5-26.
2006b Interpretations of Ynglingasaga and the Mabinogi. Some NorseCeltic correspondences. In: Andrn, Anders, Kristina Jennbert
and Catharina Raudvere (eds.) Old Norse religion in long-term
perspectives. Origins, changes and interactions, 331-335. Lund: Nordic
Academic Press.
294
Karen Bek-Pedersen
Boserup, Ivan
1981
The Angers fragment and the archetype of Gesta Danorum. In:
Friis-Jensen, Karsten (ed.) Saxo Grammaticus. A medieval author
between Norse and Latin culture, 9-26. Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum Press.
Curtin, Jeremiah
1894
Hero-Tales of Ireland. London: Macmillan and Co.
Davidson, Hilda Ellis and Peter Fisher (eds.)
1979
Saxo Grammaticus The History of the Danes vol. 1: Text. Cambridge.
1980
Saxo Grammaticus The History of the Danes vol. 2: Commentary.
Cambridge
Davidson, Hilda Ellis
1994
The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe. London: Routledge.
Faulkes, Anthony (ed.)
1998
Snorri Sturluson Edda: Skldskaparml 1. Introduction, Text and
Notes. London: Viking Society for Northern Research. University
College London.
2005
Snorri Sturluson Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. London: Viking
Society for Northern Research. University College London.
Friis-Jensen, Karsten
1987
Saxo Grammaticus as Latin poet. Roma: Lerma di Bretschneider.
1994
Nordisk hedenskab og europisk latinhumanisme hos Saxo. In:
Lund, Niels (ed) Norden og Europa i vikingetid og tidlig middelalder,
212-232. Kbenhavn: Museum Tusculanum.
2000
Saxo og det 12. rhundredes renssance. In: Lund, Niels (ed.)
Viking og hvidekrist, 93-111. Kbenhavn: C.A. Reitzel.
Gsli Sigursson (ed.)
1998
Eddukvi. Reykjavk: Ml og menning.
Gray, Elizabeth A. (ed.)
1982
Cath Maige Tuired The Second Battle of Mag Tuired. Dublin: Irish
Texts Society.
Gruffydd, W.J.
1928
Math vab Mathonwy. Cardiff: University of Wales Press Board.
Larminie, William
1893
West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances. London: Elliot Stock.
Liberman, Anatoly
2004
Some controversial aspects of the myth of Baldr. Alvssml 11: 1754.
295

Lindow, John
1997
Murder and Vengeance among the gods. Baldr in Scandinavian
mythology. Helsinki: Folklore Fellows Communications 262.
MacKillop, James
2004
Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press.
Cuv, Brian
1945
Cath Muighe Tuireadh The Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh. Dublin
Institute for Advanced Studies.
hgin, Daithi
1991
Myth, Legend and Romace. London: BCA.
Raudvere, Catharina
2002
Mellan liv och text. In: Jennbert, Kristina, Anders Andrn and
Catharina Raudvere (eds) Plats och praxis. Vgar till Midgrd 2.
Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Rooth, Anna Birgitta
1961
Loki in Scandinavian mythology. Skrifter utgivna av Kungl.
Humanistiska Vetenskapsfundet i Lund. Lund: CWK Gleerups
Frlag.
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual

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The Indo-European *H2ner(t)-s and the Dnu

Tribe
Armen Petrosyan
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan (Armenia)
In several Indo-European myths the river/water deities *deh2 nu-s

or *dhonu-s are opposed to the gods or heroes related to *h 2ner(t)virile strength, man. The *h 2ner- men fight against them and wed
their women. The name of the leader of the *deh2nu- / *dhonu-s is
comparable with the West Semitic theonym Baal lord. The
mythic adversaries of the *h 2ner-s were probably conflated with a
real Semitic tribe.1
India
The divine society of ancient India is represented by two
opposing groups of deities, Devas and Asuras. Indra is the king
of the Devas, while Bali is the king of the Asuras (for the
sources and analysis, see Hospital 1984. The Asuras themselves
are composed of two family groups: the Dnavas, the children
of Dnu, and the Daityas, the children of Dnus sister Diti
(these two groups do not notably differ from each other). Bali
was a son of Dnu, i.e., a Dnava. As the chief of the
adversaries of the Deva-gods he may be regarded as the epic
correspondence of the Vedic arch-adversary to Indra, Vrtra,
son of Dnu.
In the standard variants of the myth, we see that in a war
between the Devas and Asuras the Devas were defeated by Bali
and his followers and driven out of heaven. Bali became the
king of the sky, the mid-region and the earth. Then Hari (i.e.,
Vinu) defeat Bali by a trick and gave the world again to Indra.
Bali himself was sent to an underground kingdom (he was
regarded as the king of the netherworld). In other variants,
Bali is defeated by Indra. Indra weds ac (Indrn). Her father
Dnava (or: Daitya) Puloman was killed by Indra when he tried
1
M.R. Dexter (1990; 1990a: 42-46; EIEC: 486 f.), examining almost all the
mythic figures comparable with *dnu- / *dhonu-, considers them as
reflections of an obscure prehistoric tribe, personified as a feminine water
deity, who were subdued by the Indo-Europeans. For other aspects of
reconstruction, see Petrosyan 1997: 102 ff.; Petrosyan 2002a: 99 ff.
298
Armen Petrosyan
to curse the god for having ravished his daughter.

Indra is an example of the Indo-European thunder and
warrior god. He performs many manly deeds and is called
nrtama most manly < *h2ner- (RV 6.19.10; 6.33.3). Moreover,
his name, too, according to one opinion, is derived from
*h2ner-, gen. *h2nro- (in the context of comparative
mythology, see Lincoln 1986: 97, 122, with bibliography; for
the scepsis about this etymology, below). Dnu represents IE
*deh2nu- (*dnu-) river, a suffixed form of *deh2- to flow,
and Dnava (< *dnawo-) is a derivative of dnu-. Bali is
opaque, and in all probability this is a borrowed name.
Iran and Ossetia
In Iranian tradition, the two opposing groups are the
Iranians and the Turanians. In the Avesta, the Dnava appears
as a powerful and malicious Turanian tribe, inimical to the
Iranian heroes, while Narava is the name or epithet of an
Iranian hero, adversary of the Turanians.
The heroes of the Ossetic epic are called Narts.
Donbettyr is the water and sea god, Poseidons counterpart,
ruler of an undersea kingdom and its inhabitants. Donbettyrs
(pl.) represent a class of water deities, his sons and daughters
(nymphs). The great Nart xsrtg (or: his twin brother
xsr) enters the undersea kingdom and weds Dzerass, the
daughter of Donbettyr, who becomes the progenitress of the
race of heroes.
Narava represents a derivative of *h2ner-. The name Nart is
usually derived from *h2ner-t- (cf. IESOI s.v.). Donbettyr is
interpreted as Peter of water, Watery Peter, derived from don
river < *dnu- (IESOI s.v.). To the best of my knowledge,
there is no evidence of a cognate of Bali king of Dnavas in
Iran and Ossetia. 2
Armenia
According to the ethnogonic myth, attested in the book
of Movss Xorenaci and the brief account of the origins of
Armenia by Anonym, attributed to the seventh-century writer
Sebos, the first eponymous patriarch of the Armenians was
Hayk, descendant of Noahs son Japheth (Thomson 1978;
2
In the Nart epic of the Circassians, the water-dragon adversary of the Nart
Batraz is called Bliago (MNM, s.v). This name could theoretically be regarded
as a transformed version of the lost Alanian (Ossetic) cognate of the Indic Bali.
The Indo-European *H2ner(t)-s and the Danu Tribe
299
Petrosyan 2002). After the construction of the tower of Babel

Hayk refused to obey the Babylonian tyrant Bel the Titanid
(identified with the Biblical Nimrod), and with his large
patriarchal family, consisting of three hundred men, he moved
to the north and settled in Armenia. Bel attacked Hayk with
his huge army but was killed in battle. After several
generations the second eponymous patriarch of the
Armenians, Aram, defeated Barsam, the epicized figure of the
god Barsamin, i.e. Syrian Baal Samin Lord of Heaven.3 Aram
represents the second figure of Hayk (Abeghian 1966: 55)
therefore Barsam/ Barsamin may be regarded as the second
figure of Bel. The temple of Barsamin in Armenia was situated
in the village Tordan in the upper part of the Euphrates.
According to the historic tradition, this cult was founded by
Tigran the Great in the first century BC (Khorenatsi 2.14), yet
the first mention of this god in the upper Euphrates in known
more than a millennium earlier. In the Hittite version of a
West Semitic (Canaanite, Ugaritic) myth, the weather god
Baal went to the headwaters of the Mala (= Euphrates A.P.)
River to meet his father Elkunirsa (Hoffner 1990: 69).
Arams son Ara the Handsome (Ara Geecik) ruled
Armenia while Assyria was under the power of amiram (Gk.
Semiramis), the widow of Bels descendant Ninos (who
sometimes was identified as Bel himself or Bels son,
Khorenatsi 1.5). amiram tried to marry Ara the Handsome,
but he rebuffed the lascivious Assyrian queen and was killed in
battle against the Assyrians. Thus the sacred mythical era of
the forefathers of Armenia ends and history begins.
Hayk and Aram have been considered the epicized
figures of the thunder god (Harutyunyan 2000: 230 ff.;
Petrosyan 2002: 43 ff.). In Anonym, Hayk is called ari manly.
This word is associated with ayr man, derived from *h2ner(*h2nryo- or *h2nr > *ainir- > ayr, see e.g. Djahukian 1987:
140, 183; Kortlandt and Beekes 2004: 210). Ari is the
consistent epithet of the supreme god of the heathen
Armenians Aramazd (< Iran. Ahura Mazda). He was the
patriarch of the gods, the divine counterpart of the epic
patriarch Hayk. Furthermore, Aramazd was identified with the
Greek Zeus and called ampropayin thunderer. The
3
Notably, according to Khorenaci, Barsam was deified in Syria, while in an

ancient legend he is represented as the forefather of the Syrians (Petrosyan
2002a: 50, 87-88).
300
Armen Petrosyan
relationship of Aramazd : Barsamin would correspond to those

of Hayk : Bel and Aram : Barsam (Petrosyan 2002: 131 f.).
Bel, deified king of Babylon, represents the Babylonian
(originally West Semitic) great god Bl-Marduk (Petrosyan
2002: 58). The first element of the name of Barsamin/ Baal
amin is etymologically identical with the name of Bel.
The name of Ara is obscure, yet it is consonant to the
Armenian reflexes of *h2ner-, which in its derivatives may
figure as ar-, cf. ari (HAB 1: 173). According to Xorenaci and
Anonym, Ara is the eponym of the central province of
Armenia Ayrarat (cf. ayr man); Ari Armaneli, a folk tale hero,
is regarded as the folk variant of Ara the Handsome, son of
Aram (Kapantsian 1956: 187). *Dnu- would yield Arm. *Tan
(with regular soundshift and apocope). This name is not
attested in Armenian mythology, yet it may be inferred that
the derivation of Bel from the Greek Titan (identified with
the Biblical Ham) and the constant identification of Bel and
his descendants as Titanean Titanid in the books of the
Armenian authors reflect the Graecophile transformation of
the original *Tan (on the possible West Semitic associations of
Titan, see below).4 On the other hand, the second part of the
toponym Tordan is also reminiscent of *Dnu-. The figure of
Ara the Handsome is comparable with Bres Handsome, the
king of the people of the goddess Danu in the Irish tradition
(see Petrosyan 2002a: 103 f. and below) which may connect
the Armenian ethnogonic heroes to the *deh2nu- / *dhonumyths.
The Hittite Kingdom
In a fragment of Hittite mythology the serpent Illuyanka
defeats the weather/thunder god. The gods daughter, Inara,
with her human lover, invites the serpent and his children to
her home. They eat and drink, and when the serpent gets
drunk the weather/thunder god comes and kills him (Hoffner
1990: 11-12).
The Hittite text is represented as a speech of a priest of
the weather god of Nerik at the Purulli festival. Nerik was one
of the most important Hattian, i.e. pre-Hittite, sacral centers.
4
The Greek influence is present in some other names of the ethnogonic myth
as well (cf. e.g. the name of Hayks grandson Kadmos, the eponym of the land
Home of the Kadmeans, i.e. Assyr. Kadmuhi/Katmuhu; Ninos, descendant of
Bel, Yapetos, identified with the Biblical Japheth).
301
Taru, the weather god of Nerik, was the head of the early local
pantheon.
On the other hand, the Purulli ritual text has been
considered in the context of the Indo-European thunder god
myth (Ivanov and Toporov 1974: 122 ff.; Lincoln 1981: 117 ff.;
Watkins 1995: 321 f., 444 ff.; Petrosyan 2002a: 6 ff.). The
names of Inara and Nerik are somewhat reminiscent of Indra
and *h2ner-; the ending of Illuyankas name can theoretically
be compared with IE *angw hi- snake, serpent; the names
Purulli and Taru has been considered as Indo-European
borrowings (Toporov 1976; Nikolaev and Strakhov 1987: 150).
Nevertheless, this myth is not of much benefit to the
present study. The adduced comparisons are disputable (for
the possible folk etymological assocatiations of Inara with the
Anatolian reflexes of *h2ner-, see HED I: 62, 368) and there
are no traces of the Hittite counterparts of the Dnavas and
Bali or Bel.
Greece
Poseidons son Blos begat Aigyptos (king of Egypt) and
Danaos. The brothers quarrelled, and Danaos took refuge in
Argos, where he became king. Later, the fifty sons of Aigyptos
married the fifty daughters of Danaos. The latter directed his
daughters to kill off their husbands on the wedding night.
Lynkeus, the only survivor, eventually killed Danaos.
After some generations, Zeus visited Dana (Danaos
descendant) in a shower of gold and impregnated her. Danas
son Perseus, one of the greatest heroes of Greece, wedded
Andromed.
The war of Troy was started because the Trojan Paris had
abducted the Greek Helen from Sparta. Paris is called also
Alexandros (Apoll. 3.12.5), while the Greeks in the Iliad are
frequently called Danaoi Danaans (for this ethnonym, see
e.g. Sakellariou 1986: 129 ff.). At the end of the war ParisAlexandros kills the greatest Greek hero Achilles.
Blos represents the West Semitic theonym Baal. The
names Andromed and Alexandros are associated with *h2nro(Gk. anr man, gen. andros). The Danaoi (< *danawo-) are
apparently comparable with the Dnavas. The name of
Poseidon has also been considered in this context (*poti lord
+ da/onu- ?, see GEW s.v.; MNM 1: 531). Note that in the myth
of Perseus (son of Dana) and Andromed the names are
found in gender-switched order.
302
Armen Petrosyan
Wales and Ireland

The goddess Dn, Welsh counterpart of Indic Dnu, can
be regarded as the wife of Beli, god of death. They appear as
the parents of several ancient gods. Beli was considered also as
an ancestor from whom several royal lines of Wales claimed
descent (Rees and Rees 1961; Kondratiev 1998).
In Irish mythology, Danu is a mother goddess from whom
the Tuatha D Danann, the people of the goddess Danu, took
their name. They were deities who inhabited Ireland before
the coming of the Irish. The first king of the People of Danu,
on their arrival in Ireland from a northern country, was Nuadu
the Silver hand, whose counterpart in Welsh tradition was
Lludd the Silver hand, son of Beli.
After Nuadu, Bres Beautiful, Handsome (or: Eochaid
Bres) was elected to succeed him on the urgings of the
women. Bres mother belonged to Danus tribe, while his
father was a king of the Fomorians, a class of evil gods or
demons. Bres failed as king and escaped to the land of the
Fomorians. A great battle occurred between the People of
Danu and the Fomorians (the second battle of Mag Tuired).
The leader of the Fomorians was King Balor whose evil eye
destroyed his enemies.
The prehistory of Ireland culminates in the biblicized
story of the sons of Mil, the mythic ancestors of the Irish
people, who wrested Ireland from the people of Danu. Mil
himself was a son of Bile, the Irish cognate of the Welsh Beli.
There is much uncertainty in the names and characters of
Dn, Danu, Beli and Bile. However, the Dn-Danu and BeliBile correspondences in the context of Celtic mythology are
universally acknowledged. Balor, obviously, is not the same as
Bile, yet this name is reminiscent of the names of the archenemies of the Indo-European gods and heroes (Bali, Bel,
Beli). Thus, irrespective of actual etymology, due to this
homophony, the figure of Balor could assume the traits of the
adversary of the Indo-European heroes. Note the resemblance
between the figures of the Irish and the Armenian kings
manqu, Bres, and Ara the Handsome.
Scandinavia and Iceland
In Norse tradition, divine society is represented by the
sir and Vanir collectivities. After a destructive and indecisive
war between them hostages are exchanged and the Vanir send
Njrdr and his son Freyr to live with the sir. Freyr Lord was
303
also called by another name Yngve: Yngvi-Freyr. This may refer

to the origins of the worship of Yngvi-Freyr in the tribal areas
that Tacitus mentions in his Germania as being populated by
the Inguieonnic tribes. Traditions related to Freyr are also
connected with the legendary Danish kings named Frdi
(MNM s.v. Freyr).
The Swedish royal dynasty was known as the Ynglings
from their descent from Yngvi-Freyr. In Norse tradition the
eponyms of the Scandinavian ethnonym Dan are associated
with Yngvi-Freyr / Frdi (e.g. in Saxo Grammaticus Gesta
Danorum, the second king called Dan appears as the
grandfather of Frdi the Active who is then followed by the
third Dan; in a Danish chronicles list Ingui was one of three
brothers that the Danish tribes descended from, etc).
Freyr is the slayer of the giant Beli. It could be assumed
that Beli was the brother of Gerdr, wife of Freyr, based on
Gerdrs words about her fear that the unknown man who has
come to visit is her brothers slayer (Skrnisml, 16).
Njrdr is derived from *h2ner-t-. The ethnonymic Dan is
reminiscent of the Greek Danaoi and Irish Tuatha D Danann.
Norse Beli is identical with the Welsh Beli.
Consideration
In these myths there are several comparable names and
terms.
India
Iran
Ossetia
Armenia
nrtama, Indra
(?)
Narava
Nart
ari, Ara (?)
Dnu, Dnava
Bali
Dnava
Omitted
Donbettyr
Omitted
Ommited (cf. Titan ?,
Bel,
Tordan ?)
Barsamin
Greece
Andromed, Danaos, Danaids, Dana, Blos
Alexandros Danaans, Poseidon (?)
Wales
Omitted
Dn
Beli
Ireland
Omitted
Danu
Bile
Scandinavia and Njrdr
Dan
Beli
Iceland
The majority of the names and terms of the second

column are associated with IE *h2ner(t)- / *h2nro- man, virile
strength. As for Indra, this etymology is questionable (AWAia
1: 193). Nonetheless, the adduced Indic myths seem to be
inseparable from the others. Particularly suggestive is the
304
Armen Petrosyan
comparison with Paris-Alexandros (Indra fights against the

Dnavas, defeats their leader Bali, ravishes and weds ac,
daughter of a Dnava, while Paris-Alexandros fights against the
Greek Danaoi, kills their greatest hero Achilles, ravishes and
weds their beauty Helen; Indra is a thunder god, while the
name of Paris is reminiscent of a truncated anagram of the
Indo-European thunder god *Per-u-no-). On the other hand,
Indra is the leader of the Devas against the Asuras, like Njrdr,
who is the leader of the Vanir against the sir. Thus, the
name of Indra, with its Iranian parallel, may represent an
ancient borrowing from another Indo-European language (cf.
Gk. andros).
Indic Dnu (Dnava), as has been said, is connected to
*deh2- to flow. The Scandinavian ethnonymic Dan and the
second part of the Armenian toponym Tordan cannot be
associated directly with IE *deh2-, because they do not undergo
the regular soundshift *d > t (Tordan is opaque in Armenian
and probably represents a borrowing like the name of the god
worshipped there). Some of these heroes are strongly
associated with water (Dnu is the mother of the cosmic
waters, Danaos descends from Poseidon, etc, see Dexter 1990).
A number of Indo-European river-names are considered to be
derived from *deh2nu-: Danube (Celtic), Don, Donets,
Dnieper, Dniester (Russia and Ukraine, borrowed from
Iranian);5 Dunajs (Latvia); Donwy, Don (Wels, England), etc
(see, e.g. EIEC: 486-487). According to another opinion, these
river names can be derived from *dhnu- (with difficult
lengthened grade) river, cf. *dhen- flow (EIEC: 486). This
second stem may certainly explain many of the considered
names.
Bali and his counterparts may be regarded as the rulers of
the Danus. The derivation of Arm. Bel, the tyrant of Babylon,
Barsam/Barsamin, the Syrian god and forefather of the
Syrians, and Gk. Blos, the king of Egypt, from the Semitic bl
lord is beyond all doubt (West Semitic Bal, Balu, Baal,
Akkad. Bl). Not everything is clear in the figures of Indic
Bali, Celtic Beli/Bile, Norse Beli, yet nevertheless in the
context of the considered myths they would be related to
5
It may be noted that Nepra (= Dnieper) Korolevina, Don Ivany, and Dunaj
(= Danube) Ivany appear in Russian bylinas; Dunaj finds a wife for the prince
Vladimir; some legends of the Dnieper area are comparable with the Indra
and Vrtra myth, see Ivanov and Toporov 1976: 116 ff.
305
Greek Blos and Armenian Bel (for the comparison of these

Celtic names with Indic Bali and Greek Blos, see Rees and
Rees 1961: 365-366; though some of the adduced comparisons
are disputable).
These names cannot be related in the Indo-European
context (the reconstruction of IE *b is improbable; Armenian
and Norse forms lack the regular soundshift) which points to
the late, borrowed character of this mythic figure. However, in
some traditions the Semitic bl might have been equated with
the Indo-European homophonic stems in folk-etymological
association, which can explain the linguistic inadequacy (cf.
*e.g. bhel- to shine, white; to blow, swell. For such
associations of the transparently Semitic Bel in Armenian
tradition, see Harutyunyan 2000: 231; Petrosyan 2002b).
In the majority of the considered myths the positive side
of the opposition is represented by the manly and heroic
*h2ner-s and the negative side by the Danus. The most manly
Indra and Narava fight against the Dnavas; the Narts are
somewhat opposed to the Donbettyrs; the manly Hayk is the
founder and eponym of Armenia; Njrdr is the ancestor of
certain Norse eponyms and kings.
The *h2ner- men fight and usually overcome the Danus
and their leader Bl: Indra fights against the Dnava Bali; Hayk
kills Bel; Lynkeus kills Danaos; Paris-Alexandros fights against
the Danaans and kills their great hero Achilles; Freyr son of
Njrdr kills Beli.
The *h2ner- men wed the Danu women: Indra weds the
daughter of a Dnava; the Nart xsrtg weds the daughter
of Donbettyr; the sons of Aigyptos wed the daughters of
Danaos; Paris-Alexandros weds the Danaan Helen. Those
women are reminiscent of the Greek nymphs or Indic apsaras,
classes of mythic women associated with water, who appear,
willing or otherwise, as the brides of the gods, deities and
heroes (cf. the stories of Zeus and Thtis, Zeus and Aigina,
Vivmitra and Menak, etc).
In some myths the normal order is reversed. The Danus
figure as the positive side (the Greek Danaans, the Norse
Danes, the Irish tribe of the goddess Danu while fighting
against the Fomorians); amiram tries to seduce Ara; *h2nrooccurs in the name of the wife of the descendant of Danu
(Perseus the son of Dana weds Andromed).
Below I would like to consider a possibility of a historical
306
Armen Petrosyan
reconstruction which was implied but not accomplished in

previous studies. The Dnavas, Danaans, Danes, and people of
the goddess Danu designate mythic / epic or real tribes, thus it
seems probable that at least in some of these names deh2nu- /
*dhonu- has been conflated with an ancient homophonic
ethnonym Danu. The myths under consideration are
associated with the origins of the peoples (cf. e.g. the
eponymous figures of Hayk, Danaos, Danu), and moreover, the
ethnic identities of the *h2ner-s are formed as a result of their
conflict with the Danus. In these myths, as it seems, the great
god of the Semites, represented as the negative mirror-image
of the Indo-European divine heroes, replaced the figure of
the mythic adversary of the original myth (cf. the figure of
Vrtra, Dnava, serpent, ruler of the otherworld, adversary of
the thunder god Indra in the Vedic myth). These myths would
have been formed as a result of contacts between the IndoEuropeans and the Semites (which figure as the Danu clan,
under command of the god Bl),6 and then passed to the other
regions of the Indo-European world. Elements of these myths
are comparable with the (West) Semitic myths of Marduk and
Baal (cf. Dexter 1990: 54-55). Moreover, some West Semitic
mythological motifs and names are reminiscent of those of the
Indo-European myths: the thunder god Baal slew the
judge/lord (of) river Yammu Sea and the dragon, Tannn;
the eponymous forefather of the North Syrian state of Ugarit
was Ditanu / Didanu (Shifman 1987: 73-74, 90-91, cf. the
figures of Dnu and Bel the Titanid).
The city of Adana in Cilicia, to the south-east of modern
Turkey, on the river Seihan, known from the Hittite sources as
Ataniya since the 16th century BC, has been considered as
associated with *deh2nu- / *dhonu- (*n) or *e/o near + river,
see Arbeitman and Rendsburg 1981: 149-150). This was the
land of the Danunians. A bilingual (Hieroglyphic Luwian and
Phoenician) inscription from this country of the beginning of
the 7th century BC represents a demonstrative example of the
Danu tribe associated with Baal. It reads as follows (Lawson
6
Apropos of this, one can recall the similar situation in the mythologies of
other peoples: e.g., in the Finno-Ugric tradition, the names of the celestial
god are, as a rule, of indigenous origin, while his adversary, ruler of the
underworld, is frequently represented by a borrowed god who has positive
functions in the tradition from which his name is borrowed (Aikhenvald et al.
1982: 188).
307
Younger 1998).
I am Azatiwada, the blessed of Baal, the servant of Baal,
whom Awariku, king of the Danunians, empowered. Baal
made me a father and mother to the Danunians. I caused
the Danunians to live. I enlarged the land of the plain of
Adana from East to West.
The Danunians were first mentioned in the ancient

Egyptian sources in the 14th century BC. They were a major
part of the confederation that attacked Egypt with the other
group of Sea People in the 12th century BC. Another land of
Danuna is mentioned by an Assyrian king to the south of the
Armenian Highland, far from Cilicia (the region of the
Kashiyari Mountains). It is difficult to reveal the ethnic
origination of the Danunians,7 yet in historic times they were
associated with the West Semites. The Danites, one of the
twelve tribes of Israel, would have been associated with them
(see e.g. Yaylenko 1990: 127 ff. with bibliography).
According to V.V. Ivanov and S.A. Starostin, in West
Semitic there is a significant layer of Indo-European
borrowings (Ivanov 2004: 45-46; the special study of Starostin,
to the best of my knowledge, is not yet published). These
borrowings are considered in the context of the theory of the
original home of the Indo-Europeans in the south of the
Armenian Highland and north of Mesopotamia and Syria.
Irrespective of the location of the Indo-European
homeland, the early contacts between the Indo-Europeans
and West Semites could have occurred in those territories.
Judging from the myths, some Indo-Europeans neighbored
the West Semites and even could have been merged with
them. These myths seem not to have originated among the
Anatolians who neighbored the Semites but not mythicized
them.
References
AWAia
Mayrhofer, M. Etymologisches Wrterbuch des Altindoarischen. Vol. IIII. Heidelberg: Winter, 1992-2001.
Azatiwada bore a Luwian name which means beloved of the sun god Tiwat
(in the Luwian text Baal corresponds with both the sun god and the storm god,
i.e. Tiwat and Tarhunta, rendered ideographically); Awariku is etymologized
as a Hurrian, Phrygian or Aegean name, see Kosyan 1994: 49 ff., 92; Jasink
and Marino forthcoming, with bibliography.
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EIEC
Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture [eds. Mallory J. P. and Adams

D. Q.]. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997.
GEW
Frisk, H. Griechisches etymologisches Wrterbuch. Vol. I-II. Heidelberg:

Winter, 1973.
HAB
Acharyan, H. Hayeren armatakan baQaran (Stem Dictionary of

Armenian /in Armenian/). Vol. 1-4. Yerevan: Yerevani
hamalsarani hratarakutyun, 1971-1979.
IESOJ
Abaev, V. I. Istoriko-etymologieskij slovar osetinskogo jazyka (Historicoetymological Dictionary of Ossetic Language /in Russian/). Vol. 14. Moscow-Leningrad: Izdatelstwo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 19581989.
MNM
Mify narodov mira (Myths of the Peoples of the World /in

Russian/). Vol. 1-2. Moscow: Sovetskaia Enciklopedia, 1980, 1982.
Abeghian, M.
1966
Yerker (Works /in Armenian/). Vol. 1. Yerevan: Gitutyunneri
akademiayi hratarakutyun.
Aikhenvald, A. I., Petrukhin, V. I. and Khelimskij, I. A.
1982
K rekonstrukcii mifologieskix predstavlenij finno-ugorskix
narodov (On the Reconstruction of the Mythological Ideas of the
Finno-Ugric Peoples /in Russian/). In: Balto-slavianskie
issledovaniia 1981. Moscow: Nauka: 162-191.
Arbeitman, Y., and Rendsburg, G.
1981
Adana Revised: 30 Years Later. Archiv orientalni 49: 145-157.
Dexter, M. R.
1990
Reflection on the Goddess *Donu. Mankind Quarterly. V. XXXI,
Nos. 1 & 2: 45-58.
1990a Whence the Goddesses. New York and London: Teachers College
Press.
Djahukian, G. B.
1987
Hayoc lezvi patmutyun: naxagrayin zamanakasran (History of
Armenian Language: Pre-Literal Period /in Armenian/).
Yerevan: Gitutyunneri akademiayi hratarakutyun.
Harutyunyan, S. B.
2000
Hay aQaspelabanutyun (Armenian Mythology /in Armenian/).
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Hoffner, H.A.
1990
Hittite Myths. Tr. by H. A. Hoffner. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars
Press.
Hospital, C.
1984
The Righteous Demon: A Study of Bali. Vancouver: University of
British Columbia Press.
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Ivanov, V. V.
2004
Dvadcat let spustja (Twenty Years Later /in Russian/). In: Kosarev
M.F. et al. (eds). U istokov civilizacii. Sbornik statej k 75-letiju W.I.
Sarianidi. Moscow: Novyj Sad: 41-67.
Ivanov, V.V. and Toporov V.N.
1974
Issledovanija v oblasti slavjanskix drevnostej (Studies on Slavic
Antiquities /in Russian/). Moscow: Nauka.
1976
Mifologieskie geografieskie nazvanija kak istonik dlja
rekonstrukcii etnogeneza i drevnejsej istorii slavjan (Mythological
Geographic Names as a Source for Reconstruction of
Ethnogenesis and Earliest History of the Slavs /in Russian/). In:
Voprosy etnogeneza i etnieskoj istorii slavian i vostonyx romancev.
Moscow: Nauka: 109-128.
Jasink, A.M. and Marino, M.
Forth. The West Anatolian Origins of the Que Kingdom Dynasty. URL:
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:dCObf0ikuzUJ:antiquitatis
-notae.univ-paris1.fr/confjasinkmarino.
Kapantsian, G.A.
1956
Istoriko-lingvistieskie raboty (Historic-Linguistic Works /in
Russian/). Vol. 1. Yerevan: Gitutyunneri akademiayi
hratarakutyun.
Kondratiev, A.
1998
Danu and Bile: The Primordial Parents? An Trbhs Mhr: The
IMBAS Journal of Celtic Reconstructionism. Vol. 1, No. 4, Bealtaine.
URL: http://www.imbas.org/danubile.htm.
Kortlandt F. and Beekes, R.
2003
Armeniaca. Comparative Notes by Frederik Kortlandt with an Appendix
on the Historical Phonology of Classical Armenian by R.Beekes. Ann
Arbor: Caravan.
Kosyan, A. V.
1994
Luvijskie carstva Maloj Azii i prilegajusix oblastej v XII-VIII vv. do n. e.
(The Luwian Kingdoms of Asia Minor and adjacent Regions in the
12 th-8 th centuries BC /in Russian/). Yerevan: Gitutyunneri
akademiayi hratarakutyun.
Lincoln, B.
1986
Priests, Warriors, and Cattle. A Study in the Ecology of Religion.
Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Lawson Younger, K.
1998
The Phoenician Inscription of Azatiwada: an Integrated Reading.
Journal of Semitic Studies XLIII (1): 11-47.
Nikolaev, S. L. and Strakhov, A. B.
1987
K nazvaniju boga gromoverzca v indoevropejskix jazykax (On the
Name of the God Thunderer in Indo-European Languages /in
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Russian/). In: Balto-slavjanskie issledovanija 1985. Moscow: Nauka:
149-163.
Petrosyan, A. Y.
1997
Arami aaspel hamematakan aaspelabanutyan hamatekstum yev
hayoc azgacagman xndir (The Myth of Aram in the Context of
Comparative Mythology and the Problem of Armenian
Ethnogenesis /in Armenian/). Yerevan: Van Aryan.
2002a The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian
Epic. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph No 42.
Washington DC: Institute for the Study of Man.
2002b Badasari kerpari hnaguyn himker (The Oldest Sources of the
figure of Badasar /in Armenian/). Hin Hayastani msakuyt.
Yerevan: Gitut yun: 37-39.
Rees, A. and Rees, B.
Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales. London:
Thames and Hudson.
Sakellariu, M.
1986
Who were the Immigrants? In: Cadogan G. (ed.). The end of the
Early Bronze Age in the Aegean. Leiden: E. J. Brill: 125-137.
Shifman, I.Sh.
1987
Kultura drevnego Ugarita (The Culture of Ancient Ugarit /in
Russian/). Moscow: Nauka.
Thomson R. W. (trans., ed.)
1978
Moses Khorenatsi. History of the Armenians. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978.
Toporov, V. N.
1976
Xettsk. Purulia, lat. Parilia, Palilia i ix balkanskie istoki (Hitt.
Purulia Lat. Parilia, Palilia and Their Balkanic Sources /in
Russian/). In: Balkanskij lingvistieskij sbornik. Moscow: Nauka: 125142.
Watkins, C.
1995
How to Kill a Dragon. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yaylenko, V.P.
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/in Russian/). Moscow: Nauka.
Armen Petrosyan
15 Charents St., Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
Yerevan, Armenia
Email: petrosia@freenet.am

Indo-European King and Hero
Dean A. Miller
University of Rochester
The particular legend (or legend-segment, or motif) I am

concerned with in this short study is odd even by legendary
standards (whatever they might be) but this legend has a fairly
wide distribution in the fund of Indo-European sources. Since
it involves or refers to beards and facial hair, as well as head
hair, it resonates in a much wider imaginal field identifying
corporal (somatic) signs or markers, and this is one area I
have already, to some extent, explored (see Miller 1998, on
heroic hair). Contained within this theme we also have
contrasting visions or versions of the King and the WarriorHero and it also is implicated in an important area involving
the cooperation and/or opposition between these two
powerful figures in the Indo-European thought world (and
widely, of course, elsewhere, in other traditions). The legendary
theme (which, as my title states, I am provisionally attaching to
the Indo-European mythic theater) is this: The story of the
ogre with the mantle made from the beards of kings.
This theme has, to my present knowledge, three
identifiable narrative loci: (1) in several places in the medieval
and later Celtic and related materials, especially in the ramified
Legend of Arthur; (2) in the Ossete Nart tales (especially of
interest to us because of other thematic resemblances and
possible connections between the Celtic and these Caucasian
cultural contexts, resemblances and connections which were
already commented on some years ago by Georges Dumzil),
and finally (3) in a Scandinavian (Norse) refraction of the
theme, contained in a particularly wild and wooly fictional
narrative, and intriguing not only in its appearance in this
northern edition of the theme named but because of what
appear to be other thematic and incidental borrowings from
other Celtic sources found in this specific (but imaginatively reconstructed, that is, as it is formed from disparate sub-themes
and segments) Norse narrative or story.
312
Dean A. Miller
The Stories Themselves

(1). The Arthurian citations already show some variations
on the basic theme. Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regem
Britannie (x.3) has Arthur himself boasting of how a giant
named Retho (elsewhere called Rhita) had demanded Arthurs
beard with menaces, to add to those royal beards that already
decorated his cloak or mantle, but Arthur defeated the monster
and took his beard instead.1 In the Tristan of Thomas of Britain
the defeated ogrish figure is called Orgillos (the angry one?),
while at a distance, in a late, 16th century song from what is
termed the Elizabethan Arthurian Revival, King Ryences
Challenge, it is one Ryence, called the King of North Wales, who
claims Arthurs beard but who doesnt get it (Hodder 1999:
74). The beard-hunting ogre or giant appears as well in
Malorys Morte dArthur (Vinaver 1947: 120-121) and even in a
redaction of the Merlin legend (Hodder 1999: 299, fn. 11). We
might call the theme distinctly variable in described detail, but
well attested in terms of its main narrative components.
(2). On the Ossete evidence collected from this central
Caucasian people by a number of scholars, including, of course,
Dumzil himself and V. I. Abaev, my specific citation has to do
with the Nart hero Soslan (also often called Sosyrko), a
legendary hero and gallant who wants to impress the young
ladies with a mantle trimmed with the scalps and moustaches of
his ogrish or monstrous enemies (see Dumzil 1965: 81-83).
Claude Sterckx comments on this tale with his usual acuity,
recognizing the shift or switch in our base theme: here in
Ossetia the hero pursues the ogre or giant with intent to collect
scalps rather than the other way around (nor is any king
involved) and he also adds that this scalping or sanguinary
trophy-taking of a foes hair was no imaginative flight of fantasy,
but was attested to by Herodotus when he described the martial
habits of the Scythians, lointaines anctres des Osstes and
how they dealt with their defeated enemies (Sterckx
[forthcoming], citing Heroditus Historiae, LIV). The theme of
the beard (and the trophy head) is also referred to, again in
1
John Carey (personal communication) suggests that this triumph might be

behind Arthurs contemptuous dismissal of Ceis feat in the Welsh tale
Culhwch ac Olwen: Ceis overcoming and beard-hair-plucking of the giant
Dillus Farfawg (before Dillus was killed) is lessened and derogated compared
to Arthurs own, and in his eyes more significant, victory over an ogrish
monster. See Miller, Forthcoming (b).
313
Legends of Hair
reversal, in another tale from the same collection of Ossete

hero-tales.
Here
Batradz
(Soslans
twinned
or
complimentary/opposite Nart hero, called the fiery one of
the Ossete legend-narratives) fights, defeats, and takes the head
of the Giant with the Multicolored Beard.2
One central problem of the imputed or arguable
connection between the Celtic material and that from the
central Caucasus was succinctly dealt with or laid out by
Dumzil himself (my translation):
This primary relationship between the Ossetes and the
Celts, displayed in terms of important or key characters
and a group of themes uncommonly encountered
elsewhere, poses large questions: is this a common
heritage? Or borrowing? And if there is borrowing, though
what intermediaries, in what epoch? (Dumzil 1978: 90).
I will return to this point in my Conclusion.

