Calvert Watkins Harvard University
CDU 801.52-54
ANOTHER THORNY PROBLEM
Students of Indo-European are beset by thorns, from the third letter of the Runic alphabet through the Hieroglyphic Luvian excrescent + ra/i to Brugmann's 'Notbehelf' *kp of such cognate sets as the word for 'bear'; see J. Schindler, "A thorny problem," Die Sprache 23 (1977) 25ff. Our problem is simpler, however sticky; it is a pleasure to offer a suggestion for its solution to Professor Bojan Cop, who has so enriched Hittite studies over so many years.
'Hawthorn' is the common English name for 'small trees or shrubs of the Rose Family included in the genus Crataegus. They have attractive white, pink, or occasionally red flowers, usually clustered, followed by small, decorative apple-like fruits; in some species these remain on the branches until midwinter, in others they are juicy enough to be made into jelly. The branches are spiny, and the deciduous foliage often turns brilliant red or orange in the fall." [E.L.D. Seymour, The Garden Encyclopedia, New York: W.H. Wise & Co., 1939, p. 598]. There are numerous species, reportedly a thousand in North America alone; a common European variety is Crataegus oxycant-ha, also known in Britain as May, as in the ship's name Mayflower, and more often as Whitethorn (cf. German Weissdorri).
The plant is known from Anatolia (Turkish yabani akdiken 'wild white-thorn'), and has long been recognized in Hittite G^hat(tjalkisnas, glossed by Friedrich as 'Weissdorn'. The principal attestations may be found in H. Ertem, Flora 92 (Ankara, 1974). The characteristics of this plant in Hittite are such as to make the identification very plausible: a thorny plant whose branches spike tufts of wool from passing sheep, white in the spring and red in the fall, from whose fruit a juice is extracted (Hoffner, Alimenta 16, 120, probably referring to Gl^hatalkisnas galaktar KUB 28.102 iv 13). Already Heinrich Otten noted the topos in the language of cult, in a well-known article in AfO 16, 1952, 69-71. In KUB 33.54 + 47 ii 13ff. (OH/NS), restored after KUB 17.10 (OH/MS), the plant is apostrophized with the words
zig=az GI%a-tal-kis-na-as hamehiy=az BABBAR™ wassa[si] EBUR-ma=az isharwand[a wjassasi GUD-us=ta=kkan katti=[ti] arha paizzi nu=ss[e=sta su]ksuqqan huez[ta] UDU-u[s=m]a=ta=kkan katti=ti [(arha) paizz(i)] [(nu=ss)]e=sta esri [(huez)]ta
You are the hawthorn. In the spring you dress in white, but in the fall you dress in red. The ox passes beneath you, and you pull its hair; the sheep
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passes beneath you, and you pull its wool.(In the same way pull the wrath, anger, exasperation and fury of the god.)
Compare also KUB 34.76 i Iff. and Laroche, Myth. anat. 139.
Hans Giiterbock recently published another example of the same topos, from an unpublished Masat tablet (of 13th century date), uncharacteristically a "Vanishing God" myth text, whose photograph happened to adorn the cover of a Turkish archeo-logical publication, Masat Hoyiik n, by Tahsin Ozgii? (Anadolu Arastirmalari 10, 1986,205-14, Fs. B. Alkim). It shows the variant w]assiasi 'you dress, clothe yourself in'.
On the level of phraseology, it is perhaps worth noting that just as the hawthorn is clothed in white or red (Hitt. ways-), so the soma-plant is described as 'clothedin...' in the Rig Veda (Ved. vas-). The hawthorn could also be decorated. In an episode of the "Vanishing God" myth in a birth ritual (G. Beckman, StBoT 29.77) the goddess dAnzilis 'sat down under the bedecked hatalkesna-tiee,' n=as=za kattan unuwan[tas (Gl%atalkesnas es)at].
It is clear from the several examples of this topos that the plant played an important role in the symbolic culture of the Hittites. As Otten noted,a widespread practice in Hittite ritual involves the construction of a 'gate' (KA) of hawthorn, through which the participants had to pass. The thorny branches had a purificatory value: they removed evil like tufts of hair and wool. Compare KUB 12.44 (CTH 392, ritual of fAnna) iii 2'ff.
nu SA GlSSAR.GESTIN kuwapi KA.HI.A-es nu KA-as EGIR-an kez kezziya tekan paddahhi n=asta kez kezzi<ya> pattesni anda 3 GI%atalkis (sic) tittanummi
nu kissan temi idalus=wa=ssan antuwahza (leg. antuwahhas?) idalus EME-as idalawa IGI.ffl.A-wa GlShattalkisnit kattan tarman esdu
And where the vineyard gate is, I dig the ground behind the gate on each side and I put 3 hawthorn (branches) in the hole on each side and I speak as follows: "May the evil man, the evil tongue, the evil eyes be spiked down by the hawthorn".
