Abstract

In his widely read earlier dissertation, "Treasury of names and poetic language," the author explained that the structural form of the two-part Germanic first name dates back to a distant Indo-German past. Thus, the Germanic examples (of the type "Wolfram," which means "wolf raven") emerge from composed designations of men in epic poetry, that is, from the poetic vocabulary for princes and warriors. He argues that the same is probably true for a much earlier treasury of names (one that goes back to the 2nd millennium B.C.) as a specific legacy from the Indo-Aryan war chariot culture. From there, it went on to be disseminated to the rest of Indo-Germania, including the Celts and the Germanic peoples. In his new book, the author subjects his theory to testing, revision, and extension. Thus, the volume will be an indispensable resource for name researchers as well as academic experts in medieval and Nordic literature, and for students of the social history of the medieval world.