(3) The Norse ttr or adventure-tale (one of the collected
lygisgur, which can be translated either as legends or as
lying tales) in which this selected theme is so prominent is
rvar-Oddr, Arrow-Odd, in which the bow-bearing hero, Odd,
has as a particular foe (among many foes encountered in the
course of the story) the monstrous Ogmund Eythjofs-Killer,
who is not just a giant (that is, big and presumably rather
stupid) but a great sorcerer as well, a shape-changer
supercharged with all sorts of malignant powersand he is the
one who wears the cloak in question. 3 We might note that
Ogmund, awful as he is, does not scalp or, worse, take the heads
of kings, but merely demands the royal beard and moustache as
a form of tribute: every twelve months they [the kings east of
2
Dumzil 1965: 187. Note that in the Soslan citation, the Nart hero, having
defeated his enemy, pronounces him a brave man and says that he wont take
his head: your scalp is enough for me (83). This enemy (Eltagan, son of
Kutsykk) bears either a Mongol or a Turkish name, that is, Soslans foe is not
patently monstrous, but certainly is regarded as exoteric or Other (83,
Notes).
3
In Guni Jnsson, ed., Fornadarsgur Norurlanda, vol. I = O; translated by H.
Plsson and P. Edwards in Seven Viking Romances, 25-137 = AO. On giants, see
AO 76: The people of Giantland may be a lot bigger and stronger than any
other race, and more handsome than most other people too, but they arent
any more intelligent. The rather neatly assembled trifunctional identification,
in terms of the well-known Dumzilian theoretical schema, is persuasive here:
these giants are prominent and potent in F2 and F3 signs - but somewhat
lacking in F1 attributes.
314
Dean A. Miller
the Baltic] had to send him their beards and moustaches (AO,
89; O, 293; here east of the Baltic points to Permia or
Permland, an area notorious for all sorts of witchcraft and
wizardry and weird associations and occurrences, as the more
flamboyant Norse adventure-narratives frequently report).
Despite what he shows as a remarkably lenient attitude toward
his royal victims, Ogmund is sufficiently ugly, evil, murderous
and treacherous, and he is a most dangerous enemy to the
archer-hero Odd, possessing great, in fact, supernatural powers.
In addition to his tribute-bearing hairy cloak, it will be his
eventual fate (or, more accurately, his end in the tale) that will
interest us here.
Kings Beard, Heros Hair.
In terms of what we might call general impressions, or
even descriptions of a set and accepted persona or image, the
king and his beard would seem to fit together quite well.4 The
beard is certainly an obvious sign of male sexual maturity and,
often, assumed authority, though in terms of the royal figure
this may often be taken as a covert rather than an overt sign,
less significant than the kings more abstracted or symbolic
paternal situation or imaginal stance. Even so, ordinary (or
chronological, essentially secular) human maturation is often
set aside, ignored, or obscured in the kings case; we have, for
example, the contradictory images of the ever-young king
who is simultaneously old in wisdom (Miller 1971: 649-650).
Then the iconic childless king (named as father of his people)
can, in ritual or acclamatory terms, be set against the nearly
universal (and traditional) demand that the king represent or
possess, along with his other powers, some sort of ongoing,
impelling force or guarantee of fertility (and we can encounter
the most vehement strictures against the acceptance of royal
sexual neutrality or the deprivation of his potency, by way of
any loss of sexual function by wounds or any other cause,
including, of course, the natural ageing process).5 The royal
beard (and any free males beard) most certainly has been seen
4
Vide the ordinary deck of playing cards, or the American comic strip called
The Wizard of Id, with its miniature royal tyrant (whose features in fact
much resemble those of the King in the deck of cards). Also, for those whose
memories stretch that far, Otto Soglows old The Little King a Hearst paper
comic.
5
Though this is closely associated with the idea that the king must be
physically whole, undamaged - has his sight, for example.
Legends of Hair
315
to have numenal, possibly quasi-religious, and even magical

potency, as frequently noted in our I-E sources, and we see this
in cases of oaths sworn on, or by, the beard, or on the other
side of the coin by insults devised and made by his enemies to
attack an individuals essential identity (by touching or pulling
this individuals beard or even, merely, commenting on it in
derogatory terms).6 What we might call the final or sempiternal
identification of king and his royal (or imperial) beard would
be visible in the old image of the ideal or perfect monarch,
the mature but ageless Sleeping King, who waits for his
peoples call, as Charlemagne does in some concealed place,
while his mighty beard grows, we would say magically, right
through a marble table (see Morrissey 1997: 21). We do not
have to go far to see that the royal honor and identity, and so
by extension an identification of the communal honor and
identity of his people and realm, can certainly be bound up in
his beard, and so by extension any insult to this beard, or even
more any attempt to remove it entirely is that much graver,
more portentous, and more symbolically dangerous.
The contrast we see set against the hirsute mark (or
sign) of the warrior-hero is usually clearly visible. Again, the
question of how the results of the ordinary somatic process of
maturation are viewed enters here early on and we have a
continuing enigma, that is, of the phenomenon of the
extraordinarily precocious hero who may arrive at his storied
physical prime, as displayed in his successful combat with rivals
or enemies, before he has even left the state of being a
beardless boy, that is, he is seen as an adolescent and even still
in his early, sexually immature, adolescence. 7 Heroic head-hair,
usually but not always, is much more of a significant marker
than is the beard of full male maturity, and this is the case from
the time (or myth-time) of the long-haired Achaians of the
Iliad, or of Arjuna in the Mahbhrata with his long and
plentiful hair (Miller 1998: 42, and fn. 4). The chevelure of
the warrior is often intertwined with explicit and natural
6
See the notorious case, as reported by Livy, of the Gaulish warrior who
touched the beard of the seated, motionless Roman senator Marcus Papirius
(evidently thinking him an image) during the Gaulish invasion of Rome; the
old Roman reacted violently, thus betraying his humanity, and the slaughter
of all the older men who had stayed behind in the city (rather than moving
into the Citadel) followed: Livy: V.xli.8-10; see also fn. 7, below.
7
The youth Connla, who fought (and was killed by) his father, C Chulainn, is
described as without beard or pubic hair in Aided enfir Aife, 5.
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Dean A. Miller
animal associations (and my colleague Will Sayers would see

vegetative or floral associations as well, with grass, bushes, treebranches and the like: see Sayers 1991: 155) and this long and
florescent hair, either wild, or tamed and dressed, is an
appropriate adjunct to and mark of this figure, eventually if
paradoxically merging him, in his own sexual identity and
gender, with the feminine, the virginal and thus the sexually
potential.
I say that the beard usually is less important as the mark of
the hero-warrior, but I am pleased to note that, in the most
recent issue of the journal Emania, P. K. Ford argues that in the
case of the warriors of Ulster, of the Ulaid, the wearing of the
beard was evidently obligatory, both for the king (Conchobor
boasted a forked beard, very curly, golden yellow) and also
for those warriors of the Ulaid like Fergus, who had a thick,
forked beard and Sencha mac Ailella A bright and very curly
beard, forked and tapering... and so on.8 More, the warriors of
Ulster who didnt actually have beards were forced to wear false
beards (made of grey wool) when they took part in the Battle of
Oenach Macha (Ford 2006: 68-69), evidently to show that they
were true, mature, and immediately recognizable Ulstermen,
that is, the bearded ones. Finally, it was the beardlessness of
their young champion C Chulainn that proved that he was not
actually of the Ulaid (and so was proof against the curse that
had been laid on them). 9 Sayers has argued (and Ford
generally accepts this assertion) that it was likely that the cut of
the hair and beard may also have signaled tribal affiliation in
Iron Age Ireland (Sayers 1991: 188). No one has yet identified
any specific tribal cuts or coiffures (or anything like the
exaggerated and even bizarre hair-styles that Tacitus and
Ammianus Marcellinus had described for certain German
tribes, that is for the warriors of the Suebi, the Alemanni, and
some others) but we might tentatively accept that such tonsorial
cuts and differentiations did exist in old Ireland (see Miller
Ford, Ul na n-Ulad. Ethnicity and Identity in the Ulster Cycle, 70-71,

quoting the Tin, both Recension I and the Book of Leinster versions. In the
same issue of this journal see Sayerss description of the bearded hero Conall
Cernach: Sayers 2006: 76.
9
Ford also cites a poem included in the Yellow Book of Lecan, in which one of
the characteristics and prohibitions of the beard is that the wearer should
not mock or beard others nor allow his own beard to be mocked: Ford
2006: 72.
Legends of Hair
317
1998: 53).10
We are, at any rate, taken back to and engaged with the
complex of heroic or kingly facial hair, leaving behind such
associated signs or variations (in respect to the male head) as
baldness or tonsure (always ambiguousa condition both for
derogation and as a sign of honorable and even powerful
status) and the substitution of the cutting of the hair (or of
some sort of scalping) for actual, fatal decapitation. The
beardlessness of most warrior-heroes seems accepted and
assured and can even have a semi-comic resonance in certain
hero-tales.11
Parsing the Legend
We can quickly identify a triad of figures involved in the
normative working out of our theme: the ogrish or monstrous
figure, the king-victim, and an interfering hero-warrior. The
Ossete evidence removes the king; these sources from the
central Caucasus have no kings inserted into or made part of
the Nart political or ideological structure, and in analyzing
the tales for their trifunctional content and associations
Dumzil found and used the group of intelligent ones or the
guardians of tradition, the nomarchs among the Narts (the
Algat) as figures using or representing the exercise of
sovereignty (that is, F1; see Dumzil 1968: 462ff.). The Nart
heroes Soslan (and Batradz as well) go directly after gigantic or
ogrish enemies to get their beards (taking the giants
spectacular multicolored beard along with his head, in
Batradzs case) and so they eliminate the middleman; the two
heroes act simply in pursuit of dramatic proofs of their own
reputation and their heroic prowess. The normative narrative
has the ogre/giant possessed of both the malignant will and the
supernatural force to take from kings the somatic sign of their
paternal overlordship and even of their sovereignty and so to
reduce their honor and to shame their manhood (and, in the
10
Editors note: Just such evidence has recently come to life. An Irish bogbody from Clonycavan, Co. Meath, bears a hairstyle very close to the Suebian
knot type found on Scandinavian bog-burials (JPM).
11
Referring to the Balkan (Christian Serb) tale included in the Marko Kraljevi
cycle, The Wedding of Prince Marko, where the Bulgarian girl whom
Marko will eventually wed tells the importunate Venetian Duke (Doge) that
she wants a breadless young man and not a bearded (old) man for a
bridegroom, whereupon the too-eager old Venetian has his beard shaved off,
but to no avail (Pennington/Levi: 41).
318
Dean A. Miller
Norse tale, in fact, to do this serially, every twelve months).

The role of the hero (most clearly shown in the CelticArthurian and the associated or derived Norse examples) is to
counter or ignore the supernatural force of the supernatural or
monstrous figure, defeat him (or it), and salve the honor of the
king and so of the realm he rules. The lesson seems to be that
the ogre-magician has overreached himself, and has intruded
into an area where simple physical force (heroic force, the
exercise of the heroic mtier) can in its turn reduce and defeat
his ambition and re-balance the political and social scenario,
bringing the polity (the microcosmos) back into equilibrium,
and putting or forcing magical (non-human) power back into
its proper place. How to do this? Heroes (of the epic marque)
of course are not supposed to have magical or supernatural
powers, though they may wield magical weapons or have cloaks
(or helmets) of invisibility or the like (and we recall that socalled invulnerable, and thus, arguably, immortal, heroes are
never completely secure in this state, as we see in the well
known instances of Siegfried and Achilles or, for that matter,
the case of the Ossete fiery Nart hero, Batradz: see Miller,
forthcoming [a]). As for the tales of Arthurs defeat of the
beard-hunting ogre (whatever this monster may have been
named), I think that there is no doubt that when Arthur is
victorious over his ogrish foe he is not acting as a king, but as a
warrior-hero (or possibly as a war-king). 12 King Arthurs
doubled or ambiguous nature or character, especially the
young Arthur (who in the Welsh Triads is called an obsessive
womanizer, a Red Ravager, a scurrilous bard, and other quite
uncomplimentary things) is not infrequently underlined in the
early Welsh elements of his legend (see Miller 1989).
This brings us to the Norse ttr. The main frame of the
tale is completely coherent with our central theme: the hero
Arrow-Odd defeats the ogrish being who possesses that bearded
mantle, presumably freeing the kings east of the Baltic from
their yearly barbering and consequent humiliation. However, in
this narrative Ogmund Eythjofs-Killer was not through with
Arrow-Odd, nor Odd with him; the hero continues to pursue
the monster, and in a gruesome scene Odd seizes Ogmund just
12
The King Ryence episode, which is worth further investigation, would

seem to have the King of North Wales engaged in overreaching as well, and
again Arthur falls back into a warrior-hero posture in order to bring Ryence
low.
Legends of Hair
319
as the sorcerer was disappearing into the ground; Odd grasps

Ogmunds beard and jerks it, tearing off the beard and most of
his face right down to the bone (AO 91; O, 296). What is
striking here is the similarity of this incident with two episodes
in the Welsh Arthurian tale Culhwch ac Olwen: here we must
note the final fate of Ysbadadden Chief-Giant, who is also
shaved of his beard, and his flesh and skin right down to the
bone (Ford 1977: 157, Bromwich and Evans 42, ll. 1235-1236);
and also the tales scene involving the ogre-giant Dillus Farfawg,
in which Cei knocks the giant Dillus into a hole in the ground
and then takes from him the beard-hairs that will allow the
Quest to go on (Ford 1977: 150; Bromwich and Evans: 34, ll.
959-960).13
Arrow-Odd is a long, rambling and complicated
adventure-tale,
stuffed
with
incident,
skaldic
verse
interpolations (in one of which Odd is claimed to have thrown
down the old Norse gods and introduced Christianity to a land
called Bjalka), and all sorts of other inventions, including an
intriguing variation on the Vater-Shnes-Kampf. 14 But the
Norse were very open to and welcomed, most especially, the
Arthurian materials from the Celtic lands, and I think it very
likely that in the deep history of stories the ogre with the
cloak made from the beards of kings came to them by this
route, along with some other images specifically borrowed, I
believe, from the Welsh quest-tale cited above. Fairly gruesome
plot-lines were never particularly offputting to a warlike people
who, along the way, had invented the blood-eagle.
Conclusion
The theme investigated here exposes its three main
characters to a final judgment: what is meant by the drama of
king, ogre, and warrior-hero? What I would conclude is that the
king represents, is synecdochal for, the integrity of community
13
In fact Ogmund returns to the narrative as a sinister masked figure named
Quillanus who assumes the rule in Novgorod; again Odd fights him, but
neither can overcome the other; Odd eventually decides that his opponent
cant be beaten, being as much a phantom as a man, their quarrel ends, and
Ogmund/Quillanus is out of the saga (AO 116-120; O 333-337).
14
See Miller 1994/1996. Odd begat a son on a Giantess on one of his
adventures, and the half-giant son, Vigdir, later sought out and encountered
him - but this son was killed by Ogmund, not by Odd. Odd later slew
Ogmunds son, Svart: see AO 92, O 298. The old father-son pattern and
confrontation is skewed in interesting ways here.
320
Dean A. Miller
and social continuity, and these good things are threatened and
even torn down by what amounts to a diabolical assault. The
gigantic or ogrish being, though, acts only for himself, not for
any community or polity, and it would seem that he can only be
conquered in single combat (by the ideal individual fighter,
the warrior-hero, counting Arthur as such in these particular
entries in his wider legend). Furthermore, the Ossetic variation
and construction of the theme, with the elision of the kingfigure as victim, should probably be taken as showing that this is
the most archaic version of the story, noting but setting aside
Dumzils query regarding the possible early contact between
Celt and Scythian and what may have been exchanged at that
point, or what may have grown separately out of an even older,
proto-I-E theme. I might also venture to suggest the working
out of a generational (or temporal) conflict: the mature
(older) king is threatened by a being who is essentially ageless
(inhuman), and then is rescued, and his honor redeemed, by a
young or younger hero. At any rate, as I think we can agree,
the ogres cloak made from the beards of kings continues to
cover and conceal a number of fascinating narrative strands
and topics, all worthy of further investigation.
References
Aided enfir Aife
1933
Aided enfir Aife = The Death of Aifes Only Son. In A. G. Van
Hamel (ed.) Compert Con Culainn. Dublin: Dublin Institute for
Advanced Studies.
Arrow-Odd.
1985
In Seven Viking Romances. Transl. by H. Plsson and P. Edwards.
Harmondsworth: Penguin: 25-137.
1950
In Fornadarsgur Norulanda, v. II, ed. Guni Jnsson. Reykjavik:
slendingasagnatgfen.
Bromwich, Rachel, ed. and transl.
1978
Trioedd Ynys Pridein. The Welsh Triads. 2nd ed. Cardiff: University of
Wales Press.
Bromwich, Rachel and Evans, Simon, eds.
1988
Culhwch ac Olwen. Cairdydd/Cardiff: Cwosg Privysgol
Cymru/University of Wales Press.
Dumzil, Georges
1965
Le livre des hros. Legendes sur les Nartes. Collection Caucase. Paris:
Gallimard.
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1968
1978
Mythe et pope. I. Lidologie des trois fonsctions dans les popes des
peuples indo-europens. Bibliothque des Sciences Humaines. NRF.
Paris: Gallimard.
Romans de Scythie et dalentours. Paris: Payot.
Ford, Patrick K.
2006
Ul na n-ulad: Ethnicity and Identity in the Ulster Cycle. Emania 20:
68-74.
Ford, Patrick K., ed. and transl.
1977
The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales. Berkeley/Los
Angeles/London: University of Califronia Press.
Geoffrey of Monmouth.
1985
Historia Regem Brittanie. I. Bern Burgerbibliothek MS 568. Ed. Neil
Wright. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hatto, A. T., transl.
1960
Gotfried von Strassburg Tristan with the Surviving Fragments of the
Tristan of Thomas. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Herodotus.
1981. The Histories. Transl. by A. D. Godley. Loeb Classical Library.
Cambridge, MA/ London: Harvard University Press/Wm.
Heinemann.
Hodder, Karen.
1999.
Arthur, the Legend of King Arthur, King Arthurs Death. In
Dynastic Romance, cap A in The Arthur of the English. Ed. by W. R.
J. Barron. Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. Cardiff:
University of Wales Press: 72-74.
Livius, T. (Livy).
1984
Ab urbe condita = The History of Rome: From the Founding of the City.
Transl. by B. O. Foster. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge,
MA/London: Harvard University Press/Wm. Heinemann.
Miller, Dean A.
1971
Royaut et ambiguit sexuelle. Annales E. S. C. 3, no. 4 (Mai-Aot):
639-652.
1989
The Twinning of Arthir and Cei: An Arthurian Tessera. Journal of
Indo-European Studies = JIES 17/1-2 (Spring-Summer): 47-76.
1994/1996 Defining and Expanding the Indo-European Vater-SohnesKampf Theme. JIES 22/3-4 (Fall-Winter): 307-325. Reprinted in
JIES Monograph Series 16: 109-130.
1998
On the Mythology of Indo-European Heroic Hair. JIES 26/1-2
(Spring-Summer): 41-60.
Forthcoming (a). The Warrior-Hero Out if Control: Batradz and His
Compeers. Bulletin of Indo-European Studies
Forthcoming (b) King and Hero, the Power of Words, and the Ingraitude
of Princes. Studia Celtologica Nordica.
.
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Pennington, Anne and Levi, Peter

1984
Marko the Prince. Serbo-Croat Heroic Sings. New York: St. Martins
Press.
Sayers, William
1997
Early Irish Attitudes toward Hair and Beards, Baldness and
Tonsure. Zeitschrift fr Celtische Philologie Bd. 44: 154-189.
2006
Portraits of the Ulster Hero Conall Cernach: A Case for
Wardensburgs Syndome. Emania 20: 75-80.
Sterckx, Claude
(Forthcoming) Les deux bufs du deluge et la submersion de la ville dIs.
Vinaver, L., ed.
1947
The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
The Myth of Macha in Eastern Europe

Maria Magdolna Tatr
This article is based on a Szkely legend from Transylvania which

is not to be found in any other places in Eastern Europe. By
analyzing the story it became clear that it is a Christianized
version of a myth about the Celtic Horse Goddess who
participates in a chariot race. The only parallel to this legend is
mentioned in the Kievan Chronicle as a story about the Avars and
the Dulebi women. Both versions are probably connected to the
Avars and their subjects, the Bulgarians, and they can be dated to
the Middle Ages.
In this paper I intend to analyze a myth connected to the

lake of St. Anne (Szent Anna t), which is situated in a volcanic
crater in Transylvania on a mountain plateau 950 m high. It is 4
m deep and covers 22 hectares. This place, immediately west of
the historical border of Hungary on the dividing ridges of the
Carpathian mountains, is populated by the Roman Catholic
Kzdi Szkelys, a part of the Hromszk (three sedes) group,
descendants of medieval border guards. According to their
traditions, they are the descendants of the Huns, who joined the
Hungarians when the latter arrived in 895. Although they have
spoken Hungarian since they are mentioned in sources, they
have preserved their special ethnicity during their almost
thousand-year long history in that region until today (also under
Romanian rule for the last 87 years). An example of their archaic
culture is their belief that all Szkelys are brothers because they
are all descendants of the white mare, their mother (Gyallay
1959:219).
The following story was collected among them in the 19th
century (Orbn 1868-73: III:74-5): Two brothers, belonging to
the local gentry, were competing for wealth and power in the
vicinity. The fortress of one brother stood on the spot where the
lake is now, the others on the nearby mountain top, called
Bds (stinking, after a cave there). A foreigner once arrived to
visit the younger brother, riding in a luxurious chariot, drawn by
four beautiful horses. The local lord wanted very much to buy
the horses, but the foreigner would not sell them. At last they
324
Maria Magdolna Tatr
cast dice and the foreigner, who lost, was obliged to sell the
horses for two villages. The younger brother immediately visited
the older one, driving his new horses and angered him by saying
that the brother never could acquire such beautiful horses. The
envious older brother made a bet that if he could visit the
younger man within 24 hours riding on better equipage then
this one, he would get all the property and half of the fortress of
his younger brother. Then the older one collected eight of the
most beautiful peasant girls and harnessed them naked before
his chariot. The girls did not want to draw the chariot, so the
lord whipped the first girl, called Anna. She cried out a curse on
the lord and the whole countryside, whereupon he and his
fortress immediately sank and a lake appeared there. The eight
girls swam to the lake-shore and went home, except for Anna,
who sold the bridle, built a chapel and lived there from that time
on. In the 19th century, there were two chapels on the two
opposite sides of the lake, one consecrated to St. Anne, the
mother of Our Lady, and the other to St. Jovki, i.e. Joachim, her
father. They were built at an unknown period, but were already
old and damaged in 1860, when a local prophet rebuilt them
and urged the people to again hold great festivities there,
because the fertility of the country and the prosperity of the state
depended on it. The pilgrims of Kzdiszk always stopped by this
chapel of St Anne to say prayers on their way back from the
famous Marian shrine in Csksomly (part of Cskszereda, Rom.
Miercurea Ciuc). The chapel of St. Joachim perished in the 20th
century, but the habitants of the seven villages in the vicinity
came together and repaired the chapel of St. Anne after the fall
of eauUescu. Festivities are still organized there on 26th July,
the day of St. Anne and 8th September, the birth day of Our
Lady. So the cult continues.
This legend, which is not known by any other Hungarian
groups or any other people in the region, was usually thought to
be a romantic story.1 However, it is doubtlessly a superficially
Christianized version of the myth of the horse goddess, as the
main motif shows: Two rival lords, contesting for a property,
decide the right of possession by a chariot contest. The end of
1
It was rewritten several times, e.g. for children (Benedek 1894-96) and as a
novel (Tams 1989). The last one is based on a variant, collected also in the
19th century which explained the story by the cruelty of the landlord and the
social standing of the peasants. I disregard this variant here as well as another,
obviously later, more poetic version, according to which the girls became
flowers and the lord a dragon in the lake (Orbn, 1868-73:III:75).
325
the story, a building which sinks into a lake as a punishment, is a

common motif almost everywhere (AaTh Q 552.2.1). The lake is
a passage between this word and the other, as we see in Greek
myth in the case of Dionysos, who went down to the Underworld
by the way of the Alcyonin lake, and in part of the legend of
Heracles who dug a channel that became a lake and put the
man-eating mares of Diomedes on the island in the lake, i.e.
excluded them from this world. As for modern stories, a
Bulgarian husband killed his wife, whereupon a lake appeared
on the spot. A mare (the wife) was seen swimming in it, behind
her a foal, her child , who died as well (Nagy 1975:521). It is not
accidental that Anna (the horse goddess) dedicated herself to
the lake by staying there while the other girls swam off and went
home.
Indo-European hippomanteia and its variants, the use of
horses for deciding or securing royal or possessory rights on a
territory, was known among the Hungarians (cf. Polom
1994:43-9 and Tatr 1997). We note the legend of the white
horse with harness and saddle, which the Hungarians gave to the
local inhabitants of the Carpathian basin in exchange for the
right to rule the country (SH 1937-38: I:288-89), or the legend
about persons who got possessory rights of a territory they could
ride around during a defined time,2 which is a variant of a
tradition known ever since the Scythians. However, our legend is
different because the horses are human girls and the contest is
a chariot race.
Human beings, especially women, harnessed before a cart
or a chariot or a plow appear in Hungary and among the
neighboring peoples in three cases.
1. Extreme poverty forced people to actually do so a few
times in the past3: during the reign of king Lszl, called the
Cuman, at the end of the 13th century (chronicles, SH 1937-38:
I:474) and in 1601-04, when troops under the Italian war lord,
2
The ancestor of the the Bl clan, Bekny Cepe got all the land in the Mtra
Mountains which he could ride around while others consumed their lunch.
Cf. the Scythian tradition: the keeper of the gold was allowed to use a year all
the land he could ride around during a day (Bak 1989:81). A similar story is
told about the Nalczi family among the Aranyosszk Szkelys (Keszeg 2004:
I:95). Cf. also the novel of Leo Tolstoi: The Peasant and the Devil, where the
Bashkirs sold as much land to the Russians as they could walk around during
a day.
3
It happened in other countries as well. For example, in Norwegian, the
expressions harnessing the wife before the plow and on that farm the wife
is the horse mean the greatest poverty.
326
Maria Magdolna Tatr
Giorgio Basta devastated Transylvania. Therefore the twowheeled cart (Hung. kord) was called "the cart of Lszl, the
Cuman" and "the cart of Basta". More recently, in the 20th
century, this happened in the Romanian district which borders
Transylvania and which has a large Hungarian population, called
the Csngs. Of the village Klzse (Cleja) by the Siret River, the
Csngs were forced by the Romanian bailiff to draw the carts of
their landlord themselves (Beke 1988:141).
2. As far as I know, it actually happened on two occasions in
Hungary: Count Peter Szapry (1630-1703) was taken as a
prisoner of war by the Ottoman Turks, was harnessed to a plow
and forced to till the soil. Later, the Romanians who attacked
Transylvania in 1848-49, killed Lszl Pterfy, the professor of
the college in Nagyenyed and the bailiff Szkcs by harnessing
them before a plow and drove them until death in the town
Borosbocsrd (Gracza 1894: II:420). Furthermore, they accused
the Hungarians of doing the same in the 1940s when they put up
posters in the town of Arad with drawings of Hungarian soldiers,
beating Romanians harnessed before a plow (Kulics and Tlgyesi
1991:89) which actually never happened. Obviously, they
understood this custom as a symbol of victory as the following
legend attests: when the Moldavian prince Stefan Mare defeated
the Polish army in Bucovina, he forced 20.000 prisoners of war
to draw plows, till the battle field and grow a forest there as a
new defensive border (Cantemiru 1872:chapt. VI).
This motif occurs as a punishment a few times in Hungarian
legends. In Transylvania, the motif occurs only once, in the
village of Bzd (Szkelyland): the local landlord, Jnos Dacz,
was very harsh to his peasants and therefore the Devil punished
him after his death by forcing him to draw a plow and till a
mountainside (Orbn 1868-73: III:74-75). The second narrative
is a folk-tale from Baranya County, Southern Hungary. A Serbian
orthodox priest, who was never content although he was rich,
was transformed after his death into a horse by Christ and given
to a poor man (Ban 1988a: 143-144). These few tales ascribe
this practice to foreigners (the Serbs) or characterize it as a
heavenly punishment. Obviously, this ritual killing is an unusual
motif among the Hungarians. However, it occurs in the Balkans
not only in legends like in the one of Stoyan, a Bulgarian, who
harnessed his wife before a plow as a punishment4 because of
4
Something similar is reported about the ancient Thracians (in Xenophon): A

Thracian farmer is plowing with an ox; a robber comes along and the two
327
malevolent slander (Nagy 1975:III:172), but also in actual fact

.
3. Such a custom existed as a magical practice as well.
Naked women, who were harnessed to plows and so drew a
furrow around the village or their house as a protection against
the plague, feral animals or other disasters, are well known
throughout Eastern Europe. It is connected to the motif in AaTh
F 383.3 where the fairies cannot cross the plowed furrow.
However, in Hungary this custom occurs only sporadically and
has no recognized ritual function (Pcs 1989:142). In Hungary
the spell is different: the women run naked around the outside
of the house, but did not plow a furrow. Another love magic
spell occurs among the Gypsies, who migrated from Turkey into
the Balkans. Girls who did not get married during the winter (as
late as the beginning of the carnival), harnessed themselves
naked before a cart on the day of St George, so the boys would
run after them, as the wheels did (Gjorgjevic 1903:76-79). The
wheel, as a symbol of erotic love in this analogous function is
known in Eastern Europe, e.g. among the Russians. Its clearest
wording is to be found in Mari (Cheremis) folklore: the horse is
a symbol of the wife and the chariot or cart is that of the sexual
act, which is impossible when the chariot is absent (Beke 1961:
III:486-487). It is therefore not surprising that the same motif
appears in a ballad of the Csngs, who, living among
Romanians along the Siret River, were influenced by Slavs and
other peoples of Balkan origin. According to this ballad, the girl
would not mind if her father was harnessed, made to eat nettles
and dry stalks and haul wooden blocks (i.e. lived as a horse),
because he did not approve of her lover (Kalls 1977:237). 5
start to wrestle. They play, like in a theatre. If the robber is stronger, he may
take the ox from the man. If the thief is stronger, he takes the ox; if the
peasant is stronger, he harnesses the robber with the ox and forces him to
draw the plow (Fol and Marazov 1976:chapt.2). It seems that it was the
punishment of the defeated thief.
5
The hauling of wooden blocks was a carnival custom in some regions of
Hungary. Usually the boys draw the block to the house of that girl who did
not get married during the winter, to mock the unmarried one. For example,
in Bonchida, Transylvania, four boys, dressed up as old maids, performed this
custom in parade which went through the village. In some places (Farnos,
Bereg county and Ajak, Szabolcs county) this was understood not so much as
a mockery of the girls but as a punishment for the boys who did not get
married in the right time. In Gcsej (Zala county), the drawing of the block
was the punishment of the girl (Ttrai 1990:134-137, 160). However, these
Hungarian examples are rather archaic: to draw blocks without a wheel is a
heavy, more archaic job than to draw a cart or a chariot. The not quite
consistent tradition is probably of foreign (German) origin.
328
Maria Magdolna Tatr
This sporadic occurence of harnessed man and woman in

all these cases is even more remarkable because the mare as a
sexual symbol or even as the personification of the sexually
active witch is well known among the Hungarians as everywhere
in Europe.6 Sexual acts between a man and women who are
transformed into mares, were already depicted on petroglyphs in
Val Camonica and in Bohusln (Sweden, Broby-Johansen
1973:ill. 79-8). I cite here Dmtr and Poseidn, Surya, the
Indian sun god whose wife had the shape of a mare, the
Scandinavian Loki, tranformed into a mare, and his offspring,
the horse Sleipnir, etc. (cf. Doniger O`Flaherty 1982:8-11,
Polom 1994:48-49). The famous description about the
enthronement of a Celtic king by Geraldus Cambrensis
(Topographia Hibernica, cf. Polom 1994:46) when the king
copulated with a white mare, belongs here as well as the Irish
expression the mare of the king, meaning the queen (Colum
1992:112). However, this subject is unusual among the Turks
and Mongols. This motif was probably borrowed from Buddhist
sources into an Uygur oracle book, according to which a prince
fathered not only his son with his wife, but in the same time a
foal and a camelcalf as well as, respectively, with a mare and a
female camel (Malov 1959:80-85). This must be the older, more
barbaric variant of the tale about the prince and his horse, who
are born in the same time and who become true companions. In
Hungarian folklore there is the famous tale about the son of the
white mare (albeit from an unknown father), an ancient myth
which is seen more frequently than among other Europeans
(Ban 1988b:71). Besides these high-status examples, some girls
were believed to be transformed into mares as a punishment as
well. I cite the German superstition that girls who lost their
virginity were punished in this fashion (Hoffmann-Krayer and
Bchtold-Stubli 1934-35:V:1639). In Western Hungary, young
girls who happened to drop by a neighbor on the day of St.
6
Some examples: In 1599 in Patakfalva, Transylvania a man scolded a woman

saying: Go away, you ambling horse! Whereas the woman answered: Even if
I am an ambling horse, am I not your ambling horse. (Demny and Pataki
and Td s 1994:III:132). In 1813 in Marosvsrhely a shepherd said in a
lawsuit when accused of having a love affair with the daughter of his master: I
saw that she belongs in my herd. This expression is used about a mare which
allowed a stallion to cover it (Szenti 1987:578). Witches transformed into a
mare who pursue or try to charm a man are reported several times, e.g. in
Szatmrcseke and in Cegld (Kiss 1989:152; Hdvgi 1992:732, 765), etc. This
symbolism is widespread in Europe; note the Gallic verb: marcosior ich
mchte reiten (in sexuellem Sinn) (Meid 1995:56).
329
Lucia, the dangerous day of the witches were tied up in the barn
and hay was placed before them (Szendrey 1986:185), i.e. they
were treated as mares. In a Csng ballad Borbla Szekldi
refuses her Polish husband, so he put a saddle and harness on
the wife, mounted and lashed her until she accepted him (Kalls
1977:185-190). This is a clear description of a forced marriage.
As this survey shows, harnessed women are usual in the
Eastern European region, except in Hungary, although the
woman, both as mother and witch transformed into a mare is
widely known. On the other hand, there are no Eastern
European folklore materials describing a chariot race where
women played the role of a horse. The Serbian, Bulgarian and
Romanian harnessed fairies who till a furrow around the villages
and secure their fertility (Pcs 1989:70-74) belong not to this
motif but to that of the naked women performing a similar
magical act, as mentioned above. But the same motif occurs in
Celtic mythology: it is the famous myth of Macha, who was forced
to race against the kings chariot although she was pregnant and
who cursed the men of Ulster7 for this (Gantz 1981:128-129; Ellis
1993:151; Olmstad 1994:158-159, Green 1995:76-77). Horse-races
held during annual festivals were usual in other Irish districts as
well, and at least some of them were chariot races (cf. Dames
1992:85, 229). Macha is a morphism of the Celtic goddess of
horses, mostly known under her Gallic name, Epona. The cult of
this war- and fertility goddess was known everywhere where
legions with a Gallic component marched (cf. Simn 1998:46-47,
59). She must have been especially important in Pannonia,
because the Celtic Scordicus tribe provided the Roman army
with horses (Pet 1968:256). Furthermore, the Celtic Eraviscus
tribe along the Danube still added chariots to their burial goods
under Roman rule (Szab 1971:42). This cult is well attested by
coins and inscriptions in Transylvania as well (e.g.
Gyulafehrvr/Alba
Iulia,
Vrhely/Sarmizegetusa,
Kolozsvr/Cluj-Napoca;
Olmstad
1994:374).
On
those
representations found along the Danube, Epona stands or sits
between two horses. There are three such representations known
from the Bulgarian side of the Danube, identified with the
garrisons of the Cohors II. Gallorum (Hoddinott 1975:126), while
the Thracian mounted Hero became the dominant horse god
7
The most probable site of the chariot race was Emain Macha, the present
Naval Fort and the chariot was supposedly a light, two-wheeled vehicle
(Raftery 1994:74-80, 104-111).
330
Maria Magdolna Tatr
further south in the Balkans. The myths of the continental Celts

are not so well known as those of the insular Celts, however, they
too probably arranged ritual races in honor of Epona. This can
be deduced from the fact that one of her representation holds in
her hands a mappa, a cloth which in Rome was used to give a
signal to start the horse race. Green (1995:186) thinks that this
must have been the symbol of the beginning of life, but it is not
necessery to use such an abstract explanation.
The presence of the Celts in Transylvania is attested before
the area became a Roman province. According to our sources
(a.o. Ptolemy, Tacitus), the presence of the Celts in the
Carpathian Basin is an historical fact (cf. ET I:82, Vkony
1989:90).8 According to Strabo, the Dacian kingdom was divided
into five districts, of which three were populated by Celts: the
Anartii lived by the river Sebes-Krs, the Taurisci lived by the
river Szamos, and the iron mining Cotini in and around the
Transylvanian Erzgebirge (rchegysg), along the Maros river.
But neither these tribes or the Gallic legionaries could be the
source of our myth because the Romans emptied provincia Dacia
after ca. 100 years, when they could not hold it any longer
against the Barbarians, and settled the mixed, but
predominantly Greek-speaking population in Moesia, organizing
Dacia ripensis on the right (southern) side of the Danube.
Transylvania was then settled by different Germanic tribes, then
the Huns arrived and later the Avars. Before the Avars arrived,
the passes through the Carpathian Mountains into the Gyergy,
Csk and Kzdi valleys became impassable, since the forest grew
so dense. We must therefore conclude that there were no
Romano-Gallic survivors in these valleys. Towards the end of the
Avar period, some Bulgarian Slavs settled here, as archaeology
and the toponyms show. We now have the article of Blaek
(2006:77-81), who explains the name Macha to be connected to
Moko, the Slavic goddess of domestic animals, and both from
the Slavic root *mok- wet. (This seems to be problematic
linguistically.) In any case, the Slavs, who were known to have
rather few horses (cf. Ibn Rusta: only the prince of the Slavs had
8
However, there are some different views on the chronology: according to

