Part 6: From Rudlós to Rudrós. Why?
I started out my series on this god spelling his name Rudlós, as this is form used by Mallory and Adams in their 2006 book, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. While I am unwilling to go back and change the previous 5 posts in the series in order to update the name, I have decided to use the form Rudrós moving forward, and feel this change is worth an explanation.
In short, I have come to consider Rudrós to be the more accurate and reasonable reconstruction. To quote Mallory and Adams' entry on the subject in their aforementioned book:
"Wild god (*rudlos). The only certain deity by this name is the Skt Rudra´- although there is an ORus Rŭglŭ (name of a deity) that might be cognate. Problematic is whether the name derives from *reud- ‘rend, tear apart’ as Lat rullus ‘rustic’ or from the root for ‘howl’."
I had originally planed to dive deeper into the etymology is sort of "wrap-up" finale post that has been in the works for almost 2 years now, but I have decided to do so here instead for the sake of clarity.
His name can be understood as meaning either “The Howler”(from reu-), or relating to “rend, tear apart”(rewd-), perhaps making him “The Render(of Flesh, presumably)/The Destroyer”. The latter reading could also easily be interpreted as “The Red one”, likely in the context of blood and his being a warrior. Mallory and Adams, who first proposed the reconstructed form *Rudlós, argued that the etymology was untenable because they could not determine which to use. I’d argue that the answer could very well be all of the above, which I do personally like, so note my bias. The "red" etymology is the best attested, namely in the Celtic tradition. Although, *reu-, sounds vaguely like an onomatopoeia to my ears, and I’ve seen such a origin suggested by scholars, which could suggest a more archaic origin.
I’d also like to point out the meaning behind the -los suffix in his name, as it is uncommon in reconstructions compared to say, -nos. Those suffixes, -nos and -los, are both adjective suffixes, both derived from some locative/adessive forms. As a reliable source once put it to me “The usage of -nos seems to be creating adjectives of quality, a natural quality, itself a passive deverbal form”. It is also sometimes translated as “lord/master (of)”, like in Perkwunos (“Lord of Oaks”).
The -los (or -ros due to l-r liquid allophone shenanigans) seems to be creating adjectives of similarity, likeness. The consistent use of the -los suffix comes from Mallory and Adams, who reconstructed the name with only to cognates, Rudra and Rŭglŭ. Rŭglŭ is almost a ghost of a word. It is based on the assumption that Simarŭglŭ, once or twice attested as the name of a Slavic God, should be analyzed as two separate names, Sima and Rŭglŭ. As I’m sure you can see, this is a bit of a reach. If you’ve read Part 2 of this series, you’ll already know my analysis of Rŭglŭ, and my identification of other potential linguistic cognates (Rudianos and Rudiobus, for example). the -los suffix seemingly only comes from Rŭglŭ, so a more accurate reconstruction may very well be Rudnos or Rudros, the latter of which I will use moving forward.
Rudrós, Rudnos, and Rudlos would all be correct but the shade of the meaning would be a bit different. To use the etymology linking the name to “red” via rewd- : Rudnos and Rudrós “one who is red”, or “red one”, while Rudlos “one who is like red”, or “red-ly one”. Food for thought. I prefer the form Rudrós because it is closer to the name of Rudra, and is the zero-ablaut form of the suffix, as opposed to -lós.
Below, I would like to share some, mostly constructed as opposed to reconstructed, potential epithets. I am not a linguist, so the reconstructions might be poor, and the way I represent certain sounds is inconsistent, due to having formed this list over a long period of time.
Koryonos (“Leader of the Warband”)
Mgxwihros (“Great Hunter” or "Great Man")
Wextnos/Wéxtis (based on Proto-Germanic Wodanaz, “Lord of Frenzy”, and various related terms for "seer", "divinely inspired poet", "song", and "madness" in Celtic, Italic, Germanic, and Armenian languages)
Ghernos (“Lord of Enclosing”), an attempted calque of Hittite/Luwian Āppaliunāš (“One of Entrapment”), and therefore Apollon because I struggled with it etymologically.
Gwhernos (“Lord of Wild Animals”)
Wĺ̥kwonos (“Lord of Wolves”)
Wernexnos (“Lord of Crows”)
Kweynos/Ḱexnnos (“Singing Lord” or “Lord of Singing”, in reference to his creation and patronage of poetry)
Manskéwdeti (“Man-shooting”)
Skewdnos (“Archer-Lord” or "Lord of Archers")
Worunos (“The One who Covers”, in the context of the all-covering night)
Nókwts Pxtḗr, or more likely, Nókwtsnos (“Night Father”, and “Night Lord”, respectively. Between his aggressive-war aspect and my being a 40k nerd, I’m definitely using the second one myself at some point)
“Wolf Who Stalks The Stars”. I’m unsure how to render this in PIE but I feel that epithet, created by Curwen Ares Rolinson of Arya Akasha, is not only accurate but beautiful. I’ll give a half-assed attempt of Xsterweyhwl̥kwos (“Star-Stalking-Wolf”). I am very confident this is conjugated incorrectly but, again, not a linguist.
Xwehuwl̥kwos (“Wind-Wolf”).
Possibly Leudhero, who is often reconstructed as a separate god and will be covered in his own chapter.
Possibly Hnr̥gʷhen, (Man-Killer), although this epithet is more associated with mortal people in poetry from what I can tell.
Koryonos, Wextnos/Wéxtis, Worunos, Gʰernos, and Leudhero have some level of historic attestation in his cognates. The others are all my own invention but they have a strong basis in his aspects/domains.