User:Botteville/sandbox/Elements removed from Ascaric

Detail removed from Ascaric

This is from Ascaric for evaluation as to where it should go if not already covered. Possibly in "Ric (name element)" and "Asca (name element)". There is some material in Wiktionary and also under the Scandinavian myths. Right at this moment there seems to be nothing to hold it all togther. Ric and rig appear in disambigs but are sort of lame there as there are no articles to which to refer. Right now I tend to favor distinct articles but they will take more work.

The name

Ascaric or Asceric and various reflexes is not an uncommon modern name among European personal names, both last and first. A putative model for them all is "Ascaric of Cologne," as he is so often claimed to be, especially by genealogists. He was not from ancient Cologne nor was he an Ubian, one of the Ubii, the Franks tenanting Cologne and its vicinity on both banks of the Rhine. His tribe by implication (the Romans punished it for his leadership) was the Bructeri nearby, from areas that might today be considered a suburb of the vary large and sprawling modern city of Cologne. Panegyric VI gives the first and only instance of Frankish war leader (possibly a king) of that name. Other subsequent non-regal notables wore the name also. Whether they were all named from Panegyric VI is questionable. However, the -ric ending originally was reserved for notable war leaders among the Celts and Germans. The Celts of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars use it frequently.

Ric

The name itself is a compound of two elements clearly identified as asca- and ric-, by universal concession. Not as clear is the meaning of the combination and the reason why they are combined. Perhaps the easiest of the two is the

-ric < Celtic rig- < Indo-European *rēg-, a tribal ruler < *reg-, "rule."

The Protogermanic is rik-, not a reconstructed form, as it is attested by Frankish -ric. Other uses, such as *rik-ya- < Celtic *rig-yo- are reconstructed from such words as Old Norse riki, Old High German richi, etc., "realm." The word was loaned into Germanic during the Celtic Empire of Proto-history, when the Celts populated both banks of the Rhine and led the Germanic tribes to victory over the classical civilizations of the south.

The Romans of the times insisted on calling Ascaric and all important men with names of that ending "kings" (reges). This is one of the few words for which a commonality of language still existed: rex (reks, plural reges), a "royal and priestly title," was the same in Latin as it was in Germanic and Celtic. The Roman understood Ascaric to be "Asca rex," believing that a rex was necessarily a hereditary ruler of state as it was in their culture. The use of the suffix among so many war lords of the Celts and Germans implies either a multiplicity of hereditary chiefs whose families could with confidence call their infant a "king" or that the name was originally a title earned later in life. The latter case fits the sociology better. The Celtic leaders of Caesar's Gallic Wars were rich and important men, rather than dynasts, brought to the forefront by some enterprise that they were undertaking, such as a move from one region to another.

Asca

Asca therefore is a name in its own right, which, although it originally must have had a comprehensible meaning, may simply have been a current name. It is identical to

Protogermanic *aska- (independently *askaz) < Indo-European *ōs < early Indo-European h₃es-, "ash tree."

The word can also mean "spear" or "ship." Rather than simply accepting a face value of "ash-king", "spear-king" or "ship-king," which appear to be rulers over objects, but not people, historical linguists, notably Jacob Grimm, have looked for metaphorical meanings of the name "ash." He had no trouble finding some that appeared to descend from a remoter time within the Protogermanic frame of reference. Quite a few communities of the lowlands are named Esch or Asch today in Belgium and Germany, some having acquired the name in ancient times, but Grimm examined primarily historical references. For example, Oesc or Aesc (variant spellings) in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 456/457, the son of Hengest, Jutish king of Kent, fought the Britons with his father at Creganford (unknown location). When he succeeded Hengest the Jutes in Kent became Oescingas.