Szab (1971:17) they inhabited Pannonia and the Hungarian Plain in the 3rd2nd centuries BC, mixed with the previous Iranian inhabitants there and in
the 1st cent. BC their tribes, the Anartii and Taurisci, migrated to
Transylvania. According to others (Schtz 2002, 667), they were already in
Transylvania in the 4th century BC where the Cotini worked in mines and as
blacksmiths and minted coins.
331
many horses, Kmosk 1997:I/1:210) could hardly pass on this

myth to the Szkelys.
However, there is a near parallel of our myth as written in
the Kievan Chronicle: The Avars who defeated the Dulebi
people, did not harness a horse or an ox to their wagons but
harnessed three, four or even five Dulebi9 women and in this way
they travelled around in their territory (Likhachev 1950:I:14,
210). As Likhachev (1950:II:109) stated, this can hardly refer to
historical fact, but must refer to a folk tale.10 I suggest that this is
a Slavic rationalization of a myth (or even perhaps a ritual)
which they did not understand. The Slavs who described this
tradition at the end of an informative chain, obviously ascribed it
to a foreign, hostile people. It was not their own myth or ritual,
as opposed to the St. Anna legend, which the local population
maintained in honor as their own mythical tradition and shrine.
But where these Dulebi live? A village Dudleipin11 is
mentioned in the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (Loek
1997) where the bishop of Salzburg consecrated a church for the
newly baptized inhabitants in the 9th century. This village must
have been the dwelling place of those Dulebis, mentioned later
9
The Dulebi occur already in the works of Tacitus and Ptolemy. They are
mentioned in Byzantine and German sources as well. They were recorded
between the Odera and Elba rivers, in Bohemia and by the Southern Bug
rivers (Sedov 1979:131-2, Budanova 1990:176). It was suggested that they are
of non-Slavic, Western origin because of their ethnonym. But where could
they have lived in such close coexistence with the Avars? Bohemia was
suggested by Popov (1970:35) because their toponyms are situated there
mixed with toponyms connected to Avars. This suggestion is confirmed by the
10th century Arab historian, al-Masudi, who localized the dulaba people
among the Czekhs by writing that they are living among the Western Slavs and
their ruler is Venceslav (Nasonov 1951:131, Kmosk 2000:I/2:199). However,
the Avar rule did not extend so far geographically or in time to support such a
narrative. The Bug is rather unlikely as well because the main body of the
Avar people left the Pontic steppes for the Carpathian Basin.
10
One of the scholars who believes that this data has historical value is
Szdeczky-Kardoss (1998:215-6).
11
Some scholars (Sedov 1979:131-132, Budanova 1990:176) believed that this
was a relatively wide area, between the Mura River and the Balaton (the later
Hungarian counties Zala and Somogy), others (Atlas Tartarica 2005:182)
suggested that it was on the Northern side of the Balaton, etc. But the bishop
of Salzburg could only consecrate churches for parishes, not for any larger
areas, which would have been bishoprics. The bishoprics in the region are all
founded by Hungarian kings in the 11th century, Veszprm and Pcs by St.
Stefan and Zagreb by St Lszl. Furthermore, the bishop followed a road
from the German territories through Poetivo, present-day Ptuj in Slovenia,
which is completly impossible if the Dulebis lived in Transdanubia.
332
Maria Magdolna Tatr
on between Radkersburg and Mureck, by other means along the

present border between Slovenia and Austria (Wolfram
1995:238, 302). This was the region of the Wends, where the
Frank merchant, Samo managed to become independent from
the Avars and founded a state in 623-4. He was called the prince
of the Caranthans as well and was involved in battles with the
Langobards who then lived in Northern Italy (Conversio, 4;
Fredegar, Gesta Dagoberti, Szdeczky-Kardoss 1998:173-174,
322). These Slavs and the Langobards were mentioned by
Michael Syrus (op. cit.:60-61) forty years earlier, in 584-5 as the
tax-paying subjects of the Avar Kagan.
We know that the harnassing of women or men - was a
sign of domination by their masters. 12 This domination possibly
included sexual abuse as well. As Fredegar wrote, the Avars spent
the winter among the Slavs and took their women into their beds
(Szdeczky-Kardoss 1992:173). But the Avars could hardly have
spent the winter among these Dulebis or Slavs, simply because
their homeland was not close enough. As we know from
archaeological finds, there was a very dense Avar population in
present Central and Eastern Hungary, in Transylvania and in
Southern Slovakia, i.e. mostly on the plains and in the hills, but
not among the high mountains, like in Carinthia. In Western
Hungary, the population was mixed, Slavs, Germans, even
groups from Byzantine territories and Avars, and sometimes
even avarized Slavs used the same cemeteries west of the Balaton,
as archaeology tells us.
Certainly, a libertine and/or sexually predatory lifestyle is
often ascribed to foreign peoples. On the other hand, women
were often part of the spoils of wars.13. But this is not the case
here, because the women were not taken away from their homes,
on the contrary, the perpetrators moved into their homes. The
important information in the story of the Dulebi women is that
the Avars travelled around in their territory with these wagons
the women were said to pull. The circumambulation reflects the
kings progress, the kings visit to different parts of his realm,
together with his royal entourage. This was a common custom in
12
Already the Greeks said it about the Scythians, a mistake according to
Herodotos (chapt. 1), because it was the Massagetae who used the women
without restrictions. A sense of domination leading to hubris is quite often
ascribed to conquerors, e.g. Attila (Eckhardt 1940:149, 192) and Fastida, the
Gepid king (Iordanes).
13
E.g. Ibn Rusta wrote of the ar-Rusiya that they make enemy males slaves but
the women they use as common property.
333
several European countries. 14 In Kievan Rus it was called poliudie.

As Constantinus Porphyrogenetus wrote, the Rus left Kiev and
travelled around in the villages of the subjugated Slavs from
November till April. Such progresses were known among the
Khazars as well in the 10th century when the Khazar Kagan
travelled along the Volga to and from his capital. In all these
cases the main economic reason was naturally to collect taxes,
i.e. mostly food, and as most food could not be stored, to use it
at once for the benefit of the elite troops of the royal entourage.
The Avars did the same. Fredegar not only wrote that the Avars
lived with the Slav women but that they collected taxes among
these Slavs (V:48, Szdeczky-Kardos 1998:173). After conversion
to Christianity, when the Kievan Chronicle was written,
use/abuse of the housewives was certainly a great sin in Europe.
But before the conversion, it was a well-known custom among
many peoples, a kind of prostitution for the benefit of any
guests. Such a custom is mentioned a.o. in the Karachay-Balkar
edition of the Nart epos (Tatr 2002). Al-Bakri ascribed this
custom to the al-Unkalus, who lived in the Carpathian Basin in
the 9th century: according to him, they are very hospitable
people, but they are dogs, allowing the guests to spend the
night with their wives (Kmosk 2000:I/2:258). These al-Unkalus
are not the Hungarians who arrived in the Carpathian Basin in
895, and the first edition of al-Bakri is from 851. They were the
Onogur Bulgars, whose ethnonym became Hungaricus, the
Latin name of the Magyars among foreign peoples. The
Onogurs were one of the components of the Avar Empire, they
came originally from Khorasan, as al-Bakri wrote. Scholars were
able to trace them back to Sogdiana (Zimonyi 2005:185), i.e. to a
territory where polyandri was a usual custom among the
Hephtalites (Litvinsky 1999:148) and other peoples. These
Bulgarians migrated west from Pannonia: in 631-2, after a fight
for dominance, they escaped with their leader, Alciocus (in
other sources Alzeco, the 5th son of Kuvrat, the Bulgarian
Khan), to the court of Dagobert, the king of the Franks.
Dagobert sent them to the Bavarians and let them spend the
winter in their houses, but then ordered to have them all killed.
Only Alzeco and 700 followers with their families escaped from
14
Rybakov (1984:83) was mistaken when he believed that this politicaladministrative visit was only known by the Slavs, particularly in Kiev and
among the Polish people, which is not true. It still exists in Sweden, where it is
called Eriks gata.
334
Maria Magdolna Tatr
the slaughter and went to Wallucus, the Wend prince. They lived
there for several years before they moved on to Italy during the
reign of the Langobard king, Grimoald, i.e. between 662 and
671 (Fredegar IV 72, Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Langob. V 29,
Szdeczky-Kardos 1998:212). It is possible to localize this story
exactly: the subordinated but rebellious Bulgarians left Western
Transdanubia, where they must have been settled in the buffer
zone as a military auxiliary group, not quite as subjugated as the
Slavs but not exactly proper Avars either. Their revolt was
probably connected to Kuvrats politics who liberated his Bulgars
on the Pontic steppes from the last remnants of Avar rule in the
630s (Nicephorus Patriarcha, Glossar B I 130-1, SzdeczkyKardos 1998:212). They migrated to the Bavarians, but had to
flee again, this time to Wallucus, the prince of the Wends. The
Dulebi lived between the Wends and the Germans (Bavarian
subjects) in the Mura valley, so most probably it was among them
that Dagobert ordered these refugees to settle for the winter.
Their killing could have been generated by their custom of
claiming special rights over their hostess as guests. In my
opinion, this story was the basis of the tale about the Dulebi
women, who were harnessed before the wagons of the Avars, as
the Avars progressed through their territory. For local people,
there could not have been much difference between the two
Central Asian tribes, the Avars and the Bulgarians.
The storyteller probably inserted the harnessed women as a
euphemistic expression for sexual abuse. This symbolism is not
Slavic, but possibly was provided by the non-Slavic substrate in
the area. Both in Carinthia and in Slovenia there survived small
groups of Roman provincial inhabitants, subsequently
subjugated by the Slavs (Wolfram 1995:302). They were called by
different variants of the ethnonym Volcae, like Vlah and Walsch.
(The name of their prince, Wallucus, attests to the same
ethnonym.) The Vlahs, as Romanized provincials, were
Romanized Celts in this part of the Empire. The Wends, who
assimilated this substratum, did not understand the symbolism
but remembered the tax-collecting perambulations and
rationalized the narrative to fit these. This important evidence
shows that the provincial, Romanized Celts probably knew of the
myth about the chariot-drawing horse goddess. However, this
was not the source of the myth about the St. Annes Lake.
We can come closer to the source by studying local history.
There were never any Romanians in this part of Transylvania,
and even less Romanized Dacians, surviving 1000 years in the
335
mountains, coming out only when the Hungarians conquered

the area, as some historians supposed. The area close to the lake
did not originally belong to Szkelyland, but to the Hungarian
Lower Fehr county, of which parts continued to be usual
holdings of the gentry while the Szkelys as border guards, had
different, collective gentry rights and properties. The lake and
the fortress on the mountain top (the fortress Blvnyos)
belonged to the Apor family (Gyrffy 1987:II:97-129). They
occur first in our sources as early as in the 10th century, when
Apor a representative of the pre-Hungarian population, was the
leader of a military campaign against Byzantium (SH 193738:I:310). The family still exists. Their surname, Apor is
obviously the same as the ethnonym Avar, i.e. they belonged to
an ethnic group which possibly lived in vicinity of Romanized
provincial inhabitants for a long time. The Apor family owned
estates mostly in the south of both Transylvania and
Transdanubia (Karcsonyi 1900/1995:141-145), in both regions
close to the properties of the Gyula or Khan clan. The Gyulas
were the first governors of Transylvania and second among the
leaders of the seven Hungarian and the three so-called Kabar
tribes, who came into the country in 895. The original homeland
of the Apors was in villages called after their name (the most
ancient type of Hungarian place names) in Transdanubia and by
the river Tisza. They must have obtained the estate in
Transylvania shortly after the county was organized, obviously by
the Gyula who gave his name to Gyulafehrvr (Alba Iulia), the
center of the county. This process is attested by place names
which are identical with the personal names of the leaders of the
10-11th century, like Zoltn. Blvnyos, situated farther east than
the village Zoltn, must have been an early border guard post.
Therefore it became an exempt territory after the Szkelys
arrived and still belonged to the original county until 1876-77.
The Szkelys arrived at the end of the 12th century when the
king settled Saxons in their villages in Southern Transylvania to
guard this part of the Hungarian border. The Apors became the
local leaders of the Szkelys. The family worked actively to
populate their estate in Kzdi valley. We know that in the 14th
century they even settled some few Russians there. Although
Hungarian peasants populated the Blvnyos estate before the
Szkelys, eastern and/or Romanized provincial traditions
transmitted from the noble Apor family cannot be excluded. On
the other hand, the Szkelys who arrived in the Carpathian Basin
before the Hungarians and have traditions about their Hun
336
Maria Magdolna Tatr
ancestors might have remembered an eastern myth as well.

Modern archaeologists have done very little work in this area, so
we can still hope for some results in the future.
To what period can this story be dated? The episode that
the Dulebi variant is based on happened in the 7th century. It
was incorporated into the Kievan Chronicle not before the
second millennium. There is a long interval between these two
eras, enough to enable a rationalization of the original story. As
for the Hungarian variant: St. Anne was the patron saint of the
dying, therefore it was natural that she gave her name to the
horse goddess, who secured fertility and also accompanied souls
to the Underworld (Green 1995:186). St. Anne was already
venerated in Hungary in the 12th century, with a Mass text
dedicated especially to her. The first church dedicated to her
name was mentioned in 1262. There are seven such churches in
Szkelyland (Blint 1977:II:104). Considering that Anna, living
beside the chapel, has many similarities to a begina or Beguine, a
member of a lay sisterhood whose movement became first
officially acknowledged in Belgium in the 12th century and is
first mentioned in Hungary in the 13th century (rszegi
1987:137, 226) and considering that any such person would
probably not have been tolerated after the Reformation when
Protestant princes governed Transylvania, we can place the
Christianized Szkely variant of the narrative in the Middle Ages.
Inasmuch as details of the chariot race are present both in
the Irish myth and the Szkely story, I do not think that the
narratives developed independently from each other but rather
survived in these two peripheries. 15 The main point of the myth
is the abuse of the horse goddess by making her draw a chariot.
The origin of the horse-drawn chariot is debated. Some scholars
believe that it was the innovation of the Indo-Iranians, used first
of all for races as described in the Vedic texts (Anthony and
Vinogradov 1995), others theorize that it was invented in the
cities in of the Middle East (Raulwing 2000). In any case, it
appears approximately in the 2nd millennium BC. However, the
idea of the barbaric abuse of the horse goddess is probably older
than the chariot. Rhiannon, another Celtic variant of the Celtic
horse goddess was humiliated when she was made to carry
15
The original myth must be very old, since Ashtarte already was the goddess
of horses and chariots (Sykes 1995, 18-9). The same combination of war and
chariot occurs in the story about the lady Dianeira, who was skilled both in
war and in chariot driving (Apollodros Bibliothk VIII:1).
337
humans on her back and to carry hay as if she was an ass (Gantz
1976:83, 96, AaTh Q.482.4). It seems that the myth ascribes the
abusive work of the mare as the cause of the infertile periods of
the year, when the goddess is in the Underworld, forced to live
with another husband16 than the one she had before. Her
previous higher status should be regained every year, in spite of
many difficulties. This is a usual motif in the Celtic myths (cf.
e.g. the Mabinogion, Gantz 1976:168). The mythical separation
of her two roles represents a fight of life against death and the
result is fertility for one more year. A similar abuse of the female
is present in the Szkely myth as well, and Annas liberation is
mythical, not historical. In other words, she is a fertility goddess
who rules a clearly determined region in the fertile period but
who resides in the Underworld in the infertile period. The role
of the horse goddess as the mistress of the territory is clearly
echoed in tales that describe women plowing a furrow to protect
villages against calamities. Likewise, Macha marked the
boundaries of the fort Emain Macha with her brooch (Bruford
1989, 128). It is noteworthy that the solar god drives the chariot
in Eurasia while the horse goddess draws it. Similarly, heroes
may mark the boundary of a town with a plogh while the horse
goddess draws the plow.
Horses we think, were first hunted or kept for meat, later
they became working animals (Makkay 1991:154-5). The horse
goddess was obviously a venerated mother among some peoples,
as she still is among the Szkelys and in Hungarian tales. The
myth of the humiliated goddess must have appeared when these
three innovations occurred: the carrying of humans or burdens
on the horses back, to work harnessed to a plow and to draw a
chariot. Horseback-riding is not typical for the Slavs, but tilling
is, and the superstitions connected to it are very common in
Eastern Europe. Riding was an absolute necessity for
Hungarians, so there is no tales condemning this activity among
them. But ritual chariot racing were practiced both by the IndoAryans, the Greek, Latin and Celtic peoples and it also occurs in
the myth of the St. Annes Lake, while it is unknown among the
Slavs. The chronology and the distribution of this myth probably
dates from the time when the Indo-Europeans became separated
from each other and/or their way of life went through climatic
16
E.g. Armenian Tsovinar, the goddess of the sea who has characteristics of a
former horse goddess, sacrificed herself for the good of the country by
marrying somebody against her own desires (Harutyunyan 1995:119-124).
338
Maria Magdolna Tatr
and economic changes. 17

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Gates of the Zoroastrian Paradise

Victoria Kryukova
St. Petersburg
Representation of arches and arcades on traditional Tjk wedding

embroidery and also the high ritual importance of bedding items
(which are placed, sometimes, in a mehrob, a cult niche for
Moslems) in Central Asia, provides evidence of the preservation
of images of pre-Islamic cult architecture. This helps us to
understand the ritual meaning of the wedding bed as a symbol of
the temple and heaven, which goes back to the Avesta.
Since antiquity, fabrics and items made out of them have

not just been used for utilitarian purposes, but also to express
important ideas, filling the spiritual needs of a society. Not
only is text like textile (as the Russian-American poet Lev
Losev wrote), but also fabrics are like a text, and the
interweaving of threads and elements of the ornament were
and remain a vivid story of the organization of the universe
and mankinds place in it. The ritual meaning of the fabric
itself may be that it has been seen as a sacrificial offering,
acting, among other items and products, as an additional, and
also a substitute (instead of a human) sacrifice. In Central Asia
pieces of fabric which the groom presents to his bride are a
pledge of a successful fulfillment of the marriage ceremony
the expert seamstresses turn these pieces of fabric into ritual
wedding clothes in the course of a day, which confirm the
beginning of a new life together for the young couple.
Furthermore, in the brides house the woman herself, her
mother and other female relatives prepare a set of items for
the wedding: a sheet for the bed of the newly-weds (ryjo,
joysab, joyps), a mandala-like bolinps covering (Figure 1) for
the head of the bed, a joynamoz rug to perform prayers, a large
szani wall-hanging, and sometimes a long and narrow zardewor
with the depiction of an arcade and a covering for a childs
cradle. The wedding bed itself is made up of all the mattresses
and clothes of the bride, on which the ryjo sheet is laid, and
the bolinps is placed on the pillows. In some regions, a large
szani is placed on the blanket which covers the couple. After
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Victoria Kryukova
the wedding rituals are complete, the embroidery is hung on

the walls for a time (with the exception of the zardewor, which
was initially hung on the wall under the ceiling), and then
removed (Kislyakov 1959: 132-133; Shirokova 1981: 130ff.).
Figure 1. Bolinps covering for the head of a bed, 123123 cm.

Samarkand, beginning of the 20th century. No. 7304-19.
Courtesy of Peter the Greats Museum of Anthropology and
Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences,
St.Petersburg.
Most interesting is the pattern of the items, which was

handed down from generation to generation, though not the
meaning of this pattern for the understanding of the
symbols has been lost with time then at any rate, as a sort of
specimen from which a constant reproduction of the bases of
traditional culture takes place. It is a kind of puzzle which
can only be deciphered by us, using ancient pictures and texts.
Among the wedding items an important article is the ryjo
sheet, on which a wide border in the form of an arch (Figure
347
Figure 2. The wedding sheet ryjo, 250162 cm. Samarkand, end

of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century. No. 7304-4. Courtesy of
the Museum.
2) consisting of flowers is sewn. The main area is free of

embroidery. The representation of flowers on embroidery is
highly symbolic. Similar but probably earlier than ryjo patterns
are ornaments of the szani embroidery on which cyclic
compositions of floral rosettes are placed or the whole area is
completely covered by rows of rosettes. Floral garlands and
wreaths are widely known in different Indo-European ritual
contexts, especially in wedding rites. In Indian rituals, both
Hindu and Zoroastrian (continued in the Parsee sect), the
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Victoria Kryukova
wedding floral garland, named the toran arch, was hung on

the door of a bride as an emblem of marriage (Modi 1986: 25).
Apparently this arch being the indispensable detail of temple
architecture (contrary to the architecture of the ordinary
dwelling) was one of the signs of the transformation of the
brides home into the ritually consecrated place related to the
temple on earth and in heaven.
It is notable that the joynamoz prayer rug is sewn in a
similar way, and sometimes with a precise repetition of the
ornament, with the difference that the arch on it has an
arrow-shaped form, similar to a mehrob, a niche in the wall
indicating the direction of prayer for Moslems. In some
districts of Central Asia, after the wedding rituals are
completed, the bedding items are placed in this niche in the
wall of the house. This niche is hung, as a rule, with the ryjo
sheet. If the bedding is not kept in the niche, then the front
part (consisting of blankets and sheets) is sometimes covered
by the prayer rug. According to a verbal report by Dr. R.
Rahimov in the submountain areas of Central Asia, in
Tjkistn, if the house is oriented strictly north to south, the
niche is accordingly made in the western wall of the house and
preserves the name of mehrob (otherwise it is more commonly
called the toq arch). When the namoz is performed, the
people pray in front of the mehrob where the bedding is
contained. In the opposite, eastern wall of the room, directly
opposite the mehrob, the fireplace is located, also in the form
of an arrow-shaped arch. In the vivid expression of R. Rahimov,
this fireplace, which is used for cooking, serves as a kind of
female altar in the Tjk home.
In the territory of Central Asia the first appearance of
such an architectural detail as the wall niche dates back to the
Jeytun culture, which existed in the VIth millennium BC in
the foothills of Southern Turkmenistan. According to V. M.
Masson the layout of Jeytun dwellings was standardized, with a
square house plan and a large rectangular hearth with an
adjacent utility compartment near the one wall, and on the
opposite wall a projection was seen in which a small niche was
located (Masson 2006: 31-32). So the plan of placement of the
hearth and the niche in the opposite wall goes back to the
extreme antiquity of Central Asia. In the Bronze Age there
were some Central Asian city centers which took an
intermediate position between the civilizations of the Near
349
East and the Indus. Numerous wall niches discovered in Altyndepe and Gonur (Turkmenistan) are typical for rooms used
both for religious and other purposes. The niches were also
seen in tombs that reproduced dwelling houses. But as a rule
the niches indicate the religious character of the buildings in
which they are made, showing the most probable points of the
placement of sacred objects. At the same time each dwelling is
sacred to a varying degree: the house duplicates the temple
and heaven, respectively. It is no coincidence that one of the
Zoroastrian names of heaven used as far back as the Gths of
Zarathushtra, is The House of Praise.
As to the regions of Central Asia populated by Iranian
peoples, in the time before the Moslem conquest, there are
examples of the cult niches replaced by the Moslem mehrobs. It
can be assumed that the niche was a common sight, a place for
sacred objects in the Near and Middle East and also in Central
Asia. In this sense as well as long before, the niche was used in
the Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Christian and Mithraic cult
architecture and then found its place in the Moslem mosques.
It is an accepted view that the idea of the mehrob (arab.
mihrb) was borrowed and re-formatted in Islam from
Christianity 1. At the same time, in Central Asia, the mehrob
took the place of the local cult niche of earlier periods, and
became one of the universal elements inherited by various
religious traditions, and we see the ancient patterns preserved
in the context of traditional culture. Besides the proper niche
there were other sacred objects of similar purpose (before
Islam) in Central Asia. These are the so-called small hearths
and oven doors or screens connected with local Zoroastrian
domestic rites, which were widespread in Sogdiana. These
terracotta items described in detail by G. A. Pugachenkova
(Pugachenkova 1950a: 8-57) were fixed in the wall or leant
against the wall. The images on the terracotta represent the
most important architectural details from a religious point of
view formalistic columns and arches depicting the temple.
Pugachenkova believed that the shape and the dcor of the
1
The main meaning of the Arabic root hrb is to arouse anger, to be angry; to
rob, to take away and a derivative meaning to fight (Baranov 1989: 163)
doesnt seem to explain the use of the word mihrb for the designation of the
sacred place or the cult niche. We can only suppose a semantic connection of
this new (for the nomadic world) object with portable sanctuaries, which
accompanied the Arabic troops to battlefield (e.g. otfe).
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Sogdian screens were a basis for the early mehrobs from

Central Asia, such as mehrobs of the 9-10th centuries from
Iskodar, Samarkand, Meshhed-i Misrian and also from Asht
(Pugachenkova 1950b).
But let us go back to the Tjk wedding embroidery.
Undoubtedly, the depiction of the arch on the ryjo sheet,
like the placing of the bedding in the mehrob, is no
coincidence. Even the arch form, both in the embroidery on
the wedding sheet and the prayer rug, and in the architectural
detail, signifies a link primarily with temple architecture and is
an appeal to the sphere of the divine. It is not for nothing
that Ssnid Zoroastrian temples were called chahrtq
(chrtq) four arcs, vaults (in Russian this word exists in
two variants chertog (palace) and cherdak (attic)). How
can one explain the connection of bedding items to the
divine world of prayer and the temple?
Some help in solving this mystery may come from a
custom found among another Iranian people, the Yazd Kurds,
whose religious tradition has preserved archaic features which
take us into the distant past. The fact is that the Yazds use
the fire houses of pirs and sayxs. The holy place and the center
of direction of the cult for them is a high pile of bedding
items, called a str, which is kept next to the wall of a separate
room, and is covered by a light covering (it is raised in the
evening, as it is believed that the protector of the house
dwells here). Usually, items sacred to the Yazds are put on
the str a hair-shirt and clay balls. The Yazds say their
prayers facing the str. The word str is cognate with the
Avestan star spread out.2 The Avestan stairis place, bed is
encountered several times in the Avestan Videvdat, and almost
always next to barezis head of the bed, pillow (Videvdat 5.27,
5.59, 7.9) (cf. Tj. bolinps, where bolin is head of the bed,
pillow: OIr. *bzn > OP. *bdn > MP. bln > Tj. bolin). The
Avestan stareta smoothed out, spread out together with the
Avestan gtav place makes up the expression spread out a
bed which in its turn is used in the Avesta to describe the
heavenly beds of the gods. In the Avestan hymn dedicated to
the goddess of fertility Aredv Sra Anhita, spread-out beds
with bed heads are mentioned which stand in the palaces of
2
Bartholomae: sternere, auseinander breiten, spreiten, durch Spreiten

zurecht machen (Bartholomae 1961: 1595). On str see Asatrian, Livshits
1994: 97.
351
this goddess (Yast 5.101102) and in the hymn to the

goddess of good fortune Asi, the happy life of righteous men
favored by this goddess is portrayed (Yast 17.710). The
second description of this is more reminiscent of a promise of
heavenly bliss researchers have on several occasions made
the suggestion that the lines of the Avestan hymn may have
prefigured the Moslem concept of a heaven populated by
beautiful houris:
5.101102. In each channel there stands a palace, wellfounded, shining with a hundred windows, with a
thousand columns, well-built, with ten thousand
balconies, and mighty
In each of those palaces there lies a well-laid, well-scented
bed, covered with pillows
17.7. well-scented where the beds are spread and full of
all the other riches that may be wished for. Happy the
man whom thou dost attend!..
9. The men whom thou dost attend, O Ashi Vanguhi!
have beds that stand well-spread, well-adorned, well-made,
provided with cushions and with feet inlaid with gold
10. The men whom thou dost attend, O Ashi Vanguhi!
have their ladies that sit on their beds, waiting for them:
they lie on the cushions, adorning themselves, with
square bored ear-rings and a necklace of gold: When
will our lord come? when shall we enjoy in our bodies
the joys of love?3
It is notable how the marriage bed, where the depiction

of the arch is associated with the temple building and
heavenly gates, has proven to have such a durable correlation
with the heavenly palaces, equipped with spread-out beds
and heads of beds. Even the Kazakhs, whose nomadic way of
life rules out the use of the furniture of a settled people,
preserve the custom of keeping a ritual (rather than everyday)
bed in the yurt, where bedding is placed. As for the palaces of
the gods, such as the dwelling-places of the above-mentioned
Aredv Sra Anhita, the Avestan hymns put them where the
world tree grows, on the world mountain from whence the lifegiving spring flows.
Translation by J. Darmesteter.
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Victoria Kryukova
Figure 3. After Grenet 1987: 44
Correlating arches on embroidery (here we can also

mention the rugs with a similar subject which are well-known
in the Moslem East) with Zoroastrian temple architecture
discovered in the territory of Central Asia, in Sogdiana, not
only explains the depiction and confirms its antiquity, but
makes it possible to determine the time that the tradition
arose. The features of Sogdian temple architecture were best
rendered in the dcor of Zoroastrian ossuaries. Pictures on
different groups of ossuaries represent, for example, a
formalized temple as on an ossuary from Molla-Kurgan, figures
in arcades as on Biyanayman and Miankal ossuaries (Figure 3),
architectural details of temples (Figure 4) and, at the same
time, the heavenly dwellings of gods. V. G. Shkoda correctly
calls the latter an imitation of a cult building, a model of a
temple, which, in its turn, is associated with a model of the
dwelling of gods, or heaven, while the idea of heaven, as of
the building, found a reflection in an entire group of ossuaries
with the depiction of people in arcades (Shkoda 1991: 62-63).
As for the origin of the latter, specialists believe that their
motif was borrowed from Roman art. 4
4
See Shkoda 1991: 66-67, n. 19 where references are also made to Grenet
1986: 129 and also to Mkrtychev, Naymark 1987: 70-72.
353
Figure 4. After Pugachenkova 1950: 11
Besides the arcades themselves, with gods or without

them, depictions of trees were made on the walls of ossuaries,
which were planted by temples in a sign of remembrance of
the world tree, the tree of all seeds. Thus, in the
ornamentation of the Tjk zardewor wedding embroidery,
which has an arcade composition, this idea is repeated, finding
a new and striking expression. In some cases the decoration of
both ossuaries and embroidery reveal a startling similarity, e.g.
when we wish to compare a crude ossuary from Semirechye
(Figure 5) with one of the zardewors from the Kunstkamera
museum in Saint-Petersburg (Figure 6) which is decorated with
flowering bushes in place of human figures. On the one hand,
here we can see a simplification of the pre-Moslem Sogdian
images of gods on the ossuaries;they were replaced by
flowers and trees in arcades. On the other hand, the return
to the most simple forms like floral rosettes makes the
meaning of composition less concrete, allowing the
presentation, with the help of a universal image, of several
ideas at one time, of the world tree, altar, sacrifice, fertility and
354
Victoria Kryukova
Figure 5. After Kolchenko 1999: 50
so on. At the same time the embroidered arcade designs,

supplemented with a depiction of trees, flowers, and various
fertility symbols, can be seen as a direct citation of the images
of ancient Zoroastrian temple architecture. The ideas which
were once the basis for temple construction continued their
existence after the Moslem conquest of Central Asia, in the
use of traditional ritual items. It is profoundly symbolic that
zardewor embroidery, often many meters long, is hung on the
upper part of walls almost under the ceiling of the room
where the married couple spend their first wedding night. The
355
temple and at the same time heavenly arcades and heavenly

gates show the unearthly localization of the event at the first
act of coitus, the sacrifice made for the sake of the
continuation of life.
Figure 6. Wedding embroidery zardewor, 621270 cm.

Samarkand. No. 7304-5. Courtesy of the Museum.
References
Asatrian, G. and Livshits, V.
Le System Consonantique de la Langue Kurde. Acta Kurdica 1: 81108.
Baranov, Kh. K.
1989
Arabsko-russkiy slovar. Moskva: Russkiy yazyk.
Bartholomae, Chr.
1961
Altiranisches Wrterbuch. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
Grenet, F.
1986
Lart zoroastrien en Sogdiane. Etudes diconographie funeraire.
Mesopotamia XXI: 97-131.
1987
Interpretaciya decora ossuariev iz Biyanaymana i Miankalya.
Gorodskaya kultura Baktrii-Tokharistana i Sogda (antichnost, rannee
srednevekovye) (Tashkent): 42-53.
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Kislyakov, N. A.
1959
Semya i brak u tadzhikov. Moskva-Leningrad: Izdatelstvo Akademii
Nauk SSSR.
Kolchenko, V. A.
1999
K tipologii ossuariev Chuyskoy doliny. Novoe o drevnem i
srednevekovom Kyrgyzstane. Osh-3000 i kulturnoe nasledie narodov
Kyrgyzstana (Bishkek) 2: 49-54.
Masson, V. M.
2006
Kulturogenez drevney Centralnoy Azii. Sankt-Peterburg: Izdatelstvo
Sankt-Peterburgskogo Universiteta.
Mkrtychev, T. K. and Naymark, A. I.
1987
Proiskhozhdenie arkadnoy kompozicii na shtampovannykh
ossuariyakh samarkandskogo Sogda. Kultura i iskusstvo narodov
Vostoka: tezisy konferencii (Moskva): 70-72.
Modi, J. J.
1986
The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees. Bombay.
Pugachenkova, G. A.
1950a Elementy sogdiyskoy arkhitektury na sredneaziatskikh
terrakotakh. Trudy instituta istorii i arkheologii. Materialy po
arheologii i etnografii Uzbekistana (Tashkent) 2: 8-57.
1950b Reznoy mihrab iz Ashta. Soobshcheniya tadzhikskogo filiala AN SSSR
25
Shirokova, Z. A.
1981
Dekorativnye vyshivki tadzhikov verkhovyev Zeravshana Istoriya i
tnografiya narodov Sredney Azii (Dushanbe): 129-135.
Shkoda, V. G.
1991
Sogdiyskie khramy i pogrebalny obryad, Drevnie pamyatniki
kultury na territorii SSSR (St. Petersburg): 60-68.