As Craig Melchert points out to me, the "short" form hatalkis is significant, and may indicate an earlier inflexion hatalkis, oblique hatalkisn(a)- like tunnakis (KBo 22.2 Ro. 9), obi. tunnakisn(a)- 'inner chamber'. Singular number after numerals higher than one is perfectly grammatical in Hittite (H.A. Hoffner, Alimenta Hethaeorum 157-8 [New Haven, 1974]; cf. OH 5 alkistas-sis 'five its branches').
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The now standard etymology, reported in lischler, Hitt. etym. Glossar 218, is due to the Jubilar, B. Cop, in Slavistična Revija (.Lingüistica) 11, 1958, 54f. as well as in his Indogermánica Minora 1971, 30f. The word is a compound of alkištan- 'branch, bough', possibly thematized with cluster simplification (-)alkiš[t]na-. In view of the spelling hatalkiš above we may prefer to take the simplest form of the second member as just alkiš; for a suggested etymology of this element cf. Hoffmann apud Mayrhofer, KEWA 3.796; less likely Puhvel, Hitt. Etym. Diet. 1.36. In this case the -na- (or thematized -n-a-) of nom. sg. hatalkišnaš would be suffixal, and not directly related to the different further suffix of alkiš-tan- (nom. sg. alkištaš) 'branch, bough'
The first element of the compound Cop identified with a derivative of the thematic verb a- middle hatt" '(ab)stechen, abschneiden, schlagen'. The analysis as compound is maintained, with slightly differing views on the suffixation, by N. Oettinger MSS 34, 1976, 125 (repeated Indo-Hittite-Hypothese und Wortbilding, IBS Vortráge 37 [1986] p. 23; Studien zum idg. Wortschatz, ed. W. Meid, Innsbruck, 1987, p. 192) and J. Puhvel, loc. cit. Other views may be found in Tischler, loc. cit.
Oettinger loc.cit., n. 54, made the important caveat that the spelling of the first element of the compound with single dental ha-ta- was inexplicable by the verb root hatt-, which shows consistent double dental since Old Hittite times (attestations in Oettinger), pointing to [-t-] not [-d-]. The related verb hazziya- 'hit on, hit (the target), pluck (a stringed instrument)' from *hat-ie/o- requires the same conclusion.
For the plant the spelling hatalk- predominates in older sources, like the mythological texts cited above. We find the following distribution:
hatalk- KUB 17.10 (Telepinu-myth OHMS) CTH 324 (2x)
33.54	( MAH-myth OH/NS) 334
34.76	(")
17.47	(ritual of fAnna of Pala OH/MS?) 470
12.96	("" °LAMMA KUŠkuršaš NH/NS) 433
24	("" Anniwiyanis MH/NS) 393
14.132	(" with Human MS?) 791
28.102	( " of Hutusi OH/NS) 732
12.44	( " " fAnna of Kaplawiya NS) 392 (2x)

KBo
KUŠ
VBoT
KBo
KUB
[Masat hattalk- KUB
(vanishing god myth, restored NS)] 12.58 (ritual ofTunnawiNS) 409 17.28 ( " for defeated army NS) 426
Masat Bo. 3090 250/g
(van. god myth NS)
(rit., context like KBo 17.47)
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Single -t- occurs 10-1 lx in texts of all periods, and 3x in the two oldest manuscripts (MS). Double -tt- occurs 5x in Neohittite manuscripts, in similar or identical contexts to the attestations with -f-.The rarer and later spellings with double dental hattalk- may well be real, but reflecting a Hittite folk-etymology to the verb hatt-'stick, strike'. As folk-etymology hatt-alkesnas in the lectio facilior; hat-alkesnas is the lectio difficilior, reflecting the earlier initial [had-]. It was probably as opaque to the Hittite as the haw- in hawthorn to the English speaker: originally just 'hedge', it was taken to mean the fruit of the hawthorn.
What then is the name of this Hittitle plant '¿ad-branch' or
'had-bush' ? I suggest that the unknown element had- in Hittite is simply an old name for the hawthorn or whitethorn, and the only cognate of Old Irish ad* (gen. aide, dat. aid), evidently a name for the same tree, a word recently identified by Liam Breatnach.
The word is found in §24 of Uraicecht na Riar, The Poetic Grades in Early Irish Law, as edited by Breatnach (Dublin 1987: D.I.A.S.). The passage, as we know from the glosses, deals with the fearsome type of satire known as glam dicenn. It begins Ataat a secht con-laat cach n-air "There are seven things which compose any satire', glossed in mss. B & C cain-luaighit cach glam dicind 'which initiate well any glam dicenxT, followed by
i scath aide caislechtai scoth in the shade of a smooth flowery ad,
glossed in B & C
fo scat sciath cen deilgijuirre under the shade of a whitethorn, without any thorns on it.
Breatnach in his notes (138-140) cites and vindicates the one other instance of the word ad, in the dative in the phrase craeb don aid 'branch of the ad', Arch, iii 306 § 14, emended out of existence by Gerard Murphy in his edition of the poem in which this occurs, Measgra Ui Chi. 148 § 14b (to craeb don dair 'branch of the oak', as the only Irish tree-name which would rhyme). Note in passing that craeb don aid 'branch of the ad recalls Hittite had-alkesnas 'Ao<i-branch'.
