Thietmars Medeburu(n) und ‚mel prohibe‘: Neues zum Oikonym Magdeborn in direktem linguistischen Zugriff und über eine Meta-Deutung

Abstract

The author proposes a new interpretation of the history of the name of the former Saxon village and historical burgward Magdeborn. First, the endings -/- of , as Thietmar von Merseburg writes in his chronicle of 1012/1018, get a new explanation as *-ow or *-own. Second, it seems that both a linguistic and extralinguistic analysis of the obviously false interpretation of the Old Sorbian place name quoted by the chronicler himself may show the history of the place name in a new light. It is guessed that the chronicler had misunderstood the narrative about the name of the castle. A detailed analysis is offered of two other cases – the persiflage of the Kyrie eleison by Slavs as ukrivolsa and the mysterious provincia Nice – in which Thietmar seems to approach certain facts and their narration with a similar lack of comprehension. In conclusion, it is assumed that an earlier form of the oikonym Magdeborn was a semantically plural term: *Medobori or *Medoborьje, meaning ‚honey pine forest(s)‘. The two basic hypotheses about the oldest history of the name enable to think of a development from a plural regional name to an adjectival oikonym derived from the first. A third hypothesis goes still further in assuming that the name *Medobori or *Medoborьje had been developed from *Medjiborьje/ *Medziborьje, ‚among pine forests‘.