Shamanistic Practices in Zoroastrianism?
Dr. David Buyaner
Universitt Frankfurt
The paper challenges the generally accepted attitude

concerning a mystic trend within Zoroastrianism and aims to
demonstrate that late Zoroastrian thought was an integral part of
post-Hellenistic mysticism (Gnosticism, Cabala, Manichaeism etc.).
Due to all kinds of visionary experience, including those rooted
in the most ancient layers of mythology, some early myths were
preserved in a relatively authentic form, notwithstanding changes
in their systemic value. Subsequently, they have lost any
connection with their visionary background, a process which
ultimately put the lid on their transformation into folklore motifs.
As a case-study, the paper examines the myth of the Bridge of
Separator (Avestan inuuat peretu-, Middle Persian invad-puhl).
This archaic Iranian myth about a dangerous passage between the
world of the living and the otherworld was re-vitalized by the late
Zoroastrian visionary tradition and spread all over the Iranian
cultural realm. The paper focuses on some peculiar shamanistic
aspects of the myth, which lend themselves to comparison with
some of the most archaic themes in other Indo-European
traditions within the framework of the initiation myths,
according to Eliades terminology. However, an examination of
late-Zoroastrian versions of the myth brings the author to the
conclusion that, in contrast with some modern scholars who treat
it as an evidence of shamanistic practices in the Sasanian period,
one should regard the reminiscences of shamanism in late
Zoroastrianism as manifestations of mysticism characteristic of the
last stage of its religious development.
The problem of the traces of shamanistic practices and

beliefs in pre-Islamic Iran has its own history which could well
become a subject for an interesting survey, but for the
moment can be but briefly outlined. The first to suggest the
shamanistic character of both pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion
and the teaching of Zarathustra himself was the eminent
Swedish scholar H. S. Nyberg (see Nyberg 1938). This theory
was subjected to sharp criticism by W. B. Henning in the third
series of the Ratanbai Katrak Lectures, subsequently edited
under the title Zoroaster: politician or witch-doctor? (see
358
David Buyaner
Henning 1951). Hennings prestige and influence on Iranian

studies in the second half of the last century was decisive, so
that raising the issue of a possible shamanistic impact on
Zoroastrianism became impossible for a long time. It was two
Russian historians, Bongard-Levin and Grantovskij, and the
French scholar Ph. Gignoux who revived interest in the
question: in their opinion, traces of shamanism are found not
only in the most archaic strata of Zoroastrian religious
literature, but also in some Middle Persian sources composed as
late as just before the Arab conquest of Persia or even after it
(see Bongard-Levin and Grantovskij 2001; Gignoux 1979;
1981; 1984).
The main points of the arguments of these scholars will
be outlined below and an attempt will be made to determine
whether they accord well with established patterns of religious
development or should call for another explanation.
The Zoroastrian tendency to mix the heritage of
different stages of religious development, a phenomenon
which enabled the abovementioned scholars to suggest the
shamanistic character of certain Zoroastrian practices and
beliefs of the Sasanian period, can be seen by noting some
obviously pre-Zoroastrian notions contained in late Zoroastrian
texts. In the course of my work on a Pahlavi prayer-book Styisn
sh rzag (see Dhabhar 1927: 223-259), 1 I encountered a
number of passages (IV, 3-5; VII, 5-7; XVI, 10; XVIII, 5; XXI, 4;
XXIV, 8; XXV, 5; XXIX, 2) based on a common idea which
may be stated as integrated happiness, consisting of two
aspects: the material, obtainable on earth while one is still
alive, and the spiritual, manifested in the deliverance of ones
soul from hell and its gathering into the assembly of the
blessed (ahlawn) in Paradise.2 As the content of all of these
passages is very similar, it suffices to cite only one of them
(XXIV, 8) for further discussion:
1
The transcription and translation of the cited passages of the Styisn sh rzg
are mine, D. B.
2
At the time the Pahlavi books were composed this idea had evolved into the
doctrine stressing such a close link between body and soul that the salvation of
ones soul depended on ones material prosperity (see Zaehner 1961: 276278).
359
The Myth of the Bridge of Separator

xwhm az weh dn
pnagh -m tan ud
ruwn k-m gtgh tan
padxw purr-rmisn
mngh ruwn ahlaw
ud abardar-gh andar
rsn gardmn bawd pad
abyist km ddr
ohrmazd.
I implore from the good

Religion protection for my
body and soul so that as
regards the material world, my
body will be flourishing and
full of pleasure, and as regards
the spiritual world, my soul will
become blessed and obtain a
superior place in the bright
Gardmn according to the
desire and will of Ohrmazd.
The restricted sense of MP ahlaw (usually meaning just

righteous), referring here exclusively to the state obtained
after ones death, is striking. Bailey argued that the reference
in MP ahlaw to the blessed dead in Heaven is characteristic
of some Pahlavi texts (Bailey 1971: 87, n. 4). Gershevitch
points out that this notion is most nearly rendered in
Xerxes definition of Old Persian artvan-: The man who
behaves according to the law which Ahuramazdh established,
and worships Ahuramazdh in proper style in accord with Arta,
becomes happy while living, and artvan- when dead, Daiva
Inscr. 51ff., cf. also 48 (Gershevitch 1955: 483). 3 As a key to
this doctrine Gershevitch refers to Y. XVI, 7 (trans.
Gershevitch 1955: 483):
It is interesting to compare these lines of the Daiva Inscription (XPh 46-56,

text and translation according to Kent 1950: 151-152) with the above-cited
passage of the Styisn sh rzag:
tuva: k: hya:
Thou who (shalt be)
apara: yadimaniyiy: siyta: ahaniy
:jva: ut: marta: artv: ahaniy:
avan: dt: pardiy: tya: Auramazd
: niyastya: Auramazdm: yadais: a
rtc: brazmaniya: martiya: hya: avan
a: dt: pardiy: tya: Auramazd: n
stya: ut: Auramazdm: yadataiy: a
rtc: brazmaniya:: hauv: ut: jva:
siyta: bavatiy: ut: marta: artv
: bavatiy
hereafter, if thou shalt think, Happy may I be

when living and when dead may I be blessed,
have respect for that law which Ahuramazda
has established; worship Ahuramazda and
Arta reverent(ly). The man who has
respect for that law which Ahuramazda
has established and worships Ahuramazda
and
Arta reverent(ly), he both
becomes happy while living,
and becomes blessed when dead
360
David Buyaner
xvanuuaits asahe verez
yazamaide
yhu iristan m
uruu n siienti
ya asun m frauuasay,
vahistem ahm asaon m
yazamaide
raoaNhem vspxvyrem.
We worship the radiant

quarters of Asa
in which dwell the souls of the
dead,
the Fravasis of the asavans;
the best existence (= Paradise)
of the asavans we worship
(which is) light and affording
all comforts.
Kuiper gave a somewhat different significance to this

notion. On the basis of a comparison with the relevant Vedic
data, he came to the conclusion that the use of (a)rtvanin the Old Persian Xerxes inscription (ut mrta rtv ahaniy
XPh 48), where it denoted a quality of the Dead, tallies
perfectly with Ved. rtvan-, an epithet of Gods, the deceased
Fathers and the initiated seers (kav-). The essential point is
that rt- is connected with the realm of Death: it is regularly
hidden where they unharness the horses of the Sun (RS. V. 62.
1). Only he knows the Cosmic Order (as I still prefer to
translate rt-), who is initiated in the mystery of Death. Now
the fact that all members of Zarathushtras Civitas Dei are
initiates (asuuan-) shows more clearly than any other thing
how deep a gulf there is between the Gathic religion and the
Achaemenian one, which still retains notions of the IndoIranian religion. (Kuiper 1959: 215; cf. Gershevitch 1964: 18,
n.30 and Gnoli 1979).4
This extended citation serves to reinforce the importance
of the above passage of the Styisn sh rzag for the history of
the
interaction
between
different
trends
within
Zoroastrianism, in particular, for the superposition of Avestan
notions onto properly Persian beliefs which, as Kuiper points
out, descend from the Indo-Iranian period. It seems plausible
that here we have a native religious idea which was grafted at
some point onto the stem of Zoroastrian thought and thus
survived into the whole Middle Persian period.5
As regards the semantic field of Indo-Ir. *rtvan-, cf. also Khwr. rw
demon (see Henning 1958: 117, n. 6). The above-cited passage of the Yasna
(Y. XVI, 7), which Gershevitch judged to be a source of the concept of the
blessed dead in Heaven, should rather be interpreted as a relatively late
reminiscence of Indo-Iranian beliefs, which survived Zarathustras reform.
5
Zaehner cites moral commentaries of this type, which are drawn from the
Dnkard, i. e. as late as the 9th c. AD (Zaehner 1961: 276-277).
4
361
As we have seen, notwithstanding this crucial point in the

history of Iranian tradition, these Indo-Iranian notions
survived the Achaemenian, Seleucid and Parthian periods, so
that their traces can be found in Zoroastrian texts dating from
the Sasanian period. Strange as it may seem, an earthly
concept such as the abovementioned integrated happiness
theme proves closely connected with what I would call lateZoroastrian mysticism.
The primary meaning of OP (a)rtvan- (initiate) traced
(as shown by Kuiper) from the Indo-Iranian period, but almost
totally dissolved in the later, widened sense of the Avestan
term asuuan-, is revived in another Pahlavi composition,
namely Ard Wirz Nmag, in which the visionary Wirz is first
called ard (< OP (a)rtvan-) by the deities Srs and dur who
receive him on the first night of his temporary death, i. e.
after the initiation that removes the barrier between the world
of the living and the Otherworld. The significance of this fact
was first noted by Belardi and Sundermann (Belardi 1979: 112;
Sundermann 1971) and afterwards emphasized by Gignoux
who also reinforces the argument by his observation that in
the Kirdr inscriptions (3rd c. A. D.) the term ard(y) (as well as
its derivative of abstract meaning ardyh) refer consistently to
the Otherworld (Gignoux 1984: 9; cf. de Menasce 1974).
This and other observations brought Gignoux to the
conclusion that both Kirdrs and Ard Wirzs visits to the
Otherworld should be interpreted as shamanic flights. He
argues that although Kirdrs descent to the Otherworld is
unique and exceptional, the fact that it was performed by a
living being intruding into the realm of the dead suffices to
establish its shamanic character (Gignoux 1981: 258). The
same conclusion was reached by Bongard-Levin and
Grantovskij in their popular book From Scythia to India which
was made much of by Gignoux and translated by him into
French. As the two Russian scholars claim, in the Sasanian
period Zoroastrian priests during their religious rituals still
performed the flights to the same destinations as ancient
Indian munis and ris, i. e. to the sacred mountains (Indian
Meru, Iranian Hara) situated far in the northland. Thus, an
analysis of the Sasanian inscriptions and early Zoroastrian
books provides us with new data for a reconstruction of the
most ancient religious and mythological beliefs of the IndoIranians And further: Cosmological and mythological
362
David Buyaner
concepts of Indo-Iranian tribes are widely reflected in their

religious beliefs and cult. The ideas of the northern cycle
were closely connected with those archaic forms of the IndoIranian religions which may be referred to as shamanic
(Bongard-Levin and Grantovskij 2001: 153).
Ostensibly, this view can be underpinned with some
additional data: thus, both Kirdr and Ard Wrz reach the
Otherworld by means of crossing a bridge called elsewhere in
Zoroastrian literature the Bridge (or Passage) of Separator
(Avestan inuuat peretu-, Middle Persian invad-puhl) 6 and
described as becoming narrow as a razor for a sinner but
widening to the length of nine spears, each of which is three
arrows long, for an asuuan- / ahlaw. This theme is
exhaustively developed in two Pahlavi books, namely Ddestn
dng (XX, 5) and the abovementioned Styisn sh rzag (XXX,
1-4), see Anklesaria 1911: 44-45; Jaafari-Dehaghi 1998: 76-77;
Dhabhar 1927: 259: 7
Ddestn dng XX, 5:
pad wuzurg xwarrah
ddr ud framn y rstmr ud puhlbn
ahlawn frxw-puhlh
bawd and and n nzag
bly ud drahny k-s jud
jud dagrandh se ny
druwandn tang-puhlh
bawd t-z hangsdag n
awestarag tx.
Through the great fortune

of the Creator and by the
order of him (who is) just in
reckoning and a keeper of
the bridge, the width of the
bridge for the blessed
becomes as much as the
height and length of nine
spears, each of which is
three perches long, and the
narrowness of the bridge for
the wicked becomes like the
edge of a razor.
I translate MP inwad-puhl as the bridge of inwad instead of the usual

inwad-bridge because, as Kellens points out, the Avestan (i. e. the original)
designations of the bridge inuuat peretu- or inuua.peretu-, mean the bridge
of inuuant- rather than the bridge inuuant- (Kellens 1988: 330).
7
The transcription and translation, as well as the tentative isolation of the
interpolated glosses (marked with square brackets) of the Styisn sh rzag
are mine, D. B.
363
Styisn sh rzag XXX, 1-4:

n asar rsnh ud n
rsn gardmn hamsagsd gh xwadd [k
hamsag ud hamsag
hamg-xwrh pad-es ud
az-es gtgn rasisng nez rst rh inwad-puhl
k ahlawn be frxwd
n nzag drany k
dagrandh se ny ud
druwandn iyn
awestarag-tx bawd
dusaxw ftnd ahlawn
ruwnn widargh frxw
rh snh n
pahlom axwn franaft
rasd tuwn] hamwr
snynm
The Endless Light and Bright

Gardmn of eternal benefit,
the Space, following its own
law from eternity [whereby
always is all bliss and whereof
the straight path of the
bridge of inwad reaches the
material beings, that for the
blessed people widens to the
breadth of nine spears, the
length (of each) of which is
three perches, and for the
wicked persons it becomes as
an edge of a razor, they
falling to hell, (whereas) the
souls of the blessed ones,
passing by the broad way,
can easily proceed and get to
the Best Existence]
we always propitiate
The Iranian theme of The Bridge of Separator has

parallels in various shamanic traditions, from the theme of the
chain of arrows studied by Petazzoni (see Pettazzoni 1924) to
the bridge made of swords and knives which must be crossed
by Vainamoinen and the shamans visiting the Otherworld in
Finnish tradition, as mentioned by Eliade (see Eliade 1974:
482-486 with numerous references). The numerical code (27 =
9 3) is of great importance here. Its symbolic meaning can
only be understood as an element of the complex surrounding
of initiation 8 manifested in the image of the bridge or
passage of inwad. 9 As shown above, some traces of the
8
The meaning given here to the term initiation follows that used by Eliade.
Av. inuuat peretu- may be translated into Pahlavi both as inwad-puhl the
bridge of inwad and as inwad-widarg the passing of inwad (as in GrBd.
26. 1.). In fact, only MP puhl bridge (< Av. peretu-) testifies to the meaning
bridge for Av. peretu-: all its known cognates designate merely passage,
(river) crossing, etc.: Lat. portus harbour, customs, outfall, angi-portus
narrow passage; Old Welsh rit ford; OIcel. fjrdr long narrow sea-gulf,
OHG furt, OEng. ford ford (Pokorny 1959: 817). It was also borrowed from
one of the Germanic dialects by the Scytho-Sarmatian branch of Eastern
Iranian: cf. Scyth. Prata the river Prut, Oss. frd / ford big river, sea
(Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1984: 673, 946). This borrowing seems to have
9
364
David Buyaner
ancient Indo-Iranian notion of death as an ordeal which

must be passed before ones arrival in the realm of Asa (OInd.
rt-, OP arta-), i. e. attainment of the state of asavan-, survived
Zarayustras reform and can even be found in some Pahlavi
sources, including, in particular, the Styisn sh rzag. At the
same time, becoming asavan- (= MP ahlaw) while still alive (as
in the cases of Kirdr and Ard Wirz) is conditioned on
overcoming a decisive obstacle of the same kind as the one
that had to be passed after ones death, i. e. the bridge of
inwad. To put it differently, the difficult passage is here, as
well as in many other traditions a necessary trial before ones
attainment of a new state of consciousness.
In this context the application of numerical symbolism to
the bridge of inwad becomes more explicable. Elsewhere
Eliade points out that the characteristics of the means and
stages of shamanic ascension are usually encoded by the
numbers 7 and 9, the latter being a part of the more ancient, i.
e. properly shamanic, symbolism based on the triple code
(Eliade 1974: 274). An interesting example of the shamanic
implications of the number 9 (as well as of the spear motif)
in the Indo-European realm is that of agonizing nine-day
initiation of the supreme Nordic god dinn before his
acquisition of secret knowledge. The text (Hvaml, 138) is as
follows:
Veit ek, at ek hekk
vindgameidi
ntr allar nu,
geiri undadr
ok gefinn dni,
sjalfr sjalfum mr,
peim meidi
er manngi veit
hvers af rtum renn.
I know, I hung
on the wind-blown tree
nine nights on end,
pierced with a spear,
offered up to dinn,
myself to myself,
on that tree,
of which nobody knows
from what root it grows.
Yet the most striking parallel to the motif of nine times

three is found in a Russian folklore motif studied by Propp:
been overlooked by Abaev, the greatest specialist of the Scytho-European
isoglossae (see Abaev 1968). Thus, in the first volume of his dictionary he
correctly rejects a direct link between Av. peretu- and Oss. frd / ford (Abaev
1958: 486); however, the possibility of the borrowing into Ossetic of a
Germanic cognate of the Avestan word apparently escaped his attention: in
Abaev 1968 Oss. frd / ford in not mentioned.
365
the cherished aim towards which the hero of the standard

Russian fairy-tale strives and which he attains only after having
surmounted certain deadly obstacles (a typical initiation) is
always found beyond thrice-nine countries, in the thirtieth
(variant: thrice-ninth) kingdom (Propp 2000: 242-257). The
funeral or initiatory symbolism of the number 9 derives
from the basic characteristics of the number 3, which encodes
the three cosmic spheres and in particular the Otherworld
(see Eliade 1974: 274 n. 64 with reference to Coomaraswamy
1939; Toporov 1977: 54, 64, n. 96; Toporov 1979: 18-20).
These connotations are emphasized all the more in the
symbolic significance of 27 = the cube of 3. 10
However, a thorough examination of late Iranian
tradition against the background of consistent patterns of
religious historical development brings one to the conclusion
that an immediate (unquestioning) application of the term
shamanic to its themes and motifs, as suggested by Gignoux
(as well as by Bongard-Levin and Grantovskij) can hardly be
accepted. As Eliade points out, a researcher approaching a
highly-developed religious system using the same terms and
notions as he or she a primitive religion, such as shamanism,
lays himself open to confusion. To illustrate this warning,
Eliade provides an apt example: while admitting a superficial
similarity between shamanic initiations involving dreams in
which the future shaman sees himself tortured and cut to
pieces by demons and ghosts, and the temptations of Christian
saints (in particular St. Anthony), he emphasizes the
difference in spiritual content that separates the two
initiatory schemas, however close together they may seem to
10
The ritual, mythological and linguistic aspects of the triple code were
examined by Toporov in two brilliant papers (see Toporov 1977 and Toporov
1979). One of his hypotheses is of interest for the semantic analysis of the
Middle Persian vocabulary. Pointing out that the connexion of the number 3
with death, on the one hand, and with its overcoming, on the other, is
manifested in Indo-European myth by the youngest, i. e. the third son of the
Thunderer, being destroyed by grinding, but overcoming death and thus
multiplying his fertile power, Toporov draws attention to the fact that no
formal criterion makes it possible to distinguish between the derivatives of IE
*ter- to rub, grind, drill, IE *ter- to overcome, arrive, survive (see Pokorny
1959: 1071-1075) and IE *tri-, *trei- three (Toporov 1979: 20). Bearing this
in mind, one may wonder whether MP widargh passing, for passage (adv.)
(XXX, 3, see the passage cited above) and widarg passage (< *vi-tar-ka- < IE
* ter- to cross, overcome) referring to the bridge or passage of inwad
in GrBd. 26. 1 are to be regarded from the same point of view.
366
David Buyaner
be on the plane of typology. Unfortunately, Eliade

concludes, if it is easy to distinguish the demonic tortures of a
Christian saint from those of a shaman, the distinction is less
apparent between the latter and a saint of a non-Christian
religion (Eliade 1974: 376-377). 11
Thus the question arises: how can one determine the
significance of the late-Zoroastrian quasi-shamanic notions in
their proper temporal context and with due consideration for
their origins? The answer may only be found when not only
certain synchronic state-of-being of a particular religion (in
our case, Zoroastrianism) is borne in mind, but also if the
consistent patterns of religious development are taken into
account. The two journeys to the Otherworld, those by Kirdr
and Ard Wrz, as well as all the descriptions of the dangerous
bridge in Pahlavi sources, are imbued with the spirit of
mysticism, very similar to one characteristic of neighbouring
religions in the same period, such as Gnosticism, Manichaeism,
mystical trends within early Christianity and the Jewish Cabala.
This stage in religious development is defined by G. G. Sholem
as romantic, i. e. reviving archaic mythological themes but
filling them with entirely different content, based on an
approach meant to overcome the abyss between God and Man,
a gulf which was totally ignored by the primitive consciousness,
and realized only during the creative epoch in the emergence
of a religion. The observations made by Sholem on the basis of
his examination of the early stages of Jewish mysticism (in
particular, the Hekhaloth literature), are also appropriate for
the Sasanian period in the history of Zoroastrianism. Just as
the primeval beliefs of the Jews are not attested in any
contemporary source and may only be reconstructed by means
of an analysis of the Biblical texts, so the pre-Avestan layers of
Zoroastrian mythology (such as the myth of the Bridge of
Separator) are reflected in the Avesta (especially in the Young
Avesta, but partly in the Gths as well). The creative epoch
in Iranian religion was Zarathustras reform: as we have seen,
he lent an entirely new sense to the term asuuan- which
11
In return, one can note that the abyss between the Christian and shamanic
mystic experience, still evident for Eliade almost 60 years ago (the first
edition of his classical treatise on shamanism saw the light as early as 1951),
nowadays might well be overlooked because of the tendency to neosyncretism characteristic of the modern spiritual climate, as was almost
prophetically depicted in 1975 by hieromonch Seraphim (Rose) (see Rose
1990).
367
earlier referred to all kinds of religious initiates, both live and

dead, and extended this definition to all members of his
community. Thus, he deprived shamanism any ground within
the new-born religion. Notwithstanding the hybrid character
of late Zoroastrianism, the abovementioned remnants of the
pre-Zoroastrian beliefs going back to Indo-Iranian antiquity
could by no means overcome the in-depth effect of
Zarathustras message. This holds true in spite of the traces of
the archaic usages in some Pahlavi sources and continues to
hold true notwithstanding the occasional references to
visionary experiences having only a superficial similarity to
shamanic practices. The late period of development of both
Judaism and Zoroastrianism are characterized by an intense
interest in all kinds of visionary experiences, including those
rooted in the most ancient layers of mythology. It is in this
context of what we might call the re-mythologization of
spiritual life that the obsolescent shade of meaning of MP
ahlaw and ard should be considered. As a result of this
romantic interest in antiquity, some early myths, such as that
of the Bridge of Separator, were preserved in a relatively
authentic form, notwithstanding changes in their system value.
Subsequently, they have lost any connexion with their
visionary background, a process which ultimately led to their
transformation into folklore motifs.
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1958
Istoriko-timologieskij slovar osetinskogo jazyka. Vol. 1. MoskvaLeningrad: Izdatelstvo AN SSSR.
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Skifo-evropejskie izoglossy: na styke vostoka i zapada. Moskva: Nauka.
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The Datistan-i Dinik. Pahlavi Text containing 92 Questions, asked by
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Zoroastrian problems in the ninth-century books. London: Oxford
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The Pahlavi Book of the Righteous Viraz. I. Chapters 1-2. Rome:
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2001
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Indoevropejskij jazyk i indoevropejcy. Rekonstrukcija i istorikotipologieskij analiz prajazyka i protokultury. Tbilisi: Mecniereba. 2
vols.
Gershevitch, I.
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Word and Spirit in Ossetic. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
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Verlag, 1985, 127-138].
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Zoroasters Own Contribution. Journal of Near-Eastern Studies 23:
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Corps osseux et me osseuse : essai sur le chamanisme dans lIran
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Les voyages chamaniques dans le monde iranien. Monumentum
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Le Livre dArd Vrz. Translittration, transcription et traduction du
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Asavan, Contributo allo studio del libro di Ard Virz. IRANICA,
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The Bndahishn. Being a Facsimile of the TD Manuscript No. 2
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Review of: Ugo Bianchi, Zamn i hrmazd, lo Zoroastrismo nelle sue
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diretta da Giorgio Castellino). Torino: Societ Editrice
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Vieux-perse artvan et pehlevi ahrav. Mlanges dhistoire des
religions offertes Henri-Charles Puech, Paris: Presses Universitaires
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Die Religionen des alten Iran. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs Verlag.
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The Chain of Arrows: the Diffusion of a Mythical Motive. Folklore.
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Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York: Schocken Books.
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Weiteres zur frhen missionarischen Wirksamkeit Manis. Acta
Orientalia Academiae Hungaricae 24: 371-379.
Toporov, V. N.
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Avest. Qrita, Qrataona, dr.-ind. Trita i dr. i ix indoevropejskie
istoki. Annali di Ca Foscari 16/3: 41-65.
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K semantike troinosti (slav. *trizna i dr.). timologija 1977.
Moskva: Nauka, 3-20.
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1961
The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. London: Weidenfeld &
Nicolson.
JIES Reviews
Archaeology
Philip Kohl, The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-84780-3,
296 pages, 112 illustrations. $85.
The number of books and edited volumes in English
relating to the Eurasian Steppe and early steppe cultures
increases yearly, and scholars interested in this area should
now have a good number. Philip Kohl, who has worked in the
area of the Near East for many years, has authored one of the
newest in this growing body of work. Many will find much in
his book that is stimulating, whether agreeably or not.
In the Preface, Kohl states that two conferences were
seminal for the formulation of ideas in this book (xix).
These two conferences brought together many scholars from a
variety of countries who worked primarily in the Steppe area or
in fields closely related to it, such as horse domestication. The
first conference, held at the site of Arkaim in August 1999 in
the southeast Urals, had the added advantage of providing
inspection of a number of sites both on the ground and by
helicopter, and gave to many of the Western scholars their
first look at the vastness of the Steppe, which could only
contribute to a better understanding of the archaeology. The
second conference held at Cambridge University in January
2000 brought together many of these same scholars as well as
others for a conference that generated intense, and
sometimes heated, discussions. Happily both of the
conferences were quickly and well published (Jones-Bley and
Zdanovich 2002; Boyle, Renfrew, and Levine 2002 and
Levine, Renfrew, and Boyle 2003).
The title of the book, The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia, is
somewhat misleading in that when Kohl writes Eurasia, he
really means western Eurasia, primarily the Steppe and western
Central Asia (see fig. 1.1). Although he touches on east
Eurasia, it is not his focus. The book is divided into six chapters
with long and complex titles; the chapters are then divided
into sections with equally long titles which are not numbered;
however, those sections are sometimes referred to by number
in the text requiring the reader to go back and count. Surely
there was an editor at Cambridge University Press who could
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have supplied the missing numbers in page proof.

In the first chapter, Kohl discusses archaeological theory
and the problems resultant from working in the area of the
former Soviet Unionnot just political but linguistic. But
while he correctly states that most Western archaeologist do
not read Russian, he fails to point out those who do or did
chief of whom was Marija Gimbutas. Although one might
disagree with her ideas, she did provide in numerous books
and articles as early as 1956 vast amounts of data from Russian
and other Eastern European sources.
Kohl briefly and expertly summarizes the difference
between processual and post-processual archaeology within the
context of what he calls the Anglo-American archaeology. In
general, he rejects processual and post-processual theory citing
1) the provincialism of much of the literature; and 2) its
sometimes surprising distance from actual archaeological
evidence (7). He further criticizes the lack of familiarity with
the rapidly increasing archaeological record but praises the
evidence of archaeologists expanded reading outside the
discipline. Kohl is certainly correct when he states the
necessity of modern archaeology to be interdisciplinary.
My initial comments about Chapter 2 deal not with its
subject matter but with Kohls overly liberal use of quotation
marks, which confuses and irritates. On page 26 he tells us
that
Indeed, the very accessibility of the Chalcolithic remains
of southeastern Europe and the fact that they have been
investigated for so long and on such a large scale may
distort our understanding of their significance; that is,
the tendency is to over evaluate this last great
Chalcolithic civilization of Europe.
Who is he quoting? What Chalcolithic civilization is he talking

about? I think he means Cucuteni-Tripolye, but up to this
point in the text of Chapter 2, it receives no mention
although they are in the captions of two illustrations and a
map. Then he goes on to say the term civilization is
misleading because it had not achieved writing or a level of
ancient state. But he calls societies such as Varna approaching
the threshold of state organization and that
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the Chalcolithic societies of southeastern Europe were
not class-stratified as were the later Bronze Age
civilizations to the south in western Asia, such as those
which arose in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and slightly later in
Iran, southern Central Asia, and lands farther east. Such
hyperbole is unnecessary, particularly since these
Chalcolithic remains north of the Black Sea are
spectacular enough in their own right and intrinsically
interesting as a failed state.
Who is using the term civilization? And who is given to

hyperbole? Does he mean Varna was close to being a state? If
so why put threshold in quotes? Were the later Bronze Age
societies of south and western Asia not civilizations? Doesnt a
society need to be a state before it can be a failed state?
Rather than bewilder the reader with innuendo by quotation,
it would have been far better for Kohl to lay out his views on
social evolution or give his definitions for such nebulous
entities as states, societies, cultures, and civilizations and freely
corrected quoted statements with the traditional editorial
brackets when he felt that an authors use of a term was
sufficiently off the mark he established for the reader. This
heavy handed use of quotation marks is found throughout the
book. On p. 208 examples are steppe, royal, house burial,
civilized. If these are not the terms he means, say something
else.
Quotation marks aside, the chapter attempts to show the
5th-4th millennium BC interconnection between the
northern Balkans and East of the Urals focusing on
metallurgical development, the exchange of prestige goods,
the emergence of Tripolye settlements, and the
reconstruction of the economies and social structures of
specific cultures throughout this vast region (28). For many,
this will prove a valuable survey.
Kohl wisely relies on Chernykhs superb 1992 book for
his overall theories of metallurgical production and states that
metallurgy in the Balkans was associated with farming and
livestock raising in Anatolia (35), but that there is little
evidence of metals circulating from the Caucasus or the Urals
during the Chalcolithic.
After giving a brief background of Cucuteni-Tripolye
culture, Kohl describes the main features of some of Tripolyes
larger sites. These huge sites, located in the forest-steppe area
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between the Bug and Middle Dnieper rivers, were found by

aerial photography. The smallest of these sites is 60 ha, while
the largest, Taljanski, is 400 ha; several range between 150
and nearly 300 ha. The largest settlements date from 42003500 BC. Kohl points out that the overall size of these
settlements are as large or larger than the earliest city-states
of Sumer and precede them by half a millennium (42). But
because they lack evidence for specialization and social
differentiation the term cities is not applicable.
Kohl gives an overview of Chalcolithic societies from the
Balkans to the lower Volga. Although all these societies are
part of Chernykhs Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province, it
seems odd to lump them together due to their great
differences, however, lumping these groups together does
show how different they are. Nevertheless, while the Balkan
area is clearly a Chalcolithic society the further east we go the
less Chalcolithic-like societies become. Putting Krasni Yar and
Botai in the group strikes this reviewer as misguided, for there
is so little metal to be found in these sites that they cannot be
meaningfully compared with the others. Also, when discussing
Cucuteni-Tripolye its brilliant pottery is barely mentioned, yet
this is one of the main features that prompted Gimbutas to
relate it to the Balkan-Aegean complex which she dubbed
Old Europe.
On page 50 Kohl gives two theories for the collapse of
the Balkan Chalcolithic: 1) mounted pastoral nomads which he
attributes to Lichardus, again with no mention of Gimbutas,
who advocated such a view for nearly 40 years, and 2) a major
climatic change.
Kohl rightly points out that the mounted warrior theory
depends on the domestication of the horse which had
supposedly been settled with David Anthonys ritual stallions
horse teeth at Dereivka that had placed domestication in the
Chalcolithic. However, Kohl notes that once the C14 dates for
the stallion were shown to be at least Iron Age, the mounted
warrior theory becomes much less plausible (see Anthony and
Brown 2003).
On p. 51 Kohl states that some of the Tripolye sites were
fortified and that there is evidence of burning and destruction
by fire and that these people were not beyond fighting
amongst themselves. However earlier he states, when
discussing the Taljanki site, that The interconnections
JIES Reviews
375
linking the houses together did not constitute any system of

fortifications; references to such fortifications are illusory and
driven by the myth of the invasion of kurgan-building pastoral
nomads from the east (43). If fortifications can be explained
by internal warfare, then fortification in response to Kurgan
influences is also a possibility; instead of attempting to sweep
Gimbutas Kurgan model under the rug with no hearing, Kohl
would have done his readers a far greater service by
acknowledging in both instances that fortifications do occur in
the archaeological record and that there are two explanations
for them, but of course, that means treating Gimbutas Kurgan
theory as an archaeological model of prehistory like all others.
He also makes no mention of Cucuteni C pottery which
appears before 4000 BC and is distinctly different from classical
Cucuteni-Tripolye ware in that it is much closer to steppe
pottery and contains crushed shell temper and cord decoration
which is typical of steppe pottery (see Mallory 1989:235-36).
A strong circumstantial case, Kohl says, can be made for
relating the building of these large sites to the deforestation
of the surrounding forest-steppe (52) and adds to this the
clearing of land for crops and the keeping of cattle and pigs.
Pollen analysis is consistent with this hypothesis. He then
sums up Todorovas crisis model. But Kohl warns against
applying this model mechanically because of the diversity of
geography and societies. Still, there were two indisputable
major changes: 1) Abandonment of Karanovo VI and Varnalike sites and movement to the Cucuteni-Tripolye area and
ultimately huge sites at the end of the 5th millennium BC. 2)
Collapse of giant sites around the end of 2nd quarter of 4th
millennium. If the demographic calculations for the giant
sites are accurate, tens of thousands of people were
engaged in adopting an even more extensive, more mobile
economy, relying principally on animal husbandry an
economy which has been characterized as seminomadic (53).
But Parzinger (1998a) notes the fundamental difference
in burial rites, house structure, and economy which justifies
the term Post-Tripolye. All of which speaks to a more mobile
form of life and suggests a major disruption.
Kohl questions the term devolution when speaking of a
change from agriculture society to livestock herding. He says
the same society can go from one to another and both can
practice different crafts and metallurgy. This undoubtedly is
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true.
Also in the mid 4th millennium there was a A major shift
in intercultural relations (53). This is the advent of the
Maikop culture in the northern Caucasus and Kuro-Araxes in
the southern Caucasus. With these groups comes a shift from
pure copper metallurgy to arsenical copper/bronze metallurgy.
Now Chernykhs Circumpontic Metallurgical Province replaces
the now non-functioning Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical
Province.
Chapter 3 deals with the Caucasus particularly the famous
Maikop and Kuro-Araxes cultures and how they affected and
were affected by other areas and groups such as the Caspian
Coastal Plain and the early Kurgan cultures of Transcaucasia.
Kohl reviews both Maikop and Kuro-Araxes and points out
that they overlap in material culture, but there seems to have
been little direct contact despite being part of Cherynkhs
Circumpontic Metallurgical Province. These two groups are
pivotal in understanding metallurgy in the Early Bronze Age of
Transcaucasia and ultimately areas further east, and Kohl
knows this material well.
The Kuro-Araxes culture seems to have emerged from
different places and thus might better be called a
phenomenon or bloc of cultures (89). There is a wide
distribution of Kuro- Araxes sitesway beyond the Kuro and
Araxes riversdating from about the 4th millennium BC ca.
3500-2300 BC. Some sites are fortified, others not, and some
are in difficult terrain. There are hundreds of Kuro-Araxes
settlements indicating perhaps some form of transhumance
they herded sheep, goats, and some cows. They used various
types of materials for housesbut this should be expected
with their settlements being in such varied altitudinal zones.
The Maikop culture had distinctive metalwork from the
Kuro-Araxes (compare figs. 3.10-13 and 3.15), but also a high
percentage of pig bones and low number of horse bones (77).
Kohl cautiously accepts the idea that Maikop-related people
moved south into northwestern Iran about the end of the 4th
millennium.
Page 113 begins his section on Early Kurgan cultures.
Although he uses the term kurgan culture earlier, he now
goes into more depth applying it to both Transcaucasia and
later to the steppe area. While I believe the term is sound and
descriptive as applied to the wide range and diverse cultural
JIES Reviews
377
groups both in the Steppe and Transcaucasia, it is one coined

by Marija Gimbutas and not generally used by others. Kohl
clearly does not hold Gimbutas views in high esteem (see pp.
46, 48, 131, 133) but uses her term kurgan culture without
attribution in the text although he lists four of her books and
articles in the References. He also refers to Old Europe
another term coined by Gimbutas which Kohl refers to as
evocative (46). The fact that Kohl finds her terminology
useful indicates that whether or not one accepts her
explanations of events in prehistory, Gimbutas still provided an
enduring paradigm by which to discuss the prehistory of much
of Eurasia.
Kohl goes on to describe the Daghestan variant of KuroAraxes which has distinctive features differing from the more
classical type and related more to Maikop.
Next he takes up Velikent, ca. 3600-1900 BC, which has a
widespread component of which are found in both the Coastal
plain and inland and is where Kohl has worked for many years,
and this variant includes steppe components. Spectroscopic
analysis of 195 metal objects found in a collective tomb at
Velikent showed most of them to be copper-arsenic bronze but
8% (15 ornaments-no tools or weapons) to be tin bronze
making them some of the earliest tin-bronze in the Caucasus.
Kohl suggests that their different color enhanced their value
(108).
Tin-bronzes also found in late Kuro-Araxes but only
appear with some regularity during this early kurgan period.
Analysis of these tin bronzes suggest they may have come from
the east, possibly Afghanistan, but the tin source is unknown
(108).
Current evidence suggests an abandonment of sites from
the Caspian plain at the end of the 3rd or beginning 2nd
millennium. This took place south of Velikent to northern
Azerbaijan.
It isnt clear if the reason was ecological or an incursion of
steppe people (112).
Chapter 4 concentrates on the Steppe and a number of
issues based there but affecting wider Eurasia. He begins the
chapter with a short history of the Western Eurasian Steppes
beginning with the work of Gorodstov that set down the
chronological sequencing of culturesYamnaya, Catacomb,
and Srubnayathat is still used. He speaks of a bewildering
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number of cultures and different names for the same cultures

and then uses the translated forms of Yamnaya, Catacomb, and
Srubnaya, but then confesses that he has made no attempt to
clarify. Clarification of some of the names would have been
quite useful for those who are new to this area of study.
The last few years have seen major debates on several
issues regarding the Steppe, 1) Rassamakin versus Telegins
view of Sredny Stog and the direction of cultural impulses
(132-137), 2) domestication of the horse and the beginning
of horse riding (137-144), and 3) the country of towns.
1) Rassamakins view is in opposition to Telegins (which
is similar to Gimbutas) in that there were no waves of warriors
nor even domesticated (and therefore ridden) horses.
Rassamakin says it was an exchange system.
2) Kohl reviews the debate over horse domestication and
the opening of the steppe which he says came in two phases
1introduction of the wagon pulled by oxen by end of the 4th
millennium and 2possible riding and light vehicles possibly
during the 2nd half of 3rd millennium which enhanced
mobility. Once developed the [wheeled] technology may
have spread so rapidly that its precise origins will be incapable
of archaeological determination, but again what is more
significant is that this innovation was almost immediately
adopted across the western Eurasian steppes and then rapidly
diffused to the west, south, and east (144). In fig. 4.8 (p.
141) he provides a chart that shows the superiority of draft
horses to oxen which is quite informative. He also suggests a
relationship between horse and Bactrian camel harnessing,
and refers also to Andrew Sherratts (2003) idea that horses
were initially domesticated in order to produce mulesa
speculative as well as interactionist model. While he may not
care for the idea it is indeed (like so many of Sherratts ideas)
interesting and worth consideration.
Kohl says wheeled vehicles lose their ritual significance in
the later Bronze Age becoming less common in burials in the
Late Bronze Age and asks if it is no longer prestigious to own a
vehicle pulled by oxen when more social value and
importance is attached to riding horses? (143). He also
suggests that now Bactrian camels and their hybrids played a
more critical role in transport. He makes no mention of the
religious significance of wheeled vehicles in graves. Gening
(1979) in his initial article on Sintashta suggested strongly
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379
that the vehicles found in the Sintashta graves were meant as