Breatnach in his note is careful to state that 'these two instances do not enable us to assign to ad any more specific meaning than that of 'some kind of tree.' But it is clear from the glosses and the general context (on which presently) that the Irish took ad to mean see, gen. sciath 'whitethorn, hawthorn'.
For a true understanding of the grim reality of the general context we can do no better than to quote Breatnach in full (p. 140):
Probably the best known description of the process involved in a glam di-cend is that in MV EI §155 (IT iii 96-7). Amongst other things, it says that the seven grades of poets should go to the top of a hill before sunrise and,
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with their backs to a whitethorn, the wind from the North, and a thorn from the whitethorn in each one's hand, they would (should?) chant the satire...there is another version of this in CIH 1564.27-1565.19 (beginning with a citation of the first line of §24 of our text...) which in place of ['and a thorn from the whitethorn in each one's hand' of MV] has : no delb in fir dia ndentar do criaidh, & dealg don sgiaich i laim cachfir & siat a' go in na deilbe da ndeilgib sgiach 'or a clayen image of the man to whom it (viz. the satire) is made, and a thorn from the whitethorn in each man's hand, and they piercing the image with their whitethorn thorns.'"
We have here a very circumstantial and uncensored account of the use of the hawthorn or whitethorn in Early Irish black magic. It is evident that the plant was significant for the symbolic culture of the early Irish. Two sources preserve for us the oldest name for this plant in Irish: ad*, gen. aide, dat. aid. By its declension the word may be either a feminine a-stem or a neuter s-stem, as Breatnach notes. The root can be reconstructed as *h¿ad- or *h2adh- (underlying *h¿ed-, *h2edh-). Either will yield Hitt. had-, the hat- with single dental of Gl^hatalkesnas. In view of the specificity of the identification of the plant as the hawthorn or whitethorn in both Irish and Hittite, I see no objection to equating the two words, to yield a new Indo-European tree name.
It should be stated expressly that we are specifically not reconstructing an Indo-European form of 'voodoo' or black magic involving the hawthorn, for which there is no Hittite evidence. On the contrary, in Hittite culture the plant was used for white magic, and its function was purificatory. But it may well be the (separate and unconnected) roles of the plant in the symbolic culture of these two Indo-European societies which was responsible for their preservation, alone among the Indo-European languages, of such an isolated lexical item.
Povzetek DRUGAČEN PROBLEM S TRNI
Het. Gl%at(tjalkišnaš je bodičasta rastlina, na njenih vejah se nabirajo volneni kosmi mimoidočih ovac, je bela spomladi in rdeča ob žetvi, iz njenih sadov pa se stiska sok (Hoffner, Alimenta 16, 120). Friedrichova identifikacija s pomenom »Weißdorn« je zato verjetna. Sedanjo standardno etimologijo leksema dolgujemo jubilantu B. Čopu, kije v Slavistični reviji (Lingüistica) 11, 1958, 54 s. in v Indogermanici minori I, 1971, 30 s., leksem razložil kot zloženko iz izpeljanke tematskega glagola hatt-" »(ab)stechen, abschneiden, schlagen« in samostalnika alkístan - »veja«, verjetno tematizirano s poenostavljeno soglasniško skupino (-)alkišltlna-. Analizo o zloženki sta z manjšo razliko glede sufiksacije sprejela N. Oettinger in J. Puhvel.
Povezava z glagolom hatt- s stalnim dvojnim zapisom dentala (od sthet. dalje) ni razložila zapisov z enojnim dentalom ha-ta- v prvem delu zloženke. Ker enojni zapis dentala hatalk- prevladujejo v starejših virih, medtem ko so dvojni zapisi dentala hattalk- redkejši in poznejši, se zapise z dvojnim dentalom hattalk- lahko razloži z ljudskoetimološko naslonitvijo na glagol hatt- »prebosti, zabosti, udariti«, zapise z enojnim dentalom hatalk- pa šteje za prvotne. Predlagano je, da het. element had- ohranja staro ime za »glog« oz. »beli glog«. Svojega edinega sorodnika ima het. had- v stir, ad* (rod. aide, daj. aid), ki poimenuje isto rastlino kot stir see, rod. sciath »glog, beli glog«. Besedna zveza eraeb don aid »veja ad-a« je primerljiva s het had-alkešnaš »had-veja«.
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Het. had- v Gl^hatalkešndš in stir. ad*, rod. aide, daj. aid (glede sklanjatvenega vzorca je lahko a-deblo ženskega spola kot tudi s-deblo srednjega spola) dovoljujeta rekonstrukcijo osnove *hiad- ali *fi2adh- (prednostno *h2ed-, *h2edh-) in tako odkrivata novo indoevropsko rastlinsko ime.
Glog je v hetitski kulturi v beli magiji uporabljan v očiščevalne namene, v zgodnji irski pa v črni magiji. Potrebno pa je poudariti, daje vloga iste rastline v simbolni kulturi dveh različnih indoevropških družb lahko povsem ločena in vzporedna in ne more kazati na kako posebno vlogo gloga pri Indoevropejcih.
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