Asci- is used in place names as well. Ptolemy' map of Germania Magna places Asciburgium, "Asci town," on the Rhine in the center of Frankish territory. This settlement is mentioned also in Tacitus' Germania. It became ultimately the village of Asberg, now in Neuss. Grimm sees in it the capital city and religious center of a people he calls the *Askingâ, or in English Askings, parallel to Oescingas, Latinized to the Iscaevones of Tacitus' Germania. The manuscripts offer two variants, Istaevones or Iscaevones, raising the question of which was the correct one. Some linguists opt for Istaevones, speculating that an unknown dialect of Protogermanic, Istaevonic, may have been the source of the Rhine-Weser Germanic languages. Grimm defends Iscaevonas based on the similarity of Asca-. Just as Mannus in many sources was the eponymous ancestor of the men, the Germanic people, so Ask- was the eponymous ancestor of the *Askingâ, an ancient branch of the men. This view elevates Asca- to a tribal name and Asca-ric to a man of status within it.

The theory of Wodin's spear

The use of Asca- in both place and personal names suggests an ethnic, quasi-national usage in the Protogermanic period. The time parameters exclude an origin in the reflex languages, such as Old Norse or Old High German. The name, like any other Germanic word, descended to various forms in other languages. As to why "ash" should be prefered for ethnic usage, the scholars generally have looked for answers in mythology, the poems and stories handed down in literature and oral tradition. The better part of this tradition is Scandinavian. Elsewhere the pagan traditions gave way to Christianity starting in the Roman Empire, but the Scandinavians were the last Germanics to convert. It is considered a fair assumption that their words and stories, then lost elsewhere, descended from the Protogermanic.

Two mythologies have provided convincing arguments about the usage of "ash", one of which might be termed the Wodin's spear theory. All warriors were devotees of the mad god, Wodanaz, source of all battle fury and resulting victory. Ancient combats were physically rigorous, depending for effectiveness to a large degree on the fight-or-flight response, a syndrome of nervous reactions that generates extraordinary powers in humans in response to stress. The Germanic symbol of this response considered divinely inspired among the ancients was the Spear of Wodin.

In mythology, the Aesir and the Vanir, two types of gods, made war on each other. Odin, one of the Vanir, began the war by casting a spear over the heads of the Aesir, which consecrated them to himself. The Vikings accordingly believed they obtained power over an enemy by throwing a spear over them and exclaiming "Odin possess you all." They believed also that no warrior could go to Valhalla without being pierced by a spear. All warriors therefore were consecrated to their careers by being ceremonially cut with a spear. In the spear etymology, the spear is a symbol of *Wodanaz. The Askings therefore might be interpreted as "the people of Wodan's spear," a martial name, but one consonant with their warrior ideology.

The first man theory

Jacob Grimm went on to conjecture that the name was related to the creation myth given in the Edda, a compendium of poetic compositions written in the 13th century in Iceland, surviving from earlier times. He says:

"And here I am the more entitled to take the Norse ideas for a groundwork, as indications are not wanting of their having equally prevailed among the other Teutonic races."

The universe was created out of a "gap" (Ginnungagap), a place of mist, containing two centers, Muspelheim, a place of fire (muspell), and Niflheim, a place of cold, dark fog (nifl).

References

• Jacques de La Baune (1728). Panegyrici veteres (in Latin). Venice: Bartolomaeum Javarina. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Grimm, Jacob; Stallybrass, James Steven (Translator, Contributor) (1883). Teutonic Mythology. Vol. II (4th ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Landriot, Jean-François-Anne, and Rochet, Benoît Joseph (1854). Traduction des discours d'Eumène: accompagnée du texte. Autun: Michel Dejussieu et Louis Villedry.
• Long, Jacqueline (1996). Claudian's 'In Eutropium': Or, How, When, and Why to Slander a Eunuch. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-807-822-639.
• Nixon, C.E.V.; Rodgers, Barbara S. (1994). In praise of later Roman emperors: the Panegyrici Latini. The Transformation of the Classical Heritage, 21. Berkeley: University of California Press.