transport to the Otherworld (see also Jones-Bley 1997 and
2006a).
In terms of transportation, Kohl considers the vehicles an
advance in transportation and probably warfare (153). While
I agree with him in terms of transportation, I question the use
of chariots in steppe warfare and agree that the Ben Hur
factor should be played down. By his putting chariot in
quotes and sometimes calling them carts, he seems to question
the warfare function although he never quite says so (see
Jones-Bley 2006b on this). Although he rightly says wheeled
vehicles never totally disappear (179), he says they are
greatly diminished with the onset of riding and keeping
camels for packing. Here Kohl has made an important point;
the horse people have become so obsessed with horses that it
is forgotten that there is another domesticated riding animal,
the camel, and another domesticated equid, the ass, though
the latter was probably more for traction and pack.
Kohls description of Sintashta/Arkaim is cursory and at
times almost sneering (Possibly, it helps to have an overly
active imagination 154) and comments that the fortifications
are flimsy compared to the cyclopean stone architecture that
are found throughout Transcaucasia , but he fails to point
out the paucity of large stones on the steppe. (For fuller and
clearer descriptions of the Sintashta/Arkaim complex see
Zdanovich 2002; Koryakova and Epimakhov 2007).
Kohl rightly says we need settlement not mortuary data to
determine the role of sheep and goats in Bronze Age herding
strategies (164), and on the same page he show a Dyrgyz
winter encampment with yurts and a low pen built of what
looks to be small stones or possibly mud brick. This
settlement would leave little in the archaeological record.
Earlier Kohl says that From its inception, steppe archaeology
has focused on the raised kurgans and not concentrated on
locating settlements, although he notes that cultural deposits
are thin and difficult to see as are the remains of
semisubterranean houses (155). All these points are well taken
and, of course, the kurgans are what you see. Nevertheless,
comments such as Despite the bias against locating
settlements (156) seems a bit extreme. Such intemperate
comments undervalue the efforts of our east European
colleagues and over praise technological advancements. No
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one is purposely not looking for settlementsthey are

difficult to find without the modern equipment that he
discusses.
Kohl then moves on to the highly distinctive SeimaTurbino horizon and their tin bronzes that show a movement
of metal from east to west which are found in burials from
Mongolia to Finland (168). But it is the Andronovo culture or
if you prefer, horizon, that dominated the steppe east of the
Urals in the Late Bronze Age and tin bronzes dominate in the
Andronovo area and parts of the Caucasus. Much of the metal
ore, particularly copper came from the Kargaly ore complex
which produced thousands of tons of ore during the Bronze
Age. Mining appears to have gone on year round. Chernykh
believes they only extracted ore and traded it west as far as the
mid Volga and probably for cattle. A tremendous number of
animal bones were found at Kargaly representing tens of
thousands of animals, 99.8% domestic ca. 80% cattle but horse
only 2%. Pregnant animals and embryonic calves were ritually
buried (175).
Kohl is right to paint a grim picture of the Kargaly miners
working year round in what surly were miserable conditions
(although the animal bones show that they had a high protein
diet). It is unfortunate he felt it necessary to use the term
gulag-like to describe these conditions (177). This word is
anachronistic as it is a 20th century word used to describe
forced labor camps particularly for political dissidents. We have
no evidence that this was the case at Kargaly no matter how
bad things may have been.
Alternatively, he gives a gold-rush model for Kargaly and
suggests the Kargaly miners may have wintered in Arkaim-like
settlements. Since radiocarbon dates Kargaly back to 3000 BC,
it is possible that the miners wintered at Akaim-type sites
which are reasonably close by (see Koryakova and Epimakhov
2007:32).
In Chapter 5, Kohl moves From the Steppes to
Central Asia and Beyond: Process of Movement, Assimilation,
and Transformation into the Civilized World East of Sumer.
Here he contrasts Barbarian West Central Asia vs. Civilized
West Central Asia. The Barbarians herded animals, handmade
relatively coarse pottery, used wheeled vehicles, probably rode
horses, lived in semi-subterranean houses, and had
sophisticated highly functional tin bronzes. The Civilized
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people engaged in irrigation farming and wheel-turned

pottery imports. These two groups met or at least had contacts
if not movement of people. By the late 3rd millennium, the
settled farmers had sophisticated architecture and pottery and
above ground mud brick houses, along with temples, and they
produced prestige goods often with imported materials such as
lapis lazuli, steatite, and alabaster. They also worked copper,
copper-lead, and arsenic-copper; later they produced tin
bronze.
There is a gradual movement of herders into the
southern area of settled farmers and the earliest evidence
comes in the late 4th millennium with the rich Afanasievolike burial from Sarazm I (200). He does not explain what
Afanasievo-like is although this culture played an important, if
enigmatic, role in the Steppe Bronze Age (see Mallory
1989:223-26; Mallory and Mair 2000:294-97). Kohls analysis of
the gradual integration of the herders into the southern area
(206-08) is sensible and realistic.
Kohl notes that the Steppe presence is more prominent
after the Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC)
emerges. While he says he will not review BMAC in detail, his
discussion then goes on for twelve pages but unhappily does
not provide the reader with a map.
Though he laments that there is no good term for the
secondary states east of Sumer, Kohl gives a good overview of
them during the second half of the 3rd millennium. During
this time and the first half of the 2nd millennium, the
relationship between these secondary states and long distance
trade is particularly in tin. But early tin appropriation may have
come from Afghanistan where tin deposits are known but not
well investigated.
The secondary states have a roughly contemporaneous
collapse dateend of 3rd millennium or first centuries of 2nd
millennium BC. The collapse coincided with a change in
direction of interaction, e.g., now copper comes from Cyprus
in the west. But the Steppe herders also played a part. Within
this context, Kohl speaks of ethnic and linguistic composition
but doesnt mention which languages.
Kohls final chapter, despite its long title, is a summing
up, review, and explanation of the work. He begins with
This study has attempted to relate an interconnected
story of development from Chalcolithic through Bronze
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Age times that affected archaeologically defined peoples
from the Balkans east to the borders of China. [I]t has
inveighed against anachronistic reasoning There were
no Bronze Age Genghis Khans or Timurs but just cattle
herders who utilized bronze tools and weapons and
moved principally west to east across the steppes (24445).
He asks how significant were these interconnections, and

cautions us to be consistent in our rejection of anachronisms
(245). It is a pity that he hasnt followed his own advice but
has instead fallen into clever misapplication of gulag (I wont
even go into cowboys of the Wild East [212] which he does
not put in quotes!), and a confusing retention of the
misleading labels civilized and barbarian to describe
different types of Bronze Age societies. He also tells us of the
increasing interaction of the civilized Ancient Near East and
the barbarian western Eurasian herders (245-46). And he
finally tells us why he retains the terms civilized and
barbarian.
[T]he terms civilized/barbarian here do not carry their
nineteenth-century connotations the former supposedly
being more progressive and superior, the latter more
backward and inferior. Rather the herders of the steppes
were
self-sufficient,
organized
into
partially
autonomous/independent kin-structured groups that
were capable of forming and dissolving alliances with
related groups, and increasingly worked metals for
eminently practical purposes. In certain respects, such
barbarians were more advanced than most of the
people laboring in the civilized world to the south
(248).
The reader, however, may have been spared some unnecessary

confusion if Kohl had not waited until the summing up to
disclaim any nineteenth-century associations of his chosen
labels. He never gets around to giving us an equally
patronizing definition of civilized. But he does tell us that
the barbarian world of the steppes was more egalitarian than
the civilized Ancient Near East (248) because the social
distinctions in the graves of the former are not as great as in
those of the latter. Social distinctions, i.e., rich vs. poor graves
are relative. A rich steppe grave at this time may only contain
JIES Reviews
383
a bronze item, two pots, and five astragali as opposed to a rich

Near Eastern grave that could hold a number of gold items.
He asks How do we even recognize that long-distance
exchange and movements of people occurred? The
archaeological record is notoriously incomplete and difficult to
interpret (249). This is true, but it is possible. It can be seen
for example in textiles (Barber 1991), distinctive placement
and motifs on pottery (Jones-Bley 2006c), and religion
(Mallory 1989; Kristiansen and Larsson 2005).
Kohl calls it unfortunate (251) that changes in ethnic
and linguistics cannot be observed in the archaeological
record. Again, this is true, but it is observable in other records;
place-names often record the presence of earlier languages.
The superlative suffix io in names like Oh-io greatest river
and Ontar-io greatest lake preserve the former presence of
Iroquoian speakers in western Pennsylvania and calques like
Allegheny (Algonkian for most beautiful river) demonstrate a
later Algonkian (Delaware or Shawnee) overlay; in 1928 Haley
and Blegen demonstrated that the onomastic systems of
Greece and Anatolia were congruent suggesting an AegeanAnatolian cultural continuum, and the Russian steppe is
replete with Iranian names like Danube, Dnieper, Dniester,
and Don. Don is still to this day, the Ossetic word for river
just as Avon is the Welsh (afon) word for river. And this
valuable data agrees quite well with what we know of the
archaeological record in each of these regions.
Although I clearly disagree with many of Kohls views, I
was happy to see him equate the archaeologist with the culture
historian (258) which follows along the path set down by
Kristiansen and Larsson (2005) but chagrined to see him
reject the search for ancestral cultures particularly for the
mythical Aryan homeland (259). It is disheartening to see
such an outmoded use of the term Aryan which only conjures
up the egregious past misuse of archaeological and linguistic
data. Combining this with mythical is to dismiss a whole body
of scholarship with words rather than argument (see Mallory
1989:266-72 on the subject of Aryan).
This book is more than a little frustrating and irritating. It
is frustrating because this is the perfect venue for a discussion
of the spread of Indo-European speaking people and
languagesright time, right placeand all of the things that
should be considered within an Indo-European context
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kurgans, metallurgy, steppe, wheeled vehicles, horses,

relationship with the Near East. But Indo-European is
relegated to two pages (233-34).
In all fairness, although Indo-European itself is not really
covered, Indo-Iranian is given a few more pages. Within the
section entitled Archaeology, language, and the ethnic
identification of material culture remains pitfalls and lessons
(233-241) of Chapter 5, Kohl presents his views. He tells us
that Traditionally, archaeologists have considered the second
millennium BC as the period when new peoples ancestral to
the Iranians entered the Iranian plateau from the north and
east (233). He then cites a reference from 1954. This is
followed by references to more recent work culminating in the
1998 volumes edited by Victor Mair which concentrated on
the mummies in Xinjiang China which Kohl refers to as the
discovery of late prehistoric Caucasoid (i.e., apparently white
Europeans) (233). These mummies are clearly not Chinese
and are just as clearly Caucasoida useful term even if it has
fallen out of favor. I dont understand the parenthetical
phrase unless it is some sort of political correctness. Kohl states
that the identification of the mummies as Tocharian speakers
is made on the assumption that language and physical type
correlate perfectly with one another (234). No one has ever
made such an absurd claim, and those whose chief concern is
language have always insisted that it is learned behavior
entirely incommensurate with inherited traits. Here, Kohl is
attacking a straw man. He makes no mention of Mallory and
Mair (2000) in which Mallory, an extremely cautious IndoEuropean scholar and Mair, a sinologist, carefully examine the
mummies, their context, and the evidence relating them to
Tocharian. They conclude:
The mummies and the populations from which they were
drawn need not have belonged to a single ethno-linguistic
group but may have spoken a number of different
languages. This possibility is enhanced by the difference
between the prehistoric populations with respect to their
date of deposition, geographical distribution and human
physical type. It is quite possible, then, that there is no
single answer to the question: who were the Xinjiang
mummies? (Mallory and Mair 2000:298).
Kohl is correct when he reminds us that few traits or

features are uniquely and constantly specific to a given group
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(234), but there are patterns. The erection of a funeral

mound or the use of red ochre is hardly a unique feature, but
the combination of individual burial under a mound, a houselike structure, unique grave goods, animal and sometimes
human sacrifice, repeated positioning of the body form in a
pattern that is unlikely to be produced by random selection; it
represents a tradition whose development and evolution can
be tracked geographically and chronologically. Furthermore,
this is the same pattern that can be found repeatedly in IndoEuropean literature (Gimbutas 1974:294; Jones-Bley 1997).
Among the more irritating qualities of the book, aside
from the overuse of quotation marks, are the poor quality of
maps and illustrations. Overall the maps and illustrations are
poor and not what is expected of a publisher like Cambridge
at $85 quality is expected. Many of the photographs are either
dark or murky, and most of the maps either dont show places
mentioned in the text or give information that is not
explained. The initial fault is the authors, but Cambridge
should have the ability to redraw maps and improve the quality
of photographs.
There is one true mystery about this book. Who is
Kathryn W. Davis? She is listed on the dust jacket and front
page after Kohl apparently as co-author, and we are told she is
Professor of Slavic Studies at Wellesley College. But she is not
on the title page, copyright page, preface, listed in the
acknowledgments, nor in the References or Index. Did she
provide translations? If this was her contribution, she should
have been acknowledged. If not this, what was her
contribution?
References
Anthony, David W., and Dorcas R. Brown
2003 Eneolithic Horse Rituals and Riding in the Steppes: New Evidence.
In: Marsha Levine, Colin Renfrew, and Katie Boyle (eds.). Prehistoric
Steppe Adaptation and the Horse. Cambridge: McDonald Institute
Monographs, 55-68.
Barber, Elizabeth Wayland
1991 Prehistoric Textiles. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Boyle, Katie, Colin Renfrew, and Marsha Levine (eds.)
2002 Ancient Interactions: East and west in Eurasia. (McDonald Institute
Monographs) Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological
Research.
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Chernykh, E.N.
1992 Ancient Metallurgy in the USSR: The Early Metal Age. Cambridge
University Press.
Gening, V.F.
1977 Mogilnik Sintashta i Provlema Rannikh Indoiranskikh Pelemen.
Sovetskaya Arkheologiya 4:53-73.
Gimbutas, Marija
1974 An Archaeologists View of PIE* in 1975. JIES 2(3):289-307.
Haley, J.B. and C. Blegen
1928 The Coming of the Greeks. American Journal of Archaeology 32:14154.
Jones-Bley, Karlene
1997 Defining Indo-European Burial. In: Papers in Memory of Marija
Gimbutas: Varia on the Indo-European Past. Miriam Robbins Dexter
and Edgar Polom (eds.). (Journal of Indo-European Studies
Monograph Series, 19), Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of
Man, 194-221.
2006a Traveling to the Otherworld: Transport in the Grave. In:
Anthropology of the Indo-European World and Material Culture, Marco
V. Garca Quintela, Francisco J. Gonzlez Garca, and Felipe Criado
Boado (eds.). Budapest: Archaeolingua, 357-368.
2006b The Evolution of the Chariot. In: Horses and Humans: The Evolution
of Human-Equine Relationships, Sandra L. Olsen, Susan Grant, Alice
M. Choyke, and Lszl Bartosiewicz (eds). Oxford: BAR
International Series 1560, 181-192.
2006c Basal Motifs on Bronze Age Pottery across the Eurasian Steppe. In:
Ceramic Studies: Papers on the social and cultural significance of ceramics
in Europe and Eurasia from prehistoric to historic times, Dragos
Gheorghiu (ed.). Oxford: BAR International Series 1553, 43-51.
Jones-Bley, Karlene, and Dmitry Zdanovich (eds.)
2002 Complex Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1 st Millennium BC
2 vols. (Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series 45 &
46), Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man.
Koryakova, Ludmila, and Andrej Vladimirovich Epimakhov
2007 The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Kristiansen, Kristian, and Thomas B. Larsson
2005 The Rise of Bronze Age Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Levine, Marsha, Colin Renfrew, and Katie Boyle (eds.)
2003 Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse. Cambridge: McDonald
Institute Monographs, 55-68.
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Mair, Victor H. (ed.)

1998 The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia. 2 vols.
Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series 26,
Washington, DC: Institute of the Study of Man.
Mallory, J.P.
1989 In Search of the Indo-Europeans. London: Thames and Hudson.
Mallory, J.P. and Victor M. Mair
2000 The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest
Peoples from the West. London: Thames and Hudson.
Sherratt, A.G.
2003 The Horse and the Wheel: The Dialectics of Change in the CircumPontic Region and Adjacent Areas, 45001500 BC. In: Marsha
Levine, Colin Renfrew, and Katie Boyle (eds.). Prehistoric Steppe
Adaptation and the Horse. Cambridge: McDonald Institute
Monographs, 233-52.
Zdanovich, D.G.
2002 Introduction. In: Karlene Jones-Bley and Dmitry Zdanovich (eds.).
Complex Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1 st Millennium BC
vol. 1 (Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series 45),
Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man, ixx-xxxviii.
Karlene Jones-Bley
UCLA
Culture
Unto Salo, Ukko: The God of Thunder of the Ancient Finns and His
Indo-European Family. Journal of Indo-European Studies
Monograph Number 51, Institute for the Study of Man,
Washington D.C., ISBN 0-941694-94-1 2006. 146pp.
Those of us who work with Germanic myth, lamenting all
the while that the material at hand is so late and sparse, should
feel deep sympathy for anyone dealing with Finnish paganism.
The first witness is from 1551 in the introduction to a
translation of the Psalter by Bishop Agricola, who gives the
names and some description of gods who later turn up in the
Kalevala. But because the Greek pantheon with its twelve
Olympians was the gold standard, the bishop filled in the rest
of the twelve with the names of assorted spirits and demons
that were certainly never gods.
Finnish poetry in Kalevala meter was preserved for
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centuries by runoi, or poem-singers. Collections were made in

the 17th and 18th centuries, but the person most associated
with this poetry is Elias Lnnrot (1802-1884), who from an
early age, and throughout medical school and afterwards as a
practicing physician, traversed the entire Finnish speaking
area, writing down the poems of the greatest of the runoi with
the goal of molding them into a national epic, the Kalevala.
In the Kalevala, the ancient gods are mighty men of old,
endowed with wisdom and magic and power far beyond our
own, but men nonetheless. This transformation certainly took
place in the poems as they developed and were handed down,
since by the time Lnnrot collected them, Finland had been
Christian for centuries.
So how does one get back to the original pagan gods, let
alone to their origins? Unto Salo, of the University of Turku,
Finland, has traced the Finnish god of thunder back to the
Indo-European sky and weather god with the help of cultural
history, etymology, and archeological parallels. (4) His
method is a jigsaw puzzle, with the pieces meticulously
assembled and fitted together. Assembling Ukkos history
seems possible because we can provide his myths, names,
epithets, [and] attributes with an entire set of archeological
and historical-linguistic parallels. (4f)
Archeological and linguistic evidence indicates that the
early Uralic peoples had an unstratified, subsistence farming
society. Their gods as well were rural, were not organized into
a hierarchical pantheon, and did not require cult specialists.
Thunderstorms, terrifying manifestations of power but
bringers of life-giving rain, were embodied in the
Thunderbird, common across the top of Eurasia and into North
America. But he was no god and had no cult: he was feared,
says Salo, but he was not worshiped.
In new forms of hammers, clubs, and fire-striking
implements, Salo finds evidence that the IE sky god arrived
among the Proto-Finns of the coastal regions of Finland
around 2400 BC (68). These tools are described in great
detail, the significance of which is discussed at length, and
photographs are provided at the back. The wealth of
archeological evidence is compelling in itself, but it is further
bolstered by linguistics: with the god came certain items of IE
vocabulary that together form a loan-complex:
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taivas Probably from proto-Indo-Iranian *daivas sky,
heaven. Taivas replaced the native word ilma as sky.
vasara Hammer in most Uralic languages, axe in
Mordvinian, the weapon of the Thunder-god, a hammeraxe, cf. Skt. Indras vajra-, Av. vazra-, Mithras club. Cult
axes appear around the mid-3rd century BC.
jumala god in all Baltic-Finnic languages, with
uncertain equivalents in others; juma, cf Skt dyu-, dyaus
heaven, sky; divya- divine; dyuti- brightness, etc.; -la
is a suffix.
[T]aivas was the Sky Gods domain, vasara was his weapon,
jumala was his epithet. (78) But his name is native.
Ukko is the old man, a term of respect at a time when
few lived to be very old and their experience and wisdom were
valued. Ukkonen, the Finnish word for thunder, has the
diminutive ending of endearment, nice old man. Ukko,
Ukkonen, is a by-name of Ilmari, Ilmarinen, one of the
principal gods/wise men of the Kalevala, as Salo shows through
the poetry. Ilma is air (earlier sky, before it was replaced by
taivas): he is the god of the sky and everything in it, including
the weather that comes down from it, but it is precisely
because thunder, and especially the lightning that
accompanies it, is so terrifying that Ilmari must be called nice
old man.
Lightning causes fire, so Ilmarinen is the god who struck
the primeval fire. In the Kalevala, Vainamoinen, the god of
water, is present when Ilmarinen strikes the first fire amid a
sea stone, on an open sea/ on vast waves, with a firey sword
on a dark open sea. Salo thinks of a time like that of the
beginning of Genesis, when the features of the world were as
yet undifferentiated. This is not unlikely; but the IndoEuropeanist will think of the fire-in-water myth: of all the
times Agni is hiding in water, and of the kenning soevar nidr
son of the sea for fire, which Meissner (Die Kenningar der
Skalden) found auffallend!
Much later there would of course be contact with North
Germanic people, and Ukko would take on features of Thor
and, as wind god, also Njrd. With Thor he has in common the
rowan, and a wife with shorn hair. The rowan is believed over a
wide area of northern Europe to protect against lightning, but
what of the shaven head? Does it suggest the story of Loki
shaving off Sifs hair, i.e., is Ukkos woman shorn because of
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contact with Thor? Or might it point to something older?

Salo carefully builds his case, devoting many pages to the
archaeological evidence, citing and commenting on the
relevant runes, and bringing the various elements together in
a thoroughly persuasive summary. This book will fascinate
anyone interested in myth and folklore. A translation of an
original Finnish MS, it nevertheless reads smoothly. There are
96 pages of text and 48 of pictures -- visible evidence -- mainly
photographs, with some sketches. If I had three wishes I would
wish for an index and for the pictures and text to be crossreferenced; the book is so short, however, that the lack of
these is no great problem. What I really miss is a large, clear
map showing the language areas referred to. But even if Salo
loses his non-Finnish readers spatially, he retains their interest
from beginning to end.
Kris Kershaw
Linguistics
Torsten Meissner. S-Stem Nouns and Adjectives in Greek and ProtoIndo-European: A Diachronic Study in Word Formation. Oxford
Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Pp. xii + 264. ISBN 0-19-928008-8.
Torsten Meissners revised thesis (Oxford, 1995) is an
impressive contribution to existing scholarship on s-stem
nouns and Homeric word-formation. As M. himself notes, (3)
this book is the first published attempt at a comprehensive
study on this subject. Previous researchers have had recourse
to the embedded presentations of Chantraine (1933) and
Risch (1974) or the brief descriptive presentations of
comparative handbooks (e.g. Sihler 1995). M.s book,
moreover, should be valued both for the breadth and depth of
the insights it offers into a set of notoriously sticky problems
and the methodological models provided by its approach. M.
takes on the difficult task of analyzing the historical
development of a class of nouns and adjectives in Greek and
Proto-Indo-European that may not properly exist as a class to
begin with; and he approaches both the scholarship and the
specific challenges of each example with nuanced readings
and an energy not always present in studies of this kind.
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391
M. divides his book into four substantive chapters

followed by a very useful epilogue that recapitulates his primary
arguments and brings a summary perspective to the entire
work. Chapter 1 (6-44) presents a very learned and inclusive
history of the research on the topic. The second chapter (45128) addresses neuter s-stems in ow and aw. In chapter 3
(129-59), M. turns to animate s-stems such as adw, drw, and
xrw. Chapter 4 begins with an examination of s-stem
adjectives represented by dusmenw" and culminates in an
excellent presentation of compound adjectives (160-215).
There are several useful tables throughout the book and the
multi-language index will make the book a very helpful
research tool.
The organization of the book is clear albeit daunting at
times. The history of scholarship, probably owing to its origins
in graduate work, is long and extremely detailedmany
readers might justifiably skip to the meat of the book since
relevant points from the scholarship are judiciously reintroduced during specific discussions. On the whole, the
chapters are a little long and may have been more effective if
they had been split up into smaller chapters with clearer signposting and more frequent recapitulations. M. showcases his
ability to present clear and pointed summaries of his
conclusions in the Epilogue; similar pauses throughout the
text would make the work more readable as a whole and
perhaps more useful as a reference tool.
There are occasional typographical errors of varied
severity: for instance, the linguist Ray Jackendoff is printed as
Jackendorff (sic) in a footnote (40, n. 70) and in the
bibliography (232); another reviewer (Klligan 2007) has
noted an error in the Hittite (p. 155 where "Hitt. *w< *-r"
should probably read "Hitt. watar < *-r"). Additionally, there
are some places were noun-verb agreement appears
problematic and others where verbs have been left out
completely (e.g. none of which [are] semantically close to
kraw (128)); and the English expressions, at times, could
have profited from a better editor (e.g. the litotes of not
otherwise unknown (95) which, in English, is a bit awkward
and makes the tone of the comment difficult to evaluate). All
told, the bibliographical errors and English errors are rather
minor.
In chapter 1, M.s presentation of the state of scholarship
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on s-stem adjectives is impressive for its historical depthhe

starts with William Jones and Franz Bopp and ends with a
recent dissertationas well as for his efforts to reconsider the
work of scholars whose contributions were underestimated or
discounted by contemporary and subsequent generations of
linguists. Specifically, his re-evaluation of Parmentier (1889)
who recognized that some compound adjectives in hw
reflected the vocalism and meaning of verbal forms (e.g., dis-
yanw and yanon) and deduced that these adjectives do not all
have the same originis a useful reminder of the importance
of questioning established orthodoxies. Central to chapter 1 is
the presentation of the adjectival suffix replacement system
recognized first by Willem Caland (when initial members in
compound adjectives originally formed with suffixes of -ra-, ma-, or -ant- often use -i- instead). M. provides a succinct and
accurate description of Calands Law and his subsequent
attempts to square the linguistic data with the observed
phenomenon are also informative, but the plurality of
responses and problems will make this first chapter a difficult
read for novice linguists.
Two additional points of this initial chapter deserve
notice. First, in a typically low-key fashion, M. mentions his
emphasis on examining word-formation from an inner-Greek
point of view (37), an approach he flags at the end of his
book when he declares if we want to put the study of Greek
on a more firm footing it is of pivotal importance to start from
Greek and not from the parent language (225). While such
an emphasis on intra-language examination rather than
general reconstruction is welcome and has certainly proved
useful in the book itself, some Indo-Europeanists might be
disappointed by the material treated if they have been
somewhat misled by the title.
Second, M. closes the chapter (37-43) with a discussion
entitled Word Formation in Generative Grammar to
illustrate, in part, the light that modern linguistics can shine
on the chaos of word derivation and language development.
This discussion appears somewhat tentative in comparison to
what precedes it. On the other hand, I read this as a statement
of disclosure: M. does well to reveal his theoretical influences
insofar as they do indeed set his work apart from earlier
approaches. Nevertheless, I found myself wishing an occasional
return to the subject to illustrate its importance for the
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393
development of historical linguistics as a discipline and to

reveal to a greater extent the impact of modern linguistics on
the choices M. makes during his analyses.
Chapter 2 addresses neuter s-stem nouns in -ow and aw and it is here where the profit of M.s nuanced perspective
becomes abundantly clear. From the very outset of his
substantive treatment of the material, M. proves himself both
reluctant to be reductive and sensitive to the multiplicity of
explanations for a given morphophonological detail. At the
beginning of chapter 2, for example, he notes that
conventional wisdom holds that neuter s-stem nouns
constitute a class that had ceased to be productive in Greek
early on (46)he shows quite convincingly in this chapter
that not only do these nouns continue to be productive, but
that their grouping as a class is a bit deceptive.
M. starts chapter 2 by questioning the assumption that
the existence of a Caland type adjective necessarily yields a
neuter noun in -ow; he also points out well the layers of
suffixationor contamination of competing suffixes (53)
that can obscure the derivation of a given adjective.
Particularly enlightening is his analysis of root vowel
alternations within Greek (e.g. full grade/zero grade
alternation as in bnyow: byow; or long vowel forms/full grade
e-vowel forms as in graw: graw). Again, by resisting the
temptation to formulate a rule, M. reaches very different but
equally persuasive conclusions: while bnyow and pnyow both
occur earlier than their counterparts byow and pyow and are
generally supplanted by later forms, the zero-grade formations
were formed not by a regular rule but for different reasons at
different times. Similarly sensitive is his discussion of the
Narten ablaut and the lengthened grade vs. full-grade
formations. At times he uses semantic approaches (i.e. the
difference in early attested meaning of yow and yow may
preclude the claim ( la Schindler) that they once formed a
single akrostatic paradigm).
Generally, in a move that might prove displeasing to
some, M. rejects straightforward morphological explanation for
these forms and emphasizes back-formations and analogical
leveling. Most convincing and methodologically useful in this
chapter is section 2.4 where M. analyzes the secondary
derivation of s-stem nouns: he illustrates the complex cycle of
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derivation whereby nouns such as pyow or drkoware created

through back-formation from deverbative compounds like
anopayw and edrakw. This argument directly supports his
assertion that s-stem nouns remained a productive category in
Greek.
In the sixth section of chapter 2, M. utilizes semantic
distinctions well to explain the derivation of deadjectival sstem nouns alongside possible synonyms such as txuw and
taxutw. He argues that abstract nouns are formed from
Caland adjectives through the addition of suffixation (-tht-).
His interpretation of the difference between notions of
speed and quickness provides a useful model for applying
semantic distinctions in the explanation of back-formations. In
the penultimate section of chapter 2, M. searches for a
common denominator for the semantics of deverbative s-stem
nouns (113) in order to contrast the utility of internal and
external analyses. Although he admits that few conclusions
can be drawn from his survey, he successfully argues that the
examination of individual pairs of words (derived noun : verbal
root) is more useful than proposing laws for the entire group.
Similarly, M. ends the chapter by addressing neuter nouns in aw (e.g. kraw, kraw, and graw) for which he argues that some
reflect inherited formations but for different reasons. Of
particular interest is his proposal that kraw be reconstructed as
from an athematic n-stem wherein the sigmatic ending would
have been formed analogically on the model of traa : traw.
In chapter 3, M. turns to animate s-stem nouns such as
adw, drw, and xrw in an attempt to explain why masculine
animate s-stems develop to t-stems (e.g. drw, drtow) while
feminine nouns tend to retain the s-stem inflection (e.g.
adw, adow). M. suggests that the t-extension is to be
expected in Greek morphology (cf. the perfect active
participles, although M. points out correctly that in these the
s-stem extension happened later and the shared trait should
be seen as a recurrent rather than as a unified phenomenon
(141)) but that the smaller group of feminine nouns resist the
dental inflection either because of the general personification
of dawn and shame or under the influence of feminine
oxytone nouns in wv. The latter suggestion, based as it is on
analogy, is more convincing than the former, a claim he makes
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395
without adducing any comparative evidence for the influence

of personification on morphology other than the tendency of
personal names to retain archaic terminations. M. then turns,
for a change, to the development of this class in PIE and
argues tentatively against the suggestion that this class is
derived from neuter collectives in *-h2 (this claim impacts the
reconstruction of w" dawn through parallelism with the
formation of mew month). He hedges this final discussion by
admitting that the systemic-linguistic considerations clash
strongly with philological ones (in the traditional sense of the
word), and any reconstruction suffers from an extreme
dearth of reliable evidence (144). Again, the strength of his
presentation resides in his resistance to limiting
generalizations and his willingness to consider diverse and
concomitant derivations.
Chapter 4 is valuable for several reasons. First, M. argues
generally that inherited s-stem adjectives are, for the most
part, compound forms, and that these adjectives continue to
be productive in Greek as they cease to rely on the existence
of neuter nouns in *-es/-os and develop into a deverbative
category (161). Again, M. reveals the fruitfulness of
examining the Greek data in diachronic detail: he argues
against recent claims that PIE possessed simple s-stem
adjectives (similar to the type ceudw); rather, he asserts, the
greater proportion of simple s-stems in Greek are a result of
local innovationsprimarily later back-formations deriving
from compounds that reflect the vocalism of their verbal
origins. What is chiefly useful about this chapter is its detailed
yet clear discussion of Greek compound formation.
Additionally important is his very careful discussion of the
overlapping and co-informing matrix of semantic shifts (e.g.
various interpretations of Homeric diogenw) and derivational
cycles.
In his epilogue, M. reiterates some consequences of his
study quite nicely. He suggests that his discussion of the
deverbative nature of compound adjectives reveals that what
may have been one suffix in PIE actually splits into
independent adjectival and nominal categories in Greek. M.
then argues that such a claim should lead to a re-evaluation of
Calands Law and its significance for Greek (223). He
proposes that the Greek evidence argues against
morphological replacement of the Caland type as a general
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rule of word formation in Greek. He closes his book with a

programmatic call for a reconsideration of reconstruction in
general, namely, that for an understanding of Greek word
formation researchers should start from Greek and not the
parent language and must be prepared to take into
consideration, at the same time, a multitude of different facts
and motivations (225). These closing statements are, of
course, a description of his own method, which is well
supported by the strength of his conclusions.
As a work in the discipline of historical Greek linguistics,
then, M.s book is a fine example of a careful and measured
examination that draws evenly on the history of the discipline
and classical philology in general with an admirable
methodological rigor. Certainly, other topics in Greek
linguistics deserve similar treatment.
Nevertheless, there are a couple points that deserve to be
made regarding the use of Homeric material and the
production of this type of book in general. Much of M.s
analysis of s-stem compounds and the creation of s-stem
adjectives relies on a chronology that is never discussed. While
M. professes to offer a work of diachronic analysis, the majority
of his examples are drawn from Archaic Greek poetry,
specifically Homer. As a Homerist, I find his approach to the
Homeric language to be a bit old-fashioned. He makes little
effort to distinguish between the synchronic world of the
Homeric poems in their textualized form and the diachronic
linguistic development fossilized within them. He refers
occasionally to Homeric Times without any real effort to
clarify what he means by thisis he referring to the
diachronic development of the amalgam dialect, the period of
performance and composition, or the first period of
textualization? Of course, even in the field of Homeric
linguistics, M. is not alone in this; Hackstein (2002), for
example, assumes a conventional early 8th century for the
Homeric epics (although, cf. in contrast the later date of Haug
(2002)).
While expecting such a clarification may seem pedantic, it
can have a real impact on the analysis. Whether he is referring
to the 8th century BCE or the 6th directly affects perspectival
equations: he assumes a Homer who is definitively prior to
Theognis; his Hesiod is the first writer to (209, my
emphasis). These admittedly ideologically-oriented complaints
JIES Reviews
397
point to a larger problem that I have with his use of Homer.

Insofar as historical linguists have tended not to integrate
perspectives provided by oral-formulaic theory into their
analyses, M. represents the rule rather than the exception;
but, since Homeric language is in many ways radically different
from the dialects presented by authors after the Archaic age, it
is incumbent upon linguists hoping to reevaluate Homeric
word-formation, at the very least, to acknowledge the special
challenges presented by the Homeric dialect. (We should not
forget the relationship between Milman Parry and Antoine
Meillet.) From the perspective of Homeric studies, lessons
from historical linguistics have always been and will always be
indispensable tools for explaining variations and flexibility in
the Homeric dialect. This, however, does not necessarily mean
that Homer is similarly considered indispensable for historical
linguistics.
Studies in Homeric language from Michael Naglers
generative model (1974) to Egbert Bakkers fine study on
orality and poetic discourse (1997), and various expositions on
oral-formulaic theory (e.g. Foley 1988) provide excellent
frameworks for evaluating Homeric evidence from the
synchronic level of the poems themselvesa perspective that
emphasizes the poems as adaptive performance models rather
than fossilized records of the evolution of the Greek language.
M. makes little effort to defend the implicit elision he makes
between Homeric kunstsprache and Greek vernacular.
For an author who contends so persuasively that multiple
theoretical approaches and nuanced analyses are required to
understand word formation, it is additionally troubling that M.
makes no recognition of the influence of the advent of
literacy on the diachronic developments he traces. At several
points in his monograph he makes the clear implication that
there is a paradigm shift in word formation between the
authors of the Archaic age (Homer, Hesiod, Theognis, etc.)
and the literate authors of Classical Greek. It would be
interesting to see if studies from sociolinguistics on
phenomena such as hypercorrection in literate classes may
help to explain the growing frequency of back-formation and
similar analogical word-formation after Homer.
A final obstacle presented by this book is one that
should also not be borne by M. alone, namely, the target
audience. As a field, historical linguistics has lost faculty
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positions throughout private and public universities in the

United States. As academic culture becomes increasingly
corporate, we are in the unfortunate and undesirable position
of constantly defending the utility of our intellectual products.
M.s book is clearly aimed at other historical linguists: he
presents lengthy passages in German and French along with
minor sections of Latin, Italian, and Greek without translation.
As a handbook on s-stems for other historical linguists, then,
M.s work will prove to be very useful; but who else will be able
to profit from its insights?
Lest the reader be misled by these closing comments
(most of which are disciplinary in perspective rather than ad
hominem), the quality of M.s study and the potential of his
methodology should not be understated. This book will prove
to be an important handbook for historical linguists and
Homerists for years to come. From individual revelations to his
rallying cry for nuanced and generalizing-resistant approaches
to the study of word formation in Greek, M. has provided a
useful resource and a productive model for linguists and
philologists alikeif anyone still desires to make such a
distinction.
References
Bakker, E. J.
1997
Poetry in Speech: Orality and Homeric Discourse. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1997.
Chantraine, Pierre
1933
La Formation des noms en grec ancien, Paris: Klincksieck
Foley, John Miles
1988
The Theory of Oral Composition: History and Methodology.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.
Hackstein, Olav
2002
Die Sprachform der homerischen Epen. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig
Reichert Verlag, 2002.
Haug, Dag
2002
Les phases de l'volution de la langue pique. Trois tudes de linguistique
homrique. Hypomnemata 142. Gttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht.
Klligan, Daniel
2007
Review of Torsten (2006) Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.02.05.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2007/2007-02-05.html.
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Nagler, Michael
1974
Spontaneity and Tradition: A Study in the Oral Art of Homer.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Parmentier, Lon
1889
Les substantifs et les adjectifs en -es- dans la langue d'Homre et
d'Hsiode. Ghent and Paris: Vanderhaeghen.
Risch, Ernst
1974
Wordbildung der homerischen Sprache, Berlin and New York: De
Gruyter.
Sihler, Andrew
1995
New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Joel Christensen
The University of Texas at San Antonio
joel.christensen@utsa.edu
Ringe, Don, A Linguistic History of English, vol. I. From Proto-IndoEuropean to Proto-Germanic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2006. 355 pp. ISBN 0-19-928413-X
Ringe presents the first volume of A Linguistic History of
English which discusses the prehistory of OE and the other
OGmc dialects. Two subsequent volumes will deal with the
specific development of PGmc into OE and the attested
history of English from the Anglo-Saxon era to the present.
Apart from a brief introduction (13), the general chapters are
Proto-Indo-European (465), The development of ProtoGermanic (67212), and Proto-Germanic (213297). This
tripartite structure with no final conclusion indicates its
integration in a major work. While there is much in the first
volume which will be of general interest to the IndoEuropeanist and comparative linguist, the work offers fewer
insights for Germanicists, Anglicists or Nordicists. This is so
because Ringes reconstruction of PGmc is based on a broad
comparison of the PIE subfamilies, in particular Tocharian,
Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Italic and Greek, whereas the
attested sources of OGmc play a minor role. The reader will
immediately notice a strong bias when it comes to etymology.
While Mayrhofers etymological dictionary of Indo-Iranian is
much quoted by Ringe, no mention is made of the standard
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works of the various Germanic dialects apart from Gothic; cf.

for instance, Magnsson 1995 on Modern Icelandic or
Boutkan 2005 on Old Frisian, both of which remain
unmentioned. (For a comprehensive overview see now
Liberman 2005 with abundant references.) Instead, with PIE
as his point of departure, Ringe favours a forward
reconstruction from the undocumented past:
Since this entire volume deals with the undocumented
past, the principles and methods of traditional historical
linguistics, which were devised to investigate such cases,
should be adequate for an understanding of what I say.
(2)
And he goes on to state:

Limitations of space do not permit me to cite full
evidence for the standard reconstruction offered here; I
often cite only those cognates that support a particular
reconstruction most clearly. [] But I wish to emphasize
that everything said in this volume rests on scientific
reconstruction from attested languages using the
comparative method. In other words, these conclusions
are based on observation and logic inference (mathematical
inference, in the case of phonology), not on speculation.
(23, my emphasis)
One may wish to compare Nielsens recent books on OE and

Early Runic to Ringes attempt to write a whole linguistic
prehistory of English almost without runes runology probably
being one of the most dynamic research areas in the field
other than historical syntax. From this point of view, the
present reviewer feels slightly uncomfortable with Ringes
approach since, for reasons not specified, runic evidence is
being given even less priority than the other Old Gmc
varieties. Sporadic references are to older (partly outdated)
works, not to Page 1999 (on Anglo-saxon runes), Nielsen 2000
and Antonsen 2002 (both mainly on Scandinavian runes). The
fact that runology is a science with its own dangers and pitfalls
does not justify its exclusion.1 Also, given the rather lengthy
1
The first law of runodynamics states that for every runic inscription there
shall be as many interpretations as there are runologists studying it. Needless
to say, one immediate pitfall concerns unjustified and incorrect readings; on
Antonsens reading *unnamz see below.
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treatment of Sievers Law and other PIE and early PGmc sound
changes (67150, 221224 et pass.), it remains unclear why
historical syntax receives no particular attention; one short
paragraph is devoted to PGmc syntax (295).
Several parts of the book call for comment. In what
follows, some major (partly controversial) issues are
highlighted, first and foremost the dialectal position of
Northwest Gmc, word and sentence stress (including
Wackernagels Law), the laws of final syllables, nominal nstems, Sievers Law, and last but not least word formation.
As mentioned already, the author says little about syntax (2).
PGmc and Northwest Gmc
In his sketch of the Germanic subgrouping, Ringe seems
unaware of existing research problems. Thus, he deals with the
bifurcation of Germanic rather briefly, stating that [t]he
subgrouping of Germanic is relatively uncontroversial (213).
The treatment of the PIE subfamilies in the first part of the
book is more detailed (46). Ringe maintains that [a]
rigorous cladistic analysis gives the [following; M.S.]
evolutionary tree (213):
PGmc
/
\
East Germanic Northwest Germanic
/
\
North Germanic West Germanic
Focusing on Northwest Gmc, Ringe generally states that
the number of significant innovations which North and
West Germanic unarguably share, though admittedly
small, is large enough to justify positing such a unity. By
contrast, the innovations shared by East and North
Germanic are extremely few and can have resulted from
parallel development (213).
However, the consideration of existing Gmc sources would not

have made things that easy. In fact, Ringes cursory treatment
raises several questions pertaining to chronology and dating.
For example, when did the disintegration of the Northwest
Gmc continuum start (if it existed), and how do the North and
West Gmc dialects relate to it? Another central problem that
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Ringe does not touch on is the position of the oldest runic

inscriptions within his tree-diagram. Runologists are much
concerned with the question of whether or not inscriptions
like Tune (stfold, Norway) and Gallehus (South Jutland,
Denmark)2 represent the alleged Northwest Gmc unity,
although these legends are as late as 400 AD. For instance, the
loss of word-final -z in WGmc. must have occurred at that time.
The work would have benefitted from a reference to Nielsen
2000 who surveys the interrelations of the single OGmc
dialects. In Nielsens (as well as Antonsens) view, the
language of the older runic inscriptions such as Tune or
Gallehus is basically Northwest Gmc. More specifically, the
problem presented by the Early Runic unstressed vowel system
points to North Gmc (Old Norse) as being the only direct
successor of Early Runic (see Nielsen 2000: 274275). This
leads to a more complex model a tree-diagram model with a
convergence factor between Early RunicNorth Gmc on the
one hand, and West GmcNorth-Sea Gmc (including Old
English) on the other (see Nielsen 2000: 291).
Word and sentence stress
Among the peculiarities of the PGmc accent system (also
evidenced by Vedic accentuated texts) were deaccented forms
of vocatives and finite verbs in main clauses, though not in
subordinate clauses and in initial position (22). Ringe points
out that
[t]his complex and unusual accent system has left
extensive traces in Germanic languages, though the
system itself had clearly been lost by the Proto-Germanic
period. (22)
In a seminal article, Kuhn 1933 investigated sentence patterns

and word stress (including Wackernagels Law) in the OGmc
dialects. Finite verb forms in main clauses do not regularily
participate in the alliterative scheme, unless they are verse- or
sentence-initial. This stress pattern is documented already in
the famous Gallehus inscription (around 400 AD) which
exhibits the alliterative structure h-h-h-t = a-a-a-x, the most
2
Although the famous Gallehus gold horn A is illustrated on the jacket of

Ringes book, it is not mentioned by name: Runic inscription on a [sic]
fourth- or fifth-century horn found in Schleswig 1734 (see back cover).
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common type of alliteration in OGmc (note that sentenceinitial ek is a proclitic or Auftaktform):

ek hlewagastiz holtizaz horna tawido
I, Hlewagastiz, (son) of Holt, the horn made.
On comparative grounds, Watkins (1995: 23) points out that
this pattern must reflect very ancient Germanic prosodic
practice and that [t]his convention must be related to the
accentuation of the finite verb in Indic and indirectly in
Greek. It remains unclear why Ringe does not adduce any
metrical evidence to substantiate his general claim.
The laws of final syllables
Though the laws of final syllables are dealt with in some
detail, crucial references are missing in this book, e.g. Boutkan
1995. Ringe focuses on the relative chronology of the Auslautgesetze, for instance the apocope of nonhigh vowels. His
discussion sheds light on word-final ON -nd (band) versus -tt
(batt), both continuing PGmc nd from PIE ndh. The standard
argument is that early apocope occurred when final devoicing
was operative, hence regressive assimilation in ON batt (1sg.
and 3sg. pret., strong verb binda). The evidence is sketched as
follows (118, also 143):
post-PIE *bheb h ndhe (s)he has tied (cf. Skt babnd ha)
PGmc *band (s)he tied (cf. Goth., OE band) > *bant >
ON batt.
Later apocope did not have the same effect; the sequence *nd
was not assimilated if the ending was PIE -om (early PGmc -an),
hence ON land (nom., acc. neuter a-stem):
post-PIE *landh om open area (cf. OIr. land []) >
PGmc *land land (cf. Goth., OE land) > ON land.
Relative chronology is thus apt to explain why ON land has

unassimilated -nd, while batt has -tt. In accordance with Nordic
grammars and handbooks, Ringe states that
the subsequent development of strong past 1sg. and 3sg.
forms in ON demonstrates that word-final short nonhigh
vowels were lost earlier than other final syllable rhymes.
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Stops which became word-final by the sound change
discussed in this section were devoiced (118).
The author also refers to the Reistad stone from Norway (pace
Antonsen 1975: 5253), but Antonsens reading and
interpretation must be dismissed on both epigraphic and
linguistic grounds. A close inspection of the Reistad stone
(November 7, 2003) convinced the present reviewer that the
standard reading unnam (instead of Antonsens *unnamz)
must be upheld (see Schulte 2004: 7778 with references).
According to the standard view, unnam is a strong preterite
(semantically I undertook vel sim., class IV verb neman) with aapocope (Krause 1971: 86).3 Ringes excursus on *unnamz is
not to the point (118). There is, however, another inscription
that corroborates the above chronology.
Boutkan, in The Germanic Auslautgesetze, analyzed the final
syllables of transitional inscriptions (ca. 550650 AD), one of
them being Istaby (Blekinge, Sweden, around 650 AD).
Boutkan (1995: 36) noted the retention of runic -a (as a
reflex of Gmc. -an) in the name element -wulafa (o-stem acc.
sing.) wolf.4 This retained ending cannot represent the same
phonological value as -a in horna on Gallehus horn A around
400 AD. Ringe also mentions these two forms in his chapter
on Auslautgesetze affecting nasals with the short remark:
vowel still written in Runic wulafa (86). As Syrett (1994: 51
note 39) pointed out, the spelling [-wulafa; M.S.] is most
likely intended to represent a final reduced syllable about to
be apocopated, though it is difficult to account for such a
spelling tradition. Some runologists argued for a svarabhakti
in word-final position, but this seems unlikely phonologically,
since epenthetic vowels typically intrude into consonant
clusters. (On epenthetic regulation of speech syllable
structure see Schulte 2006: 125126.) In sum, the transitional
form -wulafa (with -a = [-e] < PIE *-om) most likely supports
Ringes chronological argument (cf. 86, 118).
This interpretation is also valid, if Eyrssons alternative interpretation of

the Reistad stone is followed (see Eyrsson 1999: 195199).
4
Boutkan (1995: 36) also notes that the Istaby inscription is syncopated
otherwise: a-syncope after long stem/_z, r: o-stem nominative singular -wulafz
< O[ld] R[unic] -az. For a definition of Transitional Runic see Schulte 2006:
119 with note 3.
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Nominal n-stems
A category that defies a sound analysis so far is the n-stem
paradigm, in particular the nom. sing. of the masculine n-stems
in North Gmc. In Ringes view, [t]his is a good example of
how morphological remodeling can make reconstruction
impossible (275). Most scholars today would probably
subscribe to the standard view based on Lid 1952, although it
necessitates two stages of intraparadigmatic levelling: 1.
(Early Runic -o) -a (Early Runic -a), and 2. - (due to
apocope) -i / e (re-introduction on the model of the ijanstems; 275). For detailed discussion see Nielsen 2000: 154 with
references.
Recently, Nedoma (2005) put forward weighty arguments
against the communis opinio (cf. also Schulte 2006: 134). He
emphasizes, among other things, that the variant -o = - (PIE
*-n) is well attested in Early Runic (e.g. niijo, wagnijo :
swarta, laguewa). Analogical remodeling is therefore not
imperative. In his scenario, nom. sing. ON (OIcel.) -e, -i in the
masculine n-stems goes back to PIE *(n) via Early Runic -a = -
(= ). (Cf. Greek poimn.) In Nedomas formulation:
Trifft dies das Richtige, so haben die nordgermanischen
Sprachen
den
aus
dem
grundsprachlichen
hysterokinetischen
Akzentuationstyp
stammenden
Nominativ Sg. auf * (n) als urn. -a = - und an. (aisl.) -e,
-i
im
Paradigma
der
maskulinen
n-Stmme
verallgemeinert (Nedoma 2005: 173)
As indicated by the runic evidence, the endings -o and -a coexisted side by side for a considerable span of time (perhaps
until the middle of the 3rd century), before the o-forms disappeared (cf. Nielsen 2000: 154). Due to an established
graphemephoneme link between -a and - in Early Runic (cf.
the verbal category of the 3sg. pret. of weak verbs), it is
eminently possible that ON -e, -i directly reflects Early Runic -a.
It is worth noting that this problem depends heavily on ones
credo concerning the OGmc macrogroups, first and foremost
the dialectal position of Northwest Gmc (cf. above). This point
at issue will probably occupy scholars in future research.
A clear case of internal restructuring is provided by the
neuter a-stem ON nafn name which derives from an
inherited neuter *nam] (275). Ringe does not mention the
crucial internal factor that may have necessitated
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morphological differentiation, viz. prefix loss. In the Nordic

language system, the distinction between *namn- name and
its ga-derivations (*ga-namn-(n) [-a(n)] masc. namesake,
*ga-namn-(n) fem. namesake) had to be upheld despite
reduction and prefix loss (cf. Magnsson 1995: 656 under
nafni, nafna). To avoid merger, the system was able to respond
by morphological differentiaton, and the simplex *namnjoined the large class of neuter a-stems (ON land), whereas its
derivations nafni, nafna followed the weak n-declension (cf.
PGmc ga-sin-(n) [-a(n)] masc. > ON sinni follower).
Besides, neuter n-stems in ON are restricted to a small lexical
group of body organs, e.g. auga, lunga, hjarta. Ringe observes
traces of this restructuring tendency towards a-stems (PIE ostems) already in PGmc:
Both the fact that ON nafn has been remodeled as an astem and the Goth. dat. pl. namnam suggest that a-stem
endings had spread to those plurals already in PGmc.
(275)
Sievers Law
Few sound laws have occupied scholars as much as Sievers
Law, and Ringe too devotes a detailed discussion to it (67150,
221224 et pass.). He maintains that Sievers Law continued to
remain an operative process until early Germanic. A case in
point is PGmc *wurkijan (Gothic warkjan, ON yrkja):
PIE *wgyti (s)he is working, * wgynti they are
working (cf. Av. vereziieiti, verezinti) > *wurgiti, wurginti
> PGmc *wurki (s)he works/makes, *wurkijani they
work/make (cf. Goth. warkei, warkjand, OE wyrc,
wyrca). (120)
To account for various reapplications of Sievers rule, Ringe

stresses its long-term productivity:
The reapplication of Sievers Law is hard to understand if
it was an ordered rule, fossilized within the phonology of
the language but no longer operative on the postlexical
phonetic level; but it makes sense if Sievers Law was
operating as a surface filter, applying to any derived input
that met its structural description in much the same way
as modern German obstruent devoicing. (120; my
emphasis)
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Some twenty years ago, Koivulehto 1986 investigated possible

reflexes of *j ~ *ij in GmcFinnic loanwords. In particular, he
focused on an early group of loanwords which he labelled the
ts-layer, e.g. Finnic maltsa chickweed, rowan-berry
(Koivulehto 1986: 258272). Koivulehto observed that the
sequence of PGmc dental (d, t, , ) plus semivowel /j/ yielded
Finnic /ts/ with an affricate /cc/ as an intermediary stage.
This change presupposed that early Finnic had substituted the
syllabic variant *i (or *ij) by unsyllabic *j:
Finnic maltsa chickweed, rowan-berry < early PFi. *malcca
early PGmc. *malija- adj. soft, brittle (Koivulehto
1986: 258260)5
This analysis ties in nicely with Ringes statement that Sievers

Law in early PGmc is not yet fossilized and hence readjustable on the surface level (120121). In his article,
Koivulehto concluded that the original Germanic forms must
have had unsyllabic *j rather than *ij, but it now is more
convenient to state that early Proto-Finnic was insensitive to
Sievers Law, which most probably was productive in early
PGmc. One encounters a markedly different situation in Early
Runic (ca. 150550 AD) where ij is generalized in certain
environments. This may indicate that the law is no longer
operative (cf. 132). In particular, note the name form harija
(Skng stone, Sweden, 5th century) and the dithematic
names swaba-harjaz and staina-warijaz (both on the R stone;
Sweden, ca. 400 AD) exhibiting both j and ij after a light root
syllable har- or war-, respectively. The type stainawarijaz has
been compared to polysyllabic stems in Gothic, e.g. ragin-eis
counselor (cf. hard-eis < PGmc *-ijaz). Although Ringe makes
several good points, he refrains from evaluating the OGmc
evidence systematically.
Final remarks
This short discussion has centred on questions of focus
and methodology in Ringes book. One objection against the
5
Other candidates for this ts-layer are Finnic otsa forehead (early PGmc
*an ija-, PIE *ant iio-), Finnic ratsas riding, ride- (early PGmc *rai ijaz, cf.
ON rei-r fit for riding), Finnic vitsa rod, switch (early PGmc *wiij, cf. ON
vi, genitive sing. vi-jar), and finally Finnic katsoa watch, guard (PGmc. *gt
i
ja-, ON gta). See Koivulehto 1986: 258272.
408
JIES Reviews
rigorous cladistic approach (23) is that it possibly

overemphasizes the regularity of sound change (2). The fact
that sound change is sensitive to grammatical categories and
internal structures partly undermines the uniformitarian
principle. Moreover, Ringe seems to presuppose a variationfree proto-language as the point of departure for all the OGmc
dialects. Preverbation in Germanic is a striking counterexample simply because there was no uniform PGmc prefix
system that would allow for common PGmc reconstructions
such as *andi-bindan to untie, fra-beudan to forbid, or *zdrban to drive out (291). The reason is that these
compounds represent single language developments, hence
the variation in the different OGmc dialects. 6 Several
centuries ago, Edda philologists tried to transgress the syncope
barrier towards PGmc and to present Eddic lays in a ProtoNorse shape with all its lost preverbs and prefixes restituted. It
goes without saying that this kind of enterprise is an artificial
game.
More to the point, even Early Runic though often
characterized as a koine is less uniform than commonly
believed; it exhibits significant variation in several grammatical
categories (cf. Syrett 1994; Nielsen 2000). Another vital fact is
that our view of the Gmc dialect grouping influences the
assessment of disputed categories, and vice versa (see explicitly
Nielsen 2000: 154 on the n-stem inflexion). This
demonstrates that final vowels play a prominent role enabling
us to assess PGmc. But Ringes Linguistic History of English is not
yet complete perhaps we may hope for closer readings and
interpretations in the next volume.
References
Antonsen, Elmer H.
1975
A Concise Grammar of the Older Runic Inscriptions. Tbingen:
Niemeyer.
2002
Runes and Germanic Linguistics. Berlin and New York: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Boutkan, Dirk
1995
The Germanic Auslautgesetze. Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi.
6
Cf., for example, Gothic du-ginnan vs. OE be-ginnan, on-(-)ginnan, OS beginnan, OHG bi-(in-)ginnan, OFris. bi-jenna/-genna. For discussion see Schulte
2007.
409
JIES Reviews
Boutkan, Dirk and Sjoerd Michiel Siebinga
2005
Old Frisian Etymological Dictionary. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Eyrsson, rhallur
1999
The runic inscription on the Reistad stone: The earliest
Landnmabk. In: Bammesberger, Alfred (ed.) Pforzen und
Bergakker. Neue Untersuchungen zu Runeninschriften, 189202.
Gttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
Koivulehto, Jorma
1986
Die Sieverssche Regel im Lichte der germanisch-finnischen
Lehnbeziehungen. In: Bela Brogyanyi and Thomas Krmmelbein
(eds.) Germanic Dialects: Linguistic and Philological Investigations,
249294. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Krause, Wolfgang
1971
Die Sprache der urnordischen Runeninschriften. Heidelberg: C.
Winter.
Kuhn, Hans
1933
Zur Wortstellung und Wortbetonung im Altgermanischen. Beitrge
zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 57: 1-109.
Liberman, Anatoly
2005
Word Origins and How we Know them. Etymology for everyone. Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press.
Lid, Nils
1952
Den nordiske nominativ singularis av maskuline an-stammer.

Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap 16: 237240
Magnsson, sgeir Blndal

1995
slensk Orsifjabk. 3rd ed. Reykjavk: Orabk Hsklans.
Nedoma, Robert
2005
Urnordisch -a im Nominativ Singularis der maskulinen n-Stmme.
NOWELE 46/47: 155191.
Nielsen, Hans Frede
1998
A Journey through the History of the English Language in England and
America 1. The Continental Backgrounds of English and its Insular
Development until 1154. Odense: Odense University Press.
2000
The Early Runic Language of Scandinavia. Studies in Germanic Dialect

Geography. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
Page, R. I.
1999
An Introduction to English Runes. 2nd ed. Woodbridge: Boydell
Press.
Schulte, Michael
2004
A new book on runes and Germanic linguistics: Elmer Antonsens
410
2006
2007
JIES Reviews
collected contributions to runology. Norsk Lingvistisk Tidsskrift 22:
7195.
Oral traces in runic epigraphy: Evidence from older and younger
inscriptions. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 18.2: 117151.
Prverbierung in den prosodischen Systemen des
Altgermanischen. NOWELE 50/51: 541.
Syrett, Martin
1994
The Unaccented Vowels of Proto-Norse. Odense: Odense University
Press.
Watkins, Calvert
1995
How to Kill a Dragon. Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. Oxford and
New York: Oxford University Press.
Michael Schulte
Volda University College
The Journal of Indo-European

Studies Monograph Series
1133 13th Street, NW, C-2, Washington, DC 20005
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Proto-Indo-European Syntax:: The Order of Meaningful Elements
Monograph No. 1 By Paul Friedrich
The Argument; AN; NG; Comparison SA~AS; MC (RC; SVO; Homeric Greek
and PIE as Greenbergs III; NG; SA~AS; MC ( RC; SVO; Preverbs and
Prepositions the Locative Auxiliaries; The Eurasian Type III Linguistic
Area; Armenian; Iranian (1) Old Persian; Iranian (2) Avestan; Indic and
Dravidian; Anatolian and its Area; A Special Digression Tocharian Syntax;
The Crucial Evidence of Italic (e.g., Latin); The Evidence of Old Irish; From
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of PIE; Diachronic Perdurability; Recapitulation; Methodological Postscript
Indeterminacy in Syntactic Derivation.
ISBN 0-941694-25-9
1975 (1996), Pages 76, Paperback: $18.00
Linguistic Reconstruction::
Its Potentials and Limitations In New Perspective
Monograph No. 2 By Henrik Birnbaum
Linguistic structure entities, levels processes; Methods of reconstruction;
Diachrony reconstruction and prediction; Grouping genealogy and
typology; Phonological reconstruction; Morphological reconstruction (and
the nature of linguistic change); Syntactic reconstruction; Semantic
reconstruction; Distant genetic relationship and typology toward the
reconstruction of preprotolanguages the case of Nostratic; Linguistic
change and reconstruction.
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Homage to Georges Dumzil

Monograph No. 3 Edited by Edgar Polom
Jean Haudry: Comparative Mythology and Comparative Philology; Jaan
Puhvel: The Warrior at Stake; Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense; Udo Strutynski:
From Swords in the Earth to the Sword in the Stone; C. Scott Littleton: A
Possible Reflection of an Alano-Sarmatian Rite of Passage in the Arthurian
Tradition; Bruce Lincoln: Places Outside Space, Moments Outside Time; Alf
Hiltebeitel: Brothers, Friends, and CharioteersParallel Episodes in the
Irish and Indian Epics; Franois-Xavier Dillmann: Katla and Her DistaffAn
Episode of Tri-Functional Magic in the Eyrbyggja Saga?; J.C. Rivire: The
Three Counsels; T.L. Markey: The Cosmology of Lear and His Daughters;
Eric P. Hamp: Beowulf 2863a [g].
ISBN 0-941694-28-3
412

Essays In Memory of Karl Kernyi
Monograph No. 4 Editor, Edgar C. Polom
Edgar C. Polom: Karl KernyiA biographical sketch; Edgar C. Polom:

Some thoughts on the methodology of Comparative Religion, with special
focus on Indo-European; R. Panikkar: YamaA Myth of the Primordial Man;
Frithjof Hallman: The Labyrinth; Mythology and landscape; Hellmut
Sichtermann: Kernyis humanistic approach to ancient religion; Johannes
Kleinstck: Mythical night and night of a myth; Furi Jesi: Reflections on the
Pseudo-Euripidean Rhesos; Godo Lieberg: The Theologia Tripertita as an
intellectual model; Geo Widengren: Was Not Then Our Heart Burning in
Us?; Hans Peter Isler: The animal frieze in archaic Greek art.
ISBN 0-941694-20-8
The Evolution of Indo-European Nomenclature

For Salmonid Fish::
The Case of Huchen (Hucho Spp.)
Monograph No. 5 By A. Richard Diebold, Jr.
Preamble Dramatis Personae; Novel referents conceptual and lexical
gaps, and lexical-semantic change; Novel faunal species; Filling lexical gaps;
Ethnoscience and folk biological taxonomy; IE Salmonid semantic
domains and word-fields; Salmonid referents what are the Salmonids?; A
metaterminology for Salmonids; Indo-Europeans and Salmonids huchen
etymologies; Slavic Bighead Hungarian Galca; Czech Siven as Gray(Fish);
Serbocroatian Mldica; German Lurker? Taunter? Jughead; Rumanian
Lostrita; Russian Taiment; Russian Cevica Goi; Huchen Hypernymy;
Bibliography.
ISBN 0-941694-24-0
Essays on Germanic Religion

Monograph No. 6 By Edgar C. Polom
Introduction; The Indo-European Component in Germanic Religion; Some
Comments on Vlusp, Stanzas 17-18; Divine Names in Indo-European;
Germanic Religion; Postscript.
ISBN 0-941694-34-8
1989, Pages 148, Paperback, Illustrated: $30.00

Mohammad Ali Jazayery: Edgar C. PolomA Biographical Sketch; Homer
Thomas: Indo-EuropeanFrom the Paleolithic to the Neolithic; Emily Lyle:
Markedness and Encompassment in Relation to Indo-European Cosmogony;
V. N. Toporov: Indo-European *egh-om (*He-gh-om) *men-. 1 Sg. Pron. Pers.
in the Light of Glossogenetics; Hans Henrich Hock: On the Origin and Early
Development of the Sacred Sanskrit Syllable OM*; G.A. Klimov: The
Kartvelian Analogue of Proto-Indo-European *sumb(h)o- spongy, porous;
Vitaly Shevoroshkin: On Carian Language and Writing; F. Villar: The
Numeral Two and Its Number Marking; Onofrio Carruba: Searching for
Woman in Anatolian and Indo-European by; H. Craig Melchert: Death and the
Hittite King; Jos Weitenberg: The Meaning of the Expression To Become a
413
Wolf in Hittite by; Pierre Swiggers: The Indo-European Origin of the

Greek MetersAntoine Meillets Views and their Reception by mile
Benveniste and Nikolai Trubetzkoy; K.R. Norman: As Rare as Fig-Flowers;
Guy Jucquois: Rgles dchange, voeux monastiques et tripartition
fonctionnelle; Wolfgang Meid: Ethnos und Sprache.
ISBN 0-941694-37-2
Apollo the Wolf-God

Monograph No. 8 By Daniel E. Gershenson
Apollo and the Wolf; Evidence for the Wind-wolf; The Wolf-name in
Toponymy; Heroes of Greek Myth who bear the Wolf-name or partake in its
wider context; The Dolphin and the Wolf; The Wolf and Death; Werewolfconfraternities and wind evidence; Epilogue; The Stoic Explanation of the
epithet Lykeios; The Trial of Old Thies, 1691; Lykos and LykeiosNotes
toward a theory of the forms of ancient Indo-European religiosity; Indexes.
ISBN 0-941694-38-0

Kenneth G. Zysk: Reflections on an Indo-European Healing Tradition; Peter
Buchholz: Ancient LoreOral Tradition in Medieval Scandinavia;
Dominique Briquel: Twins and Twins in the Legend of the Founding of
Rome; Elmer Seebold: Was Haben die Germanen unter einer Braut
verstanden?; Stephan Zimmer: On Language GenesisThe Case of Afrikaans;
Joe Salmons: Northwest Indo-European Vocabulary and Substrate Phonology;
Hans F. Nielsen: Continental Old English and S-Plurals in Old and Middle
Dutch; Daniel Dubuisson: Les enjeux dune exegse; Franoise Bader: Boire
de leau; Norbert Oettenger: Der Wolf im Helmbrecht; Karl Horst
Schmidt: Zur Vorgeschichte des Keltischen und Germanischen; Riccardo
Ambrosini: On The Wanderer and The Seafarer Once Again, but from a
Numerological Point of View; Viktorija N. Jarceva: The Problem of
Existence of the Literary Language in Anglo-Saxon Britain; Rgis Boyer: Sur
la construction dsgard r.
ISBN 0-941694-39-9
The Glottalic Theory::

Survey and Synthesis
Monograph No. 10 By Joseph C. Salmons
The Prehistory of the Glottalic Theory; T H E G L O T T A L I C T H E O R Y : Classic
Statements of the Theory; Critical Responses; Refinements & Additional
Variants. I M P L I C A T I O N S O F T H E G L O T T A L I C T H E O R Y : Reformulating
Some Laws of IE; Dialectal Developments; Distant Genetic Relationships;
K E Y I S S U E S A N D S O M E M I D D L E G R O U N D : The Traditional Plain Voiced
Series; The Traditional Voiced Aspirate Series; T H E C H R O N O L O G I C A L
S O L U T I O N : On the Role of Typology in Reconstruction; Theoretical Issues;
Phonetics & Phonology in Reconstruction; A Note on Linguistic
Methodology; Summary; Conclusion, and Outlook.
ISBN 0-941694-40-2
414

The Anthropomorphic Stelae of the Ukraine::
The Early Iconography of the Indo-Europeans
Monograph No. 11 By D. Ya. Telegin & J. P. Mallory
T H E C O P P E R A G E S T E L A E O F T H E U K R A I N E : Introduction; Simple Stelae;

Statue-Menhirs; Altar Sanctuaries; The Creators of the Stelae. I M A G E R Y A N D
M Y T H : Context; Anatomy and Dress of the Statue-Menhirs; Anatomy and
Mythology; The Stela as Royal Figure; Indo-European Deities?; Diffusion?.
S T E L A - O B E L I S K S O F T H E C I M M E R I A N S : Introduction; Single-Headed
Stelae; Deer Stones of the North Caucasus; The Function of the Cimmerian
Stelae. S T E L A E O F T H E S C Y T H I A N S A N D S A R M A T I A N S : Introduction;
Statue-Stelae; Schematic Stelae and Statutory Reliefs; The Georgiyevka Stela.
S L A V I C S T E L A E : The Zbruch Idol; The Sanctuary on Bogt Mountain. S T O N E
B A B A S O F T H E P O L O V T S I A N S . Conclusions; AppendixA Catalogue of
Copper Age Stelae.
ISBN 0-941694-45-3
1994, Pages 134, Clothbound, Illustrated: $40.00
Linguistic Typology, Universality

and the Realism of Reconstruction
Monograph No. 12 By Frederick W. Schwink
Relationship and Reconstruction; Principles of Typology; Typology and
Reconstruction; Indo-European Phonology; Morphology; Indo-European
Nominal Morphology; Indo-European Verbal Morphology; Bibliography.
ISBN 0-941694-43-7
The Sigmatic Aorist in Indo-European:

Evidence for the Space-Time Hypothesis
Monograph No. 13 By Bridget Drinka
Introduction; Indo-Iranian; Old Church Slavonic; Latin; Greek; Other
Languages (Hittite, Tocharian, Armenian, Celtic); Conclusion, Language
Specific and General.
ISBN 0-941694-46-1
A Student Guide to the Genitive of the Agent

in Indo-European Languages
ISBN 0-941694-47-X
An Introduction to Old Russian

The Cyrillic Alphabet; Brief Remarks on Phonology; The Adjective, Pronoun
and Numeral; The Noun; The Verb; A Few Remarks on Syntax; Reading
Selections; Vocabulary; References.
ISBN 0-941694-49-6
Indo-European Religion after Dumzil

N. J. Allen: Romulus and the Fourth Function; Wouter Belier: The First
FunctionA Critical Analysis; Enrico Campanile: Today, after Dumzil;
Daniel Dubuisson: Penser Les Mythologiques (Dumzil, Eliade,
Lvi-Strauss); Emily Lyle: Broadening the Perspective on Dumzils Three
415
Functions; Edgar C. Polom: Indo-European and non-Indo-European

Elements in Germanic Myth and Religion; Jaan Puhvel: After Dumzil,
What?; William Sayers: Tripartition in Early IrelandCosmic or Social
Structure?; Jens Peter Schjdt: Archaeology, Language and Comparative
Mythology.
ISBN 0-941694-51-8
The Indo-Europeanization of Northern Europe

Monograph No .17 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley and Martin E. Huld
ANTHROPOLOGY: J.P. Mallory: The Indo-European Homeland
ProblemA Matter of Time; Einar stmo: The Indo-European Question in a
Norwegian Perspective; Algirdas Girininkas: The Narva Culture and the
Origin of Baltic Culture; Rimute Rimantiene and Gintautas Cesnys: The PanEuropean Corded Ware Horizon (A-Horizon) and the Pamari (Baltic
Coastal) Culture; Algimantas Merkevi ius: Burial of the West and East Balts
in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages; Ilze Loze: Some Remarks about Northern
Europeans in the Forming of the Balts; Aleksander Koko: The VistulianDnieper Community of the Sub-Neolithic Cultures; Karlene Jones-Bley:
Ceramics and AgeA Correlation in Early European Pottery. LINGUISTICS:
Martin E. Huld: Meillets Northwest Indo-European Revisited; Saulius
Ambrazas: The Ancient Relationship of the Baltic and Germanic Languages
from the Standpoint of Word Formation; rika Sausverde: Seewrter and
Substratum in Germanic, Baltic and Baltic Finno-Ugrian Languages; Angela
Della Volpe; Indo-European Architectural Terms and the Pre-IndoEuropeans; Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak: The Pre-Germanic Substrata and
Germanic Maritime Vocabulary. CULTURE AND MYTHOLOGY:
Norbertas Velius: Marija Gimbutasthe Investigator of Baltic Mythology;
Miranda Aldhouse Green: Concepts of Sacrifice in Later Prehistoric Europe;
Elvyra Usaiovait 9 : Customs of the Ancient Prussians in German; Walter L.
Brenneman Jr.: Religious Authenticity at the Holy Wells of IrelandA
Methodological Problem; Miriam Robbins Dexter: Dawn-Maid and SunMaidCelestial Goddesses among the Proto-Indo-Europeans; Adrian
Poriuciuc: Indo-European Implications of an Old English Document;
Romualdas
Apanavi ius:
Ancient
Baltic
According
to
Ethnoinstrumentological Data. PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Gintautas
esnys: Anthropological Substratum of the Balts in Prussia and Lithuania;
Irene Bal intene: The Odontological Characteristics of Lithuanian Balts and
their Roots; Ken Jacobs, Jeffrey M. Wyman and Christopher Meiklejohn:
Multi-Ethnicity in Pre-Indo-European Northeast EuropeTheoretical and
Empirical Constraints on the Interpretation of Human Biodiversity; Rimantas
Jankauskas and Adomas Butrimas: Changes of Population Biological Status
during the Indo-Europeanization of Lithuania; Raymond V. Sidrys: The Light
Eye and Hair ClineImplications for Indo-European Migrations to Northern
Europe.
ISBN 0-941694-52-6
ISBN 0-941694-53-4

1996, Paperback: $48.00
416

The Kurgan Culture and The Indo-Europeanization of Europe
Monograph No. 18 Papers by Marija Gimbutas
Edited by Miriam Robbins Dexter and Karlene Jones-Bley
On the Origins of North Indo-Europeans; The Indo-Europeans

