Perkwunos

The name *Perk^wunos is generally regarded as stemming from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) verbal root *per- ('to strike').[1][2] An alternative etymology is the PIE root *pérkʷus ('the oak'),[3] attached to the divine nomenclature *-nos ('master of'),[4] with various cognates in the Latin quercus ('oak-tree') and oak-nymphs Querquetulanae,[2][5] the Germanic *ferhwa ('oak'),[6] the Gaulish erc- ('oak') and Quaquerni (tribal name),[7][5] the Punjabi pargāi ('sacred oak'),[8] and perhaps in the Greek spring-nymph Herkyna.[9][10]

The theonym thus either meant 'the Striker' or 'the Lord of Oaks'.[11][12] A theory uniting those two propositions has been suggested in the mythological association of oaks with thunder, suggested by the frequency with which such tall trees are struck by lightning.[3][7]

The root *perk^wunos also gave birth to a group of cognates for the ordinary word 'thunder' in Old Prussian percunis, Russian perúny, Latvian pērkauns ('thunderbolt'), or Lithunian perkūnija ('thunderstorm').[3][13]

Other cognates related to thunder, through another root *(s)tenh₂, are found in the Germanic Thor, the Celtic Taranis and the Latin (Jupiter) Tonans.[14][15] According to Jackson, "they may have arisen as the result of fossilization of an original epithet or epiclesis" of Perk^wunos, since the Vedic weather-god Parjanya is also called stanayitnú- ('Thunderer').[16]

George E. Dunkel regarded Perk^wunos as an original epithet of Dyēus, the Sky-God.[17] It has also been postulated that Perk^wunos was referred to as *Diwós Putlós ('son of Dyēus'), although this is based on the Vedic poetic tradition alone.[11]

Perk^wunos is usually depicted as holding a weapon, named *meld- in the Lithuanian and Old Norse traditions, which personifies the lightnings and is generally conceived as a club, mace, or hammer, made of stone or metal.[18][19] In the Latvian poetic expression Pērkōns met savu milnu ("Pērkōn throws his mace"), the mace, milna, is cognate with the Old Norse mjölnir, the hammer thrown by the thunder god Thor, and also with the word 'lightning' in the Old Prussian mealde, the Old Church Slavonic *mlъni, or the Welsh mellt.[3][19][20]

If his thunder and lightning had a destructive connotation, they could also be seen as a regenerative force since they were often escorted by fructifying rains.[21] Parjanya is depicted as a rain god in the Vedas, Latvian prayers included a call for Pērkōns to bring rain in time of drought,[1][22] and the Balkan Slavs worshipped Perun along his female counterpart Perperuna, the name of a ritual prayer calling for fructifying rains and centred on the dance of a naked virgin who had not yet had her first monthly period.[23] The earth is likewise referred to as "menstruating" in a Vedic hymn to Parjanya, a possible cognate of Perperuna.[24] The alternative name of Perperuna, Dodola, also recalls Perkūnas' pseudonym Dundulis, and Zeus' oak oracle at Dodona.[23][25]

The association of Perk^wunos with the oak is attested in various formulaic expressions from the Balto-Slavic languages: Lithuanian Perkūno ąžuolas (Perkūnas's oak), Latvian Pērkōna uōzuōls ('Pērkōn's oak'), or Old Russian Perunovŭ dubŭ ('Perun's oak'). The Slavic thunder-god Perūn is said to frequently strike oaks to put fire within them, and the Norse thunder-god Thor to strike his foes the giants when they hide under an oak.[3][26] The striking of devils, demons or evildoers by Perk^wunos is a motif also encountered in the myths surrounding the Baltic Perkūnas and the Vedic Parjanya.[27][3]

A mythical multi-headed water-serpent is connected in particular with Perk^wunos in an epic battle. The monstrous foe is generally described as a 'blocker of waters', and his heads are eventually smashed by the thunder-god to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up.[28] The myth has numerous reflexes in mythical stories of battles between a serpent and a god or mythical hero. The latter is not necessary etymologically related to *Perk^wunos, but he is usually associated with thunder in some way: the Vedic Indra and Vṛtra (the personification of drought), the Iranian Tištry/Sirius and Apaoša (a demon of drought), the Albanian Drangue and Kulshedra (an amphibious serpent who causes streams to dry up), the Armenian Vishap and Vahagn, the Greek Typhoeus and Zeus, or the Norse Thor and Miðgarðsormr.[28]

Perk^wunos is often portrayed in connection with stone and (wooded) mountains, probably because the mountainous forests were his realm.[29] A cognate relationship has been noted between the Germanic *fergunja ('[mountainous] forest') and the Gaulish (h)ercunia ('[oaks] forests').[30][6][7] Words from a root *pér-ur are also attested in the Hittite pēru ('rock, cliff, boulder'),[31] the Avestan pauruuatā ('mountains'),[32] as well as in the Sanskrit párvata ('rocky, cliff, mountain'),[33][2][34] the goddess Parvati, and in Parvateshwara ('lord of mountains'), an epithet attached to her father Himavat.[35] In Germanic mythology, Fjörgynn was used as a poetic synonym for 'the land' or 'the earth', and she could have been the mistress of the wooded mountains, the personification of what appears in Gothic as fairguni ('wooded mountain').[29] Additionally, the Slavic Perūn sends his axe or arrow from a mountain or the sky, and the Baltic tradition mentions a perpetual sacred fire maintained for Perkūnas in the forests or on hilltops.[36]

A term for the sky, *h₂ekmōn, denoted both 'stones' and 'heaven'.[37] The motif of the stony skies can be found in the story of the Greek Akmon ('anvil'), the father of Ouranos and the personified Heaven.[38] Other cognates appear in Hittite aku ('stone'), Vedic áśman ('stone'), Iranian asman and deity Asman (both names referring to 'stone, heaven'), Lithuanian akmuõ, and also in Germanic *hemina (German: Himmel, English: heaven) and *hamara (Old Norse: hamarr, English: hammer).[19][37][39]

The mythological association can be explained by the observation (e.g., meteorites) or the belief that thunderstones (polished ones for axes in particular) had fallen from the sky.[40] Indeed, the Vedic word áśman is the name of the weapon thrown by Indra, Thor's weapon is also called hamarr, and the thunderstone can be named Perkūno akmuõ ('Perkuna's stone') in the Lithuanian tradition.[41][38][42] The original meaning of *h₂ekmōn could thus have been 'stone-made weapon', then 'sky' or 'lighting'.[43]

The name of Perk^wunos' weapon *meld-n- is attested by a group of cognates alternatively denoting 'hammer' or 'lightning' in the following traditions:

• (Northern) PIE: *meld- (or *meld-n-),[19][67]
  • Germanic: *melðunijaz,[19][68]
    • Old Norse: mjǫllnir, the hammer of Thor; also myln, 'fire',[20][68]
  • Balto-Slavic: *mild-n-,[20]
    • Slavic: *mlъldni, 'lightning',[20]
      • Old Church Slavonic: mlъni, Serbo-Croatian: múnja, Czech: mlna, Russian: mólnija (молния), 'lightning',[20]
    • Baltic: *mildnā,[19]
      • Old Prussian: mealde, 'lightning',[67]
      • Latvian: milna, the 'hammer of the Thunderer', Pērkōns,[67]
  • Celtic:
    • Welsh: mellt, 'lightning' (singulative mellten, 'bolt of lightning'),[19]
    • Breton: mell, 'hammer',[68][69]
    • Middle Irish: mell 'rounded summit, small hill'.[69]