TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

178 THUNAR.
: phenomenon the flash, fulgur, aa-rpaTnj, the sound, tonitrus, ftpovrij,
and the stroke, fulmen, /cepawos (see SuppL).
The lightning s flash, which we name Uitz, was expressed in our
older speech both by the simple plih, Graff 3, 244, MHG. blic, Iw.
649. Wigal. 7284, and by plecliazunga (coruscatio), derived from
plechazan, 1 a frequentative of plechen (fulgere), Diut. 1, 222-4 ;
they also used plechunga, Diut. 1, 222. Pleccateshem, Pertz 2, 383,
the name of a place, now Blexen ; the MHG. has Uikze (fulgur) :
die blikzen und die donerslege sint mit gewalte in siner pflege, MS.
2, 166 b . Again lohazan (micare, coruscare), Goth, lauhatjan, pre
supposes a lohen, Goth, lauhan. From the same root the Goth
forms his Iduhmuni (aarpaTrrj), while the Saxon from blic made a
Uicsmo (fulgur). AS. leoma (jubar, fulgur), ON. liorni, Swed.
ljungeld, Dan. lyn. A Prussian folk-tale has an expressive phrase
for the : lightning He with the Uue whip chases the devil/ i.e. the
giants ; for a Hue flame was held specially sacred, and people
swear by it, North Fris. donners blosJcen (blue sheen) help ! in
Hansens geizhals p 123 ; and Schartlin s curse was blau feuer !
(see SuppL).
.Beside donar, the OHG. would have at its command capreh
(fragor) from prehhan (frangere), Gl. hrab. 963b , for which the
MHG. often has klac, Troj. 12231. 14693, and krach from kracheii,
(crepare) : mit krache gap der doner duz, Parz. 104, 5 ; and as
krachen is synonymous with rizen (strictly to burst with a crash),
we also find wolkenriz fern, for thunder, Parz. 378, 11. Wh. 389,
18 ; gegenrfe, Wartb. kr. jen.. 57 ; rent als der wilde dunrslac von
himel kam gerizzen, Ecke 105. der chlafondo doner, N". Cap. 114;
der chlafleih heizet toner ; der doner stet gespannen, Apollon. 879.
I connect the Gothic peihvo fern, with the Finnic teuhaan (strepo),
teuhaus (strepitus, tumultus), so that it would mean the noisy,
uproarious. Some L. Germ, dialects call thunder grummet, Strodtm.
Osnabr. 77, agreeing with the Slav, grom, hrom (see SuppL).
For the notion of fulmen we possess only compounds, except
1 While writing plechazan, I remember pleckan, plahta (patere, nuclari ;
bleak), MHG. blecken, blacte, Wigal. 4890 ; which, when used of the sky,
means : the clouds open, heaven opens, as we still say of forked and sheet
lightning ; conf. Lohengr. p. 125 : relit alsam des himmels bliz von doner sich
erhlccket. If this plechan is akin to plih (fulgur), we must suppose two verbs
plihhan pleih, and plehhan plah, the second derived from the first. Slav, blesk,
blisk, but Boh. bozhi posel, god s Serv. munya,
messenger, lightning-flash.
Russ. molniya,
fern, (see