Archaeological Problems; The Relative Chronology of Neolithic and
Chalcolithic Cultures in Eastern Europe North of the Balkan Peninsula and
the Black Sea; Proto-Indo-European CultureThe Kurgan Culture During
the Fifth, Fourth, and Third Millenium B.C.; Old Europe c. 7000-3500 B.C.
The Earliest European Civilization Before the Infiltration of the IndoEuropean Peoples; The Beginnings of the Bronze Age of Europe and the
Indo-Europeans 3500-2500 B.C.; An Archeaologists View of *PIE in 1975; The
First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralists into Copper Age Europe; The
Three Waves of the Kurgan People into Old Europe, 4500-2500 B.C.; The
Kurgan Wave #2 (c.3400-3200 B.C.) into Europe and the Following
Transformation of Culture; Primary and Secondary Homeland of the IndoEuropeans, Comments on Gamkrelidze-Ivanov Articles; Remarks on the
Ethnogenesis of the Indo-Europeans in Europe; Accounting for a Great
Change; Review of Archaeology and Language by C. Renfrew; The Collision of
Two Ideologies; The Fall and Transformation of Old Europe.
ISBN 0-941694-56-9
Varia on the Indo-European Past:

Papers in Memory of Marija Gimbutas
Monograph No. 19 Edited by Miriam Robbins Dexter and Edgar C. Polom
Miriam Robbins Dexter: Introduction; E.J.W. Barber: On the Origins of the
vily/rusalki; Frank Battaglia: Goddess Religion in the Early British Isles; Kees
W. Bolle: The Great Goddess; Angela Della Volpe: The Great Goddess, the
Sirens and Parthenope; Miriam Robbins Dexter: The Frightful Goddess
Birds, Snakes and Witches; Michael Herity: Irish and Scandinavian Neolithic
Pottery VesselsSome Comparisons; Martin E. Huld: The Childhood of
HeroesAn Essay in Indo-European Puberty Rites; Karlene Jones-Bley:
Defining Indo-European Burial; W. P. Lehmann: Frozen Residues and
Relative Dating; Wolfgang Meid: Der mythologische Hintergrund der
irischen Saga; Edgar C. Polom: Animals in IE Cult and Religion.
ISBN 0-941694-58-5
Studies in Honor of Jaan Puhvel Part One:

Ancient Languages and Philology
Monograph No. 20 Edited by Dorothy Disterheft, Martin Huld and John
Greppin
Preface; Philip Levine: Bibliography of Jaan PuhvelDear Jaan.
ANATOLIAN MATTERS: Harry A Hoffner Jr.: On Safari in Hittite Anatolia;
Michael Kearns: A. Lydian Etymology for the Name Croesus; Calvert
Watkins: Luvo-Hittite lapan(a). CULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS: Angela
Della Volpe: Problems of Semantic Reconstruction PIE *dei- to show;
Robert L. Fisher; The Lore of the Staff in Indo-European Tradition; John
A.C. Greppin: A Note on the Etymology of English Horehound; Martin E.
Huld: Magic, Metathesis and Nudity in European Thought; Colin Ireland: The
Ambiguous Attitude toward Fosterage in Early Irish Literature.
GRAMMATICAL STUDIES: Dorothy Disterheft: The Evolution of the Indo-
417
European Infinitives; Eric P. Hamp: Intensive and Perfective prin Latin;

Craig Melchert: Denominative Verbs in Anatolian; Erich Neu: Zu einigen
Pronominalformen des Hethitischen. INDOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Jay
Jasanoff: Where Does Skt. bhvati Come From?; Andrew L. Sihler: The Myth
of Direct Reflexes of the PIE Palatal Series in Kati; Cheryl Steets: jahd u
dv mithunaa note on gveda 10.17.1-2. THE LEXICAL DOMAIN: E. J. W.
Barber: On 6ig as protection; Karlene Jones-Bley: Red for the Deada
Corpse of a Different Color; J. P. Mallory: Some Aspects of Indo-European
Agriculture.
ISBN 0-941694-54-2
Studies in Honor of Jaan Puhvel Part Two:

Mythology and Religion
Monograph No. 21 Edited by John Greppin and Edgar C. Polom
John A. C. Greppin: For an Indo-Europeanist, Upon His Retirement;
Franoise Bader: Voix DivinesReflexions Mtalinguistiques IndoEuropennes; Walter L. Brennemann, Jr.: The Drunken and the SoberA
Comparative Study of Lady Sovereignty In Irish and Indic Contexts; Miriam
Robbins Dexter: Born of the FoamGoddesses of River and Sea in the
Kingship in Heaven Myth; Dorothy Disterheft: Irish Evidence for IndoEuropean Royal Consecration; Angelique Gulermovich Epstein: The
Morrigan and the Valkyries; Stephanie W. Jamison: A Gndharva Marriage in
the OdysseyNausicaa and her Imaginary Husband; Linda A. Malcor: First
BathThe Washing of the Child Motif in Christian Art; C. Scott Littleton
and Linda A. Malcor: Did the Alans Reach Ireland? A Reassessment of the
Scythian References in the Lebor Gab la; Erenn; Dean A. Miller: In Search of
Indo-European Inter-Functional War; Edgar C. Polom: Some Reflections on
the Vedic Religious Vocabulary; William Sayers: Psychological Warfare in
Vinland (Erks saga raud a); The Sins of Siegfried; Udo Strutynski: Echoes of
Indo-European War Crimes in the Nibelungenlied and its Analogues.
ISBN 0-941694-55-0
Indo-European, Nostratic and Beyond::

Festschrift for Vitalij V. Shevoroshkin
Monograph No. 22 Edited by Irn Hegeds, Peter A. Michalove
and Alexis Manaster Ramer
Vitalij Viktorovich Shevoroshkin: Selected Publications; Raimo Anttila:
Beating a Goddess out of the Bush?; Vclav Blazek: Indo-European Seven;
Claude Pierre Boisson: The Phonotactics of Sumerian; J. C. Catford: The
Myth of the Primordial Click; Madhav M. Deshpande: Pnini and the
Distinctive Features; Joseph H. Greenberg: Does Altaic Exist?; Eric P.
Hamp: A Far-Out Equation; Irn Heged s: On Grammaticalization in
Nostratic; Pramila Hemrajani: Three Kisses; Peter Edwin Hook: Relative
Clauses in Eastern Shina; Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: Luwian Collective and
Non-Collective Neutral Nouns in ar; Brian D. Joseph: Macrorelationships
and Microrelationships and their Relationship; Mark Kaiser: Rigor or
VigorWhither Distant Linguistic Comparison?; Leonid Kulikov: Vedic
mriyte and other pseudo-passivesNotes on an Accent Shift; Alexis Manaster
Ramer: The Polygenesis of Western Yiddishand the Monogenesis of
Yiddish; Karl Heinrich Menges: Etymological Problems with Words for
Blood in Nostratic and Beyond. Peter A. Michalove: Altaic Evidence for
418
Clusters in Nostratic; Vladimir Orel: New Albanian Etymologies (Balkan

Etymologies 116-145); Ilya Peiros: Macro FamiliesCan a Mistake Be
Detected?; Richard A. Rhodes: On Pronominal Systems; Merritt Ruhlen:
Proto-Amerind *KAPA Finger, Hand and Its Origin in the Old World; Sergei
A. Starostin: On the Consonant Splits in Japanese; Alexander Vovin: Some
Japanese Etymologies.
ISBN 0-941694-59-3
Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp Volume One

Douglas Q. Adams: On the PIE Antecedents of Verbal Accent in Tocharian B;
Francisco R. Adrados: Verbo Celta Antiguo y Verbo Indoeuropeo; Franoise
Bader: Autour de gr. eedua phontique historique des laryngales et prosodie;
Philip Baldi: The Morphological Implications of Certain Prosodic Rules in
Latin; Alfred Bammesberger: Celtic BOIOS; Thomas V. Gamkrelidze: A
Relative Chronology of the Shifts of the Three Stop Series in Indo-European;
Henrik Birnbaum: The PIE Nominal Stem Formations in -i/iy-, -u/uw-, -i/yand Some Related IssuesThe Slavic Evidence; Henry M. Hoenigswald:
Analogy in Cyrene and Elsewhere; Jean Haudry: Religious Polemics In the
Heroic AgeSome Linguistic Hints; Martin E. Huld: Satom, Centum and
Hokum; Stephanie W. Jamison: Sanskrit p rinhya household goods
Semantic Evolution in Cultural Context; Jay H. Jasanoff: An Italo-Celtic
IsoglossThe 3 Pl. Mediopassive in *-ntro; Guy Jucquois & Christophe Vielle:
Illusion, Limites et Perspectives du Comparatisme Indo-EuropenPour en
finir avec le mythe scientifique des proto-langues/-peuples.
ISBN 0-941694-57-7
The Development of Verbal Reduplication in Indo-European

Monograph No. 24 By Mary Niepokuj
Preface; Introduction; Overview; Note on Proto-Indo-European transcription.
THE HIS TOR ICAL BEH AVIO R AN D GRAMMA T ICA LIZAT ION OF
R E D U P L I C A T I V E S Y S T E M S C R O S S - L I N G U I S T - I C A L L Y : Introduction;
Compounding reduplication; Turkish, Diyari, Lardil; Fixed-segment
reduplication; Fixed-vowel reduplication; Tarok nominal reduplication,
Salish, Fe?Fe? Bamileke, Other Niger-Congo languages, Nez Perce, Malay
nouns denoting similarity, Synchronic descriptions, Malay, Javanese,
Georgian; Initial fixed-consonant reduplication; Fixed affix-final consonant;
Affixes with two or more fixed segments; Theoretical approaches to
reduplication, The copy-and-association model, The full-copying approach;
The grammaticalization of reduplicative affixes. T H E S E M A N T I C
B E H A V I O R O F R E D U P L I C A T I O N : Introduction; Plurality of some sort;
Intensification; Childrens reduplication; Expressives and ideophones;
Echo-words; Reduplication for strictly grammatical reasons; Conclusion. T H E
I N D O - E U R O P E A N P E R F E C T : A N O V E R V I E W : Introduction; Vedic Sanskrit;
Gathic Avestan; Greek; Latin; Germanic; Armenian; Old Irish; Tocharian;
Balto-Slavic. I N D O - E U R O P E A N P E R F E C T R E D U P L I C A T I O N : T H E S H A P E
O F T H E P R E F I X : Introduction; The Old Irish prefix; The Latin prefix; The
Sanskrit prefix, The Proto-Indo-European reduplicated prefixa new
analysis. T H E D I S T R I B U T I O N O F P E R F E C T R E D U P L I C A T I O N I N
P R O T O - I N D O - E U R O P E A N : Introduction; Reduplication and o-grade
419
vocalism in Greek and Indo-Iranian; Reduplicated perfects in Western

Indo-European, Old Irish, Latin, Gothic; Perfects based on TeT- roots;
Germanic, Old Irish, Sanskrit, Tocharian, Conclusion. P R E S E N T - T E N S E
R E D U P L I C A T I O N I N I N D O - E U R O P E A N : Introduction; The Vedic Data; The
Greek DataAthematic verbs; Reduplicated thematic stems; Forms with the
suffix *-ske/o-; The shape of the present reduplicating prefix in Proto-IndoEuropean; Other issues. I N D O - E U R O P E A N I N T E N S I V E S : Introduction;
Hittite; Typological parallels; Comparative evidence; The linking vowel -i-.
Conclusion; Further prospects. Bibliography; Index.
ISBN 0-941694-60-7
Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp Volume Two

Jared S. Klein: Early Vedic th and tho; Frederik Kortlandt: PIE
Lengthened Grade in Balto-Slavic; H. Craig Melchert: PIE Dental Stops in
Lydian; T. L. Markey: Deixis, Diathesis, and DualityShifting Fortunes of
the IE 1st and 2nd Plural; Mary Niepokuj: Differentiating SynonymsSome
Indo-European Verbs of Cutting; Alan J. Nussbaum: A Note on Hesychian teru
and teuuaV; Edgar C. Polom: A Few Notes on the Gmc. Terminology
Concerning Time; Don Ringe: On the Origin of 3pl. Imperative -utou;
Helmut Rix: The Pre-Luconian Inscriptions of Southern Italy; Joseph C.
Salmons: Naturalness Syndromes and PIE Voiced Stops; Bernfried
Schlerath: Name and Word in Indo-European; William R. Schmalstieg: Slavic
kamy and the First Person Singular Ending; Karl Horst Schmidt: Zur
Definition des Inselkeltischen; Kazuhiko Yoshida: A Further Remark on the
Hittite Verbal Endings; I pl. -wani and 2 pl. tani; Calvert Watkins: Just Day
Before Yesterday
ISBN 0-941694-62-3

Of Eastern Central Asia
Monograph No. 26 Edited by Victor H. Mair
(in two volumes)
VOLUME 1: A R C H E O L O G Y , M I G R A T I O N A N D N O M A D I S M , L I N G U I S T I C S :
Map of Eastern Central Asia. I N T R O D U C T I O N : Victor H. Mair: Priorities.
A R C H E O L O G Y : AN Zhimin: Cultural Complexes of the Bronze Age in the
Tarim Basin and Surrounding Areas; Elena E. Kuzmina: Cultural Connections
of the Tarim Basin People and Pastoralists of the Asian Steppes in the Bronze
Age; David W. Anthony: The Opening of the Eurasian Steppe at 2000 BCE;
Asko Parpola: Aryan Languages, Archeological Cultures, and Sinkiang
Where Did Proto-Iranian Come into Being and How Did It Spread?; Fredrik
T. Hiebert: Central Asians on the Iranian PlateauA Model for Indo-Iranian
Expansionism; SHUI Tao: On the Relationship between the Tarim and
Fergana Basins in the Bronze Age; HE Dexiu: A Brief Report on the
Mummies from the Zaghunluq Site in Chrchn County; J.P. Mallory: A
European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia; Colin Renfrew: The Tarim
Basin, Tocharian, and Indo-European OriginsA View from the West.
M I G R A T I O N A N D N O M A D I S M : Karl Jettmar: Early Migrations in Central
Asia; Natalia I. Shishlina and Fredrik T. Hiehert: The Steppe and the Sown
Interaction between Bronze Age Eurasian Nomads and Agriculturalists;
420
Jeannine Davis-Kimball: Tribal Interaction between the Early Iron Age

Nomads of the Southern Ural Steppes, Semirechive, and Xinjiang; Claudia
Chang and Perry A. Tourtellotte: The Role of Agro-pastoralism in the
Evolution of Steppe; Culture in the Semirechye Area of Southern Kazakhstan
during the Saka/Wustun Period (600 BCE-400 CE); Tzehtley Chiou-Peng:
Western Hunan and Its Steppe Affinities. L I N G U I S T I C S : Eric P. Hamp: Whose
Were the Tocharians?Linguistic Subgrouping and Diagnostic Idiosyncrasy;
Werner Winter: Lexical Archaisms in the Tocharian Languages;
Georges-Jean Pinault: Tocharian Languages and Pre-Buddhist Culture;
Douglas Q. Adams: On the History and Significance of Some Tocharian B
Agricultural Terms; Alexander Lubotsky: Tocharian Loan Words in Old
ChineseChariots, Chariot Gear, and Town Building; Don Ringe, Tandy
Warnow, Ann Taylor, Alexander Michailov, and Libby Levison:
Computational Cladistics and the Position of Tocharian; Juha Janhunen, The
Horse in East AsiaReviewing the Linguistic Evidence; John Colarusso:
Languages of the Dead; Kevin Tuite: Evidence for Prehistoric Links between
the Caucasus and Central AsiaThe Case of the Burushos; LIN Meicun: Qilian
and KunlunThe Earliest Tokharian Loan-words in Ancient Chinese;
Penglin Wang: A Linguistic Approach to Inner Asian Ethnonyms; William
S-Y. Wang: Three Windows on the Past. VOLUME 2: G E N E T I C S A N D
P H Y S I C A L A N T H R O P O L O G Y : Paolo Francalacci: DNA Analysis on Ancient
Desiccated Corpses from Xinjiang (China)Further Results; Tongmao Zhao:
The Uyghurs, a Mongoloid-Caucaseid Mixed PopulationGenetic Evidence
and Estimates of Caucasian Admixture in the Peoples Living in Northwest
China; HAN Kangxin: The Physical Anthropology of the Ancient Populations
of the Tarim Basin and Surrounding Areas. M E T A L L U R G Y : Ke Peng: The
Andronovo Bronze Artifacts Discovered in Toquztara County in Ili, Xinjiang;
Jianjun Mei and Colin Shell: Copper And Bronze Metallurgy in Late
Prehistoric Xinjiang; Emwa C. Bunker: Cultural Diversity in the Tarim Basin
Vicinity and Its Impact on Ancient Chinese Culture; Katheryn M. Linduff:
The Emergence and Demise of Bronze-Producing Cultures Outside the
Central Plain of China. T E X T I L E S : E.J.W. Barber: Bronze Age Cloth and
Clothing of the Tarim BasinThe Krorn (Loulan) and Qumul (Elami)
Evidence. Irene Good: Bronze Age Cloth and Clothing of the Tarim Basin
The Chrchn Evidence. G E O G R A P H Y A N D C L I M A T O L O G Y : Harold C.
Fleming: At the Vortex of Central AsiaMummies as Testimony to
Prehistory; Kenneth J. Hs: Did the Xinjiang Indo-Europeans Leave Their
Home Because of Global Cooling? H I S T O R Y : Michael Puett: China in Early
Eurasian HistoryA Brief Review of Recent Scholarship on the Issue; E.
Bruce Brooks: Textual Evidence for 04c Sino-Bactrian Contact. M Y T H O L O G Y
A N D E T H N O L O G Y : Denis Sinor: The Myth of Languages and the Language of
Myth; C. Scott Littleton: Were Some of the Xinjiang Mummies
Epi-Scythians? An Excursus in Trans-Eurasian Folklore and Mythology;
CHEN Chien-wen: Further Studies on the Racial, Cultural, and Ethnic
Affinities of the Yuezhi; Dolkun Kamberi: Discovery of the Tklimakanian
Civilization during, a Century of Tarim Archeological Exploration (ca.
1886-1996); Dru C. Gladney: Ethnogenesis and Ethnic Identity in China
Considering the Uygurs and Kazaks. C O N C L U S I O N : Victor H. Mair: Die
SprachmbeAn Archeolinguistic Parable. A P P E N D I X : Victor H. Mair and
421
Dolkun Kamberi: Place, People, and Site Names of the Uyghur Region
Pertinent to the Archeology of the Bronze Age and Iron Age.
ISBN 0-941694-66-6
1998, Pages 912, Paperback,

2-volumes, with maps and illustrations: $96.00
Proceedings of the Seventh UCLA Indo-European Conference:

Los Angeles, 1995
Monograph No. 27 Edited by Angela della Volpe
in collaboration with Edgar C. Polom
Henning Andersen: A Glimpse of the Homeland of the SlavsEcological and
Cultural Change in Prehistory; Jeannine Davis-Kimball: Burial Practices
Among the Iranian Sarmatians; Angelique Gulermovich Epstein: Divine
DevouringFurther Notes on the Morrigan and the Valkyries; John D.
Frauzel: Impersonal Absolutes in Indo-Iranian, Greek, Latin and Baltic and
the Origin of the Indo-European Absolute Construction; Gayan Hagopian:
The Classical Armenian Term Skndik; Yelena Izbitser: Wheeled Vehicles and
the Homeland of the Indo-Europeans; Anatoly Liberman: English Girl under
the Asterisked Sky of the Indo-Europeans; Dean A. Miller: Destroyer or
Builder and other BifurcationsNotes on Indo-European Sovereignty;
Marianna Nikolaidou: Religious Symbols in Minoan Scripts and
IconographyElements of Formulaic Expression; Yevgeniy Novitskiy:
Semantic Analysis of the Early Metal Period Sculpture of the Northern Black
Sea Region; Christopher M. Stevens: The Consonants of German and
Germanic.
ISBN 0-941694-64-X
Proceedings of the Ninth UCLA Indo-European Conference:

Monograph No. 28 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley, Angela Della Volpe,
Miriam Robbins Dexter, and Martin E. Huld
Theo Vennemann: Andromeda and the Apples of the Hesperides; Vycheslav
Ivanov: Indo-European Expressions of Totality and the Invitation to the Feast
of All the Gods; Miriam Robbins Dexter: Queen Medb, Female Autonomy in
Ancient Ireland, and Irish Matrilineal Traditions; Anna M. Ranero: An Old
Indo-European Motif RevisitedThe Mortal Combat between Father and
Son; Christopher Wilhelm: Prometheans and the CaucasusThe Origins of
the Prometheus Myth; Andrew Minard: Of Horses and HumansThe Divine
Twins in Celtic Mythology and Folklore; Dean Miller: The King, The Hero
and the GodsAn Exploratory Note on the Functions and the Supernatural;
Martin E. HuldAlbanian Evidence for the Sigmatic Aorist; Kazuhiko
Yoshida: Assibilation in Hittite. Index.
ISBN 0-941694-65-8
On the Bifurcation and Repression Theories

of Germanic and German
Monograph No. 29 By Christopher M. Stevens
Evidence for the bifurcation and repression theories of German is evaluated
and the author presents new evidence in support of the traditional inventory
422
of Proto-Germanic consonants, as well as for the traditional view of the origin

and spread of the Second Consonant Shift.
ISBN 0-941694-67-4

Birthday
Volume 1:: Language Change and Phonology
Monograph No. 30 Edited by Edgar C. Polom & Carol F. Justus
Preface; Winfred P. Lehmann List of Publications; Mohammad Ali Jazayery:
Winfred P. Lehmann An Appreciation. I. ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE
CHANGE: A. E A R L Y E U R O P E : Edgar C. Polom; A Few Remarks on
Proto-Indo-European Substrates; Francisco Villar: Hispanoceltica o
Celtibrico. B. G R A M M A T I C A L C H A N G E : Charles J. Bailey: How Grammars
of English Have Miscued; T. Givn: Internal Reconstruction, on its Own. C.
G E R M A N I C D A T A : Elmer H. Antonsen: Reng di Pr Vingi (Am. 4.2) Vingi
distorted them Omitted runesA question of typology? Wolfgang Meid:
wair und andere Bezeichnungen fr Mann im Gotischen. D. N U M E R A L S :
Onofrio Carruba: Die indogermanischen ZahlwrterNeue Ergebnisse und
Perspektiven; Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: On Terms for Half, Moiety in
Indo-European and Germanic; Eugenio Lujn Martinez: Towards a Typology
of Change in Numeral Systems. II. PHONOLOGY: A. P H O N O L O G I C A L
U N I V E R S A L S : Henry M. Hoenigswald: Secondary Split, Gap-filling &
Bifurcation in Historical Phonology; Gregory K. Iverson & Joseph Salmons:
Umlaut as Regular Sound ChangeThe Phonetic Basis of Ingenerate
Umlaut; Frans Van Coetsam: Umlaut as a Reflex of Accentual Structure. B.
P H O N O L O G I C A L T Y P O L O G Y : Thomas V. Gamkrelidze: Italic Consonantism
in the Light of the Glottalic Theory; Frederik Kortlandt: Lachmanns Law
Again; Ladislav Zgusta: Some Thoughts on the Laryngeal and Glottalic
Theories: Frederick W. Schwink: On the Role of Typology in Reconstructing
Phonological Rules. C. I E P H O N O L O G I C A L P A R T I C U L A R S : Anatoly
Liberman: Schrfung / stootoon and Tgheitsakzent / sleeptoon in the
Rhein-Limburg area and Their Scandinavian Analogues; Franoise Bader:
Fonctions des allitrations; Werner Winter: Consonant Harmony in
Armenian.
ISBN 0-941694-68-2

Birthday
Volume 2:: Grammatical Universals & Typology
Monograph No. 31 Edited by Carol F. Justus & Edgar C. Polom
P R E F A C E : Grammatical Abbreviations; Bibliographical Abbreviations. I.
UNIVERSAL ISSUES: Paolo Ramat: On Categories and Categorizations;
Pieter A. M. Seuren: Topic and Comment; Robert Longacre: A Footnote to
Lehmanns OV/VO Typology. II. TYPOLOGICAL ISSUES: A. C A T E G O R I E S
A N D R E L A T I O N S : Theodora Bynon: Schleichers Reconstruction of a
SentenceBack to Pre-Pre-Indo-European; Francisco R. Adrados: Hacia una
tipologa de las combinaciones de rasgos lingusticos; Henrik Birnbaum: On
423
the Relationship of Typology and Genealogy in Language Classification

Some Theoretical Considerations and Applications to Indo-European;
Anthony Aristar: Typology and the Saussurean Dichotomy. B. C O N S T I T U E N T
O R D E R : Subhadra Kumar Sen: On the Syntax of the Anitta Text; Douglas
Mitchell: Lehmanns Use of Syntactic Typology; Michael Clyne: Typology and
Language Change in Bilingualism and Trilingualism. C. A L I G N M E N T &
TY PE:
Bridget
Drinka:
Alignment
in
Early
CONTENTIV E
Proto-Indo-European; Helena Kurzov: Syntax in the Indo-European
Morphosyntactic Type; Georgij A. Klimov: On the Pre-accusative Component
of the Structure of the Kartvelian Languages; Karl Horst Schmidt: On
Congruence in Languages of Active Typology; Lszl Desz: On the
Structuring of Early Indo-European in Areal-Typological Perspective;
Bernard Comrie & Maria Polinsky: Gender in Historical Perspective
Radial Categories Meet Language; Brigitte Bauer: Impersonal Habet
constructions in LatinAt the Crossroads of Indo-European Innovation; Carol
F. Justus: Indo-European havea Grammatical Etymology.
ISBN 0-941694-69-0
Proceedings of the Tenth UCLA Indo-European Conference:

Introduction; LINGUISTIC INVESTIGATIONS: Calvert Watkins: A Celtic
Miscellany; Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: Palatalization and Labiovelars in Luwian;
Darya Kavitskaya: Vowel Epenthesis and Syllable Structure in Hittite; Ilya
Yakubovich: Stative Suffix / i-a/ in the Verbal System of old Indic; Carol F.
Justus: The Arrival of Italic and Germanic have in Late Indo-European;
Apostolos N. Athanassakis: keanos Mythic and Linguistic Origins; Martin E.
Huld: IE bear Ursus arctos, Ursa Major, and Ursa minor. STUDIES IN POETIC
DICTION: Dean Miller: Kings Communicating - Royal Speech and the
Fourth Function; Thomas R. Walsh: Towards the Poetics of Potions - Helens
Cup and Indo-European Comparanda; Ralph Gallucci: Studies in Homeric
Epic Tradition; Edwin D. Floyd: Cometas, On LazarusA Resurrection of
Indo-European Poetics? INDO-EUROPEAN EXPANSION: Edwin F. Bryant:
The Indo-Aryan Invasion DebateThe Logic of the Response; Jeannine
Davis-Kimball: Priestesses, Enarees, and Other Statuses among Indo-Iranian
Peoples; Andrew Sherratt: Echoes of the Big BangThe Historical Context
of Language Dispersal.
ISBN 0-941694-70-4
Miscellanea Indo-Europea
Edgar C. Polom: Introduction; Alain de Benoist: Bibliographie
Chronologique des tudes Indo-Europenes; Garrett Olmsted: Archaeology,
Social Evolution, and the Spread of Indo-European Languages and Cultures;
Alexander Husler: Nomadenhypothese und Ursprung der Indogermanen;
Franoise Bader: Homre et le plasge; Carol Justus: Can a Counting System
be an Index of Linguistic Relationships?; Nick Allen: Hinduism,
Structuralism and Dumzil; Dean Miller: Who Deals with the Gods? Kings
and Other Intermediaries; Edgar C. Polom: IE Initial /b/ & Gmc. Initial
424
/p/; Edgar C. Polom: Views on Developments in Indo-European Religions

During the Last Decade of So.
ISBN 0-941694-71-2
Sub-Grammatical Survival::
Indo-European s-mobile and its Regeneration in Germanic
Monograph No. 34 By Mark R. V. Southern
Introduction; The Question; Phonological Distribution; Root Structure.
SandhiMosphological & Word-Boundary Issues, Phonetics and Language
Acquisition; Germanic Layers of EvidenceThe Continuation of the
Linguistic Process. The Cross-Cultural ContextPhonetics and Phrasal
Domains, Comparative Baltic Evidence, Implications. Summation.
ISBN 0-941694-72-0
Proceedings of the Eleventh UCLA Indo-European Conference:

Los Angeles, June 4-5, 1999
Monograph No.35 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld,
Angela Della Volpe
Introduction; Language Abbreviations; Stephanie Jamison: On Translating
the Rig VedaThree questions; Jorma Koivulehto: Finno-Ugric Reflexes of
North-West Indo-European and Early Stages of Indo-Iranian; Olga Petrova:
Grimms Law in Optimality Theory; Joshua T. Katz: Evening DressThe
Metaphorical Background of Latin uesper and Greek speroV; Martin E. Huld:
Reinventing the Wheelthe Technology of Transport and Indo-European
Expansions; Kristin M. Reichardt: Curse Formulae in Hittite and
Hieroglyphic Luwian; Ilya Yakubovich: Laryngeals from Velars in HittiteA
Triple-Headed Argument; David Atkins: An Alternative Principle of
Succession in the Hittite Monarchy; Christopher Wilhelm: On the Possible
Origins of the Philistines; Sandra Olsen: Reflections of Ritual Behavior at
Botai, Kazakhstan; John Leavitt: The Cow of Plenty in Indo-Iranian and Celtic
Myth; Betsy McCall: Metathesis, Deletion, Dissimilallon and Consonant
Ordering in Proto-Greek; Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen: The Growth of IE
AblautContrastive Accent and Vddhi; Harold Koch: Order and Disorder in
the Reconstruction of the Ablaut Pattern of Athematic Verbs in
Proto-Indo-European; Carol F. Justus: The Age of Indo-European Present -R
Person Endings; Alexander Nicholaev: PIE Ergativity and the Genitive in
*-osyo; Anatoly Liberman: Pseudolaryngeals (Glottal Stops) and the Twilight
of Distinctive Voice in Germanic; Vycheslav V. Ivanov: Early
Slavic/Indo-Iranian Lexical Contacts; Index
ISBN 0-941694-73-9
The One-eyed God::

Odin and the (Indo-) Germanic Mnnerbnde
Monograph No. 36 By Kris Kershaw
Abbreviations; Glossary. T H E E Y E I N T H E W E L L : grandaevus altero orbus oculo;
Odins pledge; Heiti relating to Odins eyesight; Blindr; Other possible heiti;
Blind, not the blinder; Other depictions of Odin/Wodan; Snorri and
Saxo; Wodan, Woden, et. al; Iconography; Odin the Wolf-god; An overview of
the book; PART I. HERJANN: T H E E I N H E R I A R : Snorris description of the
Einheriar; The word einheriar; Herr and Herjann; PIE *koryonos; Thor Einheri and
425
the Einheriar. D E R S C H I M M E L R E I T E R : The Host and the Hunt; Legend,

myth, and cult; The matter of the Mnnerbund; The Dead and the living; Age
sets and ancestor cult; Masks; Masks and ancestor cult; Demon horses; The
Rider-god; The Ancestors bring blessings; Feasts of the Changing Year;
Harlequin. F E R A L I S E X E R C I T U S : Harii; Chatti; Weihekrieger; Civilis; Haraldr
Hrfagr; The hairstyles of the Suevi; Procopius and Ammianus on youthful
warriors; An analog from Doric Greece; The liminal state (marge); Exiting
marge; Demon warriors; An initiation scenario in Vlsungasaga; Dmon
warriors among the Chatti; Two armies of the dead; Mercurius; Hermes at the
boundaries of space and time. F U R O R T E U T O N I C U S : *wop-; dr; dinn; The
suffix -no-; Examples; A Fhrersuffix?; The suffix -no- in divine names;
Poets god and Rune-master; Ecstasy, Possession, Inspiration, Madness; Ecstasy;
Furor heroicus; War dances; Dancing gods; Mysterium and Mimus in the Anabasis;
The sword-dance in Germania; Mars and the Salii; KorhteV, KourteV,
KorbanteV; The Maruts; Some conclusions; Verat r; PART II. THE
INDO-EUROPEAN MNNERBUND: * T E U T A N D * K O R Y O S : Equites and
pedites; Village and Forest. T H E * K O R Y O S : Raubrecht; The Manes; Animal
transformations; EkstasiV; Times and seasons; Festivals; Seasonal activities;
Sub-groups; Small bands; Groups of 50; Older *koryos-bndler; Weihekrieger; Men
without property; Robbers and riff-raff; Mnnerbund and Gefolgschaft. C A N I S
A N D T H E * K O R Y O S : Wolf and Dog; Ethnonymns and Mnnerbnde;
Wolf-men as founders of city-states; An historical example; Mythical
foundation stories a) The founding of Rome b) Caeculus and the founding of
Praeneste; The ver sacrum; Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire;
Wolf-folk and Dog-folk; Ethnic names a) Wolf-folk of Anatolia b) An Ossetian
wolf-clan c) Other wolf-folk d) Dog- folk e) Hundingas and Ylfingar;
Wolf-priests a) Hirpi Sorani b) Some Hittite cult functionaries; Mythical
ancestors a) Miletos b) Lamissio, king of the Langabards c) The Welfs of
Swabia; Wolf-men and Dog-men; The Lombards; Germanic wolf-names; Irish
dog and wolf names; Greek heroes with wolf-names; Wolf- and dog-men of the
Scythians; Slavic wolf-men; Kunokfaloi a) Zu den litauischen Werwlfen b)
Slavic dog-heads c) Survivals of the kunh/ lukh; Alkimtatoi kneV; Ver
sacrum bei den [Indo-]Germanen?; Canine/ lupine qualities; O D I N
A N A L O G S : India; Iran; The Ossetes; The Celts; The Balts and Slavs; Greece;
Italy; Mars; Faunus; Veiovis; *teut-god and *koryos-god; Un rite dagrgation;
PART III. THE VRTYAS: W A R R I O R - B R A H M I N S : An oath-brotherhood;
Vratya clothing and weapons; Seasonal activities; The brahmacrin; The
education of a brahmin; The vr tyastoma; Vrtyastoma and sattra; Sattra; Daksin ;
Vr tyas and sattrins; R U D R A : Rudras armies; Ganapati; The rudras; The
Maruts; A troop; The Maruts are both like and unlike Rudra; The Maruts as
*koryos; I-Ir. *marXa; Marut epithets; Priestly activities; War-god; The Wild
Hunter; Canis; Dogs and the Lord of Dogs; Dasar ; Le jeu du Cheval; Ttes
coupes; The hunter with the spear; Some conclusions; Death; Fertility; Ekstasis;
The Feast of the Changing Year; The Dragon-Slayer; Initiation; Natar ja; The
Ekavr tya; C H O O S I N G A L E A D E R : The Slagava sacrifice; Two stories; The
vr tyas as rudras; The dice game in early India; The dice; How it was played;
An army of dice; The dog and the dog-killer; Kali, the dog; Kali ekokah and
ekka; The One and the Dog; The ritual dice game; sennr mahat gansya;
Sabh and irina; Sabh and solstice; Herjann; ExcursusThe Vr tyastomas;
D A R K N E S S , D O G S , A N D D E A T H : ConclusionThe Wolf-god and the Eye in the
Well; Bibliographies; Primary Sources; Works Cited; Index.
ISBN 0-941694-74-7
426

The Historical Morphology of the Baltic Verb
Monograph No. 37 By William R. Schmalstieg
The purpose of this book is to suggest a possible scenario for the history of
Baltic verbal morphology with relatively little attention to semantics and
syntax. The various stages of development from a reconstructed Proto-IndoEuropean verbal system to the attested systems of the extant Baltic languages
are proposed. Various innovative theories of the author and other
contemporary specialists in Baltic historical linguistics are discussed and
evaluated, in many cases making available the results of their work available
in English for the first time. In addition to a large bibliography on the Baltic
verb the book is supplied with an index of each word form discussed.
ISBN 0-941694-76-3
Greater Anatolia and the Indo-Hittite Language Family:

Papers presented at a Colloquium hosted
by the University of Richmond, March 18-19, 2000
Monograph No. 38 Edited by Robert Drews
Robert Drews: Introduction and Acknowledgments, Opening Remarks;
E.J.W. Barber: The Clues in the ClothesSome Independent Evidence for
the Movement of Families; Paul Zimansky: Archaeological Inquiries into
Ethno-Linguistic
Diversity
in
Urartu;
Peter
Ian
Kuniholm:
Dendrochronological Perspectives on Greater Anatolia and the Indo-Hittite
Language Family; Discussion Session, Saturday Morning; Colin Renfrew: The
Anatolian Origins of Proto-Indo-European and the Autochthony of the
Hittites; Jeremy Rutter: Critical Response to the First Four Papers; Discussion
Session, Saturday Afternoon; Margalis Finklelberg: The Language of Linear
AGreek, Semitic, or Anatolian?; Alexander Lehrmann: Reconstructing
Indo-Hittite; Vyacheslav V. Ivanov: Southern Anatolian and Northern
Anatolian as Separate Indo-European Dialects and Anatolian as a Late
Linguistic Zone; Bill J. Darden: On the Question of the Anatolian Origin of
Indo-Hittite; Craig Melchert: Critical Response to the Last Four Papers;
Discussion SessionSaturday Morning; Robert Drews: Greater Anatolia,
Proto-Anatolian, Proto-Indo-Hittite, and Beyond; Geoffrey D. Summers:
AppendixQuestions Raised by the Identification of Neolithic, Chalcolithic
and Early Bronze Age Horse Bones in Anatolia. Index.
ISBN 0-941694-77-1
2001, Page xiv and 305, Paperback: $52.00
A Definitive Reconstructed Text of the Coligny Calendar

Monograph No. 39 By Garrett S. Olmsted
The fragmentary calendar plate from Coligny (near Lyons) apparently dates
to the second-century AD, although the Gaulish calendar engraved on this
plate is plainly the result of a long transmission process. The 25-year-cycle
calendar, the final system of this transmission process, probably originated
early in the first-century BC, before Caesars conquest. It is within this late
pre-Roman period that the calendar took on its final form and notation to
enter a two-century long transmission process. Since only 40% of the original
Coligny calendar survives as a fragmentary mosaic, the reconstruction of the
original whole depends upon recognizing repetitive patterns and filling in
the missing sequences of these patterns. The most significant of these patterns
is that discerned in the schemes of the TII and the N lunar/solar counting
427
marks and their associated notation. Here the chronological cycles implied by
these notational patterns are explained in detail. Also provided is a glossary of
the functional and etymological significance of terms utilized in these daily
notational patterns. The fragmentary calendar is brought to photographic
completion utilizing the original wording and engraving found on the
surviving fragments.
ISBN 0-941694-78-X
2001, Pages 120, Paperback, 70 plates: $40.00
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference: Los Angeles, May 26-28, 2000
Monograph No. 40 Edited by Martin E. Huld, Karlene Jones-Bley,
Introduction;
Language
Abbreviations;
PHONOLOGY
AND
MORPHOLOGYSOUND AND SENSE: The Sound-Systems of Proto-Indow
European, George Dunkel; Against the Assumption of an IE *k etures Rule,
Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen; The Reflexes of Indo-European *#CR- Clusters
in Hittite, Aleksei S. Kassian and Ilya S. Yakubovich; Proto-Indo-European
Root Nouns in the Baltic Languages, Jenny Helena Larsson; Verb or Noun?
On the Origin of the Third Person in IE, Birgit Anette Olsen; Indo-European
h
*b uH- in Luwian and the Prehistory of Past and Perfect, Vyacheslav V. Ivanov.
EPIGRAPHY AND ETYMOLOGYWORDS AND THINGS: The Poggio
Sommavilla Inscription, Giovanna Rocca; The Etymology of Some Germanic,
Especially English Plant Names (Henbane, Hemlock, Horehound), Anatoly
Liberman; Elephant in Indo-European Languages, Vclav Blazek.
MYTHOLOGY AND POETICSFORM AND FANCY: The Persistence of
the Indo-European Formula Man-Slaying from Homer through Gregory of
Nazianzus, Edwin D. Floyd; Hermes and Agnia fire-god in Greece?, PaulLouis van Berg; Dumzil, a Paradigm, and Iliad, Thomas R. Walsh; Dumzil
in 2000An Outline and a Prospect, Dean A. Miller and C. Scott Littleton.
RETHINKING ARCHAEOLOGYMYTH, CULTURE, AND MODELS: The
Bird Goddess in Germanic Europe, Mary Lynn Wilson; Village Life to
NomadismAn Indo-Iranian Model in the Tien Shan Mountains (Xinjiang,
China), Jeannine Davis-Kimball; Perpetuating Traditions, Changing
Ideologiesthe Bell Beaker culture in the British Isles and its implications
for the Indo-European problem, Marc M. Vander Linden; Towards an
Understanding of the Indo-European Origin ProblemTheoretical and
Methodological Interfaces, Bryan K. Hanks. EPILOGUENEW RESEARCH
TOOLS: The Internet and Publication and Research in Indo-European
StudiesPresent State and Future Prospects, Deborah Anderson; Index.
ISBN 0-941694-79-8
Pre-Indo-European
Monograph No. 41 By Winfred P. Lehmann
THE BASES FOR RECONSTRUCTING PRE-IE: Advances in the Sciences
and Fields Relevant for Indo-European Studies; Pre-Indo-Europeanan
Active Language; Genetics and its Importance for Identifying the IndoEuropean Speakers in their Spread; Archeology and its Contribution to our
Information on the Early Period of Indo-European Speakers; Indo-European
as one of the Nostratic Languages; The Primary Bases for Reconstructing PreIndo-European. FROM PIE TO PRE-IE: The Common Source; The
Comparative Method; The Method of Internal Reconstruction for
428
Morphology and Syntax; The Use of Residues; Determination of

Chronological Strata in Language; Typological Findings as Guides to
Interpretation of Data; Characteristics of Active Languages; Inferences Based
on Application of these Methods and Conclusions concerning Language
Structures; Earlier Analyses of the Lexicon that Support the Assumption of
Pre-Indo-European as an Active Language; Stages of Proto-Indo-European.
RESIDUES IN PIE THAT PROMPT ITS IDENTIFICATION AS A REFLEX
OF AN ACTIVE LANGUAGE: The Importance of Examining Residues as
Illustrated by the Clarification of Germanic Phonology by Jacob Grimm and
his Successors; Explanations of such Residues by a Historical Approach and the
Assumption of Stages in Languages; Pre-Indo-European as an Agreement
Language of the Active Sub-type; Doublets as Reflexes of Earlier Active
Structure in the Lexicon; Reflexes of Active Languages in Nouns, Verbs, and
Particles; Sentence Patterns of Active Structure as Found in the Early
Dialects; Morphological Patterns Reflecting the Earlier Active Structure;
Previous Recognition and Explanation of Active Language Characteristics in
the Indo-European Languages; Conclusion. LEXICAL STRUCTURE: The
Lexicon in Active LanguagesNouns, Verbs, and Particles; Nouns
Active/Animate and Stative/Inanimate, and the Introduction of Gender
Classes; Sets of Nouns in Accordance with their Meaning; Words for the
Family and its Arrangements; VerbsActive and Stative; Involuntary Verbs;
Centrifugal and Centripetal Uses of Verbs; Particles; The Particles Proper.
SYNTAX: Active Language Syntax in Pre-Indo-European; Basic Word Order
in the Sentence; Complex Sentences; the Use of Participles and Other Nonfinite Verb Forms; Uses of Participles in the Early Dialects; Subordinate
Clauses and the Development of Particles to Conjunctions; Classes of Particles;
The Meanings and Origins of Selected Particles, and their Application as
Morphological Markers; The Position of Particles with Reference to Nouns
and Verbs; Examples of Early Texts that Reflect the Syntax of Pre-IndoEuropean. DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY: Attention to Indo-European
Derivational Morphology in the Major Handbooks; Theoretical Assumptions
in Previous Attention to the Earlier Derivational Patterning; Evidence for
the Basic Derivational Processes; The Role of Particles in the Pre-IndoEuropean Lexicon; Production of the Earliest Suffixed Nouns; Production of
the Earliest Suffixed Verbs; Evidence in Compounds; The Increasing Use of
Suffixes in the Formation of New Verbs; Conclusion. INFLECTIONAL
MORPHOLOGY: Views in the Handbooks on Earlier Inflectional
Morphology; The Active Verb System of Pre-Indo-European; of the Injunctive
that Illustrate those of Earlier Verb Forms in Pre-Indo-European; Uses of the
Perfect and of the Hittite hi-Conjugation Forms that Illustrate those of their
Etymon in Pre-Indo-European; Non-finite Forms of the Verb in Pre-IndoEuropean; Verbal Nouns; The Development of Inflections in the Noun;
Adjectives; Pronouns; Conclusion, with Examples that may Reflect Pre-IndoEuropean Texts. PHONOLOGY: Theoretical Bases of the Phonological
Systems Proposed for Proto-Indo-European and Pre-Indo-European; Three
Phonological Systems that have been Proposed for Proto-Indo-European;
Period of Movable Pitch Accent and its Effect on Ablaut; The Period of Stress
Accent and its Effect on Ablaut; Chronology of Ablaut Changes; The
Obstruent System; the Glottalic Theory; The Palatals and Velars; The
Resonants; The Pre-Indo-European Phonemic System. THE CULTURE OF
THE PRE-INDO-EUROPEAN SPEAKERS: Evidence for the Civilization and
Culture of the Pre-Indo-European Speakers; Criteria for Assuming a
429
Preceramic Neo-lithic Period and its Relevance for Pre-Indo-European;

Social and Economic Conditions; Livestock and Agricultural Activities in the
Pre-Indo-European
Community;
Terminology
Indicating
Gradual
Development from Hunting-Gathering to a Settled Society; Tokens, their
Distribution, and implications for Settlement Areas of the Indo-European
Speakers; Art, Literature and Religion of the Pre-Indo-European Speakers;
Life in the Pre-Indo-European Period; Bases of the Preeminence of the IndoEuropeans. PRE-IE AND POSSIBLE RELATED LANGUAGES: Pre-IndoEuropean in Relation to Nostratic and Eurasiatic; Principles to be Observed
in Reconstructing Macro-families; The Need to Reconstruct Proto-Languages
for Macro-families; References; Index.
ISBN 0-941694-82-8
2002, Pages xvi+ 287, Paperback: $52.00
The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern

Sources of the Armenian Epic
Monograph No. 42 By Armen Y. Petrosyan
INDO-EUROPEAN AND ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN MYTHOLOGICAL
PARALLELS: The Sasna CQer and the Basic myth; Covinar, Inara, and *}ner;
The Equine Myths; Bull and Cow as the Symbols of the Thunder and Storm
Deities; The Sun God, Divine Twins, and Their Sister; The Early Twins and
Triplets of the South of Armenia; Sanasar and Baldasar, Indra and Agni,
Tessub and Tasmisu; Sanasar, Eruand, and Pirwa; Angel, Nergal, and Kur; The
Third God Vahagn, Davit`, and Asag; The Indo-European Dog Slayer
Hayk, Davit` and David. EPONYMOUS PATRIARCHS, THUNDER GOD,
AND BLACK AND WHITE MYTH: Aram, the Black Hero; Hayk and
Aram; The Birth of the Black Hero; The White Hero; The Myth of the
Black and White Cities. THE DYING GOD AND THE ADVERSARIES OF
THE ARMENIAN HEROES: Ara Gel ec`ik, Mher, and their Cousins;
Adversaries
of
Heroes.
ARMENIAN
AND
INDO-EUROPEAN
MYTHOLOGICAL PATTERNS: Black and White, Boar and Dog; The
Principal Genealogical Scheme of the Armenian Epics; The Three Functions
of Indo-European Mythology; Daredevils of Sasun, Ethnogonic Patriarchs,
Urartian and Armenian Gods. MYTH AND HISTORY: Historical Prototypes
of the Sasna CQer; Mus and TarunThraco-Phrygians and Armenians; Davit`,
Mus el, and Murs ili; The Iliad and the Epics of the Sasun-Tarawn.
ETHNOGENESIS AND PREHISTORY: Cosmogony and Ethnogeny;
Ethnonymic Ar(a)m- Armenians and Aramaeans; The Proto-Armenians and
the Caucasus; HA.A, Hayasa, Hatti, and Etiu; Hurrians and Urartians; The
Ancestors and Descendants of HaykPrehistoric Movements. Abbreviations.
Works of Medieval Armenian Authors. Bibliography. Index. Note on
Armenian Phonology.
ISBN 0-941694-81-X
Indo-European Perspectives
Monograph No. 43 Edited by Mark Southern
Preface; Miles C. Beckwith: Greek verbs in - A paradigmatic solution;

Hope Dawson: Deviations from the Greek in the Gothic New Testament;
George E. Dunkel: Vedic janapads and Ionic 6: with notes on
Vedic drupadm and IE *pdom place and fetter; Joseph F. Eska: Remarks
on linguistic structures in a Gaulish ritual text; Benjamin W. Fortson IV:
430
Linguistic and cultural notes on Latin Inius and related topics; John
Harkness: Observations on appositions in Beowulf; Hans Henrich Hock: Vedic
ta stv ma: Subordinate, coordinate, or what?; Brian D. Joseph: Balkan
insights into the syntax of *m: in Indo-European; Carol F. Justus: Hittite and
Indo-European gender; Ronald Kim: The distribution of the Old Irish infixed
pronouns, Cowgills particle, and the syntactic evolution of Insular Celtic; Sara
Kimball: Hittite kings and queens; Jared S. Klein: Homoioteleuton in the
Rigveda; H. Craig Melchert: Hieroglyphic Luvian REL-ipa indeed,
certainly; Edgar C. Polom: Some thoughts about the Indo-European
homeland; Charles Reiss: Towards an explanation of analogy; Don Ringe:
Tocharian B Up and; Douglas P.A. Simms: A word for wild boar in
Germanic, Italic, Balto-Slavic and Greek and its possible Semitic origins; Ann
Taylor: The distribution of object clitics in Koin Greek; Bert Vaux:
Szemernyis Law and Stangs Law in non-linear phonology; Brent Vine: On
full-grade *-ro- formations in Greek and Indo-European; Michael Weiss:
Observations on the South Picene Inscription TE 1 (S. Omero).
ISBN 0941694844
2002, Pages vi + 306, Paperback, $58.00
Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference: Los Angeles, November 9-10, 2001
Introduction; Language Abbreviations; MIGRATION AND LANGUAGE
CONTACT: J.P. Mallory: Indo-Europeans and the Steppelands: The Model of
Language Shift; Petri Kallio: Prehistoric Contacts between Indo-European
and Uralic; IDEOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY: Paul-Louis van Berg and Marc
Vander Linden: Ctesias Assyriaka: Indo-European and Mesopotamian Royal
Ideologies; Edwin D. Floyd: Who Killed Patroklos? Expressing the
Inexpressible through an Inherited Formula; Arwen Lee Hogan: The
Modesty of Odysseus; Dean Miller: Theseus and the Fourth Function;
LANGUAGE: TYPOLOGY, ETYMOLOGY AND GRAMMATOLOGY:
Andrii Danylenko: The East Slavic HAVE: Revising a Developmental
Scenario; Anatoly Liberman: English Ivy and German Epheu in Their
Germanic and Indo-European Context; Paul B. Harvey, Jr. and Philip H.
Baldi: Populus: A Reevaluation.
ISBN 0-941694-85-2
2002, Pages x + 191, Paperback: $46.00

Millennium. Volume 1: Ethnos, Language, Culture; General
Problems; Studying Statistics; Studying Sintashta; The Eneolithic and
Bronze Ages
Introductions by Karlene Jones-Bley and D.G. Zdanovich. I. COMPLEX
SOCIETIES
OF
CENTRAL
EURASIAETHNOS,
LANGUAGE,
CULTURE: Colin Renfrew: The Indo-European Problem and the
Exploitation of the Eurasian SteppesQuestions of Time Depth; E.E.
Kuzmina: Ethnic and Cultural Interconnections between Iran and Turan in
nd
the 2 Millennium BC; Vyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: Towards A Possible Linguistic
Interpretation of the ArkaimSintashta Discoveries; I.V. Pyankov: Arkaim
431
and the Indo-Iranian Var; A.P. Medvedev: Avestan Yimas Town in

Historical and Archaeological Perspective; Karlene Jones-Bley: IndoEuropean Burial, the Rig Veda, and Avesta; L.T. Yablonsky:
Archaeological Mythology and Some Real Problems of the Current
Archaeology. II. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIA
GENERAL PROBLEMS: L.N. Koryakova: Social Landscape of Central
Eurasia in the Bronze and Iron AgesTendencies, Factors, and Limits of
Transformation. III. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIA
STUDING SINTASHTA: G.B. ZDANOVICH AND I.M. BATANINA:
Planography of the Fortified Centers of the Middle Bronze Age in the
Southern Trans-Urals according to Aerial Photography Data; A.V.
Epimakhov: Complex Societies and the Possibilities to Diagnose them on the
Basis of Archaeological Data: Sintashta Type Sites of the Middle Bronze Age
of the Trans-Urals; A.V. Epimakhov: The Sintashta Culture and the IndoEuropean Problem; T.S. Malyutina: Proto-towns of the Bronze Age in the
South Urals and Ancient Khorasmia; R.A. Litvinenko: On the Problem of
Chronological Correlation between Sintashta Type and MRC Sites; V.N.
Logvin: The Cemetery of Bestamak and the Structure of the Community;
D.G. Zdanovich and L.L. Gayduchenko: Sintashta Burial SacrificeThe
Bolshekaragansky Cemetery in Focus; P.A. Kosintsev: Animals in the Burial
nd
Rite of the Population of the Volga-Ural Area in the Beginning of the 2
Millennium BC. IV. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIATHE
ENEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGES: N.L. Morgunova: Yamnaya (Pit-Grave)
Culture in the South Urals Area; T.M. Potemkina: The Trans-Ural Eneolithic
Sanctuaries with Astronomical Reference Points in a System of Similar
Eurasian Models; V.T. Kovalyova and O.V. Ryzhkova: Circular Settlements in
the Lower Tobal Area (Tashkovo Culture); I.I. Dryomov The Regional
Differences of the Prestige Bronze Ages Burials (Peculiarities of the
Pokrovsk Group); N.M. Malov: SpearsSigns of Archaic Leaders of the
Pokrovsk Archaeological Culture; A.N. Usachuk: Regional Peculiarities of
Technology of the Shield Cheekpiece Production (Based on the Materials of
the Middle Don, Volga, and South Urals); Index to Volumes 1 & 2.
ISBN 0-941694-83-6

Millennium. Volume 2: The Iron Age; Archaeoecology,
Geoarchaeology, and Palaeogeography; Beyond Central Eurasia
V. COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EURASIAIRON AGE: K.A.
Akishev: Archaeological Reference Points in Prognostication of the
Structures of Ancient Societies of the Eurasian Steppe; Bryan Hanks: Societal
Complexity and Mortuary RitualityThoughts on the Nature of
Archaeological Interpretation; N.P. Matveeva: Interpretation of Models of
Sargat Culture Settlements in Western Siberia. VI. ARCHAEOECOLOGY,
GEOARCHAEOLOGY, AND PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL
EURASIAN COMPLEX SOCIETIES: V.A. Demkin and T.S. Demkina:
Paleoecological Crises and Optima in the Eurasian Steppes in Ancient Times
and the Middle Ages; L.L. Gayduchenko: Organic Remains from Fortified
Settlements and Necropoli of the Country of Towns; V.V. Zaykov, A.M.
432
Yuminov, A.Ph. Bushmakin, E.V. Zaykova, A.D. Tairov, and G.B. Zdanovich:
Ancient Copper Mines and Products from Base and Noble Metals in the
Southern Urals; A.V. Matveeev, N.Ye. Ryabogina, T.S. Syomochkina, and
S.I. Larin: Materials on the Palaeogeographic Description of the Andronovo
Age in the Trans-Urals Forest-Steppe. VII. BEYOND CENTRAL EURASIA:
Leif Karlenby: Communication and Interaction with the East in Bronze Age
Scandinavia; Eva Hjartner-Holdar and Christina Risberg: Interaction between
Different Regions of Europe and Russia during the Late Bronze Age in the
Light of the Introduction of Iron Technology; E. Bnffy: A Stuck Process
Urbanisation in the Carpathian Late Neolithic; Marta Guzowska: The Trojan
Connection or Mycenaeans, Penteconters, and the Black Sea; Philip Kohl,
Magomed Gadzhiev, and Rabadan Magomedov: Connections between the
rd
Caucasus and the West Eurasian Steppes during the 3 Millennium BC; V.M.
Masson: Bronze Age Cultures of the Steppe and Urbanized Civilization of
the South of Middle Asia; L.T. Pyankova: South TajikistanSynthesis of
Settled and Steppe Cultures at the End of the Bronze Age; V.I. Sarianidi:
Chamber Graves of the Gonur Necropolis; Kathryn Linduff: At the Eastern
nd
EdgeMetallurgy and Adaptation in Gansu (PRC) in the 2 Millennium BC.
Index to Volumes 1 & 2
ISBN 0-942694-86-0
Procee di ngs of the Fourt ee nth Annua l UC LA Indo-European

Conf ere nc e: Los Angeles, November 89, 2002
Introduction; Abbreviations; I. FORM AND MEANING IN INDOEUROPEAN: Helmut Rix: Towards a Reconstruction of Proto-Italic: the
Verbal System; Joseph F. Eska: The Distribution of the Old Irish Personal
Object Affixes and Forward Reconstruction; Annamaria Bartolotta: Towards a
Reconstruction of Indo-European Culture: Semantic Functions of IE *men- ;
Nicoletta Puddu: Reflecting on *se-/s(e)we-: From Typology to Indo-European
and Back; Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen: The Marker of the Animate Dual in
Indo-European; Brian D. Joseph: Evidentiality in Proto-Indo-European?
Building a Case; Karl Praust: A Missing Link of PIE Reconstruction: The
Injunctive of *HIes- 'to be'; II. STYLE, SENSE, AND SOUND: Craig
Melchert: PIE "thorn" in Cuneiform Luvian?; Martin E. Huld: An IndoEuropean Term for 'harvested grain'; Giovanna Rocca: Ideology and Lexis:
Umbrian uhtur, Latin auctor; Angelo O. Mercado: A New Approach to Old
Latin and Umbrian Poetic Meter; III. UNMASKING PREHISTORY: Jon
Christian Billigmeier: Crete, the Dorians, and the Sea Peoples; Gregory E.
Areshian: The Zoomorphic Code of the Proto-Indo-European Myth Cycle of
"Birth-Death-Resurrection": A Linguistic-Archaeological Reconstruction;
Karlene Jones-Bley: Basal Motifs and Indo-European Ritual; IV. MOLDING
AND MODELLING THE PAST: Paul-Louis van Berg: Arts, Languages, and
Reality in the Mesopotamian and Indo-European Worlds; Marc Vander
Linden: The Band vs. the Cord, or Can Indo-European Reconstructed
Institutions Be Tested against Archaeological Data?; Index
ISBN 0-941694-87-9
433
Dictionary of Some Languages and Dialects of Afghanistan

Monograph No. 48 Transliterated, Translated, and Edited by Hamid
Badhghisi
Introduction by A. Richard Diebold, Jr.
Originally compiled in Pashto by Shah Abdullah Badakhshi and published
in Kabul in 1960
A collection of vocabulary from the Ariaii dialects of Manji, Ishkashmi, Wakhi,
Sanglichi, Shughni, Farsi, and Pashto with English equivalents.
ISBN 0-941694-88-7
ISBN 0-941694-89-5

2004, Pages 258, Hardcover: $78.00
Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference
MYTHOLOGY AND CULTURE: E. J. W. Barber and P. T. Barber: Why the
Flood is Universal but only Germanic Dragons have Halitosis: Using Cognitive
Studies to Help Decode Myth; Paul-Louis van Berg: Daidalos, Theseus, and
the Others: The Melding of Indo-European and Mediterranean Traditions;
Gregory E. Areshian: Herakies, the Sun-God-Archer, Tr, and Kerberos; John
McDonald: The Cow and Her Calf: A Case in Indo-European Poetics and
Iconicity; INDO-EUROPEAN EXPANSIONS: E. E. Kuzmina: The Genesis of
the Indo-Aryans in the Light of Data of Historical Tradition and Archaeology;
Marc Vander Linden: The Roots of the Indo-European Diaspora: New
Perspectives on the North Pontic Hypothesis; INTERPRETING SOUND:
Hans Henrich Hock: Fish, Push, and Greek R + y Clusters: A Return to
Danielson 1903; Michael Rieler: On the Origin of Preaspiration in North
Germanic; Martin Huld: An Albanian Reflex of Proto-Indo-European *E 1kuo-s
'Horse'; MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX: Hope C. Dawson: On
Generalizations Lost and Found: -/-au Variation in Vedic i-stem Locatives;
Markus Egetmeyer: The Organization of Noun-Stems, Cases, and Endings in
Ancient Cypriote Greek; Silvia Luraghi: Null Objects in Latin and Greek and
the Relevance of Linguistic Typology for Language Reconstruction; Olav
Hackstein: From Discourse to Syntax: The Case of Compound Interrogatives
in Indo-European and Beyond.
2005,Pages 298 $48.00

2005, Pages 298 $78.00
Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference
Victor H. Mair: Recent Physical Anthropological Studies of the Tarim Basin
Mummies and Related Populations; Paul-Louis van Berg: Spit in My Mouth,
Glaukos: A Greek Indo-European Tale about Ill-gotten Knowledge; Miriam
Robbins Dexter and Victor H. Mair: Apotropaia and Fecundity in Eurasian
Myth and Iconography: Erotic Female Display Figures; Stephanie W. Jamison:
Linguistic Aspects of the Persona of the Gth Poet; Jared Klein: Notes on
Categories and Subtypes of Phonological Repetition in the Rig Veda; Hans
434
Henrich Hock: The Insular Celtic Absolute: Conjunct Distinction Once Again
A Prosodic Proposal; George E. Dunkel: Latin -pte, -pe, -per, -pse; IE Limiting *p-te, *-pe-r, and *pti- master; Yaroslav Gorbachov: The Origin of the
Phrygian Aorist of the Type edaes; Valentina Cambi: The Hittite Adverb kar
formerly, earlier; already; Olga Thomason: Location, Direction, and Source
in Biblical Greek, Gothic, Old Church Slavonic, and Classical Armenian;
Hyejoon Yoon: The Substantive Present Participles in nd- in Gothic: With
the Survey of Other Old Germanic Languages; Joshua T. Katz: To Turn a
Blind Eel.
2005,Pages 302 $48.00

2005, Pages 302 $78.00
UKKO: The God of Thunder of the Ancient Finns and

His Indo-European Family
Monograph 51 Unto Salo
The mythology of the ancient Finns and its sources; Iron Age society and its
gods; Ukko and other euphemisms for the God of Thunder; Rauni; Ukko
behind his euphemism; Ilmari, the God of the Winds; Ilmarinen, forger god
and heroic smith; Ukko and shooting the fire; By Hieros gamos; The
testimony of the elliptical fire stones; Ukkos cloak; Thunderbolts; Ukkos
wedge, nail, fingernail, arrow, and chisel; Foreign thunderbolts; Ukkos
sword; Ukkos hammer, ax, and club; The Thunder God and Mother Goddess;
The Battle Axe Culture and the God of Thunder; Tapering-headed battle axes
and the God of Thunder; Ukko in the skies of the lake region?; The evidence
of the Late Neolithic shaft-hole axes; The Bronze Age shaft-hole axes;
Historical-linguistic viewpoints; The Bird God; Ukkos long history:
Conclusions, arguments, assumptions; Abbreviations; plus Eighty Illustrations
ISBN 0-941694-95-X Paperback
2006, Pages 146 $46.00

2006, Pages 146 $68.00
Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual UCLA Indo-European

Conference, October 27-28, 2005
Monograph 52 Edited by Karlene-Bley, Martin E. Huld,
Michael Janda: The Religion of the Indo-Europeans; Gregory E. Areshian:
Cyclopes from the Land of the Eagle: The Anatolian Background of Odyssey
9 and the Greek Myths Concerning the Cyclopes; Hannes A. Fellner: On the
Developments of Labiovelars in Tocharian; Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen: Some
Further Laryngeals Revealed by the Rigvedic Metrics; Ilya Yakubovich:
Prehistoric Contacts between Hittite and Luvian: The Case of Reflexive
Pronouns; Ranko Matasovic: Collective in Proto-Indo-European; Birgit
Olsen: Some Formal Peculiarities of Germanic n-Stem Abstracts; Chiara
Gianollo: Tracing the Value of Syntactic Parameters in Ancient Languages:
The Latin Nominal Phrase; Martin E. Huld: Indo-European hawthorns; Jay
Fisher: Speaking in Tongues: Collocations of Word and Deed in Proto-IndoEuropean; Lisi Oliver: Lex Talionis in Barbarian Law; Katheryn Linduff and
Mandy Jui-man Wu: The Construction of Identity: Remaining Sogdian in
Eastern Asia in the 6th Century; Index.
2006, Pages 250 $78.00

2006, Pages 250 $48.00
435
Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Indo-European Conference,

Los Angeles, November 3-4, 2006 (selected papers)
Monograph 53 Edited by Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld, and
Angella Della Volpe Dexter
Charles de Lamberterie: Comparison and Reconstruction; Melissa Frazier:
Accent in Athematic Nouns in Vedic Sanskrit and Its Development from PIE;
Ronald I. Kim: Proto-Indo-European *-(V)y e/o- Presents in Tocharian; Hans
Henrich Hock: Morphology and i-apocope in Slavic and Baltic; Miles
Beckwith: The Old Italic o-Perfect and the Tortora Inscription; Martin J.
Kmmel: The Third Person Endings of the Old Latin Perfect and the Fate of
the Final d in Latin; Birgit Anette Olsen: Three Latin Phonological Details;
H. Craig Melchert: New Light on Hittite Verse and Meter?; Kazuhiko
Yoshida: Some Irregular Mediopassives in Hittite; Angelo O. Mercado: A
Lydian Poem (Gusmani 11) Re-Examined; Jens Elmegrd Rasmussen: A
Reflex of *H 1 in Hieroglyphic Luvian?; Mary R. Bachvarova: Suffixaufnahme
and Genitival Adjective as an Anatolian Areal Feature in Hurrian, Tyrrhenian,
and Anatolian Languages; Johanna Nichols: A Typological Geography for
Proto-Indo-European; Index, Illustrations.
2007, Pages 216 $78.00

2007, Pages 216 $48.00
Proto-Indo-European The Archaeology of a Linguistic Problem:

Studies in Honor of Marija Gimbutas
Edited by Susan Nacev Skomal and Edgar C. Polom
A. Richard Diebold, Jr.: Linguistic Ways to Prehistory; Winfred P. Lehmann:
Linguistic and Archaeological Data for Handbooks of Proto-Languages; Jnos
Nemeskri and Lszl Szathmry: An Anthropological Evaluation of the IE
Problem; Nikolai Ja. Merpert: Ethnocultural Change in the Balkans in the
Eneolithic; Sndor Bknyi: Horses and Sheep in the Copper and Bronze
Ages; Homer L. Thomas: The Indo-EuropeansSome Historical and
Theoretical Considerations; Jnos Makkay: The Linear Pottery and the Early
Indo-Europeans; Eric P. Hamp: The Pig in Ancient Northern Europe; Ralph
M. Rowlett: Grave Wealth in the Horodenka Group; Christopher Hawkes:
Archaeologists and Indo-EuropeanistsCan They Mate?; Edgar C. Polom:
Who are the Germanic People?; Gregory Nagy: The IE Heritage of Tribal
OrganizationEvidence from the Greek polis; Bruce Lincoln: On the
Scythian Royal Burials; Calvert Watkins: Linguistic and Archaeological Light
on Some Homeric Formulas; T.L. Markey: Morning, Evening, and the
Twilight Between; Wolfgang P. Schmidt: Indo-EuropeanOld European;
Colin Renfrew: Old Europe or Ancient Near East? Clay Cylinders of Sitagroi;
Edgar C. Polom: Marija Gimbutas, A Biographical Sketch.
ISBN 0-941694-29-1
1987 (1994), Pages 400, Paperback with illustrations: $52.00
Indo-European Origins:: The Anthropological Evidence

By John V. Day
A comprehensive survey of the evidence from biological anthropology for
Indo-European origins, based on the authors Ph.D. thesis prepared under
Professor James Mallory. The author first considers the various ways that
languages can spread and the possible biological implications of these
436
expansions. He then embarks on an exhaustive survey of over 2,600 books and

articles relating to the physical anthropology of the earliest identified
speakers of Indo-European languages, based on ancient texts, artworks and
lexicons. Covering Europe and Asia from the Neolithic onwards, His study
surveys dermatoglyphics, mummified corpses, skeletal remains and genetic
material for evidence of ancient population movements. An attempt is then
made to integrate findings from biological anthropology with data from
linguistics, archaeology and social anthropology to test the validity of
migration theories in relation to the dispersal of the Indo-European
languages and the possible location of a hypothecated proto-Indo-European
language. The bibliography lists over 2,600 books and articles.
ISBN 0-941694-75-5
2001, Pages xxvi +546, Paperback, 41 figures: $68.00

SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES
Articles should be submitted to the General Editor:
J P Mallory
Department of Archaeology
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the Study of Man, as publisher of The Journal of Indo-European
Studies, in the event the article is accepted for publication.
However, authors will retain the right to reuse their material in
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publication in the Journal of Indo-European Studies, with the
normal acknowledgment of prior publication in JIES.
SUBMITTED FORMAT:
All articles should be submitted in both printed form (three
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Figures may also be submitted on disc in any format supported
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submitting papers containing complex tables embedded in the
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production if the document can be accompanied by an Adobe

Acrobat PDF file properly formatted.
FOOTNOTES:
Footnotes should not be used for referencing but only for
additional comment.
TEXT REFERENCES:
Text references should follow the following format:
(Hamp 1990a: 145-150)
Please note:
a) use of the colon,
b) full page numbers (not 145-50),
c) avoid the use of ibid, op cit, loc cit.
REFERENCES:
References should follow the following formats:
Books
Puhvel, Jaan
1987
Comparative Mythology. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins
Press.
Edited Books
Birnbaum, Henrik and Jaan Puhvel (eds.)
1966
Ancient Indo-European Dialects. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University
of California.
Article in edited book

Watkins, C.
1966
Italo-Celtic revisited. In: Birnbaum, Henrik and Jaan Puhvel (eds.)
Ancient Indo-European Dialects, 29-50. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
Article
Sarianidi, Viktor
1999
Near Eastern Aryans in Central Asia. Journal of Indo-European
Studies 27: 295-326.
INDEX TO VOLUME 35
ADRADOS, FRANCESCO R.
A Panorama of Indo-European Linguistics since the Middle
of the Twentieth Century: Advances and Immobilism........... 129
ALLEN, N. J.
The Heimdall-Dyu Comparison Revisited ............................ 233
BEK-PEDERSEN, KAREN
A Myth in Folktale Clothing .................................................. 285
BJORVAND, HARALD
The Etymology of English ale ....................................................1
BLAZEK, VCLAV
From August Schleicher to Sergei Starostin:
On the development of the tree-diagram models of the
Indo-European languages .......................................................82
BUYANER, DAVID
Shamanistic Practices in Zoroastrianism?............................. 357
HULD, M ARTIN
Albanian gogl and Indo-European acorns ......................... 121
In Memoriam Winfred P. Lehmann 1916 2007 ...................... 225
In Memoriam Carol F. Justus ...................................................... 229
JIES REVIEWS
Archaeology............................................................155, 371
Linguistics...............................................................168, 390
Culture............................................................................387
Mythology and Culture..................................................189
KRYUKOVA, VICTORIA
Gates of the Zoroastrian Paradise ......................................... 345
M EES, BERNARD
Chamalires sneyyic and binding in Celtic ............................9
MILLER, DEAN
The Deep History of Stories:
University of Edinburgh 2007 ............................................... 231
MILLER, DEAN A.
Indo-European King and Hero ............................................. 311
440
Index to Volume 35
NEALE, HARRY
Ibls and the Threefold Death Motif in a
Medieval Persian Hagiography.............................................. 275
PETROSYAN, ARMEN
The Indo-European *H2ner(t)-s and the Danu Tribe ........... 297
PIERCE, M ARC
Classical Armenian................................................................. 111
RIFKIN, M ATTHEW J.
A Spatial Analysis of Neolithic Cultures throughout
Eastern, Central, and Northern Europe in Relation to
Proto-Germanic........................................................................53
SAYERS, WILLIAM
Celtic Sovereignty Goddess .....................................................31
SHAW. JOHN
and Dumzils Three Realms ............................................. 249
TATR, MARIA MAGDOLNA
The Myth of Macha in Eastern Europe ................................ 323

ISSN 0092-2323
The Journal of Indo-European Studies is a thirty-five year old refereed
journal, published by the Institute for the Study of Man, which serves as a
medium for the exchange and synthesis of information relating to the
anthropology, archaeology, mythology, philology, and general cultural history
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Proceedings of the Eighteenth

Annual UCLA Conference:
Edited by: Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld,
Charles de Lamberterie: Comparison and Reconstruction; Melissa
Frazier: Accent in Athematic Nouns in Vedic Sanskrit and Its
Development from PIE; Ronald I. Kim: Proto-Indo-European
*-(V)y e/o- Presents in Tocharian; Hans Henrich Hock: Morphology
and i-apocope in Slavic and Baltic; Miles Beckwith: The Old Italic
o- Perfect and the Tortora Inscription; Martin J. Kmmel: The
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Geography for Proto-Indo-European; Index, Illustrations
ISBN 0-941694-99-2 Hardback 2007, Pages 216 $78.00

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The Journal of

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

The Etymology of English ale

English ale goes back to Gmc. *al-p- n. The inherited meaning of

Volume 35, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2007

Skrydstrup B bracteate), cf. ON laukr, OE lac, Eng. leek, etc.,

The analysis of dregs in prehistoric pottery in Northern Europe indicates

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

The Etymology of English ale

hand, originally belonged to suffixes containing IE *n, *m, *r

OInd. adjective aru- with the variant arun- reddish, ruddy,

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

The Etymology of English ale

etymology of Gmc. *alp-. He thinks that *alup- (beer) owed

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

The Etymology of English ale

Volume 35, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2007

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

Chamalires sney yic and binding in Celtic

The Gaulish inscription from Chamalires has been the subject of

In January 1971, French archaeologists unearthed a small

inscriptions spelling have also been the subject of some

The opening sentence is usually thought to represent

Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic

suggests to read speed up (i.e., effect) what he sees as a

Volume 35, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2007

seemingly where Latin texts have item at La Graufesenque; see

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic

great; reguc cambon, I straighten the crooked etc.)

Volume 35, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2007

disambiguate them from t-preterital and other like forms; see

Exceptions to the typical verb-second ordering in Gaulish (other than

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic

constructions in combination with regular thematic

Another of the Celtic Bassannac graffiti (RIG L-50),

Volume 35, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2007

etymological grounds the verb uedium should probably be

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic

or with Hamp (1981) of *ghed- (cf. OIr. ro geinn is contained,

Volume 35, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2007

infernus underworldly : infra (here) below:7

Following the names and the etymological figure comes

Scansion is a particularly fraught matter with dead languages, but a Latinate

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic

Little, when sowed (?),

The last sequence here, beginning with soc, is usually

Volume 35, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2007

same semantic relationship as) Latin cantus singing, playing,

Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic

which he has glossed as bends (together), entwines and

Great folly for

Within a ring of forms in espa folly (which themselves

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic

legalistic meanings: prefixed by fo- < *upo- it means support,

deposited in, as is typical of the opening lines of ancient curse

The Journal of Indo-European Studies

Chamalires sneic and binding in Celtic

hand, originally belonged to suffixes containing IE n, m, *r

etymology of Gmc. alp-. He thinks that alup- (